The Wife Breaker by Isabella Starling

Chapter 12

HEATH

My fingers absentmindedly stroke Rain’s hair as she sits beside my desk. I’m going through emails and letters, pacing myself before I tell my toy the news.

I can feel her looking up at me, hopeful eyes trying to catch my attention. She’s practically begging for me to notice her. Little does she know, I barely register the words I’m reading. I’m so distracted by having her near me.

“We’re hosting an event tonight,” I tell Rain in a lazy, drawn out voice. “There will be quite a few people coming, and I’d like you to be there. Think of it as a test so you can show me what you’re like on your best behavior. Maybe I’ll treat you nicer if you impress me.”

“I... I don’t want to go.”

My eyes snap to hers before I can stop myself, betraying my surprise.

“Why not?”

“I... have had awful experiences with parties,” she mutters, looking at the floor. “I’m afraid.”

“Don’t be.” Once again, I’m betrayed by my need to protect her. “Nothing bad will happen. Just trust me and you’ll have plenty of fun.”

She nods, and even though I can see she’s still worried about it, she seems to have calmed down a little.

“I have another surprise for you,” I tell her. “I have some people here to help you get ready. I know Xavier controlled the way you looked... So I thought it would be fun if you got to pick for yourself.”

Her eyes light up with pleasure and she nods, saying, “I’d like that very much.”

“Good girl. Here, put this on.” I hand her a pink box with a white bow and she smiles widely, tearing into it like a child.

It makes me wonder just how many of these moments Rain has been deprived of. Not just because of Xavier, but the way she was brought up, too. She had to live her life in hiding. How many of these simple pleasures has she even had in her life?

Pain clutches my heart, and I realize I feel sorry for her.

She opens the box to reveal a light pink silk robe trimmed with lace. She puts it over her naked body, and as much as I hate that her pretty curves are now hidden from me, I love how the gift looks on her. And I’m even more thrilled because she seems to love it. She twirls for me, her long golden hair bouncing in curls on her shoulders. The black dye has almost completely washed out now, thank fuck. She looks just the way I remember, but now she isn’t a little girl anymore.

Now, Rain is a woman.

I escort her down the stairs into a salon where several people are already waiting. A row of stunning dresses awaits Rain’s perusal while women stand by to help her do her hair, makeup and nails any way she wants.

“I love it!” Rain seems delighted as she takes in the sights, her fingertips dancing over the fabric of the dresses on the rail.

“I knew you would.”

“Are you leaving?” she asks, turning to face me with her smile fading.

“No,” I grin. “I thought I’d stay a while and watch you try a few of them on.”

Her smile spreads, and she runs toward me as if she’s going to hug me. But at the last moment, she changes her mind and comes to a stop, flushing. When she raises her eyes back to meet mine, I can tell she’s trying to contain her excitement.

“Thank you,” she finally says, her voice soft and just the right amount of fearful.

I nod and sit in a leather armchair while a maid brings me a cigar. I’m eager for something else, something more, but tell myself I’ll save it for the party so I can get an even better rush. Instead, I take puffs of the cigar and pour myself a whiskey, watching Rain disappear into the powder room with an assistant to change. If it weren’t a woman in there with her, I’d be losing my shit.

A moment later the door opens and she reappears in a red, one-shouldered dress that takes my breath away.

The dress is structured, fitting her perfectly. The bodice is sweetheart-shaped and her waist is so damn tiny I could clasp my hands around it.

“What do you think?” Rain asks, twirling before me and worriedly waiting for my reaction. “Is it too much?”

“No,” I mutter, trying not to show my genuine emotions. “It’s beautiful. I fucking love it. Do you?”

She nods with a wistful smile before glancing guiltily at the rack of clothes remaining in the room.

“You should try them all on,” I smirk. “In fact, I’m not leaving until I get to see you in all of them.”

She does her best to hide her smile and disappears back into the powder room.

For the next hour, I watch her try on gown after gown. The whole time, I’m hiding my hard cock, eager to escape the constraints of my trousers so I can make her suck it.

The dresses are exquisite, but more than the clothes, I notice the woman wearing them.

Rain looks radiant. Since I found out who she was, I’ve taken special care of how she’s being treated. I make sure she eats well, gets exercise in a private gym next to her room, and gets to indulge every little vice Xavier forbade just to be a dick. She gets books, bubble baths, deliveries of perfume, jewelry and more to keep her content. And she seems to respond well, already looking so much different from when she was first brought in.

By the end, I’m only registering the color of the dresses, too caught up in Rain to notice anything else. She glows from within, just like she did when I first met her. And this radiance within her... it’s dangerous. I cannot allow myself to get weak for her.

“I’ll see you at the party tonight.” I pick myself up from the chair abruptly and Rain’s face instantly falls.

