“How do you make someone listen if they don’t want to?”
She had no answer for that, just a soft sniffle that clenched his gut. “I visited her in secret all these years, hoping she’d get better for good. And then she’d come home and I would be the hero, because I reunited our family.” She laughed harshly and stabbed her fingers against her eyes. “But she hasn’t, and now she has no one else but me, and there’s nothing left inside me for her. I turned my back on my own father when he was struggling because she convinced me he’d driven her away, when all along I knew it was her illness talking. Now I’m the guilty one, because I need a break.”
“And that makes you feel guilty because you think you’re like her. That you could leave someone you love. But you’re not.” He gripped her chin so she had no choice but to look at him. “I know you like I know myself and you’ll never be that cruel or selfish. You don’t have it in you, Vic. You’re the best person I’ve ever known.”
She huddled against him as if she wanted to crawl inside his skin. “I like when you call me Vic.”
“Vic,” he breathed, pressing his lips to each damp cheek. “Vic.” Her forehead. Each closed eye. “Vic.” Her chin. And finally her mouth, salty with her tears.
She swallowed, her amber eyes as bright as the tears that gathered beneath them. “Will you stay? I want a night where it’s just us.”
He wanted many more nights like that, and time was running short. His parents’ going-away party was next weekend at the same place they’d held the Value Hardware gala three-plus weeks ago. If he didn’t work fast, their fake relationship would dissolve for real.
“I think that can be arranged.” Forcing his dark thoughts away, he grinned and rubbed his palm over her hip. “Prepare yourself, little lady. I’m about to do one of those romance moves again.”
“Wait.” She pressed her hand to his cheek, drawing his eyes to hers. “You told me there were things you want to do to me.”
Her hesitant voice fired his blood like a blowtorch to gasoline. “Tonight’s not the night for that. Let me love you.”
“No. You don’t understand. I need it. I need to feel that much, and you’re the only one who can take me there. Please,” she whispered, her eyes filling again.
Cory nodded, needing a second before he could speak. Her willingness to be vulnerable humbled him. Every time she trusted him with more of her, he craved the rest. He couldn’t ever get enough, and that scared him senseless.
He might not have gone through what she had with her mother, but he’d lost his own father too young not to bear some scars. Even though his stepfather’s presence had helped heal his family, there would always be an ache inside him for his birth father. A small, very real one.
For so long, he’d used work to plug all the holes that he didn’t know if he could do anything else. That was who he was. Except it wasn’t, when he was with her. She made him want more. So much more. He was good at taking care of people, at least materially. Perhaps he could figure out the rest if he tried.
If he fought hard enough.
He swept her up in his arms. “I need a table.”
…
Vicky frowned. That was not what she’d expected him to say. “What?” she asked as he carted her into the dining room—the dining room?—and flipped the light switch.
“Hard of hearing all of a sudden?” A smile played around his cocky mouth as he set her down.
She propped her hands on her hips. “Isn’t a bed good enough for you?”
“A bed is fine. I’ll just have more control in here.”
The word control singed all her nerve endings. “Oh, really. Want a safe word in case it gets too intense for you, CEO?”
Slowly, he licked the inside of his lower lip. “You know about safe words?”
“Sure.” She shrugged, hoping she wouldn’t flush and ruin her casual routine. She’d heard of them before Cory had revealed some of his bedroom proclivities, but she’d done more research the last couple of weeks. If she was anything, she was a good student.
“For me, submissive only applies in the bedroom, and only when the mood’s right. I have no need for a submissive beyond those walls.” His lips twisted. “And if I did, you wouldn’t be my first choice.”
Though she suspected he was just teasing her, his words hit her where she was most susceptible. Suddenly she was more interested in her candy-pink-tipped toes than in meeting his gaze. “Do I need a safe word tonight?” she asked quietly.