Sculpt-Paige_Michaels-Becca_Jameson (13 page)

Her mom swatted the air again like a gnat wouldn’t leave her alone. “Your job and your apartment don’t matter. You need to come home. Your daddy needs you to take care of him.”

Her eyes widened, and she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “What about you?”

Her mom’s gaze didn’t even falter. “I have responsibilities at home. My club and my charities. I can’t leave them. I’ll, of course, be around, same as I always am. But your daddy needs his daughter.”

Lucinda couldn’t even process all that had been said in the past five minutes. It was too much. She couldn’t imagine the world without her imposing father. And she ached for him. But she also couldn’t imagine giving up her whole life to take care of him. Her mom had always been terrible when any of them got sick. It was like for all her trophy mother accomplishments, she couldn’t deal with the really hard stuff. Lucinda remembered the time she’d had mono in high school and her mom told her it was a little cold, pushing her to return to school until she’d gotten so sick she ended up with mono-induced hepatitis. Her dad had been the one to stay with her in the hospital as she was given IV fluids and told to stop pushing herself so hard.

“Mama,” Lucinda started. “I can’t…”

“This is your father, baby girl. He needs your help. Please do not tell me you’re so selfish that you refuse to come home and care for him.”

“What about Emma? She lives next door.”

Her mother shook her head. “She’s got a baby. She can’t.”

Lucinda bit her lip, but then blurted, “Their ‘baby’ is seven. She goes to school full-time. Emma doesn’t do anything with her days. She doesn’t work. She goes to lunches with her friends and spends Jackson’s money.”

“Don’t talk about your brother or sister-in-law that way. This isn’t up for discussion. Your daddy needs you home. Sort out your affairs and fly back with us.”

“What? Sort out my affairs? Like I can give my job and my landlord two days’ notice and all will be well?” Not to mention Theo. Jesus. How could her mother think it was all this easy?

“Tell them it’s a family emergency. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

Lucinda blinked back tears and turned to her father. “Daddy?”

His face was a mask of defeat and sorrow. “I miss you, baby girl. I’d be happy to have you home.”

Lucinda felt her whole world begin to shift and crumble beneath her. She nodded and didn’t say another word about it for the rest of the meal.

»»•««

Theo paced back and forth across the hallway connecting the living room to the kitchen. Unexpected visit from her parents? He couldn’t imagine the state she’d be in. Three different times he considered going to her apartment to wait for her, but he stopped himself. He’d wait for her call.

By ten o’clock, he was almost frantic, but then he heard a car pull into his drive. He looked out the window and saw her step out of a cab. She moved slowly to his front door, and when he pulled it open, his breath caught in his throat. She looked wrecked.

“What the hell happened?”

She shook her head, and he swept her into his arms. He placed soft kisses on her head and rubbed her back as she cried into his shirt. Minutes later, she scrubbed the last tears away and looked at him.

“I don’t want to talk about it right now. I need…”

She grabbed her bag and began to rifle through it. He stopped her. She was looking for the whip. He knew it. But her body wouldn’t be able to handle the intensity of the welts over those he’d given her last night. She looked up at him with wide eyes bracketed by her red hair. “Theo,” she whispered. A question and a plea.

“Do you trust me?”

“With everything I have, Master.”

He placed her bag on the floor and swept her into his arms, carrying her up the stairs and into his room. He placed her seated on the bed, and she looked at his space.

“So all it took for me to finally see the inside of your room was my life to fall apart? I’ll have to remember that for next time,” she said, but the joke fell flat.

“Explain,” he said, crossing his arms and taking in her splotchy face.

“Later. Please. I need this first.”

He regarded her another minute and then nodded. “Take your clothes off. Lie on your back.”

She removed her jeans and T-shirt and then slipped out of her bra and thong. His breath still caught at the sight of her gorgeous body covered in his marks. He pulled off his shirt and jeans, his cock full and hard against his stomach. He walked to the side table and pulled out a condom, rolling it on as he spoke. “You on the pill, Lucy?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I hate these things. Not going to use them after this.”

She nodded.

“Anyway,” he continued, “I’ve been taking Aikido for several years. The discipline and training are intense, but it has helped form who I am.”

