Page 40 of If You Fight

“Naked it is,” she yelled in from the bedroom. “Naked, wet, and dying to feel your mouth on me.”

As always, I’d be counting the seconds until I saw her again.

***

Robert sat alonein his office when I arrived, so I knocked on his door since I wasn’t sure I would be welcome there anymore. He may have promised Serena he wouldn’t have me beaten again, but that didn’t mean he still thought of me as someone he could trust.

He looked up from his laptop and stared at me, his dark eyebrows rising into his forehead like he was surprised to see me standing there. “Ready to get back to work again?”

I nodded but still didn’t enter his office. I didn’t know what I expected, but I didn’t want to push my luck and overstep my bounds on my first day back.

“You can come in, Ryder. Nothing’s changed.”

Everything in his demeanor said otherwise, and my broken ribs seemed like strong evidence that things had definitely changed between us. I walked in and took my position against the bookcase on the far wall as he continued whatever he was doing on his laptop.

He may have wanted me to think nothing had changed, but something in the air felt different. If I knew Robert, he liked the idea of me wondering when the other shoe would drop. It gave him power over me, something he’d always enjoyed in that sick way of his.

After fifteen minutes of waiting for him to say something, I began to wonder if having me waiting on pins and needles was exactly what my job would be. Sort of free amusement for a sadist.

Not that I expected an apology for what he’d done to me. He’d never apologized to Serena for any of the horrible things he’d done to her, and nothing made me believe he felt any remorse for having me beaten within an inch of my life.

I’d betrayed him, and he’d punished me for it. To Robert, it was as simple as that. You were either loyal or not. I’d made the mistake of being disloyal, and he’d made me pay for it.

The question was just how long he would make me continue to pay. I didn’t care as long as I was the one paying and not Serena.

Finally, he looked up from his laptop and nodded. “We’ve got a big day ahead of us. I want you to accompany me to a meeting I have with Tamsin Industries. Are you up to it?”

His gaze slid down my body to where his guys cracked my ribs, and I instinctively winced in pain. “I’ll be fine. Whatever you need, I’m good.”

That familiar crocodile smile spread across his face. With a chuckle, he said, “This meeting ought to be enjoyable. My company is planning a hostile takeover, and this is Tamsin’s last chance to give in before I begin turning the screws. I love these kinds of meetings. There’s nothing like squeezing the life out of someone when you know you can.”

I knew how much he loved that kind of power and wondered if Serena and I would ever be safe again as long as we stayed at that house. The sooner we got out, the better, before we were the ones he was turning the screws on.

Pretending that I didn’t believe he was talking about lording his power over me or his daughter, I smiled and said, “You’re going to own the entire mining industry soon.”

He dismissed my flattery with a wave of his hand. “Oh no. Tamsin isn’t mining. It’s pharmaceuticals. It’s best to always make sure to have more than one iron in the fire.”

What I knew about Robert’s actual businesses added up to very little. He usually kept me involved in the illegal parts of his empire, so trying to discuss anything about his mining interests or his planned hostile takeover of a pharmaceutical company left me with little to say.

But I had the sense he had more on his mind, so I did my smile and nod routine and prepared to fake listen to him brag about his business expertise. When he didn’t continue talking and returned his attention to his laptop, I had to admit I was thankful. I still didn’t feel entirely comfortable there with him, but at least silence meant he wasn’t threatening me or Serena.

After a few minutes, he closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair. “You know, I gave my daughter permission to be with you. Do you know why?”

Not a single answer I came up with sounded like anything I should actually say out loud, so I merely shook my head and remained quiet.

“I like you, Ryder. I always have. I didn’t want to have you beaten like I did. It pained me to hurt you. I think of you like a son in many ways. The son I never had. But I didn’t have a choice. You betrayed me, so there had to be consequences.”

For a moment, I considered asking why he was allowing Serena and me to be together then, but I decided now wasn’t the time for being cocky. Better to let Robert just talk since he didn’t look like he was finished quite yet.

“I guess in hindsight I should have predicted this would happen. I mean, after catching you and Serena that night in your bedroom before I sent her to Italy, I guess it was just a matter of time. I thought she’d outgrown you when I saw the two of you together at Janelle’s wedding, but I should have known better. Once Serena cares for someone, that love never dies. I can say that for her.”

“We never meant to make you angry by being together,” I said quietly, feeling like I needed to explain myself in some way.

He looked past me toward the top of the bookcase and chuckled. “I wasn’t angry. I knew she never loved Oliver, and I guess in retrospect, that marriage never had a chance.”

I wanted to say he was as much to blame for that marriage being a failure as we were, but I didn’t. Maybe it was the pain in my side practically bringing tears to my eyes as I stood there, or maybe it was the feeling that there was no point in trying to explain to Robert that forcing someone to marry someone they didn’t love wasn’t right.

Suddenly, he returned his focus to me and knitted his eyebrows. When he began speaking, it felt like he was intentionally taking his time so I understood his point. “I’m going to warn you. Sleep with one eye open, son. If it was Janelle you were with, I’d say you’ve got it made. She’s entirely predictable and easily placated. But Serena is nothing like her sister. There’s something in her I can’t put my finger on. She’s like her mother, and to this day, I still can’t explain why she did the things she did. Serena’s not ruled by logic, and those kinds of people don’t live by the same rules we do. Watch yourself.”

Whatever rules he thought I lived by, nothing I based my life on resembled what he believed in the least. He didn’t know Serena because he’d never seen her as anything but something to use and manipulate for his own gains.

That her heart ruled her was one of the reasons I loved her. I said nothing in response to his warnings and merely continued to smile as the truth began to sink in. Robert not only didn’t understand her.

He didn’t believe that we could actually be in love.

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