Chapter Eight

Tamatha

“I’ve never been on a plane before, Mommy!” Domino cried. He skipped back and forth inside the private hangar as I gingerly walked, dressed in black slacks and a pink cashmere sweater, next to Benecio. My ass was on fire, and the burn extended between my legs. I didn’t know what happened between us in that bedroom, but Benecio had barely spoken a word to me since, and left me alone to get ready for our trip.

“You have, it’s just when you were really little,” I answered, distracted.

“Oh.” Domino’s crestfallen face broke my heart. I’d unwittingly reminded him of other times with my thoughtless comment.

Benecio stopped and squatted in front of my son. “Look at me, Domino.”

“Yes, sir?” Domino asked, not quite looking Benecio in the eyes.

With light fingers, Benecio lifted Domino’s face toward his. “I’m not the man who helped make you, but I made sure he will never touch you again. Do you know what that means?”

Domino shuffled his feet, and my heart choked me. “That I’m safe from him. And Mommy is too.”

Benecio nodded gravely. “For the rest of your life. You are going to get a phone with one number plugged in. No matter where you are, you keep this phone on you. It means I’ll always find you. And if you need me, you call that number. You don’t even have to say anything. Just leave the phone on and I’ll come for you, no matter the time. No one will ever hurt you again.”

Benecio pulled Domino closer, not quite in his arms, but just about. “You don’t scare me,” Domino said.

“But I scare others. I will kill anyone who hurts you.”

Too-old eyes met Benecio’s, and I wished Alec could die all over again. That he’d been ripped apart in ways that would leave him unrecognizable, and then, like Prometheus, be fated to die a cruel death again and again. But he was gone because of the man cupping my son’s cheek with a delicate hand.

And my baby, my heart, leaned into that touch and whispered, “Promise?”

Benecio looked up at me. “Nathan?”

“Yes, sir?”

“You put a bullet in anyone’s head who touches Domino, even if it’s me.”

I swallowed as Nathan gasped. “The fuck, Benecio?”

“You heard me. Get it worked out, in writing. He’s my heir and is to be protected for the rest of his life.”

Nathan hesitated, wanting to say more I was sure, but he just nodded. “Yes, sir.”

I nodded, too, feeling like I needed to acknowledge his words as well.

Benecio finally looked back to Domino. “You’ve just become the richest little boy in the world, son. And protected better than the president. Would you like to go see your plane now?”

“Mine? Really?”

Hero-worship replaced the sadness in Domino’s eyes, and I didn’t have the heart to absolve him of it. I was marrying this man, tying my life to him so Domino would always be safe, but I still worried over the way my son opened to Benecio.

“Come on, bambino, let’s get on the jet,” Rene said.

“What does bomb beano mean?” Domino asked.

“Little boy, in Italian,” Rene explained through a smile. “We’ll teach you tons more.”

Benecio didn’t say anything to me as he stood and gripped my elbow. He was larger than life, guiding me toward his private jet calmly, as if he hadn’t completely changed my life in a matter of barely two days, and I was still reeling from it all. I put one foot in front of the other, not sure what else I could do. Being beside Benecio twisted me up in ways I couldn’t fight. Earlier, in his bedroom, I’d expected to be used and tossed aside. I’d been fine with it. I even looked forward to it. Because maybe then the way he affected me would fade. Instead, he blew my plans to smithereens with his mouth on my pussy and his hands battering my ass.

The pain still swam through my bloodstream, and the way Benecio controlled me had forced me to accept what he gave me, pressed parts of my psyche together to make it seem okay. I didn’t have to hate the fact I enjoyed the pain as much as the pleasure; it only made it feel that much better.

I still felt him. His vicious possession made my body ache and my blood sing. But I couldn’t do it again. I couldn’t let him in, or watch the way he was with my son, and think he was suddenly perfect. He was still a man, one who’d lied to me to get me to come with him.

But had he really, Tamatha?

I sucked in a breath as he propelled me into the opulence inside his jet. The leather seats—two rows with four tables sitting between a larger table in the center—looked supple and soft. He directed me into one, and I followed blindly, thrown off by my inner musings. What the hell was wrong with me? I knew all about the streets and how Johns liked to use sex to control the prostitutes. Hell, I’d survived Alec and helped my child through things no mother should. Yet something about Benecio was different, though I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly. He burned me, and I capitulated to do things I didn’t want to do. I should have been disgusted after he kept my child as a bargaining tool, and yet, as I watched how he was with him, I wondered how much of his threat was real and what I’d convinced myself of in order to acquiesce. Toward the back, Nathan came out of a room that housed a large bed and, I was sure, a bathroom as well.

