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I groaned to get the thought out, running my fingers through my hair. I was fucking sure she’d put more grey in it since she became mine. I was salt-and-pepper already, but with little Rose’s help, I was gaining even more grey hairs.
Resisting the urge to climb back into bed and hold her against me, I picked up my phone and called a number I hadn’t used in a long time.
Waves of guilt washed over my body, but I did my best to ignore it. I waited as the phone rang and rang, and finally, someone picked up.
There were no words said, and there didn’t need to be. I could pick her out from a crowd. There was a special bond between us and always would be.
“I need you here,” I said plainly, and she took a deep breath.
“You’ve ignored me for months,” she managed to get out, her voice shaky. “You’ve pretended I don’t exist.”
“Didn’t I send money?” I asked cruelly, and she laughed, a bitter, soft little sound.
“You know I don’t give a damn about your dollars,” she told me, and I hung my head, knowing I’d poked the nest. “Now tell me why you need me. Have you fucked up?”
“No,” I replied calmly. “She’s fine.”
“She better be,” she replied, and I could hear the disapproval in her voice.
She hadn’t wanted to be part of this. Since the very beginning, she’d tried to discourage me from doing it, from taking her. She’d told me it was a bad idea, had even threatened to report me if I went through with it. But I insisted I needed her. Told her again and again that Rose needed to be mine. Convinced her with my sheer ferocity, never giving up on what I had wanted for years.
She’d called me a sick man. Knowing I had seen my Rose when she was a little girl, she called me a fucking pervert, a jackass, a cradle robber. Every name under the sun. I didn’t give a shit. All I cared about was having her, owning her. It didn’t matter what her opinion was. I would get what I wanted, just like I always did.
“When can you be here?” I asked, my voice rough.
“When do you need me?” came her reply.
“As soon as you can,” I replied. “Get your affairs in order and I’ll send someone to collect you.”
An awkward pause followed and I wondered briefly whether she even wanted to see me, whether she was excited about coming face-to-face with me after all this time, all the shit we’d been through.
“Rueben,” she said hesitantly as if she was afraid to speak my name.
She should have been. Not many people knew what it was, and so far, I hadn’t even allowed Rose to use it with me. It was always Master or Thorn – the way I preferred it. The woman on the phone was probably the only person in the world whom I tolerated using it.
“Yes?” I barked down the line.
“I missed you,” she admitted, then cut the call.
I stood there feeling useless with my phone in my hand. Finally, I set my shoulders back, put the phone down and left my study. I’d left a note for Harlow on the bedside table asking her to meet me in the living room. What she didn’t know was that Carina would be present for our little meeting as well. I had something to tell both of them.
I arrived to find her already there, but Carina was brought in a moment later after I’d kissed my Rose good morning. She looked beautiful in a silk kimono robe and her feet bare, her hair a wild halo around her head. Her eyes narrowed when Carina was brought in, and she gave me a furious little look which made me chuckle.
“Why is she here?” Rose asked defiantly. “I don’t want her here.”
Carina sneered at her former friend but I ignored both of their reactions and motioned for them to sit down at the coffee table. I joined them, sitting by Rose’s side and taking her hand proprietorially. Carina’s look of contempt didn’t escape me, but I decided not to address it. She’d have to deal with her unrequited emotions by herself – I didn’t have time for that shit.
“I wanted to speak to both of you about something,” I explained. “Rose, you expressed an interest in dancing.”
She gave me a worried look, but I squeezed her hand reassuringly. I wasn’t about to reveal our private agreement to Carina, it would stay between the two of us, the way it was meant to. But still, I was almost morbidly excited to see Harlow’s reaction to the news I was about to deliver.
Maybe the woman on the phone had been right. Maybe I really was a heartless, cruel and senseless bastard. Maybe I deserved every bad thing that came my way and then some. Trouble was, I still didn’t give a shit. All I wanted was right on the couch next to me. And I wasn’t fucking letting go.
