Hold Me (Love The Way Duet 2)

We’re going to have to talk about it, and soon. This is a crucial boundary between the two of us. When I’ll come over, and how long I’ll stay. I need to make clear to her that she was only agreeing to the relationship we had before, nothing else. I’ll help her as her Dom. Although I would never make this arrangement with anyone else who couldn’t leave the confines of their home. With the only other 24/7 power exchange relationship I’ve had, the only true D/s relationship, she lived with me. Quincy.

Quincy, who has been the subject of at least one phone call this morning. A phone call I let go to voicemail. The hearing’s coming up, and I don’t want to talk about it.

A larger sheet of rain sweeps across the yard and taps more forcefully against the windowpane. I’ve never lived in a place like this, with all this space.

All this wealth.

Across the house, the front door opens. I hear it click shut quietly. It’s far too early for Silas to switch off with Damon. The footsteps and the jingle of keys is telling. I stay where I am, my jaw clenching slightly. He can come to me.

Kamden appears in the sitting room doorway with my temper barely contained, the anger still palpable. The air between us seems thick. Weighted. He narrows his eyes and watches me from the opening, then straightens up and strides in, taking the seat across from me. He’s exaggerated about it. Casual. But it’s not casual, and we both know it. From the tight set of his jaw I think he might like to hit me. The very idea begs my lips to pull up into a smirk, but I keep my expression neutral.

It seems we feel the same about one another.

He lets the silence stretch out, and so do I. I’ve thought about what I’d say to him, but every conversation is different as I play it out. More importantly, I need to be careful. He’s Ella’s conservator. There is far too much at risk for her to allow my ego to take center stage.

Everything outside of the two of us, is a risk. She isn’t in charge of her own decisions. I don’t have authority in that aspect of her life either. Pissing off the wrong person could end in me not having access to her at all. Had I not been able to convince Cade and Kamden, things could be very different right now. The Firm, Kamden, even her closest friends. One wrong step and we could be buried in problems I don’t know how to get out of.

Wind rushes outside the window now. The rain lets up a little, then comes back down hard. It’s one of those fall storms that steals the warmth from the air and makes it feel frigid afterward, even if snow is weeks from falling. The heat kicks on in Ella’s house, with the faintest of clicks. Other than the leather groaning beneath Kamden as he readjusts to lean forward, his elbows on his knees, it’s the only sound in the room. But not for long.

“If you hurt her, I will destroy you,” Kamden says beneath his breath.

I stare at him across the space between us. “That a threat, Kam?” A heat travels up my spine and across my shoulders. Instinctively, my fingers curl slightly, ready to ball into fists.

“It’s a promise.” His voice is clear, raised so there’s no doubt I can hear. “You wouldn’t be the first man who thought he could use her.”

A crease forms between my brows as my eyes narrow at him. That’s fucking rich, coming from the man who installed cameras in her home to spy on her. Fucking rich. Every ounce of anger calls at the back of my throat. Keeping a stone-cold expression I’m careful with my response, knowing full well the power he has over her. I’ve never hated a soul more than him.

“I’m not using Ella.”

“Of course you are.” His statement comes with a sadness he fails to contain. If I’m not mistaken, a fear as well. He stares into the empty fireplace, refusing to look back at me. “Even if you don’t want to admit it. You’re using her.”

“You’d know that from experience, right?”

“Fuck you,” Kamden spits, his eyes coming back to mine. I’ve pissed him off enough with that one remark to make color come to his cheeks. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. She’s like my little sister.”

I want to call him out on the cameras. Even if Ella were Kamden’s little sister, he sure as hell shouldn’t have been putting up cameras without asking her. But a guy like Kamden will have come up with a justification for himself. One that I won’t be able to change, or counter.