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She flinched as I tried to reach for her, and I held myself back. Guilt cleaved me in half as I stood there wanting to cradle her in my arms. It had soothed her before, but she wasn’t so welcoming when I neared her now. Now that I’d been introduced to this dynamic, I needed her into my arms—to pull her into my chest and hold her—to be the Dom who could take away all the bad shit.
With how she held herself, I was terrified I had broken her again, and I didn’t have the words to ask. After everything that happened today, how did that push her to the edge?
I had done the exact thing that I told myself I wasn’t going to do to her.
My promise of safety—broken.
I fucked up but locked my jaw before I apologized. No apologies would fix this, only heal my guilt for how badly I had read the situation.
“Shit, Maddie. I’m so fucking sorry. We’ll never do this again,” Ipromised, driving the heel of my boot down on the wand.
“You’ll have to pay for that,” snarled Mercer again.
I sneered at him, “Go. Away.” What was some cash or a cheap toy in comparison to Maddie’s healing?
Focus, Cook.I moved closer to my girl. “We won’t play like that again. Maddie, are you okay?”Please, tell me that you’re okay.
She didn’t answer.
Fuck it! She belonged in my arms.
Grabbing her by the shoulders, I pulled her near me, but her eyes danced away. She wouldn’t look at me. Her whole body was like a noodle in my hands, her demeanor distant. I really had fucked up. No wonder my own daddy hit me.
I deserved it now, but Celt and I had buried him in a shallow grave for the wolves.
“Say something, Maddie,” I ordered.
“I need to be alone,” she said, pulling out of my grasp.
Like water slipping through my fingers, I let her go.
She stood up, swaying to the side, and I grabbed her elbow to steady her. Her expression was as hard as diamonds as she stepped away from me. It seemed like all the air had been sucked out of the room as she left my side, but her eyes softened as she peeked at me for the briefest of seconds.
Some of the weight came off my chest.
“Is there anywhere I can...” She cleared her throat. Her cheeks were red, and tears ran down from the corner of her eyes.
“There’s a restroom down the hallway,” said Mercer.
I tensed every muscle in my body to keep from snapping his fucking neck just for talking to Maddie.
But then Maddie was limping out of the room, and I leaned back on my heels, resisting the need to follow. She asked for alone time. I needed to give her space, like she wanted. I could give her a couple of minutes to collect herself.
“Join me in my office, and we’ll clear the charge for the Tesla unit.” Sloan straightened his metal-rimmed glasses and smootheddown his blazer with a sneer.
“What?” Why did he have to keep running his mouth?
Maddie
I wanted to scream throughthe tears that threatened to come out, but I ducked my head as I passed others lingering around Serenity and ran into the restroom. The door slammed shut behind me. Still trembling like a scared kitten, I braced my hands on either side of the sink and took a deep breath. Painfully, the air stretched my lungs and chest.
My stomach clenched, and vomit burned the back of my throat. I swallowed that down with my next deep breath.
I shouldn’t have chosen that toy, but it looked more interesting than the others lining the walls. What kind of adult chooses a sex toy they don’t understand? I clenched my teeth shut and turned on the water, needing a sound to push out my own thoughts of one of the clients who liked to use a TENS unit on me.
That had basically been the same thing.
The client’s name escaped me, but most of them did. None of the clients deserved a name that would stick in my mind, because they weren’t people to me. They were monsters.
