Chapter Twenty

Belle

I should have said more to him at the scene, but there were parents to hug and then console as the cops led my sister and George out on stretchers and off under guard to the nearest hospital. There were statements to give and a hell of an explanation to fabricate to explain why George had been nearly beaten to death. As it was, he’d definitely be eating through a straw for the rest of his life and, more than likely, blind in one eye. Then there was the press and a million other things to work out.

Dad had me carted off home before I got five minutes alone with Drake.

And I hadn’t known what to say.

I knew there was a dangerous side to him. I’d unleashed it that night in his library, and then I’d seen it again with the men in the alley. I’d tried to help him beat it back when he slipped into his nightmares, but it was always there, that beast beneath the surface. He loved me. I knew that now, had seen it in the way he’d protected me from my own family. Jesus Christ, I’d be dead right now if he hadn’t found me. But there was something fundamentally broken in Drake, and I wasn’t sure if I could always help him weather the darkness or if I could even take on that kind of responsibility.

I just didn’t know.

The next morning, Dad came in late that morning from visiting Carol and setting her up with her attorney. I understood that. She was his daughter, too, and I swear she hadn’t always been so angry and bitter. Maybe she’d snapped along the way. I felt like I almost had between the pressures of the company and Mom’s sickness. Clearly, Carol needed a lot of help. Yes, help while locked up safely from everyone else, but help.

Dad’s shoulders were hunched over deeply when he came into the kitchen, his brow furrowed. I was ready for that. I put a serving of chocolate chip pancakes I’d been working on all morning onto a plate for him.

“Here, food might help. I’ve heard sugar and chocolate cure everything.”

He sighed and slid onto the stool. “I don’t think it can this time. I... how could I have gotten everything so wrong?”

“Everything hit us at once. I didn’t know Carol was so upset either. I mean, God, not like this. She hid it well.”

“She’s so angry and upset. It’s like she turned into a completely different person. There are so many charges against her, but I’m going to see if I can get her into a psychological facility for a while. I… she’s my little girl, too, and I never meant for either of you to feel like I have a favorite because I don’t.”

I nodded and took a bite off my own plate, enjoying the sugar rush that came with it. I’d been running on nervous energy and adrenaline since last night so the added sugar high helped. “I know you don’t have favorites, Dad. I just don’t know how she didn’t.”

“Me either, sweetie. I’m going to leave control of my half of the company to some of the executive board we brought in at the merger. I want to be involved with Drake’s charity where I can, but for the next few months, I want to be there for Angelique’s treatment and for your sister’s trial. I got it all wrong. I had everything tied up with the success of the company, and I neglected my family,” he added, squeezing my hand. “If this has taught me anything, it’s that you never know how much time you have left. I almost lost you last night, honey. Your mom’s doing better but every day with her is a gift.”

I swallowed hard and didn’t care if tears were falling down my cheeks. “I know.”

“Then you need to make the most of what you can when you can. I know you don’t like PR. I know you want to go back to studying what you want, and you should. You don’t have to take care of me and your mom. We’re the ones who should be taking care of you, and we lost that along the way.”

“Daddy, you didn’t—”

“No,” he said, stroking my hand. “We did, but I’m trying to make amends. Trying to set things right. You go and do what makes you happy. And if part of that is loving Drake, then I understand that, too.”

I frowned. “Daddy, about the Bahamas…”

He shook his head and patted my arm again. “I don’t need to know. I saw him save you. I saw a good man take care of my daughter, and I know that with him you’ll always be safe. So, if he’s who you want to be with, then your mom and I support that, too. Like I said, life’s too short for everything else.”

I nodded and swiped at my eyes. Then, hurrying, I hopped off my stool and ran to my room. I had one thing to grab before I went to Drake’s mansion in L.A. Something I think we both needed.

***

Drake

The scotch burned its way down my throat. How stupid was I? I’d won Belle back just to lose her all over again, just to show her the darkness deep inside of me and scare her off forever. And she had a right to feel that way. If she hadn’t stopped me, I would have beaten that bastard to death. I would have enjoyed it, too. It brought me back to that beach and our last night together; Belle had been wrong then, after all. I wasn’t a distraction. I was something far worse—a trap for her, a pitfall she didn’t deserve. I was broken beyond repair and the last thing she needed was to have me hang around her neck and sink her.

