Chapter 9 #2
Bea opened her mouth to argue—then closed it again. This wasn’t the moment to negotiate. Not when he looked at her like that.
The chair scraped back slowly. Gage stood. He came around the table toward her, each step measured. When he reached her, he braced one hand against the back of her chair.
Her breath caught. Her pulse stuttered. “Gage—”
He silenced her with his mouth. Not a kiss meant to soothe. Punctuation at the end of a command. Her body jolted, heart hammering her ribs, lips parted beneath his. She didn’t kiss him back. Didn’t have time.
When he pulled away, his voice was smooth. “Go pack, sweetheart. I’ll wait.”
That went well. Said absolutely no one.
Bea spent the ride to Gage’s penthouse trying not to feel like a delinquent being escorted home. Except this wasn’t a parent she’d disappointed. It was her boyfriend. And she had a pretty good idea what kind of trouble she was in.
Maybe telling him about Catherine would help. But at this point, it probably wouldn’t. Nothing would erase the fact that Rafael had come, and that she’d let him in.
He hadn’t spoken. Not in the car. Not in the elevator. Not until the door of his bedroom closed behind them. They stood, facing each other, in the middle of the floor.
“You don’t let a man like Rafael Griffin find you alone at night. Not behind a locked door.” It wasn’t anger. It was a line. Drawn low and final across the space between them.
“You make it sound like I was in danger.”
“Mistakes cost more here than they do back home,” he said. “I’m not trying to cage you, Bea. But I need to know you’re not making yourself a target when I’m not there to stop it.”
He looked at her like the world had narrowed down to this: her safety, his failure, and the space between them.
She had the words. Calm, reasonable ones. I didn’t feel unsafe. It wasn’t like that. Rafael isn’t— But none of them felt right in her mouth. None of them felt strong enough to hold up in this room, to this man, at this moment.
Instead, Bea crossed the room, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him.
Gage didn’t resist. He kissed her back, rougher than usual, like that was the answer he’d been waiting for.
Then he pushed her gently back onto the bed and stripped her. No slow undressing, no question in his touch. Just need and claim.
Her breath hitched as he came down over her, skin against skin, mouth at her throat.
The moment he thrust into her, she stopped thinking. No air, no time, just the shock of fullness and a warning beneath it.
Her nails dragged down his spine. Her gasp turned into a sob. He didn’t stop moving until she shattered around him, and he followed her over the edge.
Their bodies stayed joined, chest to chest, breath to breath, like neither of them could separate yet.
Then he leaned in, voice low at her ear. “Don’t let him near you like that again.”
Bea heard the please he couldn’t say.
RAFAEL
The office door clicked shut.
Rafael stayed where he was, in his office chair, the city stretched out in sharp lights behind him. He watched Gage cross the room, each step heavy with intent, until they stood a few feet apart. Only his desk separated them.
Gage spoke first. “You crossed a line.”
Rafael tipped his head slightly. “Seemed harmless to me. Checking in.”
Gage’s expression was cool but the tension in his body spoke volumes. “You showed up at her door. At night. When you knew I wasn’t there.” The words dropped between them like stones. “Stay away from her, Griffin. Or we’re going to have problems.”
King had a way of understating.
Rafael let a slow breath slide out between his teeth. He didn’t smile. Didn’t argue. “You’re going to guard her night and day?”
“She won’t be there anymore.”
Of course not. Because he’d moved her in with him.
“And if she comes to me?”
Gage’s mouth tightened almost imperceptibly. “She won’t.”
It wasn’t bluster; it was certainty. The kind that came from building walls around something you weren’t prepared to lose.
A long pause stretched between them. Then Gage turned and left without another word, the door clicking shut behind him.
Rafael stood, restless, and moved toward the boxing bag in the corner of his office.
Instinct had driven him to Bea. He’d needed to know she was okay. To push her to tell King the truth about what was happening inside Monaghan & Stowe. What had been happening for over a year.
Instead, she’d only told Gage he had been at the pool house. Because she wanted to be honest with him, but still protect him.
Rafael picked up his wraps and slowly wound them around his hands. The fabric rasped against his skin. A ritual. A tether. To contain the fire, and to control where it landed.
He should’ve been surprised. A part of him was. But the part that had been watching her from the start, wasn’t. Now he saw her even more clearly.
She carried more than her share without saying it aloud. Because to her, that’s what love looked like.
Bea’s pain, Bea herself, would always pull at him. Even when she didn’t ask. Even when it cost him ground.
Maybe the visit had driven her deeper into Gage’s world. Maybe it had been a mistake. But Rafael knew if it came to it, he’d do it again.