PROTECT HER (A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance) (LOVE HER Book 2) Read online

  As Cora continued her gloomy ruminations, the large office door opened. Julian stepped out in an immaculate dark gray suit. He looked so good it made Cora’s chest hurt. She immediately stood up, smoothing out her skirt.

  “Mr. Benedict, is there something that I—”

  “I’d like you to have dinner with me tonight, if you’re free,” he said swiftly, pinning her with his steely dark gaze.

  Cora’s mouth hung open, completely at a loss for words. Shaking herself, she nodded and said, “Of course, sir. But do—”

  Julian nodded. “I’ll pick you up at seven o’clock then,” he said before quickly walking towards the elevator.

  Cora suddenly forgot why any distance between them would be a good distance. All she could see was his broad back and her fantasy of being able to press her face against it, hugging him close and never letting go.

  As Julian rode down the elevator, he felt crackling energy run through his body like a live wire. Tonight he would confront Cora. Tonight he would reveal everything.

  In any other circumstance, he might’ve tried to take his time in opening Cora up to him but now with her situation being more dire and immediate, he wanted to make sure she knew who she could depend on. He wanted her to know she had protection.

  As the elevator opened on the ground floor, Julian strode out with a determined and set face.

  Ready or not, Karen, you’re going to be meeting the real Julian Benedict tonight.

  And he’s been waiting a long time for you.

  Eight

  “More wine?”

  Cora’s head snapped up from her decadently plated, half eaten salmon and Dijon mustard sauce.

  Julian lifted the bottle of red wine a little higher, in question. Cora gave a quick nod and he poured her another inch of wine.

  Since picking her up and arriving at the restaurant, Julian could tell Cora was nervous. He wasn’t quite sure why though. He knew she had been confused the last few days by his behavior towards her. To be fair though, he had also been quite confused as to how to behave around her as well.

  But there something more than just confusion. He could see from the way she nervously chewed her bottom lip and darted her eyes about that there was something else worrying her.

  Had she somehow come to the same conclusion he had? Did she know why they were having dinner?

  Only one way to find out.

  Julian pushed forward his nearly empty plate. “Do you remember when we were leaving Paris, I mentioned my father?” he started, slowly gauging her reaction.

  Cora looked surprised by his choice of topic but nodded in response.

  Julian continued. “He was quite a brilliant engineer. Created patents for a lot of inventions that actually helped start JB Enterprises.”

  Cora’s brow creased quizzically. “But I thought you started JB Enterprises.”

  Julian indulged in a wry smile. “I did,” he said. “But I started my company on a lot of patents my father had created but had never implemented. He died only a few years after his second wife left him.”

  “I’m sorry,” Cora murmured, a look of genuine sympathy on her face.

  How Julian longed to pull her into his arms and kiss her. Regardless of how distant he had been with her, he had not for one minute forgotten the passion that they had shared together in Paris. Nothing about Cora’s past had changed his feelings for her. If anything, they had only heightened them.

  Trying to remain focused, Julian nodded his acknowledgment of her condolences. “He didn’t handle heartbreak well. He let himself wallow and really just unravel. For several years, I was quite sure that every time I would come home from school, I would find him dead from alcohol poisoning.”

  Cora made a sound of sympathy. His heart tightened to see how real her concern for him was. After the hardships she had endured, she still had the capacity to hold empathy for others.

  It made it hard for Julian to really focus on what he wanted to say. It was as if the weeks of self-imposed distancing had finally come to a head. All he could think about was holding her, kissing her—just being with her.

  “I-I understand the hardships a parent can cause,” Cora said softly, completely surprising Julian. Was she about to reveal herself to him?

  “I’ve had a hard relationship with my mother for many years,” Cora continued, dragging her fork through the Dijon mustard sauce. “Because of our troubled relationship, there were a lot of times where I felt…alone.”

  God, Julian just wanted to slap Gloria for the pain she had caused her own child. He tried to consciously relax the tenseness within his body. Showing rage would be the worst thing he could do on a night like this.

  Cora slowly raised her head, her eyes shimmering with a sheen of tears. “That’s why I was so happy that night in Paris,” she said in a whisper. “For the first time in years, I didn’t feel alone.”

  That was it. His heart was both breaking and on fire for her. He must hold this beautiful, daring, broken woman or be damned.

  Julian raised his hand. “Check, please.”

  For the first time in his life, Julian brought a woman back to his home. But Cora barely had time to appreciate the beautifully decorated penthouse apartment. Julian had crushed her against him, kissing her thoroughly, as soon as they had entered the doorway.

  Without regard to anything else, Julian lifted her into his arms and carried her into the large and spacious bedroom. He lowered her gently onto the bed, stretching himself over her.

  Cora wanted to moan in pleasure just from the sheer relief in having Julian’s hands on her again. How good it felt to have his strong body pin her down and hold her.