“I can’t have her.”

“I think you can,” she said.

I turned around in my chair as Belle turned on the lights in my living room. It was still dark in there with the curtains drawn but I could see her clearly now. She was wearing that yellow dress from the night we made love in the sand, from the night everything went so fucking wrong. And her collar.

I swallowed, and the blood roared straight down to my cock.

Of all the things I expected to see again, that wasn’t one of them.

“You came back?” I asked with my voice full of shock. And why wouldn’t it be? I honestly never expected to see her again. “You came back for me.”

She laughed and locked the doors behind her. “I think that’s my line. After everything I said to you, after the way I pushed you from me, you still came to save my life.”

I stood up then and rushed over to her. She had a magnetic pull that I couldn’t resist. “I’d always save you. Belle, princess, I wouldn’t want to live in a world without you in it.”

“I feel the same way,” she said, and kissed me.

I took her in: The softness of her hair as it spilled against my cheek, the sweet smell of lilacs and freesia that clung to her, the silken feel of her lips against mine. It was something to relish. Never in a million years did I think she’d be back in my arms. Never did I think I’d ever feel her back in my embrace.

“I love you,” she said, as we pulled away. “I think I’ve loved you since the moment we first made love.”

“I’d understand if you didn’t,” I said, still holding her tightly to my chest. “I’m a monster, Belle, a beast. I have this dark side to me, this damaged part of me that pulls me into darkness. I’ll always have those moments that I need to lash out. If someone threatens you, I’ll be there to defend you.”

“I know,” she said. “And that side kept me alive.”

“And a part of me,” I continued, afraid that if I didn’t keep going I’d never get it all out, “will always be back in Iraq. I can bury my shame in that fucking footlocker, but I can’t outrun the nightmares. When you’re here, they’re better. I’m better, but I know you deserve more.”

She kissed me again and then ran her hands over my abs, letting both come to rest against my hip, against the scar hidden by my jeans. “How can I have better than the man who saved me? How can I do better than the man I love? If you can tell me that, then I’d like to hear it.”

“You know how,” I said. “Someone normal.”

She chuckled and hugged me tightly. “I don’t want normal.” Belle pulled back and unzipped her dress. “Drake, I’d be lying if that side of you didn’t make me nervous, but I’ve been thinking a lot over the last couple weeks and especially this morning, and I can’t live in a world without you either. I want all of you, both the man and the beast. I can accept that. Hell, I don’t just accept that, I crave it.”

“Really?” I asked, the disbelief coloring my words.

She nodded and arched her neck, presenting her glimmering collar to me. “Master, please. I want you, and only you.”

“Then I think I can help you with that,” I said. “Give me one minute.”

As fast as I could, I hurried to the playroom in my L.A. mansion and grabbed something specific for this session. Then I returned to my office and turned on the fire. California was unseasonably cold, and I thought it would help warm Belle up. After all, she had goosebumps running up and down her arms.

When I slapped the flat of the crop against my palm, Belle jumped to attention and looked back at me, her blue eyes wide with curiosity and trust. “Now, bend over my desk, princess, and spread them.”

She nodded and assumed the position, and I swore my cock was going to tear through my jeans. “Anything for you, Master.”

I walked up behind her and traced my fingers over the soft, creamy skin of her neck and then slid them over the cool stones of the collar. “I missed seeing you in this. Did you know that? It’s all you should ever wear. You look fucking fantastic in it. Did you know that?”

“I do, Master.”

“Good, princess,” I replied, sliding my hands down her shoulders and over the pale expanse of her back. I stopped just short of her ass. “Do you know what I’m going to do to you?”

“Yes,” she said.

“You ran away from me again. I can’t accept that. You know that you aren’t ever supposed to do that, princess, don’t you?”

“Yes, Master.”

I ran my hands over the curves of her ass then and cupped the generous mounds in my palms. She moaned under my grasp, and I had to remind myself I was making a point here and not to get distracted. There would plenty of time for fingering her later, for feeling that clit slick against my fingers.

“Then don’t you think you need three quick strikes, three reminders that you’re mine, now and always?”

“God, yes, Master,” she said, her breath ragged and her breasts heaving with each gulp of air.

“Then you remember the safe words?”

“Always!”

“Good, because this will hurt,” I reminded her, before pulling my arm back.

