by Cox, Chloe
“Happily, I’ve brought a criminal attorney for you, Ms. Collins,” Cate said, as gently as she could. “He’s very good, and he’s in the adjoining room. All you have to do is open that door right there. I can tell you the first thing he’s going to do is recommend that you fire Mr. Cheedham, who, as it happens, will also be needing a criminal attorney.” Cate looked back at Cheedham. “I didn’t bring one for you, Mark.”
Daniella began to cry. Cate found that all she wanted to do was get up and give the woman a hug—after all, Cate had spent the morning thinking about how she’d managed to make her own mistakes. She’d lied, too, and she hadn’t even had a sick nephew to worry about.
“Honey, just open the door,” Cate said. “Fire him and open the door. I really think it will all be ok.”
The second Daniella stood up, Mark Cheedham shot to his feet and raced out the door. He was probably about to try to shred a whole lot of documents. Given how brazenly stupid Cheedham’s fraud was, Cate guessed that he’d done it many times before, always counting on a quick hush-up settlement. She’d alerted the district attorney ahead of time, but it was anyone’s guess what would happen. If Cheedham really were running a giant racketeering operation, well…Cate would get out the popcorn.
ing "11" width="24">But Daniella was still standing there, motionless. Looking at Cate.
“It didn’t start out like this,” she said quietly. “I just want you to know. He didn’t say we’d be accusing him of abusing me—he didn’t put it like that. He made it sound different. It was just a slippery slope, and before I knew it I was signing these documents, and by then…”
“You should say that to Soren,” Cate said. Then she remembered her job. “On television. As soon as possible.”
Daniella cringed.
“I will.”
“Just between us,” Cate said, “I bet he won’t even hold a grudge. And I have a feeling your nephew is going to be taken care of no matter what happens.”
That’s when Daniella started to cry for real. Cate left before she joined in. She even managed to hold on until she got home and found Adra waiting for her.
~ * ~ * ~
Soren had to admit: the three of them made an odd team. He and Declan looked like they’d just rolled off a tour bus, and Ford looked like, well, Ford.
Jason Whittier could be forgiven for being a little bit confused when he opened the door. Then he recognized Soren, and his mouth dropped open.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jason sputtered.
“I’m here to make you a deal,” Soren said. If this idiot knew the supreme concentration it required not to simply beat the shit out of him, he didn’t show it. “These two buddies of mine are here to act as witnesses. There’s a notary in the car.”
Soren looked back. There was a very confused but patient notary in the back of Ford’s Benz.
“Get the hell off my property.” Jason sneered. “Or I’ll call the police.”
“It’s not your property,” Soren said. “It’s Cate’s. And I promise you, Jason, you want to hear this deal.”
Soren’s muscles had started to twitch. Every fiber of his being wanted to be involved in teaching Jason Whittier a lesson or ten. Soren inhaled very slowly and thought about Cate.
“Screw you,” Jason said. “I’m calling the cops.”
And he tried to close the door.
Soren caught it.
And, very slowly, he opened it again.
Ford coughed and looked away, intent on studying something happening in a tree on the other side of the yard. Declan just smiled.
Soren stepped inside the house.
“Give me a reason, Jason,” Soren said quietly. “You don’t know me, but I have a mean streak. I earned it. I know what it’s like to get the shit beaten out of me, and it made me really good at beating the shit out of people like you. And if I’m honest? There’s a part of me that comes alive then. I don’t have to like it; I just have to deal with it. I control it. So I’m telling you, right now, that if you give me a reason to let that beast out of its cage, I am going to owe you one. And that’s gonna be the thing that saves your miserable life.”
“What is wrong with you?” Jason said. He’d backed farther into the house. Soren had no intention of following him. He wondered if Cate had felt as scared as Jason looked, and the thought made him nauseous.
“I’m in love with Cate Kennedy,” Soren said. “That’s what’s wrong with me. It means that I will literally do anything to get her what she needs. Look at me, Jason: fucking anything. And what’s wrong with you is that you’re a douchebag who won’t let her go, and you find any excuse to hurt her. That is going to stop right fucking now, do you understand?”
Jason stopped backing away.
“Give me a reason,” Jason said.
“That was the plan,” Soren said.
~ * ~ * ~
Cate had tried calling Soren half a dozen times since Adra had left, determined, finally, to tell him everything in person. To apologize, to tell him the case was sorted out, even if they couldn’t make it public yet. To tell him that she loved him.
Adra had been somehow reassuring without actually telling her anything, which, as a lawyer, Cate kind of admired. She had also offered to have Ford take a look at the divorce agreement that Jason had refused to sign, which hadn’t made much sense, but had seemed a sweet attempt to help. The end result was that Cate remembered that she had people who cared about her, even if she had screwed up.
That Soren cared about her, even if he didn’t…
Well, there was no point in going there at the moment. She needed to tell him about the case, she needed to tell him how she felt, and she needed to stop hiding. She’d put on her big girl panties and called.
And called.
And called.
After the fifth or sixth time, she’d begun to worry. Maybe she had crossed the line. Maybe she wasn’t special; maybe he was done. Honesty was his hard limit, right?