  With expert skill, Julian quickly stripped her till she was just in her lace bra and panties. Pushing the cups down, he propped her creamy breasts on the wire and lowered his head, sucking hard on each nipple till Cora’s toes curled.

  He plunged a hand down her panties and Cora moaned once his fingers touched her soaking pussy. She couldn’t believe the effect of Julian’s body was just as potent as she remembered. Her body was aflame with desire.

  A thick finger stroked hard down her cleft, making Cora arch. Julian sucked on a nipple as he pressed a finger against her engorged clit. Cora was sure she would be driven mad by want. Every place he touched her made her skin tingle and burn until her entire body felt like it would melt from her sheer arousal.

  Suddenly, Julian pulled away his hand from her pussy and grabbed both her wrists. Pinning her arms up above her head with one hand, Julian pulled her legs into one of his, completely trapping her to the bed.

  Cora looked up, wondering what the man could possibly be up to. She was practically squirming for more and he was just lying next to her, pinning her against him.

  But the sight of Julian’s face nearly took her breath away. A mixture of stern tenderness darkened his chiseled face.

  Brushing a thumb against her lips, he said, “I want you to listen to something I want to tell you.” His lips twitched a little hollowly. “I keep trying to tell you something but you keep distracting me with your goddamn face. You’re a genuine heartbreaker, Cora.”

  Cora smiled but looked up nervously. He seemed quite serious despite his teasing compliment.

  “I changed my name when I started JB Enterprises,” Julian started, brushing a hand against Cora’s cheek. “It was a bit of a vindictive act. I was ashamed of my father. He had been so blind, so greedy, that he had let a lot of people suffer for the sake of his own happiness. I didn’t want to be associated with such a man. So I took my mother’s maiden name, Benedict.”

  Cora stared at him. She patiently listened but was utterly at a loss as to why Julian was so set on talking about his father.

  Julian gave her a meaningful look that nearly brought Cora to tears from just looking at him.

  “But before I became Julian Benedict,” he said slowly, “I was Julian Denton.”

  He paused, carefully watching her. Cora wondered what he was expe
cting. She understood name changes. Of all people, she most certainly understood. It didn’t change anything about how she felt about him.

  “I was Julian Denton and my father was Patrick Denton,” Julian continued, giving her the same expectant meaningful look.

  A memory stirred in the furthest reaches of her mind. Cora remembered screaming. But there had always been screaming in her life. It was hard to separate the vast sea of screaming and abusive memories.

  But looking up at Julian, she suddenly also remembered a roof. She remembered sitting under a night sky with a canopy of tree branches while a sixteen year old boy tried to comfort her.

  She remembered the boy sitting with her at night when she was too scared or battered to fall asleep. She remembered him making sure to stop by her elementary school to give her lunch money. She remembered him sheltering her just as Gloria’s fist fell down, thudding him hard on the back.

  Cora’s face felt numb and her fingers tingled with coldness. She had tried so hard to forget everything from her childhood.

  Even as a child, she would routinely try to forget the previous six months or year of her life. It was a sheer defensive mechanism. The less she remembered all the hurts and pains of her life, the more likely she’d find strength to carry on.

  But she suddenly remembered how hard she had cried that night when she had woken up in Gloria’s station wagon, hundreds of miles away from the only kind of family she had ever known and the only boy she had ever trusted.

  “You…you said you’d…always be there for me,” Cora whispered, her voice broken and ragged. She had cried so hard she had thrown up inside the car, which had angered Gloria into another rage fit.

  Julian face roughened at her words, shadowed with harsh regret and guilt. He pressed his forehead against hers. “I know I did,” he said, just as brokenly. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…Karen.”

  Nine

  It was as she had been electrocuted. As soon as she heard the name, Cora wrenched herself away and jumped off the bed.

  Karen.

  She hadn’t heard that name in years. Even Gloria didn’t call her that anymore. Standing by the bed, breathing hard as wave after wave of memories crashed against her, Cora stared at Julian who had slowly risen from the bed.

  How had she not seen it? She remembered that long nose, those wide lips. She remembered that squinted expression when he was concentrating or that cold steely gaze when he was angry.

  Oh god. This was Julian. The man she had grown to love and want was the same boy who had sheltered and protected her those many long years ago. How many months as a child had she wept over him and cried out his name? And how many hidden drives, aliases, and drunken beatings had it taken before Cora had buried the memory of him?

  “Julian,” she whispered, wanting to say the name aloud. Even with the bed between them, Cora felt like there was hardly any breathing room. She had thought it would be complicated to get involved with a multi-millionaire CEO. That was a cakewalk compared to getting involved with her former stepbrother turned multi-millionaire CEO.

