Page 432 of Hate Mates

I knew she was on the move early this morning from the tracker on her vehicle. Leaving before her normal time of seven a.m. on Tuesdays obviously to avoid having breakfast with me after I teased her last night. When she was headed on her route to school, I let Thomas take over watching her. I just never expected him to surprise me with this deviation from her regular routine.

I’m in my car and blowing down the interstate trying to outrun my panic as well as old demons. I hate thinking about Justus and what happened to him at the waterfall.

Guilt and regret make you weak. I refuse to let that happen. I have too much responsibility to keep my family safe and our business strong. I can’t allow emotions to interfere with my obligations.

Yet, Colby keeps distracting me, which most of the time I welcome more than I care to admit. Now, she’s disrupting my life in the worst possible way.

In twenty minutes, I’m parking next to her blue X6. Thomas and his team, loaded in three black SUVs, idle behind me. I appreciate the loyalty of them racing along to protect me, but I don’t have time to offer my gratitude.

I have to get to my wife.

The trail to the clearing is about half a mile, not made easy hiking in a suit. I am going to fuck her up once I know she’s okay.

The farther I go into the woods, the angrier I get. This is fucking bullshit putting herself in danger like this. She will be on complete lockdown going forward.

No classes.

No friends.

No nothing.

Just in my fucking house fucking tied to the bed so I can fucking punish her the way she fucking deserves.

My body shakes with rage when I catch sight of her standing at the overlook clutching the railing.

Thank fuck.

If she was in the area without any barriers, I would have spanked her right here.

I don’t trust myself to grab her lest I accidentally lose my grip. Instead, I force myself to slowly shrug off my coat since I’m burning up from the inferno inside me and toss my jacket ontothe grass. I take a few steps closer. “You know how to ruin a pair of thousand-dollar shoes, don’t you, kitten?”

Her head droops forward, and she emits a tortured sigh. “Really? I just wanted a few minutes by myself to think and here you are stalking me again.”

That’s not a lie. I do stalk her. This time following her is more than warranted. I cannot lose her. “Come and we’ll talk about it.”

“Go home, you psycho. There’s nothing to talk about.”

Normally, our banter gets me hard. All the blood that usually races to my cock when I’m in her vicinity sprints to my chest this time. “I’m not fucking around Colby. Get over here.”

Ready for war, she whirls around with her fists on her hips and her mouth open prepared to start yelling. The fury morphs into confusion as we lock eyes, and she frowns at me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just step away from the edge.”

This terror I’m not used to pervades my muscles, and I feel almost feral in my need for her to for once fucking listen and obey. “Baby please.”

Her body softens and with each inch she moves closer to me, I feel my lungs working again. I grab her as soon as she’s within reach and slam her body into mine.

Shockingly, she doesn’t fight my death grip on her. Even more astonishing, she wraps her arms around my waist and rests her head on my chest.

I suck in air, flooding my lungs with her jasmine scent and close my eyes.

My wife is finally safe.

Colby

What the hell?

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