Chapter 219: I Will Stay
Chapter 219: I Will Stay
Kingston
“One filet, the rest of your broccolis and some potatoes.” I had cut it down to three things on her plate but I would have preferred for her to eat some of the tomatoes as well.
“Are you trying to negotiate how much I should eat?” She asked in a clear shock.
“No,” I shook my head.
“I am not negotiating, I am telling you.” She gave out a disbelieving laugh.
“Sorry but I can distinctly remember us breaking off our arrangement. You aren't my dominant anymore.”
“The way you addressed me when I tried to wake you up earlier wouldn't completely support your statement. Some part of your unconscious mind would disagree with you.”
She blinked and a second later than a beautiful blush starter painting her cheeks.
“That wasn't a dream.” She murmured embarrassed, my lips twitched.
“Not that part.”
“Oh, that is mildly embarrassing.”
“Don't be, you know I like it when you call me daddy.”
Her entire face was flushed now, and I took great pleasure in making her uncomfortable. Wait, was I teasing her? I didn't tease. I coughed, adjusting the collar of my shirt as I avoided the look of both Riccardo and Marshall who no doubt were watching in shock at our interactions. Not only weren't they used to me talking this much without growling in anger, but I had definitely been teasing her and I had never been in a teasing kind of mood, never.
“Anyway,” I said, feeling less myself than I have ever felt.
“You can get back to bed after you have eaten the rest of the salmon you have started on, the potato and broccoli.” She gasped.
“Y…you can't do that?”
“Can't do what exactly? Give you a condition so you can go back to sleep?”
“Yes, that. We are not in any arrangements anymore, you can't treat me like I'm still your submissive because I am not.”
“We are not in a scene or doing aftercare, so if you want to be technical, I am treating you more like my slave than simply my submissive.”
If it even were possible, her mouth gaped wider in shock.
“But that is neither here nor there, you need food to regain your strength and if you are not taking care of yourself, then we will.” I said, echoing Riccardo's statement.
“Besides, when you are under my roof, I expect you to follow any orders that are meant to help you. And it won't be because I view you as my slave but because I…” I choked, struggling with one simple word.
For some reason, that night at the cafe, my desperation for her to stay made it easier for me to pour my heart out to her. Maybe it was because we had been alone, sheltered in the dark on the night where secrets and feelings were meant to be shared, and this was entirely different.
“It is because I care about you.” I finally choked out.
Her eyes widened at my admission, but before she could say something, Riccardo stepped in.
“We won't let you wither before our eyes.” He said, making Marshall nod in agreement.
“But if you are so set on destroying yourself, you can leave.” He added.
I pinned Riccardo with a look that probably could kill, I took it back. I was not relieved that he was back to his old self, who did he think he was, suggesting she could walk away from us after we had just gotten her back? Although, as much as I hated to admit it, his suggestion was true enough. No matter how much we wanted to keep her, she could leave if she wanted to. It wasn't like we had locked her inside like a prisoner, though we might want to. Still, it didn't mean I liked the thought of her leaving.
“But…but what would I do with him?”
Since she told us about her stalker, I had noticed how she avoided putting a name to what he really was, a stalker, a psychopath, a coward who hid in the shadows, afraid to face us and knowing he would never win. For her to simply call her stalker him, she avoided the frightening reality of her situation.
“You misunderstood me.” Riccardo explained.
“We would never throw you out, but we will also not allow you to starve yourself or not take care of yourself, so if that is your goal, then you can leave. You will still be safe even if you weren't here. We will hire you a bodyguard instead as well as getting you a place with heightened security. We will never stop protecting you, we will just have to do it from a distance.”
“I…” she trailed off, not sure what to say.
“You have a choice, baby girl.” Marshall emphasized.
Wrong, if I had a say in it, she wouldn't have had a choice at all even if I had to chain her to my bed to keep her, I probably would have.
“You can stay and let us take care of you as well as protecting you or you can leave and we will still protect you.”
She swallowed heavily, with a look of uncertainty, she gazed at each one of us, scanning our expression and looking for some sort of sign to what we wanted as if that wasn't obvious. Her eyes dropped to my clenched fist braids my glass of water. We all had our breath, hoping we would still have her when we were finished with our dinner.
“I will…” she swallowed hard again.
“I will stay.”
Collectively, we took a breath of relief and for a second, I wanted to hug that mother-fucker of friend who had suggested she could leave, because of that gamble, he had now mads her agreed to my commandering ways. She was given us control even if it was only to make sure she was well taken care of.
“Then, you know what to do.” I said, giving her food a pointed look.
A ghost of a smile appeared on her lips as she once again reached for her forks and it made me believe that she enjoyed being bossed around even if she objected to it at first. Our relationship had always balanced on giving and taking, we couldn't take if we weren't giving ourselves else she would end up with nothing left at all. She was the kind of person who needed to give and with the wrong people, they would have drained her completely and without mercy. Our relationship was symbiotic. We had different needs and wants, and our personality couldn't have been more dissimilar but our nature was dependent on the other. Like the other was the piece of the puzzle to make you complete. My phone buzzed, breaking the comfortable silence. Normally, I had a rule against phones at the dinner table but glancing at her, I knew these type of rules were only guidelines and my guidelines now aligned more with making sure our girl was safe than simply having some peace while we ate.
Seeing who had called, I rose from my seat and walked out. I didn't bother with giving excuses or some other good manners type of bullshit. I retreated to my office, seeking a place I could listen to undisturbed. Accepting the call, I ordered.
“Speak!”
“You were right,” the girl on the other line said, jumping straight to the point.
The fist holding the phone clenched as she confirmed my suspicions.
“I ran an analysis of her phone and found the spy program. From what I could find out, it will allow whoever installed it to remotely control her phone. In theory, they should be able to delete messages, cut off phone calls and track it. It would be as if the hacker had the phone in their hands, so whatever you could do to your own phone, they could as well.”
“Were you able to find the fucker who installed it on my girl's phone?” I asked, blood boiling in my veins at the dead fucking guy who messed with the wrong girl.
“Afraid not, this bastard is smart and knows how to hide his signal through multiple IP addresses. It could take me days, if not weeks to find where the signal originated from and by then, he will be long gone. If he isn't already.”
My teeth grinded and that anger was burning me inside out.
“Stay on top of it, if he sends anything to her phone, I want to know the second it happens.”
“You can count on that, as long as you keep paying me, I will be a damn hound on that bastard.
Ending the call, I felt the urge to fling the device or break something. I wanted to hear glass shattered as it hit the wall or preferably having a face to beat in more than anything would state some of my fury. The ringmaster will know when the next fight was and where, I will have to hit him up soon.
As I got back to the kitchen and my eyes settled on her, I could feel the fury calm into a manageable level and all it took was seeing her. The thing about her that both intrigued me and unsettled me was how she could tame my anger. Fúck's sake, if this continues, she would have me pussy whipped in no fucking time.
“What was that about?” Riccardo asked.
I ignored him, and instead sought the attention of our girl. She had almost finished the broccoli but she still had a third of the salmon left, and I wasn't happy with the little she had taken of the potato.
“What?” She questioned when I had stared at her for far too long.
“I had some check on your phone.” I said in a harsh whisper. She laid down her fork and gave me her full attention.
“And?”
“And you need to write down a list of everyone who might have had access to your phone and I mean everyone, even that best friend of yours.”
Hell, especially that best friend of hers. After all, it was those closest to us who had the power to do the most damage and didn't I fucking know it.