  Cora remembered how Gloria would scream at her every time she even dared to mention Julian’s name.

  Gloria!

  Cora gasped, a hand to her mouth.

  “What is it?” Julian asked concerned. “Are you okay?” He took a step towards her but Cora immediately took a step back. Julian paused but studied her carefully. “Karen?”

  There was no way she could get involved with Julian now. He had been the first person in her life to show her kindness and love. And even as an adult, he had shown her similar qualities. Cora remembered Paris and the Musée d’Orsay.

  She couldn’t possibly repay such a person by letting him into her mess of a life. He couldn’t get involved. The Model Millionaire involved in petty Mexican drug cartel scandal? God, she could only imagine the press and scandal.

  “I-I need to go,” Cora said, tears of bitter regret and surprise running down her cheeks. She turned and headed for the bedroom doorway. But just as she wrenched it open, a large hand above her shoved it back shut.

  “Karen,” Julian started, his breath tickling her neck. “Cora. Talk to me. Please.”

  Cora heard the ragged plea in the word ‘please.’ Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned around and looked up.

  Face twisted with pain and hope and regret, Julian looked at her with the most honest eyes she had ever seen. “I’ve thought about you for years,” he said, his voice harsh with emotion. “I’ve worried about you. I’ve dreamt about you. I’ve been looking for you for years.” He closed his eyes, clearly overwhelmed. “It was my fault. I should’ve been there for you. I…I should’ve protected you.”

  Opening his eyes, a tear rolled down his cheek. “Can you forgive me, Cora?”

  He had been looking for her? Cora felt the dam of emotion she had been holding back break. She gasped as her first sob hit her. Someone had cared about her all these years. Someone had wanted her.

  There was nothing a sixteen year old could’ve done for her and Cora held no resentment towards Julian. She only felt gratitude at knowing he had cared so much about her. It somehow made all those lonely, painful years seem less empty and awful.

  Cora fell into his arms. “I’ve missed you too,” she said thickly, tears drenching his shirt.

  Julian’s arms immediately wrapped around her, squeezing her and holding her tight. They held each other as they tried to absorb the years of separation they had endured.

  Pulling her up into his arms, Julian carried her to his bed. This time, his entire demeanor was completely different. Capturing her lips, he molded her mouth to his.

  Holding her tightly, he let his tongue probe her, enter her, know her. Cora could feel the urgency within him to have her as close to him as possible, to melt his body against hers and hers against his.

  And Cora’s body couldn’t agree more. She arched her spine, ran her nails down his back, clawing him towards her. The overwhelming warmth and love and gratitude made her feel as if she was drowning. She gripped Julian tighter. He was her only anchor in this chaotic sea of emotion. He had always been her anchor.

  Before she thought herself ready, Julian plunged his full length into her wetness. They groaned together as his cock stretched and filled her completely. Holding her face within his hands, he looked down at her with infinite tenderness. “I love you, Cora,” he said.

  Cora’s heart nearly stopped. He loved her. He loved her. Tears sprang to her lashes as she thought about Mexico, Carlos, her mother, her shadowy past. This man knew who she was and he loved her.

  “I—” Emotions choked her voice, making her only able to give him a look of helpless, hopeless love and tears.

  It was clear Julian understood her. He could see the struggle she was having in accepting this truthful offer of his heart.

  Taking her lips in another bruising kiss, he shifted his hips and pulled out before thrusting back in hard. Cora jerked forward from the power of his thrust. She moaned and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

  “I love you, Cora,” he whispered hotly against her lips as he rode her hard and deep. “I’ll never let you go again. You have me now. I’ll keep you safe. I’ll always keep you safe.”

  Hot tears ran down her cheeks as Cora let each of Julian’s words burn across her heart. So many nights had she been alone, scared, beaten, and bruised. And yet, here was the one man who had ever cared about her now reaching for her, trying to bring her to safety.

  Julian’s cock plunged in again, so deep it brushed against her womb. Cora could feel herself rising higher than she’d ever risen before. Pressing her forehead against his, she finally found her voice and whispered, “Together.”

  Understanding her meaning, Julian immediately sped up his rhythm. They writhed against each other, trying to crawl into each other’s bodies. And then in a moment of pure singular sensation, Julian and Cora cried out into the night as their bodies exploded in unison.

  Body-shakin
g ripples of pleasure crossed from Cora to Julian. Her pussy clenched and pulsed from her quaking orgasm which only wrung a deep groan of exhausted pleasure from Julian.

  They leaned their foreheads together, exchanging their very breaths. Finally, Julian raised his head a few inches.

  Cora slowly opened her eyes and looked up.

  Shining in his gaze was all the love in the world.

  Oh god. She was doomed.

  Ten

  As the unnamed driver carefully steered his rattling car through the dirt streets, Cora breathed in the thick, humid air of Mexico.