Page 66 of Play for Power (Central Sparks #3)

but we don’t do the l word

Caleb

“ C aleb?” Her soft sigh rips through my chest. I swear I’ve never felt more panic than I did between Addison texting me, Rosie can’t stop crying and she is asking for you.

Can you get here? and the Uber ride here.

Rosie wasn’t answering her phone, and when I pressed Addy for information, she said all she knows is that she’s never seen Rosie like this and she needed me.

Rosie needed me.

“I’m here, Rosebud.” I close the door, kicking off my shoes and going to the bed, sitting on the side she lies on. The moment I sit down she’s up and climbing in my lap, her arms around my neck, and she’s…she’s sobbing. My arms fly around her, holding her tight to my chest.

“Hey, hey, Rosebud, what happened?” It feels like my heart is going to fall out of my chest. In complete agony hearing the sobs in her throat, I let my hands soothe over her back, and when her cries seem too thick for her to reply, I readjust so I can lie down with her in my arms. I pull her tightly against my body, locking her legs with mine and rubbing a hand down her back.

“Shhh, I got you, pretty girl. I’ve got you.

It’s okay,” I whisper in her ear and kiss the crown of her head.

“It’s not okay. Nothing is okay,” she croaks between sobs.

What do I even say to that? I have no idea what’s happened, no idea where to even start with comforting her. Everything right now is pure instinct because this is uncharted territory. For both of us.

“Can you tell me what happened?” I hedge, but keep my arms firmly around her, basking in the feel of her pressed against me, in an embrace she always shies away from.

After a moment, she takes a deep breath and I feel her stir, her hands clinging to my shirt as she tilts her chin to look up at me.

“I quit my job,” she whispers, and the words are so shocking I almost think I didn’t hear that right.

“You…quit? Why, what happened?” She scrunches her eyes closed and drops a few tears. My mind goes to Daniel and a quick surge of hot rage floods my veins. If he so much as touched a hair on her head, I swear?—

“My dad.” Shock has words lodged in my throat. “He didn’t get his way. I…upset him, and he followed through. He’s had my life strung up like every other puppet he controls, and he pulled the one string he knew would crumble my whole world.” She sobs again and I pull her back against me.

“Rosie, pretty girl. Please don’t cry.” Each sob feels like a punch in the gut and I hold her tighter, desperate to take away her pain but completely lost on how.

I’ve never seen this side of Rosie—even though I suspected that under all her bluster it was there.

I wanted to get under her skin, for her to let me in.

I had no idea it would hurt so much to see under her mask.

She takes a steadying breath before she pulls away, sitting up and wiping her eyes.

I sit up, too, because any space between us right now might make my lungs stop working.

She extricates herself from my arms though and sits against her headboard, her knees pulled up to her chin and her eyes closed as she breathes.

I feel utterly helpless watching her like this.

But, knowing she hates the embraces, I let myself be grateful she let me hold her at all and settle in beside her.

“Chris found out about us,” she says quietly, and while I know she’d wanted us to remain a secret, this hardly seems to be linked. “He tried to