She nodded and licked her lips. He stifled a groan and continued. “One of the things I’ve learned is how to render an attacker unconscious.”

He kneeled on the bed, straddling her hips. Her eyes glazed as she stared at his cock, and she licked her lips again. He tipped her chin so she met his gaze.

“Being on the brink of unconsciousness makes every feeling more intense.” His hand slid down to her neck, and she gasped.

“Breath play, Master?”

“Air chokes can be very dangerous, sweetheart. Highly debated in the community.” He nudged her knees apart. Without warning, he surged into her, and she moaned. So wet, so hot and tight. She was magnificent. Everything he wanted. Everything he’d waited for all these weeks.

His hand tightened slightly on her neck, and she whimpered.

“Blood chokes are safer. They happen faster. You’ll be out within ten seconds.” He thrust into her again, ramping her up with his cock and his words. “But they won’t compromise your trachea.”

“Please, Master,” she whispered, clutching her pussy around him. He drove in faster.

“You’ll panic, and when you come to, you won’t be sure where you are. I’ll be here, and I’ll take care of you.”

She lifted her head, almost straining to get him to tighten the hold on her neck. Her pussy was so tight and wet he feared he’d spend himself before he even got her there. But he could tell by her raspy breathing and her glazed eyes, she was close.

“Don’t lift your head. Relax. Let me get you there.”

“Master. Please,” she begged again.

He thrust harder, and she wrapped her legs around his hips. She clawed at his chest, and he felt her nails break skin. He pounded into her harder, taking her right to the brink, but no further. She panted and tipped her hips up, matching his thrusts.

“You’re going to panic. And you’re going to fight. You need to trust me. Do you?”

“Yes.”

He surged forward and kissed her deeply as his cock slammed into her heat even faster. “Ready, love?”

She could only cry out. The beginnings of an orgasm starting to shake her. He pressed his thumb over her carotid artery, remembering all the things the sensei said, and held. Her body started to convulse, from the orgasm or the blood choke, he didn’t know. But it caused a matching sensation in him, and he roared as he came, releasing his hold on her neck as she slumped into unconsciousness.

He dropped to her side, slipping the condom off and dropping it into the trash, and then he wrapped his arms around her. He’d never felt this way about anyone in his life. Whatever was wrong, he’d fix it. He’d do anything for her.

When she came to, she cried out, thrashing in confusion.

“Sweetheart, I’ve got you. Relax. I’ve got you.” He wrapped his arms tightly around her and waited.

“Theo?”

“Shh, yes, love. I’m here. Relax.”

The tension in her body began to seep out of her. “I’ve never felt anything like that.”

“I know, love. Me either. You were incredible.”

She turned in his arms and looked at him. “I love you.”

He pulled her into a tight hug, too moved to respond. Could he really have this? Before he could say anything, her body went slack again, and she fell into a soft doze. He twirled her hair between two of his fingers and pulled her in tighter to him. He’d fallen in love with his brat. Not totally unexpected, but certainly not something he’d planned for.

He pressed a kiss on her forehead. “I love you too, Lucy.”

He followed her into sleep, a wide smile on his face as he snuggled contentedly into her softness.

When he woke up, she was gone.

It took everything she had to slip from Theo’s arms and escape his room. She padded silently into the bathroom in the room she’d been calling hers until last night. She looked disheveled—tear-stained cheeks, fingerprint bruises around her neck—but her eyes were brighter than they’d ever been. She told him she loved him, and he didn’t reject her. He took the gift of her trust and made it perfect. Everything she could ever need.

Which made the bitterness of her departure all the more painful. She couldn’t tell him she was going. He’d talk her out of it. And her father would be left with no one to care for him. That was the reality of the situation. If Lucinda didn’t go, he’d be facing chemo appointments and radiation treatments alone.

Lucinda shouldn’t hate her mother, but she couldn’t help the well of resentment running deep inside her. For the first time in her life, Lucinda had someone who cared about her. Someone who was able to give her everything she ever wanted. And now she had to leave him.