“Oh, you have to go?”

“I have some business to attend to,” I lie smoothly. “Pick anything you want for tonight and keep the rest. I’m excited to see you.”

I feel her eyes burning my back as I walk out of the room, but she doesn’t call out for me, and I don’t turn back.

Once I’m safe in the confines of my study, I lean against the desk. It’s getting really fucking hard to stop this hungry feeling. My body wants drugs and my mind only hesitates for a second before I pull open a drawer and pull out a bag of white powder.

I snort it off the edge of a knife and put it back into the sheath at my belt. The powder kicks in fast, making me dizzy as I stumble to the chair behind my desk. I sit down as the world spins around me.

Fuck, this addiction is getting worse. Now, the thing I once saw as my enemy is something I can’t live without. And while I’ve been taking less now that Rain’s here... I’m nowhere near done with this shit.

I don’t know how much time passes as I sit back on the chair and watch the world spin, but all the business I was supposed to do is forgotten. I hear the phone ringing but ignore it and stare at the ceiling instead. I’m so fucked up. And it feels so damn good.

Hours later, I stand in the grand hall of the Palacio with my hands clasped behind me. Rain appears at the top of the grand marble staircase, and I’m pleased to see she picked the first dress I was so in love with.

She descends the stairs, her eyes finding mine in the room and silently begging for me to be kind.

I can tell she’s afraid of this dinner, but I have nothing sinister planned. This is an evening I want to bring Rain to, not my newest toy. Tonight, she doesn’t get to be Xavier’s wife. She gets to be mine. And something tells me she’s going to love that.

She reaches me, and I wrap my arm around her thin wrist. The only jewelry she’s wearing is a dainty gold necklace and a matching bracelet. She looks intoxicating, and I whisper as much in her ear.

“Thank you,” she responds. “I’m nervous.”

“Don’t be. You’re just going to meet a couple of my friends.”

I lead her into a room that’s thick with cigar smoke and lit by soft, sensual lighting. There, my friends are sitting on couches, some of them playing pool on a billiard table and some on the balcony overlooking the grounds.

Rain presses her body against mine, trembling.

“You already know most of them,” I tell her softly. “And they all know who you are already.”

“They do?”

“Yes,” I smirk. “Now come on, let’s say hello.”

Liberato sees us first, quickly approaching and smiling at Rain.

“Good to see you,” he says politely before turning his attention to me. “How did the call go?”

“We’ll talk about it later,” I mutter, dragging Rain past him and onto the couch. I pull her onto my lap and steal Cannon’s glass, taking a long sip while he laughs, shaking his head at me.

“You going to properly introduce us?” Cannon asks. “Since she’s crashing, I think we deserve it.”

“I’m crashing?” Rain narrows her eyes at me. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“This is our weekly night together,” Liberato smirks, joining us. “You’re allowed to bring a date, but only one.”

“Only one per visit?” Rain asks.

“No,” I smirk, nuzzling her neck to whisper the rest in her ear. “One per lifetime.”

Her eyes zero in on mine and she pales. She just realized how fucking serious I am about this, and now that it’s sunk in, I’m wondering if she’ll get scared. But she doesn’t budge, just smiles at me knowingly before pulling me in for a kiss.

For the time being, Rain is my date. I’d never let a toy push my buttons this way, but I can’t help myself around her, not with the way she looks tonight.

We chat to the men while she sits comfortably perched on my lap. She keeps touching me, and I wonder whether she even notices how much she’s touching me. Her fingers tangle in my hair, she kisses my neck, grinds against the hardness in my pants. Her attention is constantly on me, even as she chats to the other men.

I excuse myself an hour into the evening and call Cannon aside. In the hallway, I lean in and ask him to monitor Rain for me.

“Anything particular you want me to pay attention to?” he asks.

“How she acts with the other men. I want to know if she’ll misbehave.”

“You got it,” Cannon nods, heading back inside the salon while I head upstairs to make the call I’ve been avoiding all week.

I lock the door behind me and groan before dialing the number I’ve been getting all those missed calls from. The line rings, but someone quickly picks up, already sounding annoyed.

“Gunn?”

“That’s right,” I say. “Dragon cartel, am I correct?”

“We’ve been waiting for your call,” the voice hisses. “You’ve been avoiding us for weeks. Perhaps it’s because of that new house guest of yours?”

I narrow my eyes. They must have a spy around here, because nobody knows about Rain being here. Fucking hell, I’m going to have to do another background check on all my people.

“Get to the point,” I growl instead of threatening them.

“We want a meeting, now.”

“Then let me meet with your leader.”

“We cannot.”

I rub my temples, asking, “Why the fuck not? I don’t do business unless it’s eye-to-eye. And we both know how pressing this matter is.”

“A face-to-face meeting is not something we can offer.”

