He strode out the door, his heart seizing as he heard her sob.
He closed it behind him only to see his brother standing at the front door. The bastard had heard the whole thing and now he had another fucking fight on his hands. “I’m going back to Dallas. I’ll move out as soon as I can. I think you should take Natalie back to Dallas with you. She needs you.”
He waited for Ben to explode, to call him all kinds of nasty shit, and he would take it because it was all true. Instead Ben crossed the space between them. “You are not our father, Chase. God, how can you even think that?”
Chase had the eidetic memory, but Ben was better at reading his fucking mind. He should have remembered that. “I can think it because it’s true.”
“Chase, it’s not. I know it was hard to go through stepmothers the way we did. They would come and we would get close and they would leave. Hell, he had a string of girlfriends two miles long who came and went. You think I don’t know how close you got to them only to get left behind? They never wrote or called. Hell, not even our mother called unless she wanted something. It’s not that you can’t love a woman. You’re scared to. But, brother, that woman in there is the one, and if you walk away, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
Ben’s words opened a well of sadness he’d forgotten existed. Didn’t want to remember.
Ben seemed to see the weak spot and went right for it. “Come on, man. This is the rest of our lives. I love that girl. It happened fast, but maybe that’s just how it was always going to be for us. Maybe we were always supposed to walk in and just fucking know. I don’t care. I don’t give a shit how it happened or why it happened. I don’t care that every motherfucker at The Club is going to taunt us mercilessly. I’ll actually like that a little because it means we have something to be jealous of. Chase, she’s crying. She’s finally crying, and it’s not over what happened to her. She could bury that deep down, but the thought of not being with you—she couldn’t bury it. Listen to her.”
It was quiet, but Natalie was crying. Sobbing. Likely into her hands.
And he couldn’t. He couldn’t handle it. He couldn’t stand there while she cried. He was her Dom whether she could handle it or not. Whether he ever put a collar on her or not. He was her Dom because it was what he was born to be. Other men might call it lover or boyfriend, but Chase had his language and it all meant the same thing. He loved her. It didn’t matter what he needed. Suddenly giving her what she needed was all that mattered.
He turned from his brother and nearly ran back to her. His heart, that thing he’d always thought was inconsequential, suddenly thudded in his chest, unwilling to be ignored a moment longer.
She was on the floor, her body laid out, chest heaving. She cried into her hands, muffling what should have been screams.
He didn’t hesitate. She was his, and he should never have fucking walked out on her. It had been cowardly, and that wasn’t what she needed. He got to his knees.
“Ben?” Her face turned up, puffy and red and still so beautiful his heart hurt.
He shook his head.
“Chase.” She shoved up and threw herself into his arms. She was so different from the wary girl he’d met. That girl had been scared and unsure and ready to run. This one held on. He needed her to hold on for the rest of her life.
His arms tightened, pulling her small frame in close, squeezing her to him. “Don’t ever leave me.”
“I love you.” She locked her arms around him, her will a palpable thing. “I won’t ever leave.”
“Take me.” His mouth found hers. Hungry. He was so fucking hungry for her. He felt like he’d waited forever and he had. He’d been waiting for Natalie from the moment he’d been born.
She pressed up, holding nothing back. She opened her mouth and he invaded, his tongue stroking along hers. His cock was already hard and waiting.
He dominated her mouth, pulling her hair back so he had the best angle.
Natalie was his. She’d given herself to him and there was no fucking going back. He intended to make sure she understood he could take care of her.
He intended to make sure she never wanted to let him go.
Chapter Fifteen
Natalie felt every inch of her skin come alive as Chase kissed her. She’d been so sure she’d lost him. When she’d looked up and seen the deep emotion and empathy on his face, she’d known it was Ben. But this dominance, this hard mastery was all Chase, and she clung to him like a life raft.
Sir Dawson. Hard-edged Dom and now desperate lover. He wasn’t in control anymore. He was riding the same wave she was, and it felt so damn good to know he was with her.
She needed both. She needed his control, but she needed his emotion, too.
She needed him.
“Take me.” He growled the words against her mouth, his hands tugging at her clothes.
She scrambled out of his arms because she couldn’t undress down on the floor, and she wanted to undress for him. It was something she’d barely been able to do for herself. For a long time she hadn’t looked at herself in the mirror because all she could see was a victim, but she was shedding that persona as surely as she eased out of her clothes. She’d needed the mantle for a long time, but it was safe to come out now.
She was a survivor, not a victim.
He stood, his hands on his shirt, but his eyes never left her body. Those blue orbs took in every inch of skin she exposed, making her feel beautiful and sexy and reminding her that she used to have a little exhibitionist in there.
“Do you like what you see, Sir Dawson?” She smiled though she knew damn well she looked a complete mess. She didn’t cry pretty like other girls. She got red in the face and puffy, her nose lighting up like Rudolph.
He pulled at the button on his slacks. “You make me sound like a knight when you call me that. I’m not a knight, sweetness.”
He was her knight. His armor might be rusty, but he’d saved her. If he hadn’t been standing in the dungeon that night, she likely would have gone on as she always had, hiding away.
“It’s okay, babe, because I’m not that sweet.”
He tossed his slacks away and moved toward her totally naked. Every inch of that man was hard and ready. His cock bobbed as he approached her. He might not think he was a knight, but damn, the man had one hell of a sword. “You’re the sweetest fucking thing I ever ate.”
She gasped a little as he picked her up. “I don’t think you’ve made a meal out of me yet, Sir.”
But she wanted him to. Now that she’d had sex again, she craved it. Not from anyone, just from her men. Just from Chase and Ben.
Chase swept the desk clean, but only after he’d moved his computer off. She would just have to accept that he loved that damn computer, too.
He set her on the desk. “Spread your legs for me.”
The hard wood of the desk was cool against her backside. It was antique and wide, wide enough for her to lie back and rest her head while she drew her feet up to the edge of the desk. She tried to gracefully spread her legs apart, a slow reveal for her lover of everything she was going to give him.
Chase watched the show, his cock bouncing as though it really wanted to get involved in the action. “You have the most beautiful pussy in the world. I think about it all day. I want to make it my screen saver.”
She couldn’t help but smile because he would really do it, and if someone made a comment about the appropriateness of it, he would likely tell them to fuck off.
His hand came out, touching the jewel that sat on her clit. That little ball of metal pressed down under his finger and Nat gasped. She was already getting wet and soft in anticipation of taking his cock deep inside.