* * *

Present:

“Well?” I prod, demanding Petal answer me. I’m at the end of my rope. This woman has me going in circles, and I can’t take it anymore. I refuse to let her withdraw again. She’ll either fight and hold on or it’s done.

Enough is enough.

“Okay, fine. I have been avoiding you,” she whispers.

You would think her answer would make me feel better, but instead, it does the opposite.

“What the fuck for?” I growl, shoving my hand in my hair to keep from reaching out and wringing her neck.

“People are going to find out!”

“You have to be fucking kidding me right now. Christ, Petal, we’re not kids here, not anymore. We’ve got a son together. I doubt people will bat an eye over the fact that we’re back together.”

“People might not, but our parents…”

“Do not tell me this is all because you’re afraid of the hissy fit your mother is going to throw. Jesus, woman, every time I think we’ve made progress, you turn around and make me feel like I’m hitting my head against a brick wall again.”

“You always do this. You know what, Luka? It might surprise you, but my mother is the last person I’m worried about. She’s got her issues when it comes to you, but she loves me, and she would work through them—and trust me when I tell you that it wouldn’t be easy for her, and I don’t judge her for it. I’m not even sure how I would be able to deal with it all if our roles were reversed.”

“What the hell are you talking about now?” I growl.

“Never mind,” she says, disgusted.

“No. Hell no. You are not doing that. We’re going to have this out once and for all. Before the night is over, we’re going to make sure there’s not one secret between us, Petal!”

“Be careful what you ask for, Luka!”

“If you don’t start making sense—”

“Your father is an asshole!” she screams, her face red, her hair coming loose from the clasp she has it in and strands falling in her face. She looks beautiful. Beautiful and infuriating.

“Honey, that’s not exactly a secret.”

“He’s evil, Luka. You never believed me when we were together, but he’s dangerously evil,” she whispers, and for the first time, I notice the true fear on her face. Did she have that in the past when she talked about my father? Was I so blind that I didn’t see it?

I bend down, using my body to slide her over in the seat, and I sit down beside her. I pull her up onto my lap, and she rests each of her knees at my hips, her head down. It’s getting dark outside and her face is shadowed, but the fear on it still breaks my heart. God. I was so wrapped up in the betrayal I felt at Petal’s lies, so wrapped up in my own frustration, that I somehow missed the hell she was in. It’s all here on her face right now, though.

“Are you truly this scared of my father?” I ask, still not understanding it. He’s a fucking jerk. I admit it. He’s a toxic person. So toxic that I didn’t really understand it until I was divorced and realized how he added fuel to my anger towards Petal. Yet how could I have missed the fear which is coming off of Petal in waves right now?

“He despises me and my family, Luka. I thought after all this time he would have tired of his threats… that now there would be no reason for him to continue, but…”

“Whoa, slow down, honey. What threats?”

“I told you he’s always demanded I leave you alone, accused me of being the reason you never achieved your dreams.”

“You said he blamed you for me not going to the FBI. You did not tell me that he has threatened you, Lo’.”

“Well not me… directly, but…”

“But he did threaten you? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” I ask her, and then grimace at the accusation in my voice, especially when I see Petal jerk her head as if I physically hit her.

“He warned me if I didn’t walk away—that if I continued to ruin your life—he’d make sure my family … paid the price.”

“What the fuck, Lo’? You didn’t think I needed to know that?”

“Luka, every time we did much more than talk about your father, you’d get upset. You thought I was being petty and keeping the animosity going.”

“Maybe that would have changed if you had told me—”

“Quite honestly, Luka, whether deserved or not, you didn’t really believe me when I said things about your father.”

I want to deny her accusation, but if I look back on our early days together, I can’t. I did hold a grudge against Petal back then. I was so upset with her, I let my anger blind me, and I can look back and see how my father helped feed that anger. I can’t even lay that at my father’s feet, though. It’s on me. Petal may have made some huge mistakes, but I’m just as guilty in my way for adding to our problems.

“I fucked up back then, didn’t I, Lo’?” I sigh out, feeling much older than my years. I pinch the bridge of my nose, wishing I could go back and just fix everything from the very beginning.

