The corner of his mouth angled up into a smile.
“Now that you know I like it rough.”
I swallowed hard. “That’s not…I…some people like those things softly, Silas.”
“I don’t,” he said, stare flickering down to my hand around his thigh. My fingers had splayed wider, incher higher.
“And now that I know,” I repeated, dragging my teeth across my bottom lip while I tried to get my thoughts back into line. “I want.”
We’d leaned in at some point, unknowing. The hot bursts of his exhales landed against my damp lip, my cheek. His breath didn’t shake any longer, and neither did mine. Myhands, though, another story entirely. I raised one to his face anyway, cradling his jaw against my palm and groaning when he pressed his cheek into my hand, lashes fluttering. The touch emboldened him, empowered, and he stared at me with those brilliant eyes of his, so full of understanding and of want.
“I think you’re safe, Marshall,” he whispered.
“I’m…fuck.”
He grabbed my wrist and dragged my hand to the front of his face, kissed my palm. “You’re what?”
“I’m your father’s…. I’m old enough to…”
He kissed me again, this time with teeth.
“You’re safe for me,” he said again, one more kiss. “And I’ll call you, I promise. As soon as I’m safe for you.”
CHAPTER 9
SILAS
On Friday afternoon, my phone rang. I was sitting across the conference table from my father, both our laptops flipped open. He cursed under his breath when my phone vibration startled him, so I snatched it up and again—without looking at the screen—answered the call.
“Hello?”
My father glared at me from his seat, so I pushed my chair back and walked out of the room, pulling the door closed behind me.
“Is this Silas Ayres?”
I checked the screen, but the number wasn’t saved in my phone.
“Yes. Who is calling?”
“Silas, hi. This is Landon Miller, I’m one of the owners of Rapture in Pasadena.”
“Oh.” My breath caught in my throat. “Hi.”
“Is now a good time?”
“Uhm. Hold on,” I mumbled.
I glanced toward the closed conference room door, then headed to my small office in the far corner of the workspace. Ilocked the door behind me and leaned against it for good measure.
“Now is fine,” I said.
“I hope I’m not being forward here, and you can tell me the topic is off the table, but I was made aware of an issue that happened on Friday night at my club, and I want to address it with you. I mean, I want to make sure you’re okay and I want to let you know what we’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
My knees gave out, and I slid down the wall until my ass hit the shitty office carpet. Propping my elbows on my knees, I closed my eyes.
“What do you think happened?” I asked.
“Without mincing words, Silas, it sounds like it was very close to assault.”
