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Solomon steps back, head tilted patiently. He looks like a predator when he stands like that, listening to the sounds of the three goons, groaning and grumbling as they try to recover from their injuries.
After a third knife swing, Solomon leaps forward and pins Kenny’s arm to the side of his head by jamming his arm under his armpit. He hooks his other arm around his throat and lifts him off the ground. Kenny’s eyes widen and he kicks and cries out, flailing like a kid picked up by a grownup.
“Apologize to my lady,” Solomon snarls. “Or I’ll break your goddamn neck.
“I’m sorry,” Kenny cries. “I shouldn’t have—ah, man, please.”
“You shouldn’t have what?” Solomon snarls.
“I shouldn’t have called you that,” Kenny breathes.
My heart floods with relief, with love, with contentment.
I know that violence shouldn’t make me feel this way, but it’s not the fists and the blood and the pain.
It’s the knowledge that, whatever happens, Solomon is always going to protect me.
He’ll never let bullies call me wicked and untrue names.
Yes, untrue, because what he said doesn’t matter when my man looks at me like I’m a supermodel.
“Call your goons off,” Solomon snarls, when the men start to clamber to their feet.
“Fellas, don’t touch them,” Kenny whines.
“And now apologize to Caitlin, you goddamn worm.”
“I’m sorry,” he moans. “You’re right. There’s something wrong with me. I should’ve just left you alone.”
Sirens cut through the air, growing closer, and Solomon’s eyes sear into me.
They burn with his passion, his protective rage, his need to keep me safe.
But there’s something else, too.
It takes me a second to identify it.
It’s not fear, but it’s something close, shimmering beneath the surface.
Caitlin knows, his eyes roar silently at me. I never wanted her to find out like this.
I glance at Caitlin, but she’s staring at the floor, tears glistening in her eyes.
She’s barely holding them back.
Chapter Eighteen
Solomon
We sit on the balcony of my penthouse as the setting sun turns the city a bruised purple color. I can feel Sophia’s nerves radiating from her, see them in the way she bites her lip and grips her hands together.
That lip biting still gets the primal part of me stirring, even if I know we’re supposed to be focused on talking with Caitlin about our relationship.
“Do you think she’s going to come?” Sophia murmurs, pulling her knees to her chest.
She’s still in her work clothes, her white shirt unbuttoned enough to show me a tempting slice of her bra. Her thighs tucked into her flood my manhood with tension, inappropriate tension considering the circumstances.
But I can’t stop myself from drinking in the sight of her, hungrily, greedily, like the beast I am.
“She’s on her way,” I tell her. “I’ve just spoken with her driver.”
“Oh,” Sophia murmurs, shivering.
“Are you cold?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “I’m just …”
I sigh, nodding.
“I know.”
After the fight in the café, we had to give our statements to the police. And then Caitlin stormed off, demanding to be left alone. She wouldn’t even look at me as she marched out of the police station and into her Uber. I watched her go, a pit opening up in my stomach, a pit with teeth that bit and tortured and told me that everything wasn’t going to work out after all.
“What are we going to do if she’s not okay with this?” Sophia sighs.
I reach across and smooth a wavy strand of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear, savoring the way she shivers and turns toward the movement as though she wishes we could just do this, just be together, and not have to worry about the rest of the world.
I know how she feels, but we have to make things right with Caitlin.
“Solomon,” she murmurs. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “All I know is, if I don’t stop touching you now, I’ll never be able to.”
She bites her lip again, but her eyes take on a different quality, shimmering with a thousand unspoken desires. I envision grabbing her and guiding her to the balcony railing, bending her over, and tearing down her pants.
I haven’t taken her cute slit from behind yet, but the next time we have sex I’m going to. I’ll fuck her ragged and raw and ferociously, watching as my thick cock disappears between those made-to-be-spanked ass cheeks.
“Solomon,” she says. “We can’t. Not now.”
“I know,” I sigh, darkness creeping into my voice. “Goddamn, you drive me wild.”
The elevator makes a beep noise from the apartment, signaling that Caitlin is here.
Sophia leaps to her feet as though the noise has just sent an electric shock ricocheting through her body. I reach across to give her a supportive squeeze on the shoulder, but then let my hand drop when I see the uncertainty twisting her lips.
We both turn as Caitlin appears at the balcony glass door. She’s changed into black jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt, reminding me of her Goth phase in high school.
