Quantum Boxed Set: The Complete Series

by Force, Marie

  “It turns out they were trying to warn me that he was dangerous. The other night, I made the decision to share something deeply personal with Rafe. For most of my adult life, I’ve participated in and enjoyed an alternative lifestyle that supports dominant and submissive relationships between consenting partners. I wanted to share my love of this practice with the man I thought I loved. The injuries you see on my face resulted from that evening, during which Rafe tied me up and whipped my back until it bled. When he was finished, he left me bound and bleeding for hours until I was found by a friend.”

  Gasps of shock ripple through the gathered crowd.

  “In the days since the attack, he has repeatedly threatened to release photos of me naked, bound and beaten.”

  When I look up from my prepared remarks, I’m staggered to see Sebastian, Flynn, Natalie, Hayden, Addie, Emmett, Leah, Kristian, Aileen, Ellie and Jasper lining the back wall of the room.

  Seb nods and gives me a thumbs-up, his fierce gaze encouraging me to keep going.

  I swallow the lump in my throat that formed when I noticed my closest friends, the family I chose for myself, lined up in support of me. I love them so much in that moment, more than I ever have before.

  I shift my gaze to Flynn and then Hayden as I continue. “My closest friends despised him. They tolerated him only out of respect for me. They tried to tell me they didn’t trust him, that I could do better. I ignored their concerns. That’s on me. But what he did to me—and what he did to many other women? That’s on him. I’ve come to learn he’s a serial abuser who’s preyed on women his entire adult life. That stops right now. If you meet this man…” I gesture to the screen, where a massive image of his face appears. “Steer clear of him. His charming good looks are a front for a monster. It’s my hope that by going public with my story, I might save someone else from being abused by this man. You might ask why I haven’t reported him to the police before now. I didn’t want my personal business broadcast to the world. I still would prefer to keep this and my personal life private. But after talking to Teagan and Veronica and learning what happened to them and the other women he’s hurt, remaining silent was no longer an option. I filed a police report with the LAPD this morning, and they’ve issued a warrant for his arrest. We believe he’s currently in France, but if he should return to the US, the authorities will be waiting for him.

  “To all the women out there who’re living in abusive relationships, I want you to know you’re not alone. No one is immune from abuse. We’ve made a list of resources where you can go for help that we’ll distribute at the close of this press conference. We’d appreciate your support in putting that list out to the public. And now I’ll turn it over to Teagan.”

  Immediately, the reporters start calling my name and shouting questions.

  Liza intervenes. “After all three women have spoken, they’ll take your questions.”

  I listen to Teagan and Veronica bravely share their stories of fairy-tale romances with Rafe that turned abusive over time.

  My heart aches for both of them as well as the six other women they refer to by name who can tell similar stories.

  “This is a dangerous man who hates women,” Veronica concludes with her trademark bluntness. “Please don’t think you’re going to be the one to save him or fix what’s broken inside him. Stay away from him. That concludes our prepared remarks. We’ll take your questions.”

  I’m not surprised that most of them are for me, in light of the BDSM bombshell I dropped, along with my bruises.

  “Are you a Domme, Marlowe?”

  I meet Sebastian’s intense gaze. “I’m actually a switch, which means I can be both dominant and submissive.”

  “What is it about the lifestyle that attracted you?”

  “I appreciate the open communication most of all.”

  One of the women reporters asks the next question. “As someone who has spent most of your adult life in the spotlight, how did you keep something like this a secret for so long?”

  “I kept my private life private. It’s not always easy to maintain a personal life under the glare of the Hollywood spotlight, but I’ve managed to keep my public and private lives very separate. I want to be clear on one important point. I’m not in any way ashamed of my participation in the BDSM lifestyle. Those who’d consider it deviant lack an understanding of the basic tenets of the lifestyle, which promote safe, sane and consensual interactions between adults. There’s nothing illegal or immoral about two or more people agreeing to engage in consensual activity. Anyone who would try to make it into something dirty or deviant would be showing their ignorance to the world.”

  In the back of the room, Flynn raises a fist that he points in my direction, which is his way of saying, You go, girl. I probably should’ve warned my partners that I planned to disclose my involvement in the lifestyle, but I wasn’t a hundred percent sure I was going say that part until the words were coming out of my mouth. I wanted to take away all the weapons Rafe might’ve tried to use against me.

  A few reporters have questions about Rafe. They ask for the proper spelling of his name, the spelling of the company he worked for and other things about his background.

  I’m glad to know that at least a few of them will be focused on the main reason we called this press conference.

  After an hour of answering questions, Liza informs them that we’re done and any other questions can be directed to her office.

  I’m stunned and touched when the room explodes into spontaneous applause and further astounded to see Teagan and Veronica applauding, too.

  I hug them both. “I couldn’t have done this without you both.”

  Teagan pulls back from our hug. “Yes, you could have. You were incredible. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the women of the world will be avoiding him from now on.”

  “And for him,” Veronica adds, “that’ll be a worse punishment than jail would ever be.”

