But it was too late. It probably wasn’t even just the words. It was something she’d seen in my eyes. She slid to the edge of the bed, reaching up to touch my cheek.
“We should talk,” I said quietly, covering her hand with mine.
“Aren’t we doing that?”
I shook my head. She had no idea. “Come on. Let’s order breakfast and we’ll…talk.”
***
While breakfast was being set up, I brooded and stared out over the city.
Aleena wasn’t angry.
No, that wasn’t right.
She was pissed—and damn was she beautiful that way—but she wasn’t mad at the person she needed to be.
I hadn’t protected her.
“Will there be anything else, Mr. Snow?”
I looked behind me at the server and shook my head. Shoving off the wall, I pulled a bill out of my pocket and passed it into his hand. He gave me a polite nod and I settled at the table, but I didn’t see any of the food.
I kept seeing her face when I told her, how shattered she’d been. Feeling the tears soaking into my shirt as she'd cried in my arms. I kept hearing her voice.
I feel dirty.
She’d asked me to make love to her, no rules, no orders. Nobody else had ever gotten that from me, but Aleena could have had anything from me she wanted in those moments. In any moment, really. She was my Sub, but I knew I was her slave. That simple fact should have pissed me off, infuriated me, freaked me out.
But it felt good, felt right. Because I knew I owned her as much as she owned me.
I’d fucked up, though.
It was my job to protect her and I hadn’t.
The door to the bedroom swung open and Aleena slipped out. She'd changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She'd never looked more beautiful. I watched as she went to her purse and pulled out a bottle, popping back one the antibiotics the doctor had put her on.
“Is your ear feeling better?” I asked. I sounded like a polite stranger.
She gave me a funny look. “Yeah. It doesn’t take long. I just need to remember to keep taking them. Normally not a problem, but…” She sighed and shook her head. “My head isn’t really normal right now.”
I held out a hand to her.
She came to me and I tugged her into the chair next to mine where her breakfast waited. I watched as she picked at her food for the first few minutes before she finally started to scoop up some eggs. Her eyes slid toward me and then moved pointedly to the plate I hadn't touched.
“Not eating isn’t going to help you focus any better today,” she said matter-of-factly. “You get grouchy and short-tempered when you’re hungry.”
“I’m grouchy and short-tempered even when I’m not hungry,” I pointed out.
A ghost of a smile danced around her lips. With a shrug, she said, “Well, it’s worse when you’re hungry.”
To satisfy her, I picked up a piece of bacon and took a bite, then another. While she was sipping her water, my belly grumbled demandingly. It apparently hadn't gotten the memo that I didn't want to eat. Aleena didn’t even bother to hide her grin when I picked up another piece of bacon.
By the time we were done, I’d eaten my breakfast and some of hers, because she’d ignored the bacon and half the hash browns. She usually loved breakfast and preferred the basics over anything fancy. The fact that she'd left anything told me how upset she still was. She pushed back from the table and wandered over to the same window where I'd been standing not too long ago.
I followed and wrapped my arms around her.
The warm, soft scent of her flooded my head and I thought about how much easier it would be to just pretend everything was fine.
But it wasn’t.
Aleena tipped her head back and met my eyes. “I know there's something else going on. Just tell me, love.”
Just tell her. How was I supposed to just tell her? I led her over to the couch and sat down, taking her hands in mine. While she watched me, I began to rub my thumbs over the backs of her hands. I knew she wouldn't push. She would wait until I was ready.
Just tell...
“You know what happened to me,” I said slowly, having to force the words out. I didn’t want to tell her this—to tell anybody, ever.
She twisted her hands around and twined our fingers. “Yes.”
Nothing else, just that single word.
“He was never caught.” I wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t know at this point and it was easier to do it this way, to ease into it by starting with things she'd already heard. “After I managed to escape, I guess he realized the cops would show up. He knew who I was, that people were looking for me. He was gone by the time the police showed up. It took me days before I could even manage to tell them what I knew.”
Grimly, I stared over her shoulder at the wall, but I wasn’t seeing the pale walls or the accents of maroon and black. I was seeing hell.
I continued, keeping my voice as even as possible. “He’d cleaned everything up, almost down to the floor boards. They found a few fibers, a few stray hairs, but most of them were mine. The blood...” I let my voice trail off. She didn't need to know the details.
Aleena closed her eyes, her fingers tightening around mine.
“Anyway, there wasn't any forensic evidence from him. No DNA to run through the system.” Here it came. “But then they found something that he must've forgotten. How, I don't know, but he had.”
I closed my eyes.
“He made videos.”
I heard her suck in a breath and I knew she understood.
“I don't know how many there were because I didn't want to know. I do know that he was careful. There are no direct shots of his face, nothing that they could use to find him. But they could be evidence...if he was ever caught.” I felt Aleena's lips press against my wrist. “They're buried somewhere in an evidence box and my mom made a lot of 'donations' to make sure they were never leaked, but I know they exist. And that maybe they weren't the only ones. That somewhere, someone could be watching...”
“Shh.” She covered my mouth with hers and I could taste salt on her lips. “It's okay. I'm here.”
I opened my eyes and looked down at her. “I’m going to handle this.” I needed her to believe me.
She nodded, and a wave of relief went through me. I'd still fucked up, but she believed that I'd make it right. I pulled her into my lap, wrapping my arms tight around her.
Chapter 15
Dominic
The sun was hot, glaring down on me from a painfully blue sky.
