Violence ran deep in Richard’s blood. God, he prayed, let it be temporary. If his hands weren’t full of Charlotte’s red hair, now tumbled free of their braids and pins, he might have acted on the rivers of rage running through his veins. He’d spin on his heel, go back to Wayne and rid himself of it—through his fists.
Anger was the last thing Charlotte needed from him.
Richard had to steel his throat just to soften his voice. “Shhh, baby.” He tightened his grip on her hair and exposed her long, pale neck. “I know exactly what you need.”
Her eyes darted around his face, as if searching. “But—”
His tongue swiped over her bottom lip, the taste of her so familiar and sweet. “Marcos is handling them.”
They—as in Wayne and his two lapdogs he brought with him—didn’t stand a chance against Marcos. The man wasn’t just muscle. He knew how to rid someone for good if required. All legal, of course, though given the anger boiling under Richard’s skin, he didn’t care if it was illegal.
Charlotte’s gaze darted over his shoulder, widened. She squinched her eyes closed when the shuffle of men’s feet behind him stopped. He didn’t need to turn around to know Carson, Derek and Alexander had strode up behind him.
When Richard had asked the other men to join him, his plan was crystal clear. Now, seeing fear in her eyes, he second guessed himself. It wasn’t a usual state for him. But if he knew one thing it was this: Charlotte’s dreams would return in force now and needed advanced handling. The only way to truly rid Charlotte of them was to flip the script.
He’d rid her of the wedding dress, kicked it to the side not giving a shit about it at the moment. Fabric rustled by their feet, the dress likely being dragged away by Sarah. He’d enlisted her help along with the others.
Charlotte’s hair hung messily over her forehead, her lips already bruised from his passionate kisses.
“Open your eyes,” he ordered.
She dragged her eyes open. So many emotions warred in all that blue. Relief, passion, fear.
But moments like these were his element. Bringing Charlotte back from the brink, as harshly as required, was his forte. His goal today grew larger. He would bring her back for good.
His hand cupped hers. “You’re worried.”
She nodded slowly.
“That’s an affront to me. An affront to everyone who loves you standing behind me.”
She blinked, her lips parting. “I didn’t mean—”
“Didn’t mean what?” She thought someone as small as Wayne Trembill could ever do anything to her again? Or any man who wasn’t Richard, for that matter? As if any of their Accendos family would allow such a thing.
He pressed his crotch against hers, instantly thickening on contact. A wave of need swept through him like wildfire, his cock hardening and pressing against his zipper. Her brilliant blue eyes sparked.
The chemistry between them was undeniable. They hadn’t even started and already he could unload in his pants like a teenager dry humping in a backseat. Years of disciplining his body, however, made that possibility as remote as Wayne ever getting to rest his eyes on Charlotte again. Never mind his hands.
Richard cupped her face with his hands. “You are mine. And only mine.” His gaze dropped quickly to her throat, to the circle of silver that told the world Charlotte was his.
“Yes, Master.” Her lids dropped.
Acquiescing? Responding with a rote honorific? That’s not what he wanted or needed. Not what she needed.
He finally admitted something that had niggled at the edges of his mind for months. She didn’t fully believe she was safe. And he had enough of it.
“Master?” His hand trailed down her back, cupped her beautiful bottom. His finger found what it sought. He thrust one finger inside her ass and she gasped into his mouth. “Then should I fuck you here? In front of everyone? Or…” His other hand reached down her front, his middle and forefingers spreading her pussy lips open. “Or here?”
Her mouth dropped open but she didn’t answer. He thrust his fingers inside her pussy. Now speared with both hands, her legs began to tremble. Her arousal was clear, however, by how wet she grew.
“I don’t think I can,” she blurted out.
Ah, truth. “Because you don’t believe I’d take care of you. Or because you’re not ready to let go of your fear.” Perhaps she felt it defined her. Kept him around. Made him prove time and again that he would always be here for her.
“I’ll disappoint you,” she said quickly. “That’s what I thought today. In the show, in… everything. And it hurts knowing I’ll…”
Ah, Wayne’s final lesson. No matter how hard she tried to please him, it’d not been enough. “Fail? That’s for me to decide. You don’t get to predetermine that.”
He withdrew his fingers. Her legs instantly relaxed and she sunk against the wall. He pinched one of her nipples, and she cried out.
“Hurt?”
She nodded.
“I feel your pain. Always. You know that?”
Her chin wobbled, a sheen of tears forming in her eyes.
He twisted her other nipple and she winced. “Do you?”
“Y-yes, sir.” She blinked up at him, a single tear escaping from her sad eyes.
“Then, give it to me. All of it. It’s my pain now. Not yours.”
A stuttered breath left her throat.
“Tell me again. What is the worst thing he ever did to you?”
She shuddered from head to toe. “You know,” she whined.
He did. How he’d handed her over to other men to be toyed with, played with. Then told her she didn’t deserve them. What a crock of psychological shit.
And it’d all been recorded. Richard had found the video evidence—grainy footage taken on an early iPad. A device and the ensuring recordings, he constantly had to force himself to remember, that had been thoroughly destroyed by Marcos years ago. But it appears images from one’s own mind don’t fade so easily.
Richard captured her lips with his own. No more words. He kissed her until that tiny rumble in the back of her throat sounded. It was the signal of her surrender—a giving in to what he had planned even if she didn’t know what that was.
When he broke his lip lock, her head wobbled a bit, her eyes a little drugged.
He glanced over at Carson, the one Dominant in the room he believe would understand what he needed to do. She had to recast this final piece if they were ever to find peace together. There was one thing he hadn’t tried with her–and it was time.
He put a little distance between himself and Charlotte. “Carson.”
The man nodded once and stepped forward.