  It’s true. Rafe needs sex the way other people need air.

  “I bet he won’t even be able to pay for it after this,” Teagan adds.

  The three of us share a laugh and another hug. I note they’re both careful not to touch my back, which I appreciate. This experience has bonded us for life, and I’m thankful to have made two new good friends as a result of one of the most difficult things to ever happen to me.

  My Quantum family is waiting for me when I come off the stage, each of them hugging me gently and telling me how proud they are of me.

  Flynn and Hayden dodge reporters who want to take advantage of the fact that they’re in the room with two of Hollywood’s top players.

  “Mr. Godfrey and Mr. Roth are not available for media inquiries,” Liza tells them. “Move along.”

  They do what they’re told so they won’t fall out of favor with the hottest team in town.

  “I’m so fucking proud of you, Mo,” Flynn whispers when he embraces me. “You handed that son of a bitch his ass and totally owned your truth up there.”

  “Thank you.” Having his support means everything to me. “Thank you all for being here for me.”

  “We wouldn’t have missed it,” Ellie says.

  Sebastian is the last of the group to hug me, and he holds on for a good long time, making yet another public statement on my behalf, this one in front of our mutual friends. He all but confirms that things have taken a turn between us in the last few days. “You were great up there, but I never had any doubt you’d kill it.”

  “I’m glad one of us was confident.”

  He drops his head to my shoulder and takes a deep breath. That’s when I realize he was nervous for me. I hold on tighter to him, aware that everyone close to us is watching. And I don’t care one bit.

  “Let’s go home,” he whispers gruffly.

  “You dispatched the living fuck out of that son of a bitch,” Hayden says. “This calls for a party.”

  “Not today.” With his arm around me, Sebastian heads for the door.


  “Wait a minute,” Hayden says.

  Sebastian keeps moving.

  Realizing he wants to be alone with me and doesn’t care who knows it is the most exciting thing to happen in, well, ever.

  “Let them go,” Addie tells her husband. “We’ll celebrate tomorrow.”

  I hear Hayden start to object, but I’m far enough away from them now that I don’t hear what he says.

  “Such a pain in the ass,” Sebastian mutters.

  I laugh as we emerge into the bright late-afternoon sunshine. A weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I shared my story and “came out” as a participant in the lifestyle on my own terms. I give zero fucks what anyone thinks of me or my choices. I’m way past the point where I need to worry about those choices affecting my career. When you’re a partner in one of the top production companies in Hollywood, there’s much less to worry about career-wise. If I’m shunned by other producers, what do I care? I’ve gotten to the point in recent years where I accept very few roles outside of Quantum anyway.

  As we walk toward Seb’s truck, a photographer pops out from behind another vehicle and takes a picture of us.

  Sebastian growls at the guy, who wisely backs off. Seb opens the passenger door of the truck and waits for me to get settled before he closes it and stalks around to the driver’s side, having words with the photog that I can’t hear from inside.

  He’s fuming when he gets into the truck, slamming his door closed. His jaw is clenched so tightly that his cheek twitches. His rage on my behalf is a huge turn-on. If the parking lot wasn’t crawling with press, I might’ve crawled into his lap to show my appreciation. But I’ve given the public enough of me today. They’re not getting that, too.

  Chapter 16

  Seb floors the accelerator, and we roar out of the parking lot, heading for the sanctuary of his home in Malibu. I wonder when I’ll be able to get back to my house at the beach. I miss the sound of the ocean and the smell of the sand.

  “You okay?” he asks after a long silence.

  “Yep. You?”

  “Better now that it’s done.”

  “Thank you for the support. It means a lot to me.”

  He reaches for my hand. “You mean a lot to all of us. We hate to see you suffer the way you have the last few days.”

  “It hasn’t been all bad.”

  When he glances my way, I see fire in his dark eyes and a hint of a smile on his sinfully sexy lips. The twitch in his cheek is gone, and he seems to have relaxed somewhat now that we’ve made our escape.

  “We aren’t being followed, are we?”

  “Nope. I’ve been watching.”

  “Oh good.” I exhale a sigh of relief. “That’s good.”

  “I won’t let them find you, babe. Don’t worry.”

  When other guys have called me babe, it’s rankled me. When he calls me that, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy and adored. The realization is something I chew on as we ride in comfortable silence until we meet the coast and head north toward home. Why is a term of endearment that always turned me off different coming from him? Is it because we were friends for years before we became something else? Probably because I know it’s coming from a place of affection and respect with him, which hasn’t always been the case with other guys.

  That foundation of friendship makes everything different with Seb. Other than Flynn, I’ve never been in a relationship with a guy I was friends with first—and my “relationship” with Flynn, such as it was, didn’t last long. I wonder if what I’ve started with Seb will follow a similar path. Will we discover we’re better as friends than lovers? I really hope not, because last night was incredible, and I want more of everything with him.

  We arrive back at his place an hour before he has to leave for work. I hope that’s enough time to show him how much his support has meant to me. We’re no sooner inside than he pulls out his phone and fires off a text.

