“Do you really care?” she questions, causing my fingers to freeze midair. There’s nothing humorous about her words. And I realize with each day I’m around her, I want her more. My first week of work was just that. With her in meetings, I didn’t make a move. I allowed her to be the professional I’ve come to learn she is, but she’s slowly burrowing her way under my skin.

And I decide to give her an honest answer, so I nod. “I do.”

“Why?” Once again, she pushes for more. I wanted this to be nothing more than a job, but I can’t deny it’s becoming more.

“I’ve always been professional when it comes to jobs, Madison,” I inform her. The words are raspy, and I can hear the emotion in my tone. She’s heard it too. Raking my fingers through my hair, I lift my eyes to meet hers. “I’ve never allowed myself to have what my brother does, what normal people do.”

Her face is a picture of sadness. There’s affection in her expression, which jolts my heart once more. Each time she looks at me like that it forces me to wonder. To play with the idea of having a woman beside me.

“What if you can have it all?” she asks with a gentle smile, lifting one perfectly sculpted eyebrow in question. “I mean, maybe since you’ve been in that life for so long, you allowed yourself to be immersed in it. But here” — she gestures between us — “you don’t need to be that person anymore. You came here for a new life. Didn’t you?”

“I did,” I agree. My answer earns me a megawatt smile.

“Then take me out. Let’s do something together,” she implores. “I’m done needing a babysitter. Be something else. I’m going to get dressed, and you’re going to take me out.” She giggles. The sound is beautiful, lighthearted, and it makes me smile in return. I watch her spin on her heel and stalk from the kitchen.

I leave her be and finish up the work I had, but my mind is running rampant with ideas of where to take her. We have the gala event on Friday, and tomorrow I have to take her shopping with her so-called best friend, but today I vow to make it all about her.

I’ve never really dated anyone in a long while. It’s not in my nature, but this girl makes me want that. All that bullshit. Granted, I’ll never be one for romance, but I can certainly treat her to an afternoon of good food, and perhaps learn more about this beauty.

---

Her big brown eyes peek up at me from the opposite side of the table. The café we’re in isn’t busy, so we found a small booth in the back of the restaurant.

“What are you thinking?” she asks, watching me intently.

“About how beautiful you’d look sitting on this table with your pretty pussy open, ready for me to eat.” Honesty earns me a blush. Dark lashes flutter against her cheeks as she drops her gaze.

“Do you always hide behind sex?” she breathes through her frustration, her chest rising and falling catching my stare.

“Not always, but you drive me to it,” I retort playfully.

“Men seem to do that, hide behind emotionless words and actions.” Her observation makes me angry. In the time we’ve spent together, I’ve offered her more affection than I have given anyone my whole life.

“I’m not your father,” I bite out. The words are harsh, and I realize how that sounded.

“Fuck you, Callan.”

“I didn’t mean—”

She interrupts me with an observation that jars me for a moment. “If you spend your life angry at how it turned out, don’t blame others. All I meant was you don’t have to be cold with me. I want this. I want you. Is that so difficult to understand?”

“I’m not good at this,” I tell her, waving my hand around. “Dating and all that bullshit your little prep-school boy gave you, that’s not me.”

“No, because you’re a man, I get that. But you’ve given me more solace than he ever did.” Her fire blazes through me, heating my blood with need for this woman.

“You mean those scars?”

She drops her head, fiddling with the tablecloth, the cup before her, anything else, but she doesn’t look at me. “They were a buildup of years of pain, of being bullied by girls like Amber and boys like Hudson.”

“What changed? You’re best friends with her and you were dating him.”

She shakes her head. “When I got to college, I lost weight. I focused on fitness, so I didn’t have to go through what I did in school, but the damage was already done. After my mother left when I was twelve, I started,” her voice raspy with the pain from years of anguish.

“Where is she now? Your mother.”

A sad laugh falls from her lips at my question. “She died a long while ago. We got the news that she’d had a heart attack. I’m not sure on the details, but my father told me. I didn’t feel a thing when I heard. I spent my life angry with her for leaving me to fend off the bullies. My father never cared.”

Her words grip my heart. That cold, dead muscle that’s been sleeping soundly for years is alive and beating for her. Only for her. It should scare the fuck out of me, but it doesn’t. I care about her.

“Since we’ve been . . . I mean, since we’ve gotten to know each other, I haven’t wanted to cut. I haven’t felt that innate need to hurt myself.”

If I didn’t think I was falling for this girl before, I am now. And I know when she finally lifts those beautiful cinnamon eyes to mine, that she feels it too. It’s flickering like a candle in the dark, and I’m the moth, ready to fly to my demise.