The first strike caused her to arch her back and cry out with the pain. My cock jumped at the sight of the red mark welling up on the white skin of her left cheek. Another quick flick of my wrist and the right cheek had a matching mark. Belle was breathing hard but she’d bit her lower lip for the second smack and hadn’t screamed again. I paused for a moment and leaned into her, kissing her cheek and reaching low to run my fingers over her vagina and feeling the slick juices there.

“You’re doing so well. Just a moment longer and we can do the aftercare. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, princess?”

“Yes, Master,” she said, the hunger obvious in her tone.

“Good girl,” I said.

Then I pulled my wrist back one more time and struck her firmly across both cheeks. Belle let out a scream of ecstasy, not of pain this time, and shuddered before me. I set the crop down and turned to the lotion I’d set beside her hands on the desk. Rubbing the coconut-scented ointment on my hands, I rubbed over the mounds of her ass, over the soft and tender flesh of her body. She mewled under me, responding to my touch with utter precision.

I knew my princess well, knew how to make her scream.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Thank you,” I replied. “Thank you, Belle, for understanding me, for understanding everything I need.” I carefully undid her collar and let her understand that the scene was over. “I think I owe you the same favor.”

I stepped back from her and stripped naked before Belle. It was easy to slip off my jeans, since my cock was already straining to be freed, as hungry with need as it was. It was harder to pull off my shirt. Even now, even after her gentle touch earlier tonight, I always hated my scar, hated that it branded me as a failure.

I stood before her and then knelt, letting her take in all there was to see of me.

She kissed my lips, then my cheeks, and then her kisses worked their way down my collarbone and chest. Belle got to her knees, too, and licked at my abs, running her tongue over every ridge. I moaned under her, enthralled by the magic of her tongue. Then she got to my damaged hip and kissed it tenderly, taking time to trace her lips over every inch of it before she sat back up to stare into my eyes.

“I love you, Drake, every inch of you.”

Looking into those sincere blue eyes that shone like sapphires, I believed her. I knew the truth of her words, and my heart swelled with that knowledge. “I love you, too, Belle, forever.”

She stretched out on the rug before me, a few yards from the fireplace, and the flickering flames painted colors over her pale skin. “I want you to make love to me, Drake, please. Just us.”

I nodded, putting the Dom side of me away and shoving the beast with him. Yeah, I was a fucked up guy, and maybe had more identities than I could count, but I could be everything she needed for tonight. It would be Belle and me, that gentle combination that had left us feeling so connected that first night we’d made love and that last night on the beach.

I crawled over to her, and I breathed deeply. The smell of freesias and lilac tickled my nose and mixed with something deeper; the rich scent of her arousal was so strong that I could smell it in the air. God, was she wet and ready for me. I positioned myself over her and grazed the head of my dick over her entrance, teasing her slick opening. She mewled again like a goddamn kitten and, reaching up, dug her fingernails into my back. It drove me mad. Thrusting my hips out, I plunged inside of her until I was balls deep. Until her tightness and her warmth was caressing me.

It was like I’d been given a fucking day pass to heaven.

When I was with Belle, she was all I’d ever need.

Rocking my hips slowly at first, I tried to tease her with a torturous rhythm, but I couldn’t keep that up. After weeks apart, our bodies were too hungry for each other to be separated for long. Maybe there was a place for the beast in me to come out just a little bit in bed. My thrusts grew frantic as I plumbed her depths, my hips thrusting furiously against her own. Sweat poured down my brow and dripped from my hair, even as my hands dug into the plush fabric of the Persian rug under us.

Then Belle rocked her hips just so and I lost it, coming into her, filling her deeply. She came moments after, her body quivering, spasming all around me. I felt like my skin was on fire, like I’d burst into flames, and gone fucking supernova.

Panting, I collapsed to the side of the rug next to her and pulled her into my embrace. For a few minutes, she said nothing, just moaned. “I love you, Drake, every part of you. I always will.”

I swallowed hard. After I’d come home a literally broken man and then realized how fucked up emotionally I might always be, I hadn’t dared to hope for anything better, for anything at all. Hope had been dead. But it was alive in me again, just like my furiously pumping heart, and it was all because of Belle.

Of the spell she’d broken.

Pulling her tightly to me, I kissed her on the lips, loving that she nibbled mine as we pulled away. “I love you, too, princess. We’re going to live happily ever after.”