Claimed (The Billionaire's Command #2) (6 page)

“Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s like you finally said everything you ever wanted to say, right?”

“Exactly. I thought life would be pretty much perfect once I finally did it. I always thought I’d cut those ties, I wouldn’t care about it anymore, and I’d be able to move on, to live my life happily.”

“And you can’t?”
I asked softly. This part I didn’t understand. I had left, and never looked back.

“
Yeah.” Mark paused for a little bit, idly breaking one of the pizza crusts on the edge of his plate up with his fingers. Then, he spoke again.

“It’s weird. I thought it’d be so much better, but I feel empty. They might have been shit parents, but they were still my family. And now I don’t even really feel like I can go to Sam, I feel so guilty about leaving her in the middle of things, to deal with my parents, so it’s like I’ve lost my whole family. No matter how terrible they might have been, you always learn that you’re supposed to be good to your family, you know? Then I feel bad and start hating myself for not being able to break away from it all.”

“Don’t feel bad about having feelings, Mark. You’re allowed to feel whatever you feel.”

I reached across the table and grabbed his hand, and he smiled and squeezed back.

“Thanks, Caroline. You know, I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’ve been so amazing to me through this whole mess. Plus you’re the only person I know who really understands what I’m going through.”

“No problem. I know you want to blame yourself. I did too, when I left. Maybe if I’d been a better figure skater, maybe if I’d worked harder, my mother wouldn’t have treated me like she did. But eventually I realized that wasn’t true, but they were still my feelings. Don’t blame yourself, but don’t feel bad about feeling whatever it is you feel either. Your feelings don’t make you weak, going through this makes you strong.”

“I love you, Caroline.”

The words came from out of nowhere, they blew me away. I’m pretty sure I sat there staring at Mark for like, five minutes.

“Sorry if that’s too forward,” he continued, realizing I wasn’t saying anything. “I don’t want to ruin what we have, but I want you to know. I love you, I realized over the last few weeks. I don’t know what I’d do without you in my life.”

I smiled. “I love you too
, Mark,” I finally replied. And as I said the words, I knew it was true. Hell, I’d known I was in love with Mark for a long time, I was always just too afraid to say it, too afraid to ruin what we had. And speaking of what we had, I realized that since we’d come back from New York there had been no more talk of me becoming Mark’s submissive. I guess with everything that had happened we got sidetracked by other things. But now, I knew what I wanted. I knew what I felt that night at the charity dinner when I came in front of all those people, when Mark had complete control over me.

“Not only do I love you, but I want to be
your submissive,” I said, almost whispering in case people from other tables were listening in to our conversation.

A grin spread across Mark’s face.

“I was wondering if you’d forgotten I’d even asked. I didn’t want to bring it up again after the trip, but hey, I’m glad you did, especially since that’s your answer.”

I began to blush, realizing what I’d just said, realizing what it implied.

“I think we should get a sundae to celebrate, I hear they do an amazing one here,” Mark said, motioning the waitress over.

I didn’t hear Mark order the Sundae, I was still just completely taken
aback by what had just happened. Mark had told me he loved me. Like, really loved me. Then I said the same and agreed to be his submissive. Just like that, in the last minute, my life changed so enormously. I didn’t know how yet, but I knew it had changed.

“Hey, Caroline, you okay?” Mark asked. I must have really looked like I zoned out. I smiled at him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Great, actually.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

We barely got out of the restaurant before Mark and I were all over each other, and as our hands roamed our bodies as the car drove us back to his place, I wondered if we were even going to make it that far before we’d ripped each other’s clothes off.

* * *

For the next week or so, things were pretty much as close to perfect as I could imagine. Mark and I were happier than ever. I was getting used to being his submissive. He bought me a beautiful silk collar studded with diamonds that simply looked like an accessory to everyone we met in public, but that was our secret little representation of his ownership of my body.

It was exciting, really, knowing that I had to obey every one of Mark’s commands. He had always been dominating in the bedroom, I knew that, but this took things to a whole new level, a level that sent chills down my spine and pleasure radiating through me whenever I even thought of it.

As far as Mark went, our talk at the restaurant helped. He was no longer withdrawn, he was basically back to normal. He mentioned to me that he might try and get in touch with Sam, to try and apologize and fix that relationship. I encouraged it, absolutely, as I thought it would be good for Mark.

Still, it was almost like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. There was no way this whole thing could go
this
perfectly. I know any drama in my family never did. There was no way Mark’s father could simply forgive him and move on, as much as I hoped that was what happened and wanted it to.

