Chapter Two
“On the ground, pet.”
WINTER
Glasses and bottles went flying all over the place, smashing into a million tiny pieces as they surrounded my feet. Some liquid splashed forward, soaking the front of my dress but I barely noticed. I was too busy studying the ghost of a man sitting across the room from me.
Caden never took his eyes off me but I saw a small smirk tug at the end of his thick lips. He was enjoying the reaction he had gotten out of me, getting off on my fear just like always. Time had been generous to him, too generous if you ask me. I swear it was an unfair rule that the better looking got hotter while the rest of us withered away to nothing.
His large frame spilled off his chair, his toned body had grown in all the right places, and his always-muscular arms had expanded so much that they barely stayed inside of the fabric of his shirt. I could see full sleeves of tattoos peeking out from underneath his arm cuffs.
Same defined jaw, signature arched cheekbones, and eyes so deadly that they looked right through you, ripping you to shreds. He ran his right hand through his thick brown hair, acting casual as he continued to dismember me with his mind and burn me alive with his stare.
“Jeez, Winter, are you okay?” Michelle, the other waitress who was on with me that night rushed over to me, grabbing me by the arm and guiding me out of the pile of glass that had formed around my body. “What happened?”
“I…” I trailed off, feeling hazy. “I thought I saw someone.”
Only I had seen someone.
Because Caden was still right where my eyes left him.
“Drew is going to have a fit if he sees this mess,” she hissed, wrapping her long fingers around my wrist and pushing me toward the bathroom. “I’m going to clean this mess up. Do you have an extra dress you can change into?”
I found myself nodding even though I had no idea what she had said.
He was still watching me.
A loud bang rang into my ears from the other side of the room and I jumped, zooming in on Caden’s fist that had pounded into the surface of the table in front of him roughly, sending cards and chips flying all over the place, threatening to spill over onto the ground.
He was getting impatient.
My feet hurried away from her, moving toward him without my permission. My legs trembled heavily and I hugged my arms to my chest, trying to keep my body under control. Just because he knew how terrified I was didn’t mean I wanted to willingly show it.
As if his ego wasn’t big enough.
His sharp eyes trained into me heavier and heavier with each step. I felt like I was hypnotized, a puppet who was well aware she was walking to her demise but couldn’t control herself no matter how hard she tried. As scared as I was to end up in front of Caden Dean after all this time, I was more scared to have to deal with the consequences that came along with disobeying him.
I stopped in front of his chair, barely able to breathe. My air kept getting stuck inside of my throat, unable to make the clean break for the front of my mouth. Being around Caden Dean literally knocked the wind out of me.
And I wasn’t the only one.
Everyone in the room had their eyes on him. The men out of fear, the women out of the need to undress him, and everyone else out of fascination. I wondered if they were wondering the same thing I was.
How had he gotten out of prison so soon after what he had done?
I guess money really could buy you the freedom to get away with anything.
Unlike the rest of the room, Caden only had eyes for me. If it were any other women it might have been a good thing but for me, it was a death sentence. I pushed my dark hair out of my face and pulled my dress down self-consciously again, Caden Dean had never seen me in something so skimpy.
Heck, sometimes I wondered if he had ever seen me at all.
I opened my mouth and then snapped it shut. What was I supposed to say?
He ran his fingers over his tan chin in frustration and leaned back in his chair: as if he were getting ready for a show. The hatred in his eyes grew darker and the evil smirk he was famous for in our city came into play, putting on display a perfect pair of pearly whites. “On the ground, pet.”
It had been so long since I heard his voice, too long.
It was richer than I remembered, smoother and more defined with darkness.
“Excuse me?” I choked out.
“I said…” He raised his eyebrows. “Fucking kneel.”
I felt my mouth drift open. He couldn’t be serious. He wanted me to kneel in front of him like he was my master? In front of a room full of people? Had he gone even more insane since he had been locked up?
“Caden,” I begged, shaking my head. “Please, no.”
“Did I phrase it like it was a God damn request, Winter?” He leaned forward, his eyes piercing at the thought of one of his commands being questioned by me. “It was a demand.” He leaned forward even further, somehow able to look bigger than me from his spot sitting below me. “And if I have to tell you again, I promise it’s not going to be such a pleasant conversation.”
I glanced around the room one more time before moaning softly. The town was watching us like hawks, careful not to make direct eye contact with Caden out of fear for what he might do. I ran my tongue over my bottom lip and held back the tears that were behind my eyes.
I had learned a long time ago the best way to survive was to play along.
I dropped to my knees and focused on the ground, ignoring the low murmurs and gasps from the people around us. I had forgotten what it felt like to be humiliated by Caden Dean. He didn’t just mock you or knock you down a peg or two. No, he crucified you. Slowly. Deeply. Meaningfully.
“Look at me.”
