by Cox, Chloe
And apparently Soren wasn’t the only one watching.
Patrick touched her arm once and Adra pulled it away. Patrick then grabbed at it, trying to pull Adra toward him. And that was the last thing Patrick Cross did, because Ford came roaring out of nowhere and dropped him like a wet bag of cement.
Soren had never seen people clear out of an area so quickly. Ford alone looked like a destructive force of nature, standing over the crumpled Patrick in one of his impeccable suits, his hair falling forward in his face, his eyes blazing, his knuckles bloody. It looked like sheer force of will was the only thing keeping the man from pounding Patrick into a paste, and it wasn’t at all clear how long Ford would hold out.
Chance Dalton, one of the owners, got there just before Soren and pulled Ford off to the side. Adra looked too stunned to react for only a moment, and then she was all over damage control, herding the brunette sub who’d summoned her for help in the first place off to a private room. Soren had no idea what the protocol was for something like this, but he figured there would be hell to pay.
It had been a little bit of an overreaction on Ford’s part.
On the other hand, who gave a shit? Patrick Cross was a piece of scum and never should have been allowed into Volare. He’d never get back in—Soren would make sure of it.
After he took care of Cate.
Cate, who had flinched when Patrick grabbed at Adra. Cate, who had nearly been in a panic, Cate, whose loveliness, whose liveliness, seemed to fade as she listened to that kind of verbal abuse. Cate, who had clearly been triggered.
Soren looked at her standing by the bar, watching. Her hair down, her fists tense, her eyes determined. Not turning away. And suddenl c. A1">Sy all he wanted to do was take care of her.
“We’re leaving,” he said, putting his arm around her. It was all he could do not to pick her up.
Cate only nodded slightly, but her arm came around his waist and seemed to hold on. He had them out a side door and back in his car in under thirty seconds, and it still felt like too long.
Just being alone with her was a relief.
“Where do you want to go?” he asked.
Cate was leaning her head against the window. Some much-needed rain had come in off the Pacific, dotting the windows with distorting drops of water.
“Your place, I think,” she said.
As soon as she said it, it made sense to Soren. He had never been to her place, and that wasn’t an accident; she protected her space as much as she protected herself.
That was going to have to change, one way or the other. Soren knew from personal experience that she couldn’t live like this forever. She needed help moving on. That wasn’t unusual; most people did. But Soren wanted to be the man to help. No, he needed to be.
Just like he needed her to himself, not spread out on a goddamn bar for men like Patrick Cross to see.
“That got to you,” Soren said as he drove up the Pacific Coast Highway. “It set you off.”
She kept looking out the window, even though her side wasn’t the one with the view.
“I’ve heard it before,” she finally said.
“No shit,” Soren said. No point pussyfooting around. He wasn’t going to insult her like that. “Your ex-husband?”
“Among others,” she said. He could hear her smile a bit. Improvement.
“Parents?”
“Well, yeah,” Cate said. “And any other losers I picked up along the way. Dad was—is—a mean drunk, my mother is just mean. But not…I don’t know. I don’t think they’re bad people, I just think they’re unhappy.”
“And your ex?”
“Straight-up bastard. A messed up combination of my parents, actually, which…oh my God, that is just horrifying to think about.”
Soren laughed and looked over at her. Cate was hiding an embarrassed smile behind her hand.
“Can you believe I just now, right this second, figured that out?” She shuddered.
Soren grinned. coresec “If this were a movie, you’d be all better now.”
This time Cate laughed, and Soren didn’t know a sound could feel that good.
“Yes, I believe Hollywood has promised me catharsis and a handsome man. Now drive me off into the sunset, please.”
“It’s midnight.”
“You’d better get working on that sunset, then.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Soren looked at her. “Just know you’ll pay for it later.”
The smile that bought him was sweet.
They drove like that, in this relaxed silence full of shared understanding, until they were almost in Malibu. At least it started as a relaxed silence. If Soren hadn’t been driving in the rain on a weekend night full of tipsy drivers, he would have paid closer attention. He would have caught the shift.
Something had taken hold in Cate’s mind.
“Ask me,” she said finally.
Her tone had changed. Soren looked at her as closely as he could. He hated having conversations like this in the damn car, but he knew she needed the movement, the distraction. It was always easier to be vulnerable in a moving car.
And he knew what she meant.
“Did he ever hit you?”
“Yes.”
Soren stared straight ahead, his hands crushing the steering wheel, his blood pounding in his ears. He’d known the goddamn answer, and it hadn’t done anything to soften the blow. And he had to fucking shelve his desire to turn around and hunt the fucker down because he had Cate. Cate was more important.
“What did you do?” he said finally.
“Left.” She paused. “No, that’s not true. I left eventually. Which means that for a while I just took it. Because I was afraid, and because it was hard, and because…I believed him, I guess.”
Goddammit, he wanted to hold her.
“Jesus, that sounds pathetic,” she murmured.
“No,” he said.
