“What?” I jerk back in his arms as he lifts some water and cups it over my shoulders.
“When they lost you,” he shakes his head, “fucking idiots, I knew you’d done it purposely and had no intention of being found. I had nothing to go on. You ditched your cell phone, everything. You even left your Audi in impound. I knew I was fucked the second they called, and I think I blacked out because I don’t remember the minutes that led up to the wreck. I just went…fucking crazy.”
“And you totaled it?”
He nods.
“I’m sorry.”
“You gave me every chance to stop you.” He rests his head back on the lip of the tub. His eyes fixed on the ceiling. “God, Cecelia, I’ve never in my life been so fucked up. Just thinking about that phone call.” He lifts his head, his eyes demanding even with his plea. “Promise me you’ll never do that again.”
“Tobias—”
“I’m begging you, Cecelia. If we fight, if we are at our worst, no matter how angry you get, this is all I’ll ask of you. Our biggest fights are going to be about security, I know it. But please just let me protect you for my own sanity, my own peace of mind, even if you feel you don’t need it. I can’t take it. I can’t fucking take it.” He looks so damned beautifully tortured, his features twisted with pain, his lashes darker from the dripping water. If this life is really mine, if in time Tobias proves his intentions sincere, I can’t imagine a better way to live.
I press my forehead to his. “I promise.”
He grips my jaw and backs away an inch, still intent on getting his own way. “Always?”
“Yes, you pig-headed sonofabitch.”
“This promise above all others,” he insists, “above everything.”
“I promise you, Tobias.”
“Merci.” There’s nothing but relief in his tone.
“And what about me protecting you?”
He draws his brows, and I scoff. “Maybe I don’t like your perception of me. Sometimes I see the reflection in your eyes, and I know you still see the na?ve nineteen-year-old you met. You obviously forgot whom you came back for.” He rakes his teeth over his lip as I grip him firmly in my hand, digging my nails a little into the silky skin covering his cock. “It’s past time I remind you.” His eyes flare and follow as I lift my hips and slowly sink onto him.
Age Thirty-One
Incompetence. If there’s one thing I can’t fucking stand, it’s the fact that I have money and resources at my disposal, and fuck them both for all the good they’re doing me now.
My search for Abijah has proven fruitless. His last whereabouts reported on the very street I’m walking. But the man doesn’t frequent the same places, ever. He’s as elusive as they fucking come, and the fact that he’s evaded us for this long is wearing on me.
My phone rattles in my pocket as I change directions and head toward the bar at the end of the street, intent on one drink before I shower to scrub off the failure of another day.
“Oui?” I bark, answering my cell, and am met by hesitance on the other end of the line.
“Tobias, it’s Matt, Virginia.”
“I’m listening.”
“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, man, but you were right.”
“How so?”
“They brought a girl to the meetup not long ago, and I really didn’t think anything of it.”
Motherfucker.
For the last few months, Dom and Sean have become oddly absent, only reporting the minimum, and have become harder and harder to reach the last few weeks. I assumed they’d taken on a new pet project between them, up to old tricks, and I was fucking dead on.