Next to me, Cecily stood talking to Aleena. The bright and cheerful red of her sundress contrasted with the blue of Aleena’s. Aleena’s skin, warm and smooth, glowed against the vivid shade.
I had gone with a white polo shirt and pair of jeans myself.
The red, white and blue was for a reason. Hundreds of people were scattered around the lush green grass behind Cecily’s country club. The tang of barbeque hung in the air and the white tents with portable air conditioners were full as people moved in and out, enjoying the picnic-styled meal.
Every year, Cecily held a Fourth of July picnic. It was both a family outing for the youth and single parents who had been helped by her foundation and it was also a fundraiser. This year, she’d asked if Aleena and I wanted to come. It'd be a great place for me to talk about In From the Cold.
It would also be the first official appearance in public for Cecily and me. The media attention hadn't been letting up, so we’d decided it was time to use it to our advantage and get some easy PR for my budding foundation and Cecily’s established ones.
It was still over two months before I could officially call In From the Cold a charitable organization, but I knew all about building the buzz before the actual event and this was the perfect venue.
Although I’d been more than happy to join her when she’d first asked me, right now, I was wishing I’d said no, or that I’d attended as just a guest. It pissed me off, because I’d actually been looking forward to this. Not because I liked being around this many people, but because I liked any time I got to spend with Cecily.
I never enjoyed these sort of functions. I didn’t exactly hate them, but they weren’t on the top of my list, either. They were a necessary evil and nothing more. This would have been different because I would've been with her.
Mitchell Pence, the son of a bitch, had ruined everything. It had been three days since he’d delivered his threat and it was hanging over everything I did. I wanted to take the two million he’d asked for and shove it down his throat.
So far Kowalski hadn’t been able to discover who'd been behind the videos, but he called daily and the latest phone call had been to let me know he might have found a loose thread. He’d keep me updated.
Loose thread. I was seriously hoping that meant answers.
“I think it’s going rather well,” Cecily murmured after several guests had wandered off. We'd been at this for several hours and for the first few of them, I hadn’t been able to do much of anything without running into a reporter or a camera.
The media had been invited and they'd been like hyenas during the short press conference we’d set up before the festivities were scheduled to start. But it had been long enough that most of them had asked what needed to asked, disappeared to send off little teasers to their respective places of work and then dig into the free food and booze.
A few reporters were still working the crowd and I wasn’t surprised. They were in the middle of a human interest smorgasbord. Some of Cecily’s guests were women who’d gone on to thrive after help from her foundation, while others were inner city kids and their families. And some of those kids were freaking adorable.
More than a few of them had come up to talk to Cecily and I could see the pleasure in her eyes as they chatted and each time one of them hugged her and thanked her, it caused a heavy tightness in my chest.
Pride.
My mother was fucking awesome.
She was making such a difference here and I was going to do the same.
As Cecily was approached again, Aleena took my hand and squeezed. “People seem to be having a lot of fun.”
Nodding, I rubbed my thumb on the inside of her wrist and counted down the hours until we could leave and I could strip her naked. I was proud of Cecily, but I wanted Aleena so badly that it hurt.
“I’ve run out of all the information I brought to pass out for those who are interested in In From the Cold.” She looked pleased with herself.
“I’d noticed,” I told her with a smile.
“I guess I should have brought more.”
As her smile widened, I seriously considered leaning over and biting the full lower curve of her lip.
“You brought enough,” I assured her.
She’d had several hundred mini-booklets she’d had made up just for today and more than once, she’d had to refill the stash she’d kept in the red drawstring purse that hung from her wrist.
It looked like a deflated balloon now, holding little more than her phone, judging by the odd lump that distorted the bottom.
“You could have taken the day off.” Skimming the crowd with my gaze, I shrugged. “It is the Fourth of July, after all.”
“You aren't taking the day off.” She sighed contentedly. “Besides, I love this sort of thing.” Then she winked at me. “If you ever decide you don’t need an assistant, I’m going to go into PR work.”
I caught her around the waist, pulled her flush up against me. More than a few cameras swung our way, but I ignored them as I pressed a quick kiss to her lips.
“Don’t even think about it,” I told her. I wasn’t even remotely kidding, either. I couldn’t imagining functioning without her. My heart twisted just thinking about it.
***
Another hour passed before people started to thin out and it wasn't for at least another hour before the majority of the crowd left. Moving around, I spoke to a couple of lingering guests while Aleena chatted animatedly with somebody who worked in my marketing arm. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t place the name, not that I particularly cared about that at the moment. He was gazing at Aleena with a look that was close to lovestruck.
She was sweetly unaware and when she gave him a small wave and turned toward me, I smiled at her. I caught the expression on the PR guy's face when he saw me smiling at her and I almost laughed as the color drained from his face. I wasn't even angry that he'd wanted her because it didn't matter what he wanted.
She was mine. My stomach clenched.
Mine
.
“Excuse me, Mr. Snow.”
Looking around, I saw a piece of muscle politely awaiting my attention. I didn’t know him. Big, muscled, he stood there in a nice, discreet suit. It wasn’t too pricy, but it hadn’t come off the rack either.
Country club security.
I raised an eyebrow as I asked, “Yes?”
“One of the attendees would like a word with you.” The flat set of his lips stretched a bit wider in what I suppose could be called a smile.
“And who is this attendee?”
Cocking his head toward the sprawl of the country club, he said, “I wasn’t told. If you would, he’s inside, waiting for you in one of the meeting rooms.”