“I don’t know, I might never know why. I’m tired of thinking about it. But eventually, I left. I left because it felt like…”
Cate paused, her voice catching. Soren waited. He’d wait for fucking ever.
“This is going to sound dramatic,” she said.
"+1">“Don’t apologize,” he said fiercely. “Don’t ever fucking apologize. It is dramatic. You don’t have to apologize, ever.”
She laughed, surprising him. “I might hold you to that.”
“That’s acceptable. Finish your sentence.”
“Shit.”
“Cate.”
She needed this. The way Soren had needed it once.
Cate sighed. “It felt like I was dying. In little bits and pieces, every day that I stayed, some part of me just died. Until eventually there would only be the parts of me that did believe the things he said about me.”
They were almost home. Jesus, he wanted to be holding her.
But Soren knew what he needed to do. She might hate him for it. She might get angry. She might never forgive him. But he wouldn’t do her the disservice of lying to her.
He had to push her.
“You keep yourself hidden away,” he said. Almost home. “You’re afraid you’re broken. That this, what we do together, is because you’re broken.”
“No,” Cate said. And then more forcefully, “No, I don’t think that anymore. I don’t know if I ever really did. I think maybe it was just an excuse.”
“So you wouldn’t have to be honest, show it to anyone.”
“Bingo.”
His headlights illuminated the long white wall that separated his property from Malibu Road and he pressed the button, watching the gate slide open as he made the turn.
“You’re not just afraid people will hurt you if you poke your head out and show yourself,” he said.
“No?” Cate asked. “I think I’m pretty damn afraid of that, actually. I mean, all things considered, I have pretty good reasons to be afraid of that. It keeps frigging happening, for one.”
“So?” Soren said, giving her a n
o-bullshit look as he pulled the car into his covered garage. “You’re strong enough to take it. You’ve done it before.”
“Then what am I afraid of?” she asked, turning to face him as the car came to a stop.
Soren made her wait while he got out and walked over to her side of the car, knowing that dress would give her hell if she tried to get out on her own. Besides, he liked holding doors for her. He liked helping her out of his car. And he wanted to be holding her hand when he said what he was about to say.
He opened the door and gave himself one last look at her, c lo>
Soren helped her up and then pushed her back against the car, wanting to feel her body against his, wanting her to have to see the truth of what he was about to say.
“Look at me,” he said.
She tore her eyes away from his mouth and met his gaze.
“You’re afraid that if you stop hiding yourself away,” he said, “you won’t like what you see.”
And then he waited.
chapter 13
Cate wasn’t used to not having a quick comeback. She was used to always being a step ahead, to having the upper hand, to being able to out argue or out-quip or whatever it was she needed to do.
She had freaking nothing.
Soren had pinned her against the car in that way that would guarantee she didn’t want to get away, and then he’d reached deep inside her head and pulled out that gem. And she had freaking nothing.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” she said.
“Your Dom,” he said.
“Don’t be so goddamn sure,” she said. She was angry. Really, truly angry. She felt…exposed, in a way she’d never experienced before. At a disadvantage. Vulnerable. And not in the fun way. “Who are you to try to get inside my head like this when I barely know anything about you?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you’d been married?” Soren asked. He was completely calm. Unruffled. Unbothered.
Maddening.
“It didn’t seem relevant!” she lied. “Ok, no, that’s it, stop touching me. I can’t be coherent when you’re…”
Cate took a deep breath as Soren pulled away from her. Immediately she regretted it; her entire body regretted it. That only made her angrier. It was so manifestly unfair.
And then he turned around and started to walk away, into the house.
Cate was pissed off enough to follow him, as he knew she would. Soren would make the rules, set the pace, determine the direction, and Cate would follow. How dare he?
“Are you seriously walking away from me?” she demanded.
Soren turned suddenly, putting himself very, very close to her. They were both breathing hard.
“Don’t lie to me,” he said.
“Why do I always have to be the brave one?” she demanded.
Soren stared at her.
Stunned.
Soren Andersson was stunned.
Like he didn’t know the answer, and so didn’t know how to respond. Like there were things in this world that somehow Soren Andersson didn’t know. Things about himself, about Cate, about the two of them together.
And that was when Cate scared herself half to death, because she realized they were having a fight.
A real fight. A couple’s fight. A relationship fight.
Which was exactly what they were not supposed to have. Which was exactly what Cate couldn’t allow herself to even think about, because if she did, if she let herself even entertain the idea, if she let herself think of this as something real, she would get her heart broken. She would be destroyed.
She opened her mouth to take it all back, and no sound came out.
And then Soren beat her to it.
“I only laugh when I’m with you,” he said.
Cate paused. “What?”
Soren took another step closer. There were only inches between them as they stood in this narrow hallway in the dark, not even inside the house yet. Cate could see the muscles roiling in his striated shoulders, his biceps, his forearms—he was opening and closing his fists, his jaw tense, his whole body wired.
Had Soren just opened up?