“It’s all clear,” he told Benecio, and then headed back toward the bedroom. Rene asked Domino if he wanted to go in there and watch T.V., and he, of course, went inside. She left the door open, bless her, but I couldn’t help but feel forgotten.

It was sad, but my son was used to living without me. He knew I was there, and that I loved him, but he’d spent most of his time interacting with others most of his life. He was content to hang on Rene’s hip while I struggled with my decision. At the end of the day, I could have run in that alley. I was small and scrappy. I knew how to get away from an unwanted John. I knew the bolt holes and ways to escape pimps. I worked alone, and renegades like me messed up their operations, charging whatever they wanted. But I hadn’t run. Instead, I’d let his magnetism and the promise of fortune sway me into getting locked in the cage with a lion. Who else could I blame for sacrificing my life to the beast and my son playing with his tail, unaware of the dangers? No one but myself.

“We’ll get married when we touch down,” Benecio said, sending me crashing into icy water. “I’d like to enjoy a wedding night.”

“We don’t have time to plan? Or invite anyone?” I asked, eager for a delay. I needed to get my head on straight, to make heads or tails of what was brewing inside.

“Why would we do that? This is a business transaction.”

“And you’ll have me tonight, marriage or not,” I argued.

“Perhaps I like the idea of calling you Mrs. Rey,” he said.

His gaze was biting, his smile cruel. It made me wonder if this was more about his broken wall after the bedroom and less about getting things done. I lifted my chin as I turned in my seat to face him. “Hooked already?”

I was pushing it, but I couldn’t marry him when we got off this plane. It was too fast, and it meant I’d be linked to him forever. I just needed time to process it all.

But Benecio was better at playing this game than I was. I knew it the minute he tossed me another cruel smile. “On the contrary. I’m bored and want to fuck you to get it over with. You becoming my wife is a business necessity, nothing more. Planting Domino as my heir keeps you in line, and the vultures will be checked if they know my empire won’t simply crumble. We don’t have to leave right now. I can stop the plane, and you can get off.”

“Not without my son.”

Benecio leaned forward, and my gaze traveled to the open door where Domino was watching television. “You said nothing about my proclamation earlier. Nathan has already been working on the details, and I’m going to be looking over paperwork to sign in flight. You are just the final piece of the puzzle, but I can find another.”

I clenched, everything in me going white-hot at his insinuation. He could not have my son, and I’d be damned if I left him behind. What about me? The thought swept through my mind, and I clenched my teeth until my molars ached. I was wrong, so wrong. Tears pooled in my eyes, but I blinked them away, trying my best to vanish them before he saw them.

I should have known better.

Nathan made sure the door to escape was closed, and the jet taxied along the runway, but my gaze was locked with Benecio’s. He’d seen my pain. I knew it in the way he searched my gaze and frowned. I felt twisted up and confused, adrift because I had no foothold. Benecio studied me further, his face not so cruel and his gaze more thoughtful.

“Do you want to be replaced?” he asked.

“No,” I gritted out.

“Why?”

I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know, not really. It was all muddled in my head, and I couldn’t find my way out. I wanted to feel his touch again, but it terrified me. I wanted to be more to him than a paid whore, but at the same time I wanted the separation. I swung back and forth, and I couldn’t get a grip on anything but being the mother my son needed. Even that was too much for me.

A hot, calloused hand rubbed up my arm, and I shuddered seconds before Benecio jerked me onto his lap. His grip was like steel around my wrists, and I draped haphazardly against him. I hated the way my heart galloped but my mind cleared. The way I reacted to him instantly and lost the rigidity in my back. I melted, becoming more in tune with him, and he saw my fucking failure. Why this man, of all who had come before? Why, when he could do the most damage, did I want to lay at his feet?

“I think you like this arrangement more than you want to admit,” he whispered against my skin. His hot breath kissed my neck.

“No,” I whispered, but I wasn’t sure what I was denying.

“We’ll do this your way, with guests and plans. You’ll even wear a pretty, white dress, and I’ll be glad to fuck you at the reception. In return,” he added when I opened my mouth to speak, “there are going to be so many things I’ll do to you every day.”

I shivered, knowing he’d read me right. I hated him as much as I hated myself, but his touch, and the climaxes he’d given me, were already addictive. I wanted more of them. I craved his control and his strength, even though I’d never wanted to submit to a man before. Maybe Alec had done more damage than I’d ever realized, but it was too late to stop it all now. I was already ill-functioning, and Benecio wouldn’t let me be any other way.