Page 54 of The Dominator

I got dressed, brushed my hair, brushed my teeth, and washed my face.

When I got back out, he was sitting on the bed tapping away at his phone screen. I sat down. He wandered into the bathroom and came back out wearing the khaki t-shirt I’d slept in. He looked at me warmly. “Eat something, baby.”

I smiled a little and nodded. I lifted the tray’s lid and there was an assortment of fruit, muffins, pastries, bagels, with little butter, cream cheese, and jam pots. There was also a carafe of coffee, milk, sugar, and a jug of orange juice. My stomach rumbled loudly.

“Coffee?” I asked him.

“Yeah, please.”

I remembered he took cream, no sugar, due to Sarah’s sugar weaning. Me? I was having 3 sugars today. There were things in life that were far more evil than sugar.

I passed him a cup, my hand trembling a little. I moved the suitcase onto the floor, sat on the wicker chair and looked out the window. We were in a woodsy area, so really, the only thing to look at was the trees.

“I’m putting you on a plane in a few hours with Dare,” he said, not looking up at me. “I’ll be taking care of a few things and then I’ll be home later tonight or maybe tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I said.

Then he looked up and while I was still looking out the window, I could feel that he was watching me. He watched me for a long time. I didn’t look in his eyes because I was afraid of what I’d see. I knew in my gut that he was sticking around for revenge reasons.

He cleared his throat. “I need to go downstairs and organize a few things. You okay for a bit?”

I nodded, glancing in his direction and then back at the floor. I felt scrutinized, uncomfortable. There was this intensity coming off him that was making my heart race.

“You’ll eat?”

I nodded again.

He leaned over and kissed me softly on the lips and then he leaned down and got into his boots, rolled up his pant leg, and then grabbed the holster and fastened it and I turned away so I didn’t have to watch him arming himself. When I looked back in his direction, he was putting a gun into the back of his waistband and then he left the room. I felt like I was going to cry again, but I didn’t. I was sort of surprised he’d kissed me like that, maybe feeling like my mouth was an unclean place because of what I’d told him last night. I felt my heart tug at the idea that I was wrong.

Why did he rescue me? Why didn’t he just leave me here? And why was the fact that he’d kissed me so touching to me?

Anger didn’t begin to describe what was inside me pacing and biding time until I could unleash it.

Wrath, rage, fury? They might come close if they were each multiplied a hundred thousand times.

Things were in motion that would bring the Castillo cartel to their knees. Juan Carlos Castillo would be torn limb from limb, and I would personally piss on the bones of Earl Johnson. My heart felt coal black right now and if it hadn’t been for the fact that she needed me more last night, I’d have already gone off to take care of it.

Listening to her in that bathroom throwing up, brushing her teeth, throwing up again, sobbing, it went on for so long and listening to her fall apart like that, it broke me like I couldn’t ever remember being broken before. I felt so fucking helpless then. I never wanted to feel that way again. Ever.

Now I needed to get her home and I needed to get this done so that I could get the rage out of my head. That rage had never felt so strong in my life, and I hoped I could channel it into ridding this earth of the scum that were responsible for taking her from me and for putting her through that. And then I could go home and start my life with her and take advantage of the clean slate it felt like she was giving me.

What had happened to her here had upgraded me from villain to hero in her eyes and when I got home, I was making her my wife and taking this opportunity, fucked up as it was, to build a real relationship with her.

That t-shirt smelled like her. I’d given it to her last night and then worn it deliberately today. It was comforting to me to have her scent on my body, knowing what I was going to do next.

I was having Dare bring her home because I needed her the fuck out of Mexico and right now, he was the only one I trusted to keep her safe. He and I had shared a few glances that told me he now knew how important protecting her was to me. When I got home, I’d re-vet employees to determine who would be in the inner circle for keeping her safe. I’d also find out the truth about why Pop had given her to me and I’d make that lowlife father of hers pay whatever penance I deemed necessary.

Yeah, I knew it was fucked up that I’d punish him for the very reason I was lucky enough to own her but that’s just how I felt about it.

I wasn’t kidding myself, thinking that the darkness inside of me that wanted her submission, her fear, was gone. But right now, I had a different place to channel that need, that hunger. I’d figure the rest out later.

I ate a surprisingly decent amount of food and then I waited for him to come back. I fell asleep and a while later woke up to his lips on my forehead. My hands came up and rested on his chest.

“Hi,” I said.

His eyes crinkled and he smiled a little.

“Time to go,” he said and then kissed me on the mouth quickly and began digging through the suitcase. He looked angry and stressed. I felt the desire to do something about it, so I could see warmth in his eyes again. I just didn’t know what to do to bring it back.

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