“Stop.” She pushed me back and stepped around me and across to the other side of the room. A couch between us wouldn’t keep me from her.
“You are mine, Lucinda.” I sat on the edge of the couch, my arms crossed over my chest.
“I was yours.” Her nostrils flared and the rage had returned. “I was completely yours. On my eighteenth birthday I was ready to give myself to you.”
“And I was more than willing to take you.” I chuckled. “Fuck Lucinda, why do you think I stopped coming around so often back then?” I dropped my arms. “I didn’t trust myself around you. You tempted me and tested my resolve without even trying.”
I spotted the tiny hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth.
“Hell, every time you got yourself into trouble I came running.”
“And, why do you think I got into so much trouble?” She tilted her head.
“Because you knew I would always be there for you.”
“Until you weren’t.” The pain in her eyes returned.
She dropped onto the couch. I slide off the edge and sat next to her.
“My dad told me about why you left.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That’s you had to leave because of the money you stole and staying could have put me in danger and he didn’t want that for me.” She picked at the couch cushion.
“The money I stole?” What had Jack told her?
“Yeah, you had some business deal with a Columbian cartel that went bad and the FBI made you work with them to shut the cartel down.”
“Lucinda.” I shifted to face her. “I understand your father wanting to protect you, but whatever story he spun to appease you is just not true.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t steal any money from the company. He did.”
She blinked a few times.
“The cartel wasn’t dealing with me, it was him.” Fuck. I hated to shatter her image of her perfect father, but I was done taking the blame for his sins.
“It was my connections with the FBI that allowed the issues to resolve the way they did. I was so pissed off, still am, at your father for putting your life and future in jeopardy. I came to him when you were seventeen and told him I would help him but that I was taking you away. He agreed to my demands, but he asked me to wait until you were eighteen. It was the hardest year of my life.”
“If what you’re saying is true,” She turned to look at me. “I get why you left, but I don’t understand why you never came back.”
Chapter Thirteen
Lucinda
* * *
His version of events rang truer than my dad’s spin. My dad loved me, but he had made decisions before without my well-being in mind. The way he’d taken me from my mother had never been about what was best for me and all about what looked better for him.
The hurt in Zach’s voice hit me in the gut. He felt betrayed by my father—his best friend—all over again.
“You’re right.” Zach stood up and paced in front of me. “Staying away wasn’t about protecting you from your father and his sins. I wanted you to have a life. I was thirty-five at time. You were so young and had your whole life ahead of you. I wanted you to do things and have experiences you wouldn’t have had a chance to have while being tied to me.”
“What? Once I’m yours I’ll no longer have a life of my own?”
“Well.” He smirked. “I am a possessive Dom, Lucinda.” He chuckled. “If you didn’t understand it back then, you certainly know it now.”