“I wanted to scare you away,” I tell her. “I didn’t want to corrupt you with my darkness, my anger, and yet—”

“Yet, I have my own demons,” she tells me with a small smile. “I think you’re the one who was scared.” Her observation is correct. I was scared when I saw the goodness in her.

I can’t help chuckling at her words. I’ve never been scared of anything my whole life. I’ve killed, tortured, and maimed men since I turned sixteen. Fear wasn’t a factor in my mind. A wasted emotion, just like love. But she’s right.

“I’m serious,” Madison says. Her words are low, a mere whisper. “You were afraid of feeling something for me.” She nods at her conclusion, and I can’t fault her. There’s no nervousness in this girl. Her body is rigid. Straight and confident. She’s so sure of herself right now.

I wanted to break her, to make her scream and cry, while watching her pieces fall. But I realize she’s already shattered. Slowly, she’s taken each fragment and glued herself back together, and somehow, it’s molded her into someone who fits into my broken parts.

She doesn’t even know why I’m really here. I’ve veered off my path to take her down along with her father. She’s not him. So far from it, and as the realization slowly dawns on me, I make it my mission to keep her safe from what’s about to happen to her precious father. I’m going to give her anything she needs. I shouldn’t do this, but I’m dying to see her cry. To watch those pretty brown eyes glisten with tears, but instead of sadness, they’ll be tears of pleasure.

She rises, smiles down at me, then leans in. “I’ll be in the rest room if you want to follow.”

I wait, listening to her footfalls disappear before I call for the check. Once it’s paid, I’m out of my chair and following the path she took moments ago.

Shoving open the door to the ladies, I find one cubicle closed, but when the click of the lock sounds behind me, she steps out.

“I knew you couldn’t resist.” She smiles playfully. But the moment I’m closer, nearing her, the smile falls away, and I’m met with the heat in her pretty eyes. “Touch me, Callan,” she purrs, her hand reaching for me.

Lightning fast, I grip both her wrists, binding them with my one hand behind her back as I shove us both into the cubicle and kick the door shut behind us. With my free hand, I reach into the tiny pair of shorts she’s wearing for me. No doubt they are for me. I find her cotton panties soaked with her arousal.

“Is this what you wanted?” I press two fingers against her clit hard. Roughly. She gasps when I push the material into her tight hole. They drench in her slickness, and I smirk. “Your little cunt gets wet for this dangerous man?” I question, but I don’t need her to answer. I know what she’ll say. Shoving the material to the side, I stroke her smooth lips, finding a soft patch of hair on her mound. “A naughty little girl. Do you want to submit your beautiful body to me so I can have my wicked way with you? Do you want to hear what a bad man I am while I finger your tight, wet hole?”

She nods. I laugh. A wholehearted laugh.

I can’t drag my eyes away from her, she’s far too beautiful.

“Come for me, sweetheart,” I coo in her ear as I tease her, stroking her, dipping my fingers into her heat. Her head drops back. She grips my shoulders, clawing at me as I finger-fuck her in a restroom.

She doesn’t care. Her pearly white teeth bite down on her lower lip as she whimpers and mewls. And when her walls pulse around my fingers, I know she’s about to unravel, and I can’t turn away. My eyes locked on this beautiful creature who’s mine. All fucking mine.

And as much as I wanted to push her away, I can’t. I pull my fingers from her body. Bringing my fingers up to my nose, I inhale her scent. The juices on both digits glisten, and I can’t stop myself from licking them clean.

“Thank you,” she whispers, smiling like she’s just been in heaven.

“Get cleaned up. I’ll wait at the car for you.” I lean in, planting a gentle kiss to her lips and leave her in the restroom.

When she joins me outside, her cheeks are still pink, and her eyes still shimmer with happiness. I open the door, allowing her to slip into the passenger seat. Once I’m beside her, I start the engine and pull out onto the road.

“What if I was dating Hudson when we had our first scene? Would you have still fucked me that night?” Her question makes me smile. It’s innocent, genuinely so.

“I’m a man with very few morals, darling. If I want something, I take it,” I inform her easily while keeping my eyes on the road. “If you were still with Hudson, I’d fuck your tight little cunt, fill it with my cum, then send you back to him so he could eat your pussy and taste me inside you.”

Her gasp is the only response I get, so I leave it at that. We could continue this conversation back at the house later, but right now, I want to make sure she enjoys a normal day, or date, whichever way you look at it.