Page 36 of Protecting Charity

Luca collapsed to the bed beside me with a deep-chested groan and stared into my vacant eyes.

I allowed my mind to retreat into its own work of horrors with a fucking smile on my face I tried to smother.

"Where are you right now?"

"Somewhere between, your beast scares me and let’s do it again.”

His chest rumbled with a hum. “Don’t get in the habit of breaking it out of the cage.”

I sighed as he placed kisses down my spine, contemplating the what ifs. What happens if I'm just some girl of convenience, like all the other girls coming and going throughout the years. There would be no going back to normal after I got a taste of this.

"Oh, my God. What time is it?" I jerked up and glanced at my watch. "No. No. Shit. I'm going to be late."

"Late for what?" he asked as I jumped from the bed and found my clothes sans underwear, and threw them back on.

"Dinner with my parents."

"I'll have Vito drive you."

He pulled on his pants and padded over to the door.

"Yeah, right. I'll get a taxi. That wouldn't be weird at all having to explain that to my parents."

"Okay, but you come right back here when you're done."

I laughed because if he thought he could fuck me into submission, he was more delusional than he thought I was. The answer was the same as I told Max: no. I didn't respond. Better to not acknowledge his controlling demands.

"I know you heard me."

I rushed out of his bedroom and flew down the stairs, hoping a taxi would be right around the corner and I wouldn't have to wait long. Swinging the door open, Max strode through and sidestepped, causing us to narrowly miss a collision. He put his hands out to brace me. "Whoa, where are you going in such a rush?"

"I'm going to be late for dinner."

"Oh well, perfect timing then. I have your car."

I gave him a curious look. What was he doing with my car?

"My car?"

"Yeah, I had it fixed today."

"You did that for me?" I locked my arms around him and placed a searing kiss on his lips, hoping he would feel my gratitude. "Thank you, Max."

He chuckled. "You're welcome."

I held my hand out for the keys, and he dropped them into my open palm. "Gotta go." Racing out to Luca's car, I grabbed my bags, having no intentions of coming back here tonight, and placed them in my car, and sped off before he noticed and could say something.

It was the unexpected kindness that threw me off my game. I couldn't recall a time where Max went out of his way to do something this sweet. Sure, he took time out of his day for me, but that wasn't the same as paying to have my car fixed and actually setting up the process.

I pulled into my parents' driveway and pulled up into my space behind my father's cruiser when I noticed another vehicle sitting in the driveway—a car I have never seen before. I heard a man's voice I didn't recognize from the dining room, and I knew I was going to bury my mother in a shallow grave where the wildlife could pick her bones. She promised she wouldn't do this again. Rounding the corner, a man I remembered sat at the table beside my father in the space Josh would generally hold.

My stomach lurched with unease, and I slipped a plastic smile across my lips.

"Ah, Charity, you made it. I want you to meet Agent Owen Harding. He's working with us on a case," Dad said.

I raised my hand in a half-ass wave. "Hi."

Sitting down next to Mom, I glared at her. I think my father saw where I was heading with my attitude towards her because he spoke up. "Owen here didn't have any dinner plans, so I invited him over." Either he was saving her from my wrath, or it was all innocent, and I was reading into it.

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