The thought was just…crushing.
Soren was the man who’d made her believe that people could be better than she’d ever imagined. If he couldn’t forgive her, she would feel utterly, utterly lost.
And she was on the verge of another bout of embarrassing tears when her doorbell rang.
Cate stiffened. The media was still a problem; she’d hired security guards through Ford’s contacts to keep them from encroaching on her property, and anyway, it was truly weird to have someone at her actual door unannounced.
She approached cautiously.
“What do you want?” she shouted.
It was the voice that answered her.
“Cate,” Soren said. “Open the door.”
She stood there in shock. Didn’t move.
“Move, Cate,” he said.
She could hear the smile.
Cate practically ran to the door, fumbling with the locks, scrabbling at the doorknob. And then when she finally got it open, she could barely speak.
Soren Andersson, leaning in her doorway, thick, muscular arms crossed, eyes glowing.
He stood up straight and ran a hand through his long blond hair, his eyes never leaving hers.
“Whatever you’re thinking, Cate,” he said, “stop. Whatever you’re afraid of, you’re wrong. I know why you didn’t tell me. And I don’t care that you didn’t. I know you would have eventually, but I messed up, too. I should have told you that I love you, in all the broken ways that I know how.”
Cate leaned against the door, her legs feeling weak. Everything feeling weak.
“You…?”
“I love you,” he said again, simply. “I should have said it from the very beginning. I should have known it from the very beginning. But I’m going to try to make that up to you, starting right now.”
“Soren—”
Cate stopped, suddenly unsure of what to say or how to say it. She was speechless. Soren Andersson had robbed her of speech. And she needed to touch him.
“So
ren—” she tried again, but this time it only ended in a sob.
He reached inside and wrapped his long arm around her waist, pulling her toward him into one of those rough, animal kisses that shut off all thought. Her brain quieted down and her body came alive, and when he pulled away from her she could look at only him.
“Quiet,” he said with a smile. “I’ve got more.”
“More?” she said in a daze. She didn’t need more. She had everything now.
“More,” he said. He pulled some folded-up papers out of his back pocket and handed them over to her. “I got you something.”
Cate recognized them even before she got done unfolding them.
“Soren, these are my divorce papers,” she said, her voice going a little unsteady. “This is more than my divorce papers. There’s an added non-disclosure agreement, and—and they’re all signed. Signed and notarized.” She looked up, not understanding. “Soren, they’re all signed.”
Soren’s smile was brilliant, his eyes soft.
Cate had never felt so loved in her entire life.
“You’re free, Cate,” he said. “You’re free, but I’m not. I’m yours. You don’t owe me anything, but I’m yours.”
He touched her face.
She was shaking. She could look down at the papers in her hand and see that she was shaking.
“How did you do this?” she asked.
“I made a deal.”
Cate looked up, confused and worried and tumbling further into love with this crazy person who’d magically gotten her a divorce. Except that obviously it couldn’t have been magic.
“What deal?” she asked.
Soren sucked in a breath and gave Cate the first of what she hoped would be many ‘you caught me, honey’ looks. “I traded with your ex,” he said.
Cate’s face fell. She didn’t care about Jason’s blackmail anymore. She would have gone ahead, steam-powered through the divorce. Soren didn’t need to do anything, and now he’d given something up for nothing.
“Traded what?” she said.
“I told him I’d go to Mark Cheedham and say Jason got me to agree to settle the case,” Soren said. “Jason gets a job, you get a divorce, the case is over. Everybody wins.”
Except, of course, for Soren, whose reputation would have been forever ruined by a settlement. That is, if there was still a case to settle.
Cate put one hand over her mouth, stiflingoutpan> That a laugh. It was no use.
“This is funny?” Soren asked, smiling.
“Oh God, yes, it’s funny,” Cate said. “I’ve been calling you to tell you.”
“Dead phone. Died while I was ‘negotiating’ with that prick. Tell me what?”
“Soren, the case is done. I found evidence that Cheedham paid Daniella. There will be an announcement sometime later this week, an investigation, the whole thing. I fixed that today.”
“So Cheedham…?”
“Probably going to jail.”
“So Jason gets…?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
Soren’s smile was blinding. “Holy crap, that is funny.” Then he paused. “Wait, what happens to Daniella? She’s not a bad person, Cate.”
Cate put a hand on Soren’s chest and smiled. She just wanted to feel the heart that beat there.
“You really are very sweet,” she said softly. “And you’re right. She was doing it because her nephew is sick. I already took care of it, Soren; his medical bills are paid. And I told her you probably wouldn’t be suing her.”
“Hell no, I’m not suing her,” he said.
“I took care of her,” Cate said. “I got her a lawyer, she’ll get a book deal out of the whole thing. She’ll be ok.”
“That’s almost enough to get me to forgive you for calling me sweet,” he said. His big hand circled around her wrist, and Cate let the shivers ripple through her body.
“You haven’t let me tell you what I wanted to tell you,” Cate said.
Soren pushed her gently back into the house, closing the door behind him.
