Page 30 of Cruel Dominion

To raise children with.

There was one once, but I’d gone and ruined that, just like I’d ruined so many things before it.

I wasn’t cut out to be a husband. Not anymore. Not after everything I’d done. What I’d become in her absence.

My footsteps echoed through the empty entrance hall as I made my way to the living room. I kicked off my boots and peeled off my socks, opening the door to the verandah that wrapped around the entire back of the house. The smell of diffused sandalwood giving way to ocean brine and cold sand.

Enough of the homes in the neighborhood, mine included, were second or third homes, so the beach was never crowded, even during the day. Not like the northside beaches. With syringes and trash poking out of the sand.

I walked out onto the beach, the sea air refreshing me from the inside out. I stopped just outside my property line, stuck still by the silhouette of a woman interrupting the view.

The immediate association I had made me shake my head. I didn’t bother fighting the feeling clawing its way through me as memory after memory assaulted me.

I almost forgot what it was like, feeling something other than numbness and rage.

I remembered lying on the sand with her, walking out on the pier and dangling our legs over the side. The sound of her laugh. The feel of her. I wouldn’t trade that summer for all the money in the world.

Except you did exactly that, you ruinous bastard.

Squinting through the darkness, I moved closer, ready to give a gruff nod to whoever it was as I passed them for my usual walk down the shoreline.

My jaw went slack. Even in the dark, even this far away, I knew the way she moved.

Anna shifted her weight onto one foot, pulling her arms tighter around herself with a shiver as a cool wind swept up the shore.

Her skirt billowed. She had to hold her hand to her face against the breeze to stop her hair battering it. It wasn’t all that dark, but she hadn’t noticed me yet. Her head tilted down to the sand as she turned away from the wind with a scowl on her face. Tension across her shoulders.

It reminded me…

It reminded me of so many other nights where she’d walk down this beach looking exactly like she did now, only younger. With less curves to her body. With shadows carved not quite so deeply beneath her eyes.

The sound of crashing waves disguised the sounds of my approach. I was close enough to kiss her neck before I finally spoke.

“Do you know how many times I came out here hoping I’d see you?”

Anna shrieked, jumping back at least a foot, shoving at my reaching hands as she struggled to regain her footing with a glare.

She wore a conservative blue silk dress, perfectly tailored to her shape but revealing little of her skin. The neckline wasn’t even low enough to show her collarbone, while the skirt hung just below her knees. She’d swept her hair up into an elegant updo, looking every inch the perfect governor’s daughter.

I wanted to rip that fucking dress in half.

Anna collected herself, straightening her shoulders.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. It sounded more like an accusation than a question.

I peered down the beach, the way she would’ve had to come and frowned when I didn’t see any trace of life. Where were my men?

She shouldn’t have been out here alone, and by her lack of pockets or purse, she’d taken off without even her phone to call for help.

Anna, Anna, Anna.

What was I going to do with her?

I made a mental note to call Paulson and remind him his neck only stayed unbroken because he was good at his job. Any more slips like this one and I’d assume his skull didn’t need to be connected to his spine anymore.

“I live here,” I told her.

I gestured to the villa behind me and her lips formed a perfect O of surprise.

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