“I am a fucking statue except when I’m with you,” he said. “I only laugh when I’m with you.”
She had no idea what to say. “Soren, I—”
“You see how freaking bad I am at it, you know it’s true,” he said, grinning down at her.
Cate laughed, covered her mouth. He had no idea how funny he was.
“That’s messed up, Soren,” she said, still laughing.
“I know,” he said, and that deep rumble filled the hallway, Soren’s laughter sounding at that moment like the best damn thing she’d ever heard.
Which terrified her.
“Fuck,” she whispered./font>
She couldn’t fall for him. It would be a disaster to fall for him. It was a mistake, just a delusion built of great sex and personal discovery and connection. She didn’t even really know anything about him, didn’t know anything meaningful, nothing about his past, his history. She knew more about Soren from the work her investigators had done for the lawsuit than she knew from the man himself.
And yet when he brushed his fingers along her cheek, her knees almost gave out. She leaned against the wall, shuddering.
“Are you ok?” he asked her gently.
Cate closed her eyes. She could not fall for him. He had pushed her, and crossed lines, and he’d made her feel like she didn’t know herself very well at all.
And when she opened her eyes, this gorgeous man who she could never allow herself to fall for was looking at her like what she was feeling was the most important thing in the world to him.
It was too hard.
“Stop being so fucking sweet!” she shouted.
Soren’s eyes flashed. His hands circled her wrists, his body turned, pivoted, and he pinned her against the wall, her hands above her head, her legs pushed apart by one of his.
“Ok,” he said.
That voice.
Cate tried to catch her breath. This. This she understood. This was better than falling, than worrying, than feeling lost. This was losing herself in something.
She would follow him anywhere.
“Do it,” she whispered.
Cate gasped as Soren ripped her dress apart in one vicious movement, leaving it in long elegant tatters falling from her waist. His grip tightened on her wrists as he looked at her breasts, watching the pink nipples tighten under his eyes. She couldn’t hide how aroused she was if she tried.
If she wanted to.
Soren grabbed her face and tilted it up so he could cover her with a rough, ravishing kiss, his body pressing into hers in a way that made her moan into his mouth while he savaged hers. When he pulled away, it was clear it was because he wanted to see her. Wanted to watch her.
He grabbed one breast, then the other. Not gently. He squeezed, and pulled, and pinched, and he did it all while looking her in the eye while she felt herself pushed closer and closer to the edge.
Jesus, he never looked away.
He pinched her again and Cate squealed, surprised as much as anything. She’d never felt like she could come from just having h kjusfoner nipples pinched, but this man…
“I’m close,” she said. “Oh God, I’m—”
And he ripped his hand away, his eyes hard and determined. She whimpered, almost begging, as he dragged his hand down her bare stomach until he got to the ruined remnants of her dress.
Soren snarled in surprise and looked down. And then he tore the dress away completely.
Cate writhed against the wall. He wasn’t even touching her, just looking at her, naked, and she—
He picked her up. Not over the shoulder as he had done before; he just wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted, pinning her to his hip. She tried to turn, twist, be less awkward; he ignored her.
He wasn’t going far anyway.
The kitchen. He stalked over the brushed steel kitchen island and set her down on he
r heels, spinning her around until she faced the island. One hand on her hip, the other on her neck, he bent her down until her breasts pressed into the cold, cold surface, her cheek flat on the steel, her mouth open as he spread her farther apart and ripped at his jeans.
She didn’t move while she waited. It felt like an eternity, her own wetness dripping down her leg, Soren’s hand heavy on the back of her neck.
He slapped her once on the ass, hard, spread her with his thumb, and then he drove into her.
Cate cried out.
“You don’t come until I say,” he growled in her ear. “You’re mine. You come when I say, you understand?”
Oh God, she didn’t know if she could do it.
He filled her with long, hard strokes, leaning back while he kept her down with his hand on her neck, taking what he wanted. Just the idea was enough to bring Cate close to the edge, and now, now it was happening, he was fucking her like he owned her all over again, and she wasn’t going to make it.
She wasn’t.
She’d never held on so tightly to an impending orgasm in her entire life.
And then, when Soren pulled out only long enough to turn her around, pick her up, and lay her down on the table, her legs up in the air, her ass in his hands, she let it go.
He plunged into her just once, the head of his massive cock striking her G-spot at the perfect angle, and Cate couldn’t stop it.
She came.
She came screaming, her arms flailing hopelessly for something to grab on to on that stupid table, her back arching, her hips pumping.
And Soren just smiled. He stopped moving, and he smiled, and when Cate got a look at him, she shivered.
This was exactly what she’d needed. She felt like she was in the middle of a storm, this confusing, emotionally violent storm, and the look Soren was giving her, that animal, dominating, topspace look, told her she’d just entered the center of it. She felt calm. She felt right.
Soren pulled out of her, his eyes shining. He set her down in front of him, his huge erection still unsatisfied.
“Upstairs,” he said, his voice low. “Now.”