Finally, it happened. I was working in my office one day when Mark came down to see me. I immediately knew something was wrong. It wasn’t just Mark’s paler-than-usual face, or the worried crease lines in his forehead. For one thing, he very rarely, if ever actually came down to my office, to avoid any rumours that we might be seeing each other, even though we both knew it was the worst kept secret in the office.

He came in and closed the door behind him, then practically collapsed into the seat on the other side of my desk.

“Mark, what’s wrong?” I asked. I normally referred to him as ‘Sir’ now, but we had decided that whenever we were at work or in public I’d just call him ‘Mark’ in case someone else overheard.

He waited a minute before answering, collecting his thoughts. When he spoke, it was almost like a whisper, nothing like the confident, deep voice I was used to.

“My father’s disinherited me.”

“Oh my God, that’s terrible!”

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t care if it was just that. He’s also removing me from the board and getting rid of Teach the Children.”

I immediately knew this was really what was upsetting Mark.

“What? How can he do that? I thought you had complete control over the charity.”

“I thought so too. It turns out that’s not actually true. All of the money to start it up was originally in my trust fund, my father had to sign off on it to sign it over into my name. I sent him the paperwork and his lawyers told me they had been signed and filed. Today the lawyer told me that was a lie. Technically the charity operated out of the trust, so it’s still in my father’s control up until his death, as the trusts are set up so that they can be collapsed and rescinded.”

“What the hell? Is the lawyer allowed to just lie to you like that?”

“Since he was my father’s lawyer and not mine, apparently it’s fine. Completely fine. I don’t even... I don’t know what I’m going to do. He could have done
anything
else. I didn’t give a shit about the inheritance. I could make my own way in the world. The company doesn’t really mean anything to me. I’m proud of the work I do for it of course, but that’s it. But the charity, that’s a low blow. Teach the Children is my baby. I’m so God damned proud of those kids, so proud of what everyone working there does. I can’t believe my father would stoop so low to take the one thing he controls that I value more than everything else he owns. Actually, correct that, I can believe it. I can absolutely believe it.”

I could tell as he spoke that Mark was going from shocked to angry. The determination, the confidence was back in his voice, and I was glad to hear it.

“We’re going to find a way to get the charity back, Mark,” I told him.

“You know what Caroline? You’re right. We absolutely are.”

“Tell me what you need me to do. I’ll do anything to help us get the charity back. There has to be something.”

“You’re right, there has to. I don’t know what it is yet, I have no idea, but we will find it. We’ll find something. We have to.”

Making plans to meet that night in Mark’s office, he left mine and went back to his own. Finding that I couldn’t concentrate on my work, I decided to go down the street and grab a coffee from the place I liked. I sat at the table against the window, watching people go by and thinking about what Mark had told me. I felt absolutely devastated for him. It wasn’t fair at all what his father had done. That charity was what Mark lived for, he cared so incredibly much about what they were doing. To take it away from his was cruel, it was then that I realized
just
to what extent Mark’s father was angry at Mark no longer taking the abuse anymore.

I spent the afternoon wondering what we could possibly do to get the charity back. It was so important to Mark, it was so important to all of the employees and volunteers of the charity, and of course to the hundreds of kids that were helped directly because of what Mark did every single year.
I didn’t know what was coming. I didn’t know what we were going to do.

What I did know was that we were going to do
something
. I knew deep down that I would fight as hard as I could, do everything I could to make sure that Mark’s father didn’t win, that he wouldn’t manage to punish Mark for daring to stand up to abuse. I knew exactly what Mark had gone through in daring to cut ties with his family, to move away from that forever, and I knew how hard it was. Now I was going to help him through it.

To Be Continued...

In case you missed it, please don’t forget to check out part 1 of this series:

Seduced
:
When Caroline's company won an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii, she thought all she'd be doing was lying on the beach drinking mai tais with her best friend Lisa. Little did she know her life would be turned upside down when she ran into Mark Selzer in the elevator.
Expecting their one night of passion to be only that, Caroline is shocked when Mark shows up at her door two weeks later. Will she be able to open up enough to let him into her life? And how will she react when she finds out he's the heir to the largest resort company in the country?

About the Author

Hi! I’m Victoria Villeneuve. I’m a small town girl at heart, with dreams of living in a cabin in the country with my two dogs and my amazing boyfriend Mike. When I’m not writing you can usually find me enjoying a nice mocha in my local coffee shop, reading some of my favourite books by the lake or playing soccer with my friends.

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