We’d visited Theresa nearly every day for the past three weeks. Sometimes we skipped the visit because we were both tired or busy. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like it mattered how many times we visited her.

She still didn’t remember us.

We checked in with her nurse then met her on the back patio. Now that I’d spent so much time with her, I realized I’d never seen her in any other location. She was never inside her apartment, always outside—rain or shine.

Calloway introduced himself with a smile even though he’d done it at least a thousand times now.

Now that I’d made the same introductions, listened to the same Harry Potter book, and listened to her ask the same questions every single time, I understood why this was so difficult for Calloway. Not only was it repetitive, but it was meaningless. His relationship with his mother never grew. It was permanently stuck in the same routine.

Calloway read the first chapter as Theresa and I listened. I’d heard this story so many times that I concentrated on Calloway’s voice and the way his mouth moved instead. I noticed the way he held the paperback with ease, the veins in his hands powerful and noticeable. I paid attention to the man I’d fallen so madly in love with, oblivious to everything else in the world. He was the first man who was worth my trust, worth my loyalty. Now I hardly had any more walls around my heart.

Theresa stared over the edge of the balcony and to the garden of flowers below. She played with a pendant on her necklace, gliding it back and forth so she had something to do with her hands. I noticed the traits she shared with Calloway—the blue eyes, the natural intensity, and the innate intelligence. I couldn’t thank her enough for making a man like him.

Calloway kept reading until Theresa slowly closed her eyes and leaned her head against the back of the rocking chair. Her fingers stopped playing with the necklace as her hand relaxed. Her breathing was deep and even, showing that she drifted off to a peaceful place.

Calloway stopped reading once he noticed he’d put his mother to sleep. He rested the book on his knee and watched her with a soft expression he never showed for anyone else. As cold and hard as Calloway was, he definitely had a soft spot for his mother.

I thought it was sweet.

He leaned back in the chair and turned my way, obviously noticing my stare. “Hmm?”

“Nothing.”

“You were staring at me pretty hard.” He talked quietly so this mother wouldn’t stir.

“Because you’re handsome.” I ran my hand up his arm, feeling the muscles of his powerful physique.

The corner of his mouth rose in an involuntary smile. “That’s a very good reason.” He set the book on the table beside him and rested his arms on the armrest. Like a draft of melancholy swept over the balcony, Calloway turned to the garden outside.

“Are you sure Jackson wouldn’t come and visit?” Having another son present could pull Theresa out of her memory loss. Sometimes the most unpredictable stimuli could make all the difference in the world.

He rested his fingertips against his chin, where the stubble was thick. “Yes.”

“Have you asked him lately?”

“I’ve asked him more than once,” he said coldly. “He wants nothing to do with this. Says she’s dead in his eyes.”

That was the harshest thing I’d ever heard. “But she’s not dead. You can still talk to her and enjoy spending time with her. Most of the conversations are repetitive, but she’s still here. That’s a very selfish thing to say.”

“My brother is a very selfish man.”

If I had loving parents the way Calloway did, I’d be there all the time too. I wouldn’t turn my back on them. “I need to talk to him.”

He chuckled like I made a joke.

“I’m serious.”

“Sweetheart, we shouldn’t waste our time. Jackson is who he is. I accepted it a long time ago.”

“Well, I don’t accept it. This is his mother too.”

He shook his head. “I don’t like being around Jackson any more than I have to anyway. So not seeing him works just fine for me.”

“It’s not about you. It’s about her.”

He didn’t continue the argument even though it was obvious he still didn’t agree with me. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think we’re making any progress. I think my mother’s symptoms are permanent, and there’s simply nothing we can do to change that. I’ll always come visit my mother, but devoting so much time to seeing her every day is excessive. We should spend our time elsewhere—preferably in the bedroom.”

We’d been doing this for weeks, and there was no change. I didn’t want to throw in the towel, but it wasn’t looking optimistic. “Let’s give it a little more time…”

Calloway sighed when he didn’t get his way, but he didn’t press an argument. “A little more time. But that’s it.”

* * *

I rolled down the center divider in the car.

Calloway raised an eyebrow at my action.

“Tom, can you take us to Ruin?” I asked from the back seat.

Calloway narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you doing?”

Tom didn’t obey my command the way he obeyed Calloway. I wasn’t signing his checks, so I couldn’t be that offended. “Sir?”

“We aren’t going to Ruin,” Calloway said calmly. “Take us home.” He hit the divider button.