“We both did, Luka,” she whispers.

“If I could go back, I would,” I tell her, kissing the top of her shoulder.

“If I could go back, I’d do it all again. We may have sucked at being married, but when it was good…”

“It was everything,” I finish for her. There’s no other way to describe it. This woman is part of my soul. From the moment we first started talking, it felt as if she was the reason my heart was beating. Her smiles, her laughter, her touch… I lived for each of them.

“It was,” she says simply, and there’s a tear sliding out of the corner of her eye. I reach up and wipe it away. Petal and I have had enough tears. It’s time we move forward—together.

“I’ll handle my father, Lo’. But I’m not letting you pull away from me.”

“Luka,” she starts, but I don’t let her finish. I kiss her gently on the lips.

“I’ll handle it. What I’m not doing is letting you go again.”

“I don’t want you to,” she whispers. “Though if you did… things might be simpler.”

“Simple is boring,” I tell her, grinning.

“Whatever you say. Personally, I think I might like to try it sometime.”

“I need to hear you say you’re going to stop running away from me,” I tell her, not sure I can rest until she does.

“If I tell you that, will you undo these freaking handcuffs? I’m starting to get a cramp in my shoulder.” I grin. “Oh no, Luka Parish. I know that grin, and just… No.”

“But honey, don’t worry. I know exactly how to stretch you so you don’t cramp at all,” I tell her, and as a compromise—only not really, it’s just better this way—I change the way she’s cuffed. I unlatch the cuffs quickly, moving her hands to her stomach. I massage the kink her shoulder, and then kiss each of her wrists, before latching them in the cuffs again.

She doesn’t resist or pull away from me. In fat, her body softens against me. “Stretch me?” she whispers those eyes of her widening, her breathing quickening, betraying her excitement.

“Definitely. Stretch you.” I kiss along the side of her neck. “I’ll lay you out against the seat, pull your hands above your head…” I describe to her, letting my tongue move along her neck and bite down where her neck and shoulder meet—in that spot that always drives her wild. I bring my hands up to cup her breasts at the same time, my thumbs brushing against the pebbled nipples pushing against her shirt. “Then I’ll slowly undress you, kissing every inch of your body that I expose.”

“Oh… fuck,” she murmurs, her voice as soft as a caress.

I slide her off my lap, stretching her body across the back seat. I bring her hands up and loop them on a hook above the door. I had them installed to hold the lead ropes for when we use the canine units. I’m not about to explain that to her, but I’m thanking the Lord they’re there. I start unbuttoning her shirt, revealing her breasts to me, one creamy inch at a time. I kiss the pale skin I expose, let my tongue dip down into the valley between her tits, admiring the way they overfill the lavender cups of her lace bra. I slowly undo the clasp of her bra, my eyes glued to her body.

“And when I’m done kissing this gorgeous body, Lo’ … this body that belongs to me…” I whisper, running my tongue across her nipple and then sucking it into my mouth. “I’m going to slide my cock inside your tight little body. And feed it to you inch by inch.”

“I do belong to you, Luka. I always have,” she whimpers, her body shuddering beneath my touch as I undo her pants. I pull them and her panties down together, and she eagerly lifts herself to help me. I can’t resist placing a kiss against her bare pussy, letting my tongue dip against the lips, sliding in to graze against the swollen button of her clit. The sweet tangy taste of her desire fills my mouth at the same time her low moan echoes in the car.

I want inside of her. I have to get inside of her. It would take a stronger man that I am to pass up what is before me right now. I slide back on the seat, pulling Petal’s legs over my shoulders, and then use my fingers to pull the lips of her pussy apart, revealing the tender pink skin of her pussy to me. The scent of her desire calls to me like water to a man who has been living in the desert for much too long. I flatten my tongue out against her clit, feeling it pulsate against me, and I lick her slowly, gathering all of her juices that I can and practically drinking her down.

All thoughts of the past or even the future are gone for now. Just like always, everything fades except Petal when the two of us are alone. She says she’s always belonged to me.

What she doesn’t realize is that I’ve always been hers, too.

She owns me. She always has.