Fate (Steel Brothers Saga 13)

Admittedly, the bondage and discipline aspect of our relationship used to thrill me, but I felt like I’d outgrown it. I scoffed. Outgrown something at twenty-two? Sounded ridiculous, but it was true. I’d dated other women when Wendy and I were in one of our “off-again” periods, and though our sex had been rough and hard, I’d never bound or spanked any of them. Other than Wendy, I was about hard vanilla fucking.

No matter how often we broke up, though, we’d always found our way back to each other. Yeah, she was my kryptonite.

Or she had been.

Daphne Wade had neutralized the kryptonite.

I no longer had any desire for Wendy. The thought was odd, as Wendy had been such a huge part of my life for so long. I’d been drawn to her despite her flaws—and they were many. When we first met, though, she was a sixteen-year-old girl. A sweet sixteen-year-old girl who’d just become a cheerleader. She was pretty and perky and smart. A great match for me.

But even then, she’d had a darkness about her—not a darkness so much as an edge that unnerved me.

And as these years passed, that edge became more and more a part of who she was.

Not only Wendy, but Theo, Tom, and Larry had changed too—especially Theo. I expected him and Wendy to end up together eventually. They both shared that edge of insanity that creeped me out.

I’d put it off for too long, but now that I’d met the woman who was my soul mate, I had to take care of Wendy once and for all. It would be for her own good, as well as mine and Daphne’s.

“My father’s a little gruff,” I said to Daphne after I’d spent the last hour showing her some of the ranch. “Don’t let him scare you.”

Her eyes widened. “Scare me?”

“Maybe not the right word. He might not seem overly friendly at first, but that’s just who he is.”

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No, it’s just me. My mom was in a car accident when I was a toddler. She had really bad internal bleeding, and the doctors did a total hysterectomy to save her life.”

“Oh!” Daphne clasped her hand to her mouth. “How awful. I’m sorry.”

“It was hard for her but good for me.” I smiled. “I don’t have to share this place with anyone. I’m the sole heir.”

She swatted me on the arm. “I’m serious.”

“I know. Having a brother or sister would have been nice. My father especially never got over it. It changed him.”

My mother had been driving, so as far as my father was concerned, the accident had been her fault. Once she’d recovered, he started using her for a punching bag, but I didn’t want to lay that on Daphne quite yet. She was so sweet and angelic. She shouldn’t have to deal with something so horrible. By the time I was sixteen, my muscles were bigger, and they were younger than my father’s, so I’d put a stop to it. I’d been worried about living outside the home for college, but my father never touched my mother again.

Instead, he ignored her, treated her like a cow patty on his shoe.

I wasn’t sure which was worse.

“I’m so sorry,” Daphne said.

“Don’t be,” I said. “I’m his only child, so he was hard on me, but I’m more than ready to take over this place when it’s time.”

“You’re so young yet.”

“Like I said, he was hard on me.”

“And your mother?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is she…okay?”

A loaded question. Physically, yes, she was okay. Emotionally? She held her own, but she’d been beaten down for years by my father. When I was fifteen, I tried to get her to leave. Said I’d go with her, and I’d take care of her. But she wouldn’t. She said marriage vows meant something to her, and she would stand by her commitment. Then she got a dreamy look in her eye and said she and my father had been happy once, and one day, she felt sure, they would be again.

It hadn’t happened yet as far as I could see.

Again, when I hit sixteen, I’d stopped the abuse—the physical abuse, anyway.

But when I was seventeen, she lost it and had to be hospitalized for several months.

She was better now. She got through her days and had hobbies that gave her joy. Her greenhouse, for one. She loved flowers, especially tulips.

Still, though, her relationship with my father was icy. The tension was palpable when they were in the same room.

Part of me was glad she was gone this weekend. Daphne would be spared any unpleasant interaction between my parents. My father would be polite to her, in his own way. He’d be glad to see me move on from Wendy. He never liked her, always thought she had some kind of ulterior motive.