Page 12 of Crave Me
He didn’t need to explain his warning. I left without saying another word.
* * *
Approximately thirty seconds after I loaded her in my Tahoe and she’d given me her address, she’d pressed her head to the headrest and passed out. “Chloe,” I whispered. I reached over the console and gently shook her shoulder. “We’re here, Chloe. Wake up.”
She mumbled and her head lolled toward me like she’d been drugged. Adrenaline crash most likely.
“We’re at your place. Wanted you awake before I took you inside, you doing okay?”
She blinked several times and turned her head, looking out the window toward her apartment building. It was late, just after midnight, and the brewery on the main floor of her high-rise building was packed with people both inside and out.
“Yeah.” She reached to undo her seatbelt but I covered her hand. “Thanks for getting me home.”
“Stay there. I’ll get you inside.”
Her nose wrinkled a bit. “I can walk.”
“I know. I also know you were just completely out and I don’t want you stumbling. I’m helping you inside.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know I don’t, but I’m going to.” Before she could argue back, which I could tell she was gearing up to do, I opened my door and jumped out, hurried to her side and opened her door. She’d just barely managed to gather her dress and shoes from earlier, along with her purse, in her arms when I opened her door.
“Hard to walk outside in the cold without shoes on,” I said, unable to hide my grin when her cheeks flamed. Not from embarrassment, either. If I remembered Chloe correctly, which I believed I did, she was cute and innocent and friendly to everyone. She also had a temper and enough sass to fill Lake Michigan when she was irritated.
Cassie had always rolled her eyes when Chloe let sass fly. I’d always failed to stop from thinking it was cute, the way she would flail her hands in the air, debate anything and everything with her father.
Chloe moved to slide on her high-heeled shoes. They’d look ridiculous in the oversized sweats she was wearing, and I wasn’t about to let her trip and get hurt again. I stopped her, covering her arm with my hand. “You said I could help you, Chloe, so I’m helping you. I’m taking you upstairs, putting you to bed and making sure you’re safe and have everything you need.”
“Why?”
I’d had thirty minutes since leaving Dylan’s office to prepare an answer for that question. I’d had a lot of time to think about the decision I made in his office, too. It wasn’t the right thing to do. It was probably on the scale of top ten worst decisions I’d ever made. I was doing it anyway.
“Because six months ago, you came to me and wanted me to train you. Tonight, when you screamed my name, you might not have realized it but you were asking again. And this time, I’m listening. You want a Dom, it’s me.”
Her eyes widened, her lips parted on a gasp. “That’s absurd,” she said, her breath more a whisper.
“It’s going to happen.”
She shook her head as though she was trying to clear it. Before she could come back with an argument, I reached into the Tahoe, sank my hands beneath her thighs and behind her back and carried her out. She had no option but to lean into me and wrap her hands around my neck.
With a bump of my hip, I slammed her door shut and headed inside her apartment building. “You’ve had a long night and you were just sleeping. We’ll talk more about this tomorrow, so you can fully understand what I’m offering, and where we’re going to go from here. Tonight, I just want to make sure you’re inside your apartment, safe and able to get the rest you need. Tomorrow you can think of a way to argue with me.”
“Thanks for assuming I’ll argue with you,” she muttered.
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. In addition to being breathtakingly beautiful—I’d definitely noticed tonight when she was naked—in her perfectly innocent way, Chloe had always been incredibly intelligent. Years ago, she was just as likely to have her head hidden in the newest edition of Cosmo as she was the Wall Street Journal. As a double major in fashion merchandising and finance, she had always impressed me. Smart, with a great sense of humor and a wicked hot body, along with the taste of her still lingering on my tongue, Chloe was the entire, perfect package.
And I was going to break her.
“Don’t argue with me.” I stepped into the open doors of the elevator. “Not tonight. You’ve been through enough.”
“Okay, but only because I’m too tired to argue, but you’re being really bossy and I’m not—” She yawned. “—sure I like it.”
If she intended her words to have heat behind them, she failed.
I pressed my lips to her forehead and inhaled everything about this woman. Her touch, her lingering scent of cinnamon I’d never forget. Damn it.
She stiffened in my hold, and that wouldn’t do.
I was going to be her Dom. I’d kiss her whenever I wanted. “If you didn’t want bossy, you shouldn’t have gone searching for a Dom.”
Another yawn hit her and her eyes fluttered closed. “You make too much sense when I’m sleepy.”
I laughed as she grew heavy in my arms. When the elevator doors opened, I carried her to her apartment. Holding her with one hand, adjusting my hold on her so I didn’t drop her, I grabbed her keys from her purse, opened the door, and carried her inside.
Lights from the city filtered in through a large wall of windows, helping me easily find her bedroom. I laid her down gently, pulled back the covers and removed the sweat pants but left on the top. She barely moved while I adjusted the covers over her.
I kissed her forehead. “Night, Chloe. Sleep well.”
I left her apartment, and locked her door behind me before I could do something dumber than agreeing to be her Dom, like climbing in bed next to her, and holding her in my arms.
