Claimed (The Billionaire's Command #2) (5 page)

I had never, ever heard Mark speak that way with anybody before in my life. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I’d ever heard him swear before.
Going by the reaction of everyone else at the table, neither had they. Our mouths were open, eyes wide. Mark’s mother’s face had gone such a deep shade of red I was starting to worry she may have had a heart attack.

It took me a second to realize I wasn’t breathing as I waited with bated breath to s
ee what else was going to happen.

Mark’s father was the first to speak.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that it would look bad in front of all our guests, I would kick you out of here so fast,” he told Mark in a low voice, nothing at all like the friendly, kindly old man I’d met earlier.

“Don’t worry father, I wouldn’t want to embarrass you,” Mark replied
icily. “You know what? We’re leaving. The two of you have abused me emotionally my entire life. I’m not about to let you do it to Caroline as well, who deserves a hell of a lot better than this family.”

With that Mark suddenly stood up and took my hand.
I stood up as well. He grabbed our soufflés and our spoons and I followed him out of the hall, all too aware that this time all the eyes in the room were on us. We had been seated at the front of the room, we had to pass by nearly everyone else to get out, but I didn’t notice. I didn’t care that everyone was staring. All I could think about were those last few words Mark had said to his parents before he stormed out.

That explained everything. That explained why
he was always so furtive when it came to talking about his family, that explained why he was always so happy for us to talk about other things.

I hadn’t realized that Mark had gone through the exact same thing that I did
.

My heart was crushed for
him. I wanted to hold him close to me, to comfort him, to tell him it would be ok. For a parent to betray that trust that a child puts in them, for a parent to abuse their child, it’s one of the worst things I could possibly think of.

As soon as we left the room and found ourselves in the lobby of the hotel, Mark grabbed his hair with his hands.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry Caroline. I’m so sorry.” He kept repeating the phrase, over and over as he moved in circles around the room.

“Mark, it’s ok. Calm down, I’m here,” I replied, moving over to him and gently taking his hands in mine.
He stopped pacing when he felt my touch and looked me in the eye.

“I’m sorry. That must have been humiliating for you.”

I shook my head. “Absolutely not. I had no idea you were emotionally abused by your parents, honestly, I really admire your strength for even being able to be in the same room as them. Come on, let’s go back to our hotel.”

Mark hailed a cab and ten minutes later we were in the room of our hotel. Mark took off his jacket and collapsed on the bed. I sat behind him and rubbed his shoulders.

“I’m here, if you want to talk,” I told him. “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine too.”

For a minute I thought Mark was going to choose the second option,
but then he got up and went into the suite’s living room. It was like I instinctively knew what he wanted me to do; I followed him over and sat down next to him on the couch.

“I just... I just couldn’t take it anymore, you know?”
he finally said.

“I know. I know exactly what you mean.”

“It’s been so long. And it’s so hard. I mean, everyone always thinks I have the perfect life. I have money, I’m not bad looking, I’m constantly named one of America’s most eligible bachelors. But none of them know this secret, this horrible, terrible secret that I’m hiding inside. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, but I couldn’t talk about it. Who was going to believe me? My parents are some of the richest, most respected people in the country. Besides, what can even be done about it? I’m an adult now, I have to take care of my own problems. There’s no one to tell.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” I replied softly. “I understand so much better than you know.
Even when you do tell people, they don’t always believe you.”

Mark looked up at me, but I barely noticed. I was staring into space, my own bad memories coming flooding back to me.

“You’ve been through the same thing,” he finally said, and I nodded.

“It was when I was young.
When I was figure skating. I didn’t know what it was at first. I mean, in school we always learned to be afraid of strangers, to be afraid of people that hit us, that touched us where we weren’t comfortable. None of that happened to me, but it still didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel good.”

“Exactly.
It felt like there was no one to talk to, no one you could turn to. It felt like no one would believe me, and even if they did believe me, they’d just tell me to harden up.”

“That’s it, yes. Mine took the form of my mother forcing me to be a figure skater. Every time I practiced, every time I went to a meet, I hated it more. I would cry in the change rooms before I had to go out there. Once, early on, when I was six, I refused to go out. I already started to hate it. I hated the pressure my mother put on me. I hated all of it. She spanked me so hard I was still crying when I went onto the ice. But I never dared tell her I didn’t want to do it anymore. No matter how many times she told me I was pointless, no matter how many times she called me a loser, said I was disappointing the family.”

“How did you get out of it?”

“I eventually ran away. I planned it for months. I waited for my mother to go to work one day, packed up my things, and left. I’d just graduated from high school, but I was still seventeen. I had a friend who was
older, she had been one of the coaches. I told her everything, and she invited me to stay with her. I did, for a few days, then realized I was going to have to get away, since I found out my mother was trying to find me. So I spent most of the rest of my cash and bought a bus ticket to anywhere. I ended up in Minneapolis.”

“I admire your courage, Caroline. You have courage I don’t. I never ran away. I stayed. I don’t know why. I guess I’m just weak, but I was never able to break those bonds completely.”

“You’re not weak. Absolutely not. They’re still your family. It’s not easy to just cut them out from your life entirely. Especially not in a situation like yours, where they’re in the public eye fairly regularly, where it would be impossible for you to really run.”

“I guess so. Still, I decided tonight that I’ve had it with them. It was enough to abuse me all my life, but I didn’t want you to be subjected to it either. Especially now, knowing that you’ve been through it already, that you know all of the horrible feelings associated with it.”

