Paradise Found: Cain (Paradise #2)(66)

“You will divorce him,” he threatened.

“No, I will not.” I don’t know where the strength came from. He’d just threatened my grandparents’ lives, but I wouldn’t do as I was told. I was always good, did what was asked, but in this case, I couldn’t.

I was saved from bodily injury when a fellow TA entered the room cheerfully in mid-rant about some students. She stopped when she saw the frozen look on my face and the back of a large man leaning over the desk.

“Sofie?” she questioned, her own voice a squeak of fear as she assessed the situation.

“Hey, Vera. Mr. Callahan was just leaving.”

He pressed off the desk with a dramatic shove, straightened his shirt with a smooth hand down the chest, and spun on poor Vera. She didn’t know what hit her when those reptilian eyes glared at her. I watched her body go rigid with the effect. She didn’t even move as Atom came close enough to knock her over, with the slightest brush of his presence. He didn’t touch her, though, and the spell was broken the second he passed her.

Sucking in a breath of air, Vera gasped: “Who was that?”

I sank to the desk chair, weak knees giving way, as my whole body began to tremble. I covered my face to calm myself and hide my embarrassment.

“That was my father-in-law.”





The tunes were on and the adrenaline pumping. I was taking my frustration out on the bag, like it was my last fight. Right hook, left hook. Right, right, left. The rhythm was automatic, my arms moved without a conscious effort. Fists slammed into the taut leather. Sweat beaded down my body. Muscles ached in an effort to control my thoughts of Sofie.

She’d stayed most of the night, curling into me until the fire flicked out after a timed shut down. She was almost naked. Her thin underwear and my jeans were the only barriers that separated me from being inside her. She shivered and tucked her arms in tighter, mumbling that she was cold. I wanted to pick her up and take her to bed. Our bed. The one we shared when she was here and where I thought we’d be learning everything we could about each other. It was an empty space without her. Void of her warmth and her laughter, I didn’t like to sleep there. Many nights I’d go into the room that was originally hers, in hopes to breathe in the sunny fragrance she had. Just as the scent was fading, she was creeping back into my life again. Or so I hoped.

She dressed in the early morning, and I let her leave. My only hope of closeness was to continue hugging her, drawing her into me before she left. I was afraid to put my lips on her. Once the connection was made, I worried I’d lose control. I’d take what I wanted, and I couldn’t risk it.

I was punching the hell out of the bag when a hand clapped me on the shoulder. Lucky for that person, he ducked as I swung around, arm in mid-cut.

“What the f*ck?” I yelled over the music hammering in my ears.

A thick finger pulled the wires and the ear buds released.

“You have a visitor, boss man. A lady friend,” Malik said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down, in mock tease. He was fortunate I liked him or I’d have pelted him for interrupting me. I couldn’t imagine who would be visiting me, as I no longer had lady friends like Malik implied. Huffing my way to the lobby, I stopped short in my office.

“Hello,” she said, leaning against my desk, her toned legs crossed at the ankles, her teeth worked her lower lip.

“Sofie?” My eyebrows rose in wonder. It wasn’t like I wasn’t happy to see her. I was ecstatic, but I didn’t expect it. I couldn’t have predicted that I’d see her again so soon.

“I had a visitor today,” she said softly, as I stepped closer to her. Smelling like a sweaty mess, I took a step back almost as quickly. Rank from the workout, beads of moisture rolled down my forehead, and I brushed them off with gloved hands.

“Your father came to see me.”

The words were a sucker punch to the gut. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t want him in the same state as her, let alone within ten feet of her. His presence in Preston could only mean dangerous things.

I stepped toward her again, no longer concerned about the scent of me.

“What did he want?” I swallowed down the bile of fear inside me. I never put it past him to go after her. It was one thing I could predict of him. If my father thought Sofie was important, she’d be a target. Given his history with her parents, I worried even more. My hands fell to my side.

“He wanted me to divorce you.”

Another punch, this one to my heart. I still had that blue envelope of papers: the ones that contained her signature and not mine. I hadn’t filed them after I asked her to stay with me, obviously. I hadn’t even filed them when she left me behind. I just didn’t want to give her up. Marriage tied her to me. Swallowing hard again, I raised my head, bracing for the worst.

“I said I wouldn’t do it.”

My eyes opened wide as I sucked in air. In an instant, I was on her. My gloved hands slipped around her and her mouth was under mine. The kiss was hard. I wasn’t intending to punish her. In fact, I wanted to fall on my knees and worship her. I wanted to praise the heavens with the words she’d spoken. She wasn’t going to divorce me.

My lips slowed to a tender caress. Tongues tangled and I savored her. It had been too long. I was a man exiled to the desert, parched and caked with dust, in need of a sweet refreshment to replenish me. She filled me up with her delicate response. Opposite the numerous aggressive kisses we had shared, this was like our first kiss, hesitant, discovering. She was going to teach me, when I thought I was the master.