by Dani René
“Yes, I loved you, but now…” Her words taper off, and emotion threatens to choke me. “This is more, Kael. This is so much more. I don’t have words for it. I’ve always prayed you’d find me. I just…” She tugs free from my grasp and steps back. Her gaze never leaving mine.
“Paige, please, I need you. I can’t live without you. Now that we’ve found each other, you can’t tell me you don’t want this? Us?” I implore her. I’m not averse to begging because I will if that’s what it will take. There’s nothing more I need in my life but her. Those eyes, her smile, those beautiful tits, and her incredible body. But most of all, I covet her heart. I always have. It was the one thing I was forbidden to want or take, but I did it anyway.
Now, as I stand here a free man, it’s the only thing I’ll accept.
She’s silent for a long while, too long, in fact, before I close the distance between us. “Please, Paige,” I ask again, my hands fisted at my sides, not wanting to force her hand, but needing to touch her. The ache is palpable.
I can see her mind racing with thoughts, her breathing is rapid, her chest rising and falling as everything crashes down around us and it feels like once again I’m burning in her blaze. She engulfs me in her heat, scorches me like a flame, consumes me like a wildfire.
And finally, when I’m seconds from losing the wavering grip I have on my sanity completely, she throws me an olive branch. It isn’t much, but to me, it’s everything.
The nightmares are our past, my dreams are our future, but right here with her stepping into my arms, this is my present. My gift from the only woman who’s ever held my heart. And as she wraps her arms around me, tears falling from her eyes, I breathe for the first time in five years.
An ending.
A beginning.
She raises those emerald orbs in my direction, still red from tears.
And she smiles.
Now that I have her, I’m never letting her go again. That same day, I went to Dax and told him I was taking my woman. He didn’t have a choice because I didn’t give him one. She was mine, and I wasn’t leaving without her.
“Dax,” I call the man who not only threw me out of my own home when my father disowned me, but who also helped my woman escape. He turns to me and piercing gray eyes meet mine.
“I never thought I’d see you in my club, Kael,” he holds out a hand and I gladly shake it. If it weren’t for him and my brother, I don’t know where Paige would be.
“Neither did I. After everything that’s happened, I didn’t want to come in here. I didn’t know what you did until she told me today.” He nods. As much as anger kept me away from this place, it’s love that brought me back.
“She’s a special girl,” he says with a smile.
“That she is. And that’s why I’m taking her. She’s no longer your employee. I won’t have her in here dancing for men. I won’t have her in those rooms doing something she escaped from.” He glances at the girl I love as she makes her way over to us.
“I agree, Wolfe. I wouldn’t want Theia up there either. I’m fine with her leaving, but the choice is ultimately hers.” He’s right. I know he is.
“Hey, are you two talking about me?” Paige sidles up to me, and I cocoon her with my body. She’s still a waif, but she fits perfectly in the crook of my arm.
“We were. I was telling your ex-boss that we’ll be leaving for Chicago soon.” Her body stills, her gaze is trained on Dax, but he nods with a smile.
“Good luck to you both. Don’t be strangers. You’re welcome anytime.” He leans in, pulling her into his arms, giving her a brotherly hug. “Look after this big asshole, would you?” He chuckles, slapping me on the back in a friendly gesture.
“Always,” she whispers with a smile so bright, it’s all I can see.
I helped her pack her bags and we moved to Chicago. I didn’t give her a chance to say no. All she could do was relent. I know she misses the girls at Inferno. Over the almost five years she spent with Dax and Theia, she grew to love them, but I know there’s one little lady she misses more than the others.
Dakota.
That was her only worry about leaving, their friendship.
Our lives in Chicago have given us a fresh start, and even though I miss my best friend, I know Axel will be here soon with his girl. He’s claimed the feisty little kitten, Dakota.
Life has taken on a routine, one I’m enjoying. I work on my painting contracts and she teaches dance classes at the local studio downtown, which she’s been renting with an option to buy, while studying. Her focus has been on getting a Business Management degree, which I’ve paid for. Now that I’m in her life, she doesn’t need to worry about a thing.