“Well, then you can kiss your deal goodbye,” I growl. “It’s off.”

“You can’t do that.”

“I can do anything I want. I control the borders, and you know it.”

I hear the hesitation on the other end. It’s enough for me to know they’ll cave eventually, so I cut the call. Heading back downstairs, I prepare myself for the sight of Rain. No doubt she’ll make my cock rock hard again. I can only hope she won’t be giving me a reason to punish her.

“Heath.”

I turn to face Cannon, who’s just exited the salon, looking pale as fuck.

“What?” I demand.

“Don’t go in there.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Trust me,” he mutters, his nerves betraying him. “Just don’t-“

I ignore him, pushing him to the side. My heart jumps as I enter the salon in anticipation of what I’m going to see before me. My worst fear is Rain being gone. Either killed or taken away by the man who ruined my life once before. But she’s in there alright, happily laughing along with my friends.

She’s sitting on Phoenix’s lap. As I walk in, Rain leans forward, and he kisses her deeply.

I was worried about how I’d control myself in a situation like this, but the calm that takes over is more frightening than anything else. I walk up to them and pull Phoenix to his feet, pushing Rain aside. She screams as I force him to his feet and punch his face so hard his head snaps back, hitting the wall.

“Are you fucking insane?” Rain demands. “He’s your friend!”

I growl at Phoenix, who’s barely staying on his feet before burying my knee in his stomach. While he keels over on the floor, I approach Rain, who stumbles back to get away from me.

“Are you fucking serious, Rain?” I hiss at her.

“Fuck off,” she snarls back, turning feral as she stares at me with a gaze full of hatred. “I’ll do anything to escape. You don’t even know me.”

She hasn’t just betrayed my trust, she’s betrayed our connection. My jaw sets as I glare at her.

“You’ll be punished,” I hiss while the rest of the men quickly file out of the room. “You realize how badly you’ve just fucked up?”

“I knew you were testing me,” she snaps back. “I’m nothing to you, just another paycheck, just another toy to fuck. Just admit it.”

I laugh out loud, incredulous at what she’s saying. She couldn’t be farther away from the truth. The whole reason I wanted her here tonight is because I want her as part of my life. Her reaction makes me want to reconsider, though.

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that,” I tell her calmly. “You take me for an idiot. You kiss my friends. You act like a whore. You want me to hurt you? Because now, I will.”

“Nothing happened!” Her voice has quickly turned pleading, and her eyes beg me to forgive her.

“I saw you,” I roar. “I fucking saw it with my own eyes. Don’t lie to me.”

She leans forward then, her soft lips pressing against mine as if a kiss can eradicate everything she’s done wrong.

But this kiss actually might just do that. There’s so much passion in it, it fucking kills me to raise my hands to her throat and choke her.

She kisses me despite what I’m doing, adding extra attention to the way she deepens our lip lock.

Then, her nails find their way under my shirt and buttons fly off as she claws at me, never taking those lips off mine.

She’s impossible to resist, but I force myself to pull back, not giving her the forgiving kiss she’s so damn desperate for.

“You naughty little thing,” I mutter against her neck, leaving punishing, bruising kisses as I kiss a line down her throat. “I trusted you to be a good girl. I gave you this opportunity so you could show me how well-trained you are. Why did you do that, Rain?”

She doesn’t answer, just whimpers raspily, making me realize I’m still choking her. I slowly move my hands away and she stumbles forward, desperate to catch her breath. I don’t try to grab her. I groan and rub my eyes. But then she shrieks and runs forward, making me curse out loud as I realize she’s still intent on escaping the Palacio.

“Rain!” I yell as she runs down the hallway.

“You don’t fucking know me,” she hisses over her shoulder, still stumbling forward in her heels and designer dress. “You’ll never know me. I’m nobody’s property.”

She gets out on the lawn, by which time Liberato has joined me in running after her.

“Rain, don’t,” I scream, now panicking. “The guards!”

Liberato curses softly as he speaks into his phone, rattling off orders in Spanish.

That’s when the shot rings out, deafening in the middle of the night with only music from the salon disrupting the deathly silence that follows.

“Fucking hell,” Liberato mutters, facing me with a horrified expression.

But I don’t wait for the shock to kick in. I spring forward, my mind only on Rain and her safety as I rush into the cool night. I hear more screaming and soft gasps mixing with moans of pain as I get out. There’s a body on the ground, and it’s wearing a blood red dress.

It’s her.

It has to be.

My knees buckle at the sight and I rush forward, landing next to her and cradling her in my arms. Everything is forgotten. Blood is seeping into my clothes and Rain is crying. At this moment, I’ll forgive her for anything. Thing is, I don’t know if I’ll be able to forgive myself.

Because as she faces me, Rain whispers, “You promised you wouldn’t let anybody hurt me.”