  “Everything all right?”

  “Uh-huh. I was just telling Quisha she’s in charge at the club tonight.”

  My heart leaps with excitement at hearing he’s taking the night off. He so rarely takes time off. In fact, I’ve heard Kristian, the managing partner, order him to take a vacation because we can’t continue to roll over months of leave every year. Sebastian always says there’s nothing he’d rather do than work, and if he loses the vacation time, so be it.

  He’s our most loyal and dedicated employee, and to see him changing his routine to spend more time with me makes me hot. I go to him, reach up to wrap my arms around his neck and press my body against his. “Have you found something you like to do better than work, by any chance?”

  His hands slide down my back to cup my ass. He lifts me right off my feet. “Oh hell yes, I have.”

  I wrap my legs around his waist and fall into a deep, passionate kiss that has fireworks going off inside me. My breasts are pressed to his chest, and my soft center is tight against the hard column of his erection as he wrecks me with sweeping strokes of his tongue. Dear God… All this time, he was right there waiting for me to see him this way, and now that I have… I can’t get enough of how I feel when he touches me.

  A few days with Seb, and it’s plainly obvious to me that everything was wrong with Rafe long before he beat me and left me. I never felt as consumed by him as I do with Seb. He walks us into the bedroom and puts me on the bed, gazing down at me with so much emotion in his fathomless dark eyes.

  “Has this always been there between us, waiting for us to find it?” I ask him.

  “It’s always been there for me, but I never allowed myself to believe it could happen.”

  “Why?”

  His lips curl into a small smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “You’re a queen, and I’m a peasant in comparison.”

  “That’s not true. You’re kind and loyal and hardworking and dedicated to the people you love. What more could anyone want from a friend or lover than someone with those qualities? Do you know how rare those things are? Especially in this town.” I reach up to unbuckle his belt and release the button on well-worn, faded jeans that hug him in all the right places. “I came from nothing, Sebastian. Less than nothing. At home, we were always one disaster away from the lights being shut off or ending up on food stamps. My mother was so ashamed of being poor. After all she did for me, I wanted so badly to give her something better.”

  He strokes my face with his fingertips, sending goose bumps skittering down my arms and back. “She’d be so incredibly proud of who you turned out to be.”

  “I hope so.” I look up at him. “We’re more alike than you think. I didn’t always have what I do now, and I try not to let the success I’ve had define me. At the end of the day, I’m just a girl from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who got very, very lucky.”

  “It was more than luck. Do you have any idea how talented you are? I was blown away by you in Insidious. Just when I think I’ve seen the full range of your gift you go and top yourself.”

  That ranks as one of the finest compliments I’ve ever received. “Thank you.”

  “You’re so going to win the Oscar.”

  “Shhh. Flynn would kill you for saying that.”

  “Fuck him and his superstitions. If you don’t win, it’ll be a crime.”

  I’ve already won the Golden Globe, as did Flynn and Hayden, and the film won for best drama, so our chances are good for the Oscars. That said, we take nothing for granted. And besides, I already have a couple of Oscars. If I don’t win, I’ll survive. But I really want to win.

  I unzip him carefully, working around the huge bulge, and exclaim with surprise when his bare cock falls into my waiting hand. I glance up at him. “Commando?”

  “Most of the time. I don’t like being constricted.”

  “You think you know someone…”

  His bark of laughter pleases me so much. It takes a lot to get a laugh out of the always-serious Sebastian Lowe. The laughter turns to a groan when I stroke him and suck the wide tip of his cock int
o my mouth. He tangles his fingers into my hair and holds on as I toss in some tongue action. I take him in as much as I can and know a moment of pure satisfaction when I feel the head bump against my throat.

  “Marlowe.”

  I hear the warning in the gruff way he says my name, but I ignore it and cup his balls, which are tight and hard. I press on, determined to bring him as much pleasure as I possibly can even as he’s trying to get me to stop. I don’t stop. I double down, and within seconds, he’s coming hard, scalding my throat with his release.

  “Jesus.” Though his tone is harsh, his eyes are tender as he gazes down at me, seeming to make sure I’m okay. “You made me your bitch.”

  I smile up at him. “I know.”

  “You’re rather pleased with yourself, aren’t you?”

  “Rather.”

  His phone rings, but we ignore it. When it goes off again, he exhales with exasperation and pulls it out of his pocket. Only because I’m watching him so closely do I notice the shock that registers when he sees who is calling him. He declines the call, puts the phone back in his pocket and reaches out to help me up.

  “Who was that?”

  “No one.”

  I know instinctively that he’s lying. Whoever called has left him upset, stressed, unsettled.

  “My mom invited me to dinner tomorrow night. Want to come?” He asks the question casually, like it’s no big deal for him to take me home to his mom. I’ve met her many times but never as his plus one.

  “She won’t mind?”

  “Of course not. She always makes enough to feed an army.”

  “Are you going to tell her you’re bringing me?”