When I moved back to New York I got a surprising call from my sister. Apparently, a lawyer had contacted her with news for each of the Wolfe offspring. My mother had set up a fund for each of us, which they didn’t find until much later.
We were meant to receive it when we turned eighteen, but something happened to the documentation, which I suspect had a lot to do with my father. My nest egg is big enough for us to live a comfortable life, and there’s no concern about money. We can afford vacations, her schooling, and even the occasional five-star restaurant.
With my mind on dinner, I push open the door to the study. Before I step inside, I glance into the bright space and find her sprawled out on the sofa on her stomach, her legs bent at the knee. I get a small peek of red panties between smooth, creamy thighs.
She’s deep in thought, reading an article on her new MacBook, and hasn’t heard me enter. Her hair is pinned into a messy bun, strands of long red waves tumbling from the clip, teasing her neck and back.
The air in the room slowly heats as I lean against the doorjamb, arms crossed with my eyes fixated on her.
“Are you going to stand there all day?” she quips playfully, rolling over to regard me. The short white T-shirt she’s wearing rides up, and I’m greeted with not only her intense emerald eyes, but also the bright red lace panties that cup her sweet, little pussy.
“You going to taunt me with those all day?” I lift my chin, gesturing at her sheer panties. Her green gaze darts down and she giggles.
“I figured you’d come home after a long day and need a distraction?” She shrugs innocently, but I know there’s nothing innocent about her. As much as I’d love to take her, I decided today we need to have a long talk before anything else.
I want her to tell me about the events that took place after I left. We’ve not had the talk about what she went through. When I did bring it up a month ago, she froze and told me she wasn’t ready to delve into those memories. So far, I’ve decided to give her time. We’re still learning to be with each other outside of the hell we met in.
“I do need a distraction, Phoenix, but not in the way you think.” Her face falls and I see the worry etch itself all over it. “I think you know what we need to do.” My no-nonsense tone is enough to have her biting down on that plump lower lip.
“I know,” she sighs. Scooting over, she watches me under dark lashes. As soon as I’m settled on the sofa beside her, she crawls into my lap. Her body molds to mine, fitting like we’re two intricately designed pieces of one mosaic. All our colorful and broken fragments come together, making one beautiful glass canvas, completely transparent, and yet so fragile.
“Tell me, baby. I’ve got you. I’m never letting you go again, but you need to tell me what happened. Or I’m going to find my brother and kill him.” Since I walked out on him, I hadn’t looked back once. But when he called asking for help with his girl, I knew I had to put everything behind me and go to him and that was the last time we spoke. It was over a year ago and now Freya and Sam are together, happily living their life.
“No, Sam saved me, Kael.” Her words ring true to what Dax told me. “He… I guess for you to understand, you’ll need to hear it all.” She sighs, and I tug her closer. My thumb circles the smooth skin over her shoulder as she starts her story. She begins to
re-live her horrific past at the hands of my father and the “clients.” How she would shut herself off just to survive. Just to deal with the pain of having lost me. At one point, she shudders in my arms, and I feel my self-control slip.
The need to hurt someone, to kill someone runs rife through my blood like poison.
“Baby—” I murmur, but she cuts me off and continues.
She turns her head to regard me, planting a soft kiss on my cheek. She reaches up to stroke my beard. Her normally emerald eyes are dark, reminding me of the color of leaves from an oak tree.
With a deep breath, she starts again. “One night, Sam stumbled into my room. I thought he was drunk. He climbed into my bed and I waited on the pain, but none came. I waited for him to touch me, or fuck me, or something, but he didn’t. He just lay there for what felt like hours in the dark, in silence. When I finally rolled over to regard him, his blue eyes met mine, and we spoke. He told me about growing up with you, about how he begged Harlan not to let you get into that life, but it was in your destiny or whatever. He told me the truth about how he wanted me that night, but he knew I was yours. He wasn’t a monster, he was hurting. When you left, he changed. Something inside him snapped, the next day he came into my room and told me he was going to get me out.”
