She flinched as his voice grew loud and he groaned as he set her down. “Shit, brown eyes. Sorry. I have a temper. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
“No, it isn’t.” The words came from the cold-eyed man, which shocked her.
She glanced over at him.
“Ink is furious because he cares about you and doesn’t want any harm to come to you, however he needs to watch his tone around you.”
Ink snarled and she worried he was going to jump the other man. But to her shock, he took a deep breath and nodded. Then he looked over at her. “Reyes is right. Christ, brown eyes, sorry for scaring you.”
“I know you won’t hurt me,” she told him, meaning every word. “All men have ever done is hurt me. So it was a shock when I realized I was attracted to you. That I felt safe with you. Nobody has ever protected me, Ink.”
He cupped her face between his hands. “So let me keep you safe.”
“Don’t you understand that I want to? I want that more than anything. The only thing I want more is to answer yes to your question.”
“What?” He gave her a confused look.
“I want to be your submissive, your Little,” she told him.
Satisfaction flooded him. She would be his.
“But I can’t do that while Forrest is a threat. If we get something on him, if we keep the boys out of his hands, maybe you’ll all be safe.”
“I’m going to get you to put yourself at the top of the list of people who are important and need to be kept safe if it takes me fucking years and countless spankings and time outs.”
She could feel her cheeks heat, and she couldn’t help but glance around at everyone.
“Don’t look at them. Look at me. They all know what you are to me. Fucking precious. And I’ll do anything to keep you safe.”
“I don’t see how you can forgive me for lying to you.”
“But you weren’t lying, were you, brown eyes? That’s the thing. Maybe you met me under false pretenses, maybe you kept some secrets, but if your reactions were real, your feelings were real—”
“They were,” she told him.
“Then there’s nothing to forgive. Doesn’t mean that I’ll tolerate you keeping anything from me in the future. I’m going to know everything. And I’ll be demanding. You get your period, someone cuts you off in a parking lot, you get a damn paper cut, you will tell me.”
The demand in his face was clear. The expectations were set.
And all she could do was nod. “I’ll tell you everything.”
The look of raw satisfaction on his face shocked her. And at the same time, it flooded her with heat. She’d never had anyone want her like this. Rex had wanted her
as arm candy, to be a mother to his sons, to make his life easier. Her mother had wanted her to be quiet, obedient, perfect. And Forrest wanted her for his own reasons. To have someone to use and manipulate.
But never had any of them wanted what Ink did.
It scared her. And thrilled her. She could lose herself in him. But considering she had no idea who she was, maybe that didn’t even matter.
“Guy downstairs is getting extremely antsy,” Brody said. “What’s the verdict on Betsy going back?”
Ink’s jaw clenched tight. “You’ve got three days to get the information before I pull you out. We make a date for Wednesday night. You’re leaving then and not going back whether you have it or not. I’ll get Matthieu to remove your sons on the same day. Brody, how can you get her what she needs?”
“Got a pen drive here. Always come prepared, boss. You know that. All you have to do is plug it in and make sure the computer is on. It will do the rest.” Brody handed her the small pen drive. “Can you hide that?”
She swallowed. “They don’t strip search me. They don’t expect me to rebel. I’ll put it in my bra.”