Atonement (Master's Protege 2)

“I’m not running.”

“The hell you aren’t.” Thwack. My stick hits hers with a thud. “You lost your shit in there, then stormed off like a pouty teen.”

“You go to the target range, I come here. So shoot me.” She rolls her eyes, swivels, and strikes again. I deflect the cudgel.

“I just want to know why you ran.” I swing back at her.

She scowls at me, swings the bar, and nearly knocks me on my ass. “I. Did. Not!”

I deflect the blow, then toss her one of my own. She curses under her breath, stumbling with the effort of deflecting. “Oh for fuck’s sake,” she growls when she falls to one knee. She’s down long enough for me to set her off balance with another whack of my stick on hers. She ducks, and seconds later I’ve got her pinned beneath me, the cudgels forgotten. Her wrists are in my grip, and her furious gaze is pinned on me.

“My, my, my,” I tease her. “You’re in an interesting situation, now, aren’t you? In fact… I do believe this is almost familiar. Do you feel déjà vu or is it just me?”

“Get fucking off me,” she says uselessly, still pinned in my grip. I’m so much heavier than she is, it’s almost unfair how easily I pin her.

“You promised, Violet.”

She wilts a little, the smallest flicker of fire dying down in her eyes. “I made several promises to you, Mr. Master,” she says through gritted teeth. “But you made promises as well.”

Ahh. So now we’re getting somewhere.

“So this is about promises.”

She holds my gaze, her jaw clenched. “Yes.”

“Tell me, Violet. Tell me the promises we’ve made each other.”

My heart feels like it’s been stabbed when her eyes water. Violet only cries when she’s angry, and now she’s fucking furious. I hate that it’s come to this. A part of me wants to hold her to me, kiss the tears away, and promise I’ll make it better. And another part of me wants to toss her over my lap and spank her until she cries real tears, for being so goddamned infuriating and stubborn.

“I… I promised I’d never try to fight you again,” she says, somewhat abashed. One could easily argue she was trying right now.

“Right. We work together. As a team,” I say pointedly. “What promise did I make you when we found Skylar together?”

Her eyes flit away from mine, but I grab her chin and force her gaze back to me.

She blinks, a steely note coming back to her voice. “You promised me you’d find my parents’ murderer.”

I knew it was only a matter of time before we had this discussion.

“I did.”

She pushes my wrists, but she can’t move me. I double down and hold her more firmly. “And what, Cain? Here we are, and it’s almost Christmastime, and what have we done along those lines?”

Ah. It makes sense to me now.

“Did we talk about a timeframe, Violet?”

She narrows her eyes at me. “Stop being an asshole and get the fuck off of me.”

“Answer me.”

I hold her harder until she growls and reluctantly admits, “No.”

“And you forgot something else, sweetheart. Didn’t you?”

She tries to look away again, but my fingers on her chin yank her eyes back to mine. “Didn’t you?”

She inhales, then pushes her breath out and juts her chin. “I did.”

“Tell me, Violet.”

She clenches her jaw and doesn’t speak.

I lean in closer, my grip tighter. “You fucking tell me or I’ll make you, and you know exactly how.”

She shivers. She won’t admit it, but even angry she’s aroused when I threaten to dominate her.

“Fine. Fine. I… I promised you that…” she blinks, and her voice is a little choked. “I promised you that I was yours.”

I lean down closer and kiss her cheek. Her eyes flutter closed, and a cool breeze stirs over us.

“We made a deal, Miss Price. And I won’t let you forget it.”

She opens her eyes. The look she gives me stabs my heart. “You won’t let me forget my promise to you, but what about your promise to me? Cain, I can’t stand it anymore.”

“Can’t stand what?”

Her eyes plead with me. “Let me up, and I’ll explain. You’re heavy.”

I let her go and sit on the ground beside her. She pouts, rubbing her wrists. “I’ve had it. Every fucking job we do that has nothing to do with why I came here. Fucking check the identity of a new hire. Done. Follow the cheating ex of your millionaire playboy’s bestie. Done. Vet the legitimacy of a potential business partner for some god-awful billionaire and his harem. Done. Find the arsonist responsible for a crime. Done. I half expected Fontaina to ask you to babysit her daughter on her next goddamn tour, and the worst of it? I would’ve expected you to accept!”

When I cringe at that, she nods. “Exactly.”