Jolting upright, I grip Paige to me, lifting her and placing her on my lap so she’s straddling me. “Dax told me most of that, but I needed to hear it from you.”
She nods. “Samael and Dax helped me escape. I worked at Inferno until you walked in and found me. I know you’ve not spoken to him since you helped him with Freya, but I think it’s time we went there, or just called them.” Her gaze drops and I know she’s hiding something. “I don’t know, Kael, I feel as if I owe him my life. He…”
Her words taper off and she fidgets with the hem of her T-shirt. I realize she’s still not telling me everything. “Baby, look at me.” It’s a command and she complies. “Good girl. Tell me what you’re hiding.”
Emotions blaze like wildfire in those teary pools. “I don’t think—”
“No, you shouldn’t. I’d like you to tell me.”
“Before Sam could get me out, I… I had a client. Although, he wasn’t a client…” She falls silent. The tension radiating from her body has me vibrating with rage, and I don’t even know why yet. “He came into the room one day, Sam, and he told me to get ready. He didn’t look happy and fear crept in. When I asked him why, he only uttered, ‘I wish I could have saved you from this, Firebird,’ and then he left. An hour later, I was dressed and had just finished my hair when he entered my room. As we walked down the hallway, I knew. Something deep in my gut slowly chewed at me. Sam looked at me before he opened the door to a room I’d never been in and whispered in my ear to ‘remember where your heart lies’ before he ushered me into the wolves’ den.”
Those final words send me reeling. My body stills, tenses to the point of pain, and my heart thuds. It fucking fights its way out of my chest, and I tighten my hold on her so much that I hear her gasping for air. Agony slices through me, my blood boils, and torment rattles my bones when I realize what she’s telling me.
“Paige, tell me what happened. Now.” Each word is annunciated like a threat. A vow. I would kill him if my brother hadn’t already taken the initiative. I wouldn’t need weapons because I’d rip him apart. Easily, I’d tear off his skin with the whips he used on us as children, and on the women he abused. I wish I could see him bleed out before me. “Tell me, Paige.”
I shouldn’t ask.
She shouldn’t tell me.
But she will. She must.
I must know.
“He... Your father was there. But there’s something else that not even Sam knows.” She blinks, and I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. Tears stream down her flushed cheeks. “Harlan took me that night. There was a video recording of it. He told me he’d break me for loving you, for making you act out and for making you covet a whore. But there was another man with a mask. They both…”
“Jesus, baby. Look at me please.” She does, gifting me with those big green eyes. Those precious gems that sparkle with emotion. As much as I want her to hate me, hate my family, I don’t see that emotion anywhere on her face. All I see is love. For me.
“They broke me. For twenty-four hours, both fucked me violently. I was choked and whipped.” Her words are strangled as she gasps for breath, recalling what those sick, vile monsters did to her. “They forced themselves inside me before I was ready. I bled so much, I thought I’d die. Since you were gone, I wished for death.”
Those words gut me, they fucking slice through me like a blade opening me to her.
“Every day. I just didn’t feel like I could live and in that moment, I prayed for it. My fight was washed away by the tears they ripped from me. My body became nothing. My heart, as much as it longed for you, it shattered. And my soul, it filled with darkness. This here...” She lifts the hem of her top and stands until I finally see the marks hidden by the ink. I wondered why she was always so quick to hide her tattoo from me, but I never examined her properly. I didn’t see the scars below the Phoenix tattooed on her hip. The W, which my father must have carved into her skin.
“Jesus, Paige,” I bite out the rage fueled words. “I came back for you too late. I was too fucking late.” My heart constricts at the memory of entering the property and finding four guards waiting for me. Of my father laughing, telling me she’s gone.