“I know, I understand completely.”

Just then, Mark’s phone began to buzz in his pocket. He took it out and looked at the screen; it was his sister. Tossing the phone aside,
we both watched it buzz in vain.

“I guess she’s going to have gotten the brunt of it from my parents. Hopefully she’s not too upset with me.”

“Even if so, Mark, it’s not your fault.”

“I know, but I still can’t help but feel a little bit guilty. She’s my sister. I probably should have protected her more.”

“She’s a grown woman, just like you. She can make her own decisions.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Still, I should call her back.”

I went into the bedroom to give Mark some privacy while he called his sister. Funnily enough, I’d completely forgotten about the fact that I still had that egg inside of me, and I slipped it out carefully. It had only been maybe an hour ago that Mark had made me cum in front of all those people, none of them having the slightest clue as to what was going on inside of me, and yet it felt like a lifetime ago.

Ten minutes later Mark came into the room.
He looked stressed, I could tell.

“How did it go?”
I asked.

“About as well as could be expected, I guess. She wanted me to know that she still supports me, but to be careful. She says my father was absolutely livid, which was about what I expected.”

“What do you think he’s going to do about it?”

“I don’t know.
It’s hard, you know? After all, I run companies that he still technically owns. He could have me fired tomorrow, very easily.”

“Do you think he’ll do that?”

“I honestly don’t have a clue. I’m not going to worry about it for now. I think I might just try and get some sleep. We’re flying back tomorrow and I don’t want to spend another minute in this city more than I have to.”

We both lay down on the bed, but neither one of us could sleep. The night had brought back a whole bunch of bad memories, memories I’d long since shoved down into the depths of my
memory, that I hadn’t thought about in years.

I wondered if my mother was trying to find me. I wondered if she ever tried to find me, or if she decided that at seventeen it was obvious I was never going to have a figure skating career and wrote me off as her daughter.

As I stared at the ceiling, my thoughts turned. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized what Mark had been going through. I should have noticed, I should have figured it out.

I reached over and wrapped my arms around him, and he murmured his appreciation.
I knew he wasn’t sleeping either, but I didn’t want to interrupt his thoughts.

What I didn’t know was what was going to happen in the future, now that Mark had finally stood up to his family.

* * *

Eventually I must have drifted off, because when the alarm finally went off I was jerked out of my dreamless sleep.
I could feel Mark stumbling around for the snooze button, and I moaned and shoved my head back into the pillow. I didn’t know how long I’d been sleeping for, but I knew it wasn’t nearly long enough. This was going to be a long day.

Ten minutes later the shrill cry of the alarm went off once more and we both dragged ourselves out of bed.

“You look terrible,” I joked, stifling a yawn.

“You’re still beautiful, even with dark rings under your eyes,” Mark replied, sticking his tongue out at me, and I laughed.

A hot shower did us both some good, and we packed up our things, ready to go. Ten minutes later we were speeding towards the airport, the limo driver stopping for coffee at Mark’s request. We sipped our drinks in silence.

“So, what do we do from here?”
I finally asked.

“Well, it depends. For one thing, we might get to the plane and find out my father has requisitioned it, in which case we’ll have to fly commercial back to San Diego. That would also be a pretty good indication that I don’t have a job waiting for me there anymore. I might not have an inheritance, either.”

“Well, whatever happens, we’ll get through it. It might even be a good thing, getting away from working in your father’s company. Even if it costs you the money, no amount of money in the world is worth destroying your mental health for.”

Mark smiled at me.

“I guess that means you’re not going to break up with me if it turns out I’m not super rich anymore?”

“Of course not!
I’m not
only
in this relationship for the money,” I teased.

“Thanks, Caroline. I do really appreciate that. I wouldn’t have expected you to be like some of my exes, who would have dropped me in an instant if I didn’t have money, but it’s still good to confirm it.”

“No problem.”

Just then we pulled up to the hangar, where the plane was ready for us.
We climbed in, and three minutes later were taxiing towards the runway.

“Well, this is a good sign, at least,” I said as we took off. “You’re still allowed to use the company plane!”

Mark nodded, then took out his laptop.

“I’m going to try and get some work done, I think. It helps to take my mind off things. And after all,
I’m not fired yet.”

While Mark worked I got a few more hours sleep, and we finally landed in San
Diego five hours later.

Over the next few weeks I began to realize that not all was right with Mark. He hadn’t quite been the same since New York. He was working less on the business and more on the charity, which I knew made him feel better. I could tell he was hurting inside, I could tell that even though he seemed fine on the outside,
there was something inside that was bothering him.

When we went out one night, eating pizza at a small eatery downtown, I finally asked Mark about it.

“Look, I know there’s something wrong. I know you’ve been through a lot, but it hurts me to know that you’re hurting inside and not seeing anyone about it, not talking to anyone about it.”

Mark stopped for a minute, pausing before he finally answered.

“You’re right,” he finally replied, sighing. “I’ve been trying to hide it, I didn’t realize I was actually so obvious that it was that noticeable, but I’m definitely not over this whole family thing.”

“Of course you’re not, that’s completely normal.”

“It’s funny, though. I mean, it actually relieved an enormous amount of stress when I finally confronted my parents. Like, all the words I thought to myself in my head during my childhood, all those times I wanted to say something but didn’t have the guts to, confronting him finally made all the stress of never saying those words go away.”