She tugged her clothes on and slipped out the front door, walking to the end of the block to wait for her cab so she wouldn’t wake him. On the way back to her apartment, she called her boss at Terra Incognita and explained she needed a replacement for her classes.
Family emergency
. A weight rested on her chest. All the lightness she’d experienced in the scene with Theo disappeared.

When Lucinda’s grandmother died, she’d left each of her grandchildren twenty-five thousand dollars. Lucinda called it her “rainy day” money and had only ever touched it once—when she’d been fired from the Loft and hadn’t gotten a new job yet. She hoped it would cover her rent for the rest of this year. She didn’t want to give up her apartment. It was a stupid thing, but she thought if she could hold on to that, maybe, maybe she’d be able to come back to the Twin Cities one day.

She entered her apartment and bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She didn’t want to leave, but there was no choice. For all her fuckups as a teenager, she couldn’t walk away when her family needed her. She brushed tears off her cheeks and began to pack.

»»•««

She’d gone missing. Theo had been to her apartment twice in the past week, and she wasn’t there. Endless unanswered phone calls and texts had his guts tied in knots. He’d pushed her too hard. She was scared of him and had disappeared. Finally, he called her workplace and found out she’d quit.

Family emergency
.

Was it true? Did something happen with her parents? Is that why she’d come to him so wrecked that night?

Dammit, he needed her to talk to him. He stared at the Minneapolis skyline from his large office windows. She’d given him so much trust that night, why couldn’t she trust him enough to tell him what was wrong?

He pulled his phone out again and punched in another text. She hadn’t blocked him, at least, but he knew this would be yet another unanswered one. Still, he had to try. He got an idea and quickly deleted his first concerned text and typed in a new one.

Theo: Brat. Every text and phone call unreturned is another paddle to your ass. You’re not going to be able to sit down for a week at this rate. I recommend letting me know where you’re hiding.

He held his breath and hoped. Just as defeat started to settle in his stomach again, his phone pinged in response.

Lucinda: I bet it will be more like a month by the time I get home, Master. You probably will wear yourself out before you even finish.

The breath whooshed out of him. Yes. She was still his.

Theo: You didn’t answer my question, brat. Where are you?

His phone sat silently in his hand as he continued to stare out the window. Ten minutes later, it pinged a response.

Lucinda: Georgia. At my parents’. Don’t try and find me. I don’t know how long I’ll be here. I understand if you need to let go.

Theo: I’m not letting go of anything, brat. You don’t get to walk away so easily.

∙•∙

She was weak. She shouldn’t be texting him. She should cut off all communication. But her heart ached at the word “brat” on the screen, and she couldn’t stop herself. Her large family home felt like a tomb. Her mom was never around, and her dad spent most of the day sleeping, wrecked from either the cancer or the round of chemo he’d just been through. All ways, Lucinda spent most of her days alone, staring at her phone.

She’d spoken to her father’s doctor, and it was way worse than what her parents had told her. Stage IV meant terminal, with maybe six months left to live. And the oncologist had emphasized that six months was generous. Lucinda argued with her mom that maybe they shouldn’t spend their last six months pumping Daddy full of medicine that made him sicker, but her mom accused her of being selfish and trying to get out of her responsibility.

Lucinda sighed and brushed her finger across her phone, reading all of Theo’s texts again. She shouldn’t want him to wait for her.
That
was selfish, and she couldn’t guarantee when she’d be back. It wasn’t fair. She was about to thumb a text telling him to find another sub when the doorbell rang.

She padded through the massive front foyer—almost as big as the one in Theo’s Eden Prairie home—and pulled open the door to find her brother and sister-in-law on the front porch, a giant sunflower bouquet in hand.

“Jackson. Emma. How are you?”

Emma plastered on a fake smile and leaned in to kiss both Lucinda’s cheeks. “Lucy honey, we heard you were home. Your daddy must be so happy.”

“I’ve been here a week. You live next door.”

They stepped inside, and Emma handed Lucinda her purse and the flowers. As if she were a coat-check girl. “Well, you know we’ve been wildly busy with Little Emma’s play rehearsals.” Yes, the woman named her daughter after herself. “She’s in
Cinderella
, did you hear?”