“You better make it quick,” he said.
Cate couldn’t stop herself from smiling when she looked into those eyes.
“I love you,” she said.
Soren grinned. “I know,” he said.
“What do you mean, you know?” Cate swatted him in the chest. “You let me suffer?”
“No, I was just stupid.” Soren took her other wrist in his hand and walked her backwards, his gaze roving over her body before resting on her eyes. “I told you I sucked at this. But you’re the only woman I can love, Cate. You have my heart. So I’m going to keep loving you until I’m really fucking good at it, ok?”
Cate licked her lips. “Ok.”
He smiled. “I wasn’t really asking.”
“I know.”
“And that cute smile you’re doing right now is not going to stop me from putting you over my knee whenever I feel like it.”
“I should hope not.”
They were standing together in the middle of the living room now, staring at each other, not wanting any of it to end. Eventually Cate broke; she didn’t have the discipline of a Dom. She tore at his jeans, not wanting to look away from his eyes, but needing, needing for them to be together, as soon as possible, right freaking now—
She got him free and her clothes were off so quickly she didn’t quite know how he’d done it. And then his huge hands under her buttocks, lifting her up, guiding her, slowly lowering her onto him until he’d impaled her to the hilt, his eyes boring into hers while he did it.
He filled her. He loved her. He made her know she was loved; he made her know it was possible.
“Soren,” she said, moving her hips against him as much as she could while he held her up.
“Look at me,” he said.
She did, brushing his wild hair out of his face. She loved him more than she thought possible.
“I love you, Cate. Do you understand that?” he said softly. “Do you understand that I’m never going to get over that? That I’m never going to stop being grateful to you for the opportunity to feel like this? You astonish me.”
She kissed him on the forehead. “Soren, I need you. Right now.”
“Cate,” he said, and hefted her up once, sharply, swiftly, before bring her back down, making her scream out as the head of his cock dragged against her favorite spot. “I’m gonna marry you just as soon as you let me.”
“I only just got divorced!”
“I’m not above using all kinds of persuasive techniques to get what I want,” he said, driving up into her.
She groaned.
“I might—” she gasped, “—actually be ok with that.”
He laughed, that sound filling her with so much joy, even as he tumbled them both onto the sofa and pinned her arms above her head.
“How do Lucy and Ethel feel about it?” he said.
epilogue
Declan and Molly’s engagement party, much delayed, was basically a present to Adra.
Adra loved Christmas stuff. Like, truly, truly loved it, as only a woman born and bred in southern California can love the suggestion of snow and everything that goes with it. Molly had decided to save her energy for the wedding—apparently planning a wedding to a rock star was like planning the invasion of a small country—and when she heard that Adra was still upset about whatever was happening with her and Ford, she decided to give Adra the gift of planning a Christmas engagement party.
Adra had literally squealed. Cate had heard it herself. There had been gleeful squealing, and then Adra had covered her mouth and looked around to see who had heard.
“I’m a grown woman,” she’d said shaking her head.
“Relax,” Cate had laughed. “Get into the spirit.”
Adra had done more than that. Adra had become the spirit. Or she’d somehow kidnapped the spirit and then forced it to do the decorating at Club Volare.
Because the place had been turned into a wonderland. Outside i
t was sunny and eighty degrees. Inside: winter wonderland. Cate was in awe. So was Molly.
“Holy—”
“—Night,” Cate finished, giving her friend a smile. “That was my contribution.”
Molly giggled. “Well, it’s going to be some kind of night.”
That was another thing Cate had to be grateful for: she had been fully accepted into Soren’s found family pretty much immediately, and Molly and Adra had been at the forefront of that effort. Cate’s wariness around people had returned, to some extent, when she found herself trying to build her own friendships with these people, and Molly and Adra would have none of it. They’d worn her down in the best possible way.
And now…she was here.
Cate looked around again as Molly went off to do the rounds, greeting all the people who’d shown up to congratulate her and Declan. There was not one person here who Cate felt she had to hide from. They all knew her. Really, really knew her, the real her, all sides of her. They were all people who she would invite into her home, if she hadn’t already. She hadn’t felt that panic or white knuckled fear in months.
It was all, frankly, amazing.
And she had Soren to thank for it.
Cate sme="font iled, eyes searching for him amongst the crowd. A giant blond Norse god shouldn’t be hard to find, and anyway, she knew he’d come track her down in a few minutes just to put his arms around her. He always did, even at home.
It had been way too easy to trick him into moving in with her. Well, Cate maintained that she’d tricked him into moving in by accident; Soren claimed that he’d tricked her into letting him move in on purpose. Either way, Desi was happy with all the room to run around, and Cate and Soren were happy with the privacy.
However it had happened—and it did feel like it just kind of happened, naturally—the end result was that Soren had made some very permanent, very functional alterations to the bedroom. The place was now definitely “theirs.” He’d only shown her the newest addition—rings and pulleys in the ceiling—right before they’d left for the party. It meant Cate’s mind wasn’t fully on the festivities. It was on Soren.
When she found him, standing on the other side of a huge ice sculpture, he was watching her.