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“That’s helpful,” I mutter.
She squeezes my hand again, her eyes searching my own, and lets out a heavy sigh. “I can’t tell you what to do, Hendrick. You’re a man, and you have to go with your own feelings. Is this right for you? Is this what you want in life? It cannot be mine or even your father’s decision.”
My lips twitch into a small smile, and I arch a brow. “Yeah?” I ask. “It can’t be Dad’s decision?”
She snorts softly. “You know what I mean,” she murmurs. “Aside from the duties to the family, you are your own man with your own mind.”
I am. She’s right about that, and I love that she makes this shit sound so fucking easy. But it’s not. The family and the expectations are clear. My father and his personal expectations are even clearer. But I’m not sure I want to be like my brothers and have the perfect wife.
Allison is wild, she’s unpredictable, and because of me, she was kidnapped. I owe it to her to take care of her, to keep her safe. It makes me seem like an asshole, and honestly, that’s what the fuck I am, so I should just own it.
But then I think about her face. I think about the way she looks when she’s riding me. When she comes, and then after, when I’m holding her. I’ve never been satisfied having semi-vanilla sex with anyone before, except with her.
Before I met Allison, I was always looking for the next high when it came to sex. I was never satisfied. One extreme could placate me for maybe a few months, but then I needed something different, something more.
That’s how I ended up buying unwilling women, sexual slaves, to use and became part of that group. It was a new way to get high. It all happened before I laid eyes on Allison. I haven’t felt one ounce of dissatisfaction since she walked into my life. Since she rocked my world inside and out.
And that should probably count for something, shouldn’t it?
ALLISON
I do not get far.
Like, so not far that I’m now just a few blocks away from my own apartment and sitting in a coffee shop across the street from Hendrick’s condo. I don’t want him to see me, to know that I’m here, though.
However, at this point, I don’t think he’s realized I’m gone yet.
I’m sure he’s tried to call me a few more times. Maybe he’s even cursed the fact that I haven’t answered his calls, but he doesn’t have a clue that I’ve left yet…
Lifting the cup of coffee to my lips, I scan the sidewalk as the people move back and forth, walking around without a care in the world. They all have places to go, people to see, jobs to work at. I don’t have any of that right now, at least not anymore. It’s by choice, though, right?
Right.
Nodding once, I swallow the sip of coffee then place the cup down. I see him out of the corner of my eye. It isn’t hard for me to make him out in a crowd. His short, dark hair is neatly styled and combed. The way he moves, his head up and his shoulders back. He is commanding in a million different ways.
He’s perfection.
I know that beneath the button-down couture white shirt that is neatly tucked into his light-gray slacks, which are adorned with an Italian leather belt along with matching Italian leather shoes on his feet, he is covered in tattoos and muscle.
He’s beautiful naked.
If there were a way to keep him naked all of the time, I would vote for that every single minute of every single day. He’s hot as shit. Always has been.
Once he walks into his building, I look down at my coffee and sink my teeth into my bottom lip as I inhale deeply through my nose and let it out slowly.
This is a mistake.
How do I walk away from Parker? She’s my best friend. No, that does her a disservice. She’s my sister. My only real family. Those people who brought me into the world abandoned me about two seconds after I arrived, but not Parker.
Sure, they gave me a place to live, food, and clothes, but everything they did for me was to shut me up or get rid of me. The moment I graduated high school, they took me to the college dorms, dropped me off, and that was that. They did their part, and they were ready to live their lives.
Not that they ever stopped doing whatever the fuck they wanted even after they had me, so I’m not quite sure what they were even waiting for.
When I graduated college, I sent them an invitation and an announcement to the commencement ceremony. They had moved. They’d moved and never told me. The realization I am exactly like them slams into me.
I’ve just walked away, without a word, without a trace, from the only two people I have ever loved—Parker and Hendrick.
I am my parents.