I obeyed, forcing my head up to lock eyes with him. And it was like getting the wind knocked out of me all over again. Caden was breathtaking, movie star breathtaking. It was too bad he was so horrible or he might have had a future in the entertainment business.
Every insecurity I had shed since he left for jail immediately came flooding back into my body. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t awful looking or anything, I was decent. Average. Nothing about me was memorable and that was where I would lose every single time.
No one who came into contact with Caden Dean ever forgot him.
He was 100% out of my league.
Caden reached out so slowly I thought the anticipation would kill me before finally brushing his fingers across the side of my face and sending a firm ring of heat into the pit of my stomach. “Good girl,” he said firmly before pushing a piece of hair behind my ear and letting his fingers linger on my skin.
I despised the part of me that wallowed in his approval.
His eyes held mine for a few more seconds, trying to see through me before he rapidly removed his hand from my face and shoved it underneath my arm, pulling me up of the ground and into his lap. I gasped into his neck as he linked both of my legs around his body so that I was straddling him.
“Caden,” I whimpered.
He turned the chair back toward the table so that my back was pressed into the hardwood and clamped his hands firmly on my thighs, causing a sharp shot of pain to consume my legs. “Hello, Winter,” he said low enough so that only I would hear. “Miss me?”
I could feel the sweetness of his vodka breath making its way into my nostrils combined with some sort of a minty afterthought. He smelled and looked too good to be this close to me. If I hadn’t of been so scared, I might have been turned on. Oh, who was I kidding, I was definitely turned on.
“No,” I lied.
He laughed, not offended. “Are you scared, pet?”
I shook my head.
Another lie.
Not that it mattered; my trembling body gave me away.
“Really? Because you’re shaking like a leaf.” He inched his hands down my dress so that they were sinking into my bare skin. “I go away for a while, Winter, and I come back to find you in a place like this, dressed like that.” His eyes lingered on my cleavage for a few seconds. “You thought just because I wasn’t around anymore it was okay for you to start dressing like a fucking whore, is that it?”
“What?” I shook my head rapidly. “No! I…”
His hand traveled up my leg firmly, slipping into the hem of my dress. “Did you let anyone touch you?” Anger laced his tone and possession shifted into his eyes. “Did anyone stick their cock inside of your cunt, Winter?”
Oh, my God. I couldn’t believe he was asking me these things.
“None of your business!”
His nails tightened on my body. “I’ll fucking kill him.”
“No!” I said desperately. “No one did! Okay?”
He didn’t speak for a few seconds before he decided to believe me and his face relaxed a fraction. “So, I’m still going to be the first one to see that clean little pussy, huh?” He moved one hand up and set it on the table, boxing me in as he pushed his crotch further into me.
A small thrill took over the lower half of me and an sharp wetness started to form. Oh, God, he was hard. More than that, he was big. The man hated me so much that it turned him on, how screwed up was that?
“I’ve had a lot of alone time this past year, Winter,” he continued when I didn’t answer his earlier statement. “A lot of time locked up to think about what exactly I was going to do to you when I got out. To decide just how far I was willing to go to make you pay for what you did to me.”
“I didn’t, Caden,” but I knew it was like talking to a wall.
He pushed his fingers into my lips and shut me up. “Like I said, I’ve had a lot of time to make plans for us.” He looked me up and down over and over again. “Dirty plans, dangerous plans, plans that will destroy you but help bring me back to life.” His finger slipped between my lips, rubbing my tongue. “And the anticipation of just how much I was going to enjoy making your life a fucking nightmare was the only thing that kept me focused when I was locked up.”
My heart was beating so fast I was scared it was going to explode inside of my chest. I could handle a lot, hell, I was used to handling a lot. From my stepbrothers, from my stepdad, even from my own mother sometimes, but Caden was a whole other level.
He always had been.
His games were long, precise, and if delivered the right way would leave you curled up in a ball while you begged for mercy over and over again. Getting on his bad side was the worst thing I had ever done.
“What are you going to do to me?” I averted my eyes from his.
“Telling you would ruin all the fun.” He jolted me harder into his lap. “But I will tell you this, pet, by the time I’m done with you, you’re going to wish that you had never been born.” His hand inched up my dress rapidly until he was practically touching my center. “And I’m not going to stop until you’re begging to give every single part of yourself to me.” He leaned in, brushing his lips against my ear. “You belong to me, Winter, and only me.”
He released me before I had a chance to respond, standing up and letting my body tumble to the ground without making any kind of effort to catch me. I scurried to my feet, feeling more scared and humiliated than ever. I pressed my legs together, hoping he had no idea how wet he had just made me.
“What the hell is going on over here?” Drew rushed toward us, yanking me out of my daze as he strolled up next to us, taking in my disheveled appearance. “What happened to you?” He frowned, looking my wet dress up and down. “Winter, I’m trying to run a business here.”