Her gaze snaps to mine and she gasps. “You came back for me?” Meeting her gaze, I nod. “And I had already left. They’d gotten me out.”
“Yes, you had been gone for about a month already. I didn’t realize it because as soon as I got onto the property, I was captured. I’m lucky to be alive. I didn’t even get to talk to Sam or Dax so I didn’t know where you were.” I realize that all these years I was angry at my brother, but all he did was save my girl.
“He told me he didn’t know where you were. But he said if you knew about his plan, it wouldn’t work. He planned my escape with Dax, who in turn, gave me a job when I got out. I did all those things at Inferno because I was angry at you. I didn’t know you came back, I thought you didn’t care.”
“I’m so sorry I didn’t come back sooner. I was a mess.” My frustration that I wasn’t there to save her from the torture I know she endured rings clear in my words.
“For too long my life wasn’t my own and when I lost you…”
“Kael,” she breathes my name, leaning in until her lips are an inch from mine. “I was a young girl who didn’t know much about love. But when I let you in, it wasn’t only into my body. You claimed every part of me. When you walked out of that house, you had my heart. You’ve always had it.” Her confession stills me before I close the remaining inch between us and I claim her mouth. Out tongues duel, they dance with more than just a kiss. I consume her breaths as she steals mine.
14
Paige
When he breaks the kiss I’m dizzy, it feels as if I’m drunk. Everything he’s ever done to me has left me with lasting memories. Yes, we’ve been through some dark times. Our path was never easy, but we made it through.
I’ve been hesitant about trying more intense play since we found each other again. After being in that house, using my body to forget the pain, I don’t know how I’ll handle being bound, blindfolded and dominated.
When I was at Inferno, I played the part, but this feels different. With Kael I have all those memories racing back, but I think it’s time to test the waters. To see if I can handle more.
“I wish we had a better start,” he says, and sadness flickers in his eyes.
“I do too, but we are stronger for it. I know I am. Yes, there are times it still haunts me. That house, those men, the pain... Perhaps I’ll never get over it completely, but I want to try.” The words come easily when I lose myself in his deep brown eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“There’s something we do need to talk a
bout.” He stares at me causally, as butterflies awaken in my belly. I don’t know why I’m nervous. I should just be honest and tell him I’m ready to play again. For him to dominate me. “So, uhm…” I mumble while stroking his chest absentmindedly. The silence is deafening and I’m sure he can hear my heart beating wildly at the thought of what I’m about to ask. Thud. Thud. Thud.
He pins his chocolate gaze on me in curiosity. “What’s wrong, Paige?” His question is wary at best and he should be because this isn’t going to be easy.
“Well, I was just thinking it’s been a long time that we’ve had time to experiment, or had time to be…I mean I haven’t really been with anyone I cared for. The past year since you found me has given me more confidence. Being submissive to someone was, and still is, difficult for me.”
“Paige, you know as much as I’d like to take you and play out a scene, I don’t want you to do it because of me. I need you to be comfortable. You’ve been through too much for us to even consider—”
“That’s… I mean…” Sighing, I push off his lap. He watches me closely as I pad over to the small cabinet, where I know he’s hidden the pretty item that he’s probably dying to see on my neck. I thought my fear would have it lost forever, but when I found it, I knew I needed to be strong enough to wear it.
“What are you doing?”
I don’t respond, instead, I open the safe and pull out the sleek silver box. “Were you ever going to give this to me?” When his dark gaze falls on the box, a small smirk lifts the corner of his mouth.
“Were you snooping?” he growls, pushing off the sofa and sauntering over to me with his confident stride. Once we’re close, he takes the box and snaps it open. “Do you want this?” He sounds unsure. I was scared last week. Fuck I was afraid this morning, but after telling him everything, I can’t deny how much I want and need him.
“I want you, Kael.”
“You know what this means, Phoenix?” he murmurs the nickname he gave me when he found me at Inferno. I nod. He only calls me that pet name when we’re about to play and I’m tingling with anticipation already.