I hit the button again. “Calloway, I want to go to Ruin.”

“To talk to Jackson?” he asked. “You can always call him if you want to speak to him that much.”

“This is your mother,” I argued. “I want to speak to him in person.”

He turned his gaze out the window. “No. That’s final.”

I stared at him in shock, my eyebrows raised. “No?”

“Yes. No.”

“You don’t tell me what to do, Calloway. If I want to speak to Jackson, I will.”

He turned back to me, his gaze just as fierce. “You don’t speak to my brother about my mother. That’s my business, not yours.”

Now we were at an intense standoff. Our eyes were locked, and Calloway was bristling with anger. He wasn’t going to back down, but I sure as hell wasn’t either. We had just pulled up to a stoplight, so I opened the door and stepped out.

If only I could have seen the look on his face.

I stepped onto the sidewalk and started walking.

Calloway popped out of the car so fast it was terrifying. “Get your ass back in the car.” He slammed the back door and immediately walked around the vehicle, right in front of the taxi that was sitting in traffic behind us.

I kept walking. “I’m going to Ruin even if I have to walk.”

“I’d like to see you try.” He caught up to me and grabbed me by the arm. His grip was tight as he yanked me back into him. The soft and affectionate look I was accustomed to seeing was now nonexistent. He looked frightening, his eyes scorching with lava. “Are you trying to piss me off?”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

“I’ll boss you around all I like when you cross a line. You aren’t talking to my brother, and you certainly aren’t walking there.”

“I have legs,” I said like a smartass. “And they work.”

He gripped me harder, but he wouldn’t cross a line with his strength. He applied the pressure but not enough to actually hurt me.

“Let me go of me.”

His fingers dug into my skin. “We’re going home, Rome. I’ll throw you over my shoulder if I have to.”

“I’m not your sub.” I twisted my arm out of his grasp. “Don’t treat me like one.”

He dropped his hand, and the insult crept on to his features.

I knew that was low and I shouldn’t have said it. Reminding him of what he couldn’t have was just mean.

Calloway stepped back like he wanted to walk away, but his commitment to protecting me kept him on the sidewalk. He looked away with his jaw clenched, like he wanted to say a million things he would later regret.

Now I felt guilty for what I said. “I’m sorry…”

“For what?” he asked coldly. “For sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong? Or for reminding me that I’m never going to get what I need? Which is it, Rome?” He turned back to me, his gaze bright with intensity. Tom had driven the car away during the argument because he couldn’t stay sitting in the road.

“What you need? Or what you want?” I didn’t know why I hovered over the choice of wording. Something about the violent way he spoke hit me in a painful way. I could hear the resentment, the disappointment.

“You’re the biggest goddamn hypocrite I’ve ever met. You won’t even consider giving me what I want when we both know you like it when I’m in charge. You like it when you slap me. You like the dark and kinky shit I’m into. So don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“I’m not into—”

“Then you stick your nose in my family life when you have no right to do that. You won’t even give me the courtesy of telling me who you really are, but you’re just gonna storm into Ruin and talk to Jackson about my mom?”

My mouth opened to argue back, but I shut it again when I heard what he said. I didn’t tell him who I really was? What did that mean? Did he know about my past? Or was he just making a general statement, and it was purely coincidence. I didn’t see how it was possible that he could truly know anything about my abnormal past, so I assumed it was the latter.

Despite my rage, I understood why he was so upset. In the end, I knew I was the one at fault. I took a breath to calm myself and defuse the situation. We were alone on the corner, but within a second, a random person could pass by and watch our ridiculous fight. “You told me you would walk away from that life. I never asked you to, Calloway. So are you having doubts?”

He continued to give me a furious expression, his blue eyes resembling atomic bombs. He worked his jaw like his teeth were grinding together painfully.

His silence frightened me. “Calloway?” I felt my heart drop down into my stomach. I loved what we had, and I would be devastated if he wasn’t happy. We’d grown so close to one another. It didn’t even bother me that he didn’t tell me he loved me since it was obvious every time he looked at me. “Calloway?”

He finally answered, his jaw still tense. “I’ve never doubted that I want to be with you—and only you.”

A part of me wanted to read between the lines of his response, because he didn’t truly answer the question. But a bigger part of me wanted to accept what he said instead of overanalyzing it. “What did you mean when you said I butt into your family’s life but you don’t really know who I am?”

He looked down the street like he may have been waiting for Tom to circle back and retrieve us. He was still tense with anger, his limbs shaking slightly because he was still so livid. Calloway was always intense, but this was a new level for him. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“You still have your walls up.”

“I don’t have any walls with you, Calloway.” I’d allowed this man to become permanent. I relied on him for things I’d never relied on anyone for. I trusted him—loved him.

“There’s more to your past that you aren’t telling me about.”

Was it a speculation or an accusation? I wanted to deflect the question altogether. “I don’t see why my past matters. My life with you started the day I met you. Everything before that is irrelevant.”

“You didn’t tell me about Hank, and that mattered,” he snapped.

The insult struck me like a palm to the face. “I thought I could handle it on my own—”

“And you couldn’t. I could have removed that piece of shit a lot sooner.”

I didn’t like talking to Calloway like this. He was fearsome and irrational. He wasn’t the man I knew, the one I’d fallen in love with. He was a beast that lost his temper. He could have yanked the stop sign out of the cement, and I wouldn’t have been surprised. “I’m sorry about what I said. I was just upset and got carried away.” An apology was always a good way to get the other person to calm down.

Judging by the cold way he stared at me, that wasn’t enough.

“I was just trying to help with Jackson. But if you don’t want me to talk to him, I won’t. I just thought an outside perspective could change his mind. I admit Jackson is unreasonable sometimes, but if he’s anything like you, I know he has a heart somewhere inside there.”

“I’ve never seen it.”

He was speaking out of anger, so I ignored it.

Tom pulled up to the curb in the black sedan, the windows tinted. He continued to stare forward so as to give us some form of privacy.

Calloway glanced at the car before he looked at me again.

I stepped closer to him and watched his body remain rigid. He usually softened when I came near, his arms automatically circling my waist and pulling me to his chest. I stopped in front of him and looked up at his fierce expression.

He didn’t touch me.

I rose on my tiptoes and placed a kiss on his lips. His mouth didn’t move and open for mine, but he didn’t reject me either. My hands cupped his neck and used his frame for balance. When his lips were still unresponsive, I knew his anger couldn’t be swayed with a simple kiss.

I pulled away, feeling defeated.

He suddenly grabbed me again and crushed his mouth to mine, his aggression skyrocketing from a standstill. The kiss was full of passion and anger, a mix of two emotions we’d felt before.

He abruptly pulled away as if he didn’t trust our bodies when our lips were connected like that. “We’ll go to Ruin and talk to Jackson.” He walked around me and opened the back door.

“We really don’t have to, Calloway…” I’d overstepped a boundary, and I knew it.

“Maybe you can talk more sense into him than I can.” He extended his hand and waited for me to take it.

I eyed the hand that had touched me countless times. It had brought me joy and exquisite pleasure. I took it and felt the warmth encompass my palm immediately. “It wouldn’t hurt, right?”

He kissed the top of my hand before he guided me inside. “No. It wouldn’t.”

* * *

Since it was earlier in the day, there weren’t nearly as many people there. Women were still dressed in black leather with chains around their necks, but there were also a lot of women who looked ordinary. They weren’t being bossed around like inferiors.

Calloway kept his arm tight around my waist as he guided me upstairs and to the back where the office was located. I’d been there once before, and everything looked exactly the same. The place was still black with lights that emitted a dull blue color.

He grabbed the handle and was about to walk inside when he realized his mistake. He raised his hand to the door, and after a breath, he knocked. “Jackson, it’s Cal.” He placed one hand in his pocket as he waited for a response.

“It’s open,” Jackson called.

We called inside to an interesting sight. Two women dressed in lingerie were making out on the couch, so absorbed in one another that they didn’t even notice Calloway and me walk inside. Their tongues danced together as their hands explored one another.

I didn’t know what my reaction should be. I’d never seen a sight like that before.

Jackson was behind his desk with his feet on the surface. He wore an intense expression just the way his older brother did when he looked at me. “What’s up, bro? You’re here early.” His eyes never left the women on the couch.

Calloway didn’t look at them, either out of respect for me or because he wasn’t interested. “Can we talk for a moment?”

“What are we doing now?” Jackson asked like a smartass.

Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.

Calloway hid his annoyance. “Rome would like your attention—and you better give it to her.” The threat was unmistakable even though he didn’t raise his voice.