“So, run it,” Caden snapped coldly before reaching out and wrapping his hand around my arm and yanking me closer to his body. “I don’t see anyone stopping you.”
My boss’s whole demeanor changed when he realized who I was standing next to. “Caden, what a pleasure to see you here. I wasn’t aware that you and Winter knew each other.”
I could feel him tensing next to me. “Well, now you are.”
“I am.” He looked back and forth between us one more time before backtracking. “Well, you let me know if you need anything, Mr. Dean, anything at all.” His smile was even faker than the one I plastered on my face every night to make it through my shifts.
“I better get back to work,” I mumbled.
Drew waved me off. “Take your time, Winter.”
Of course.
“I had better go,” I grumbled and tried to ignore a headache that was starting to form at the center of my forehead. I took a few steps away from Caden, praying that he wouldn’t be in the mood to make me stay.
The whole situation had started to grow more out of control by the second.
“I’ll be seeing you soon, Winter. You can count on it.” The look on his face told me it wasn’t a statement; it was a promise. Caden Dean was ready to deliver his reign of terror onto me. It was no longer a question of if it was going to happen, but rather when it was going to happen.
I could feel his green eyes burning a hole in my back, trained into me like a puppy watching their new toy trot away from them. I thought I was in the clear for a split second until I heard the sound of a fist pounding into flesh.
I swung around, startled, but it was too late. Caden had the man who had called me ‘fine ass’ minutes before by the neck, holding him straight up into the air while his legs flapped under him, struggling to find solid ground again.
“I didn’t know, Caden! I swear I didn’t know!”
“Everyone knows,” Caden growled, an edge in his voice so deep that it could have drowned a thousand men. “You were trying to take advantage of me, Carlos,” he seethed. “Jumping at the chance to take a piece of what’s mine, is that it?” He shook his head, shaking his body like a piece of paper. “You know, I go away for a little while and it’s like everyone forgets their fucking place in this city. Maybe I should make an example out of you, send a message to everyone in this fucking city that Caden Dean’s still got it.”
I wanted to close the distance between the three of us, I wanted to wrap my arms around Caden and stop him, but I knew it would do little good. If there was one thing Caden hated more than being disobeyed it was being reprimanded. Still, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the idiot that was caught under his hold. He was harmless. A stupid drunk? Sure, but harmless just the same.
The guy shook his head with wide eyes, fear oozing out of him like a sticky honey that no bees were around to sap up so ended up getting eaten by vultures instead. “No one’s forgotten their place, Caden, no one.”
My heart started racing, my hands trembling the way they always did when he was near, executing some kind of power. It was true and Caden knew it. No one would do anything to disobey him. It had been that way for as long as I could remember, even if Caden hadn’t been absolutely terrifying, his father could destroy you with one phone call.
Heir to one of the biggest skyscraper companies in New York City, Daniel Dean was a force to be reckoned with. The only thing he loved more than money were his sons, no matter how much trouble they seemed to cause in their hometown while he was off in Manhattan running the day-to-day operations of the family business. The Deans ran this town and everybody knew it.
And Caden? Well, Caden looked at it as his personal playground.
“Please, man, I have a family,” the guy pleaded in fear, growing desperate enough to beg in front of a room full of people who were all holding their breath just as much as I was. The night Caden had gotten taken away in handcuffs popped into my mind again. I had never seen someone so angry in my life. I had never seen so much blood in my life.
I felt like I was going to choke on the memory.
I felt my feet moving forward, determined to do something even if I would end up regretting it. I couldn’t stand by and let Caden destroy another innocent human being, not after everything that had happened six months ago. I had no idea what I was going to say or do when I reached him. I just knew I had to act. I hadn’t that night and had regretted it every day since.
Maybe doing something now would help with the nightmares.
Caden saved me from myself by sighing loudly before he released the man roughly and sent his body flying into a table on the other side of the room. He landed solidly, letting out a yelp of pain when his bones made contact with the hardness of the floor underneath him. A few feet to the left and he could have cracked his head open.
“I want to make one thing clear,” Caden said loudly, dominating the attention of everyone in the room just like he always did. “I don’t know what the fuck you all thought you were doing while I was away but I’m back now.” He turned his eyes to me, slowing narrowing them before shooting daggers of hate up and down my limbs. “And she is mine, she belongs to me.” He cracked his knuckles a few times and smirked wildly.
I closed my eyes and gulped. Caden was back, out of prison, and reminding the whole town that they were to stay away from me, that they weren’t to touch me or associate with me. It was a game he had made the rules for a long time ago and those who didn’t obey lost in more ways than one. I was his star player, one he liked only focused on him.
He was reminding everyone who owned me.
I couldn’t hate him as much as I wanted to.
After all, he was only stating the facts.