“Rome, huh?” He finally met his brother’s look with a smirk. “I have time for her.” He snapped his fingers to capture the attention of the women. “Ladies, let’s pick this up later. I’ll meet you in playroom number five.”

The girls broke apart from each other and walked out with their hands held together.

When they were gone, Jackson turned his attention back to me. “I’ve never done a threesome with my brother—but I’m open to it.”

“Jackson.” Calloway only had to say his name to get his point across.

Jackson liked to push the envelope, but he would only push it so far. Like a bratty child with a parent, he knew the boundaries. He didn’t roll his eyes, but it was clear he wanted to. “What can I do for you, Rome?”

Calloway adjusted the chair for me and waited for me to sit.

I took a seat and watched Calloway move to the chair beside me.

Jackson smiled like he observed something interesting. “I’m a busy man, Rome. As you can see from my two friends…”

I wondered if Calloway had done the same sorts of things. I’d never considered it before. Before I came along, he probably participated in things more serious than just a Dom/sub relationship. He’d probably been with two women at once, maybe more. He’d probably had a lavish sex life that I couldn’t fathom. I’d spent my life as a virgin until the right man came along.

Since I’d lost my train of thought, Calloway started the conversation. “We’ve been visiting Mom a lot lately.”

The mention of their mother immediately changed Jackson’s attitude. He was no longer the playful playboy. “Is she okay?”

“A few months ago, she kinda remembered Rome,” Calloway explained. “She couldn’t necessarily remember her name, but she did recognize her face. I talked to her doctor about it, and he encouraged us to see her every day to see if her condition would approve.”

“You’ve been seeing her every day?” Jackson asked incredulously.

“Not every single day,” I said. “But almost every day.”

Jackson rubbed his chin just the way Calloway did. They looked a lot alike, but they had distinctly different features. Calloway had a hard jaw, and Jackson’s was a little softer. “And has there been any change?”

“No,” I answered. “We are going to try for a few more weeks and hope something changes. But I think it could help if you came along.”

He tensed at the question like he’d been hoping it wouldn’t arise.

I was sympathetic to his reaction, but only so much. “This is your mother we’re talking about, Jackson. You should be there for her. She would be there for you.”

“I’m not really the best person for this,” Jackson said. “I’m not good at the talking thing. And Calloway will tell you I can barely read.” He forced a laugh that sounded completely false.

“Calloway isn’t the best person for this either,” I argued. “But he does it because it’s the right thing to do. Calloway shouldn’t have to carry this burden alone. You should be in this together.”

“I’m not trying to sound like an asshole, but our mom is gone.” Jackson shrugged in apology. “She can’t remember us. She can’t remember Dad. She can’t remember who the goddamn president is. It’s pointless. I’m not going to go down there and read to her when she’s not going to remember anything anyway. Why put ourselves through that? She’s in an assisted-living facility for a reason. Besides, I don’t want to see her like that.”

“But what if seeing you helps her memory?” I countered.

“Best-case scenario, she does remember Calloway and me. We spend the afternoon together and bond and whatever. And then the next morning when she wakes up, she forgets everything all over again. I know I sound like a dick, but seriously, what’s the point?”

I understood where he was coming from, even if it was harsh. “Because she’s your mom, Jackson. She gave birth to you and raised you, in case you’ve forgotten. It shouldn’t matter if she remembers you or not. I’m sure you’ve forgotten lots of wonderful things she’s done for you, but that didn’t stop her from taking care of you.”

Jackson bowed his head like the insult had some sort of impact.

Calloway crossed his leg and rested his ankle on the opposite knee. His fingers were interlocked on his lap as he stared at his younger brother behind the desk, in the seat he used to occupy on a daily basis.

Jackson gave a better response. “I’ll think about it, okay?”

That was the best I was going to get out of him. “Thank you.”

Calloway turned to me, surprise in his eyes. He probably assumed Jackson would never change his mind.

I rose from the chair because I was eager to leave Ruin. The place only reminded me of the kind of man Calloway used to be. When I was trying to find the right man to settle down with, he was here with a chain around some woman’s throat. I didn’t like thinking about his past, especially when it changed my current opinion about him. It wasn’t fair either. “We’ll leave you to your friends…”

Calloway followed me out without saying goodbye to his brother. We left the office then walked down the hallway. His hand found mine instantly, the affection reminding everyone around us that we were committed to one another. “I didn’t think you were going to change his mind.”

“Well, I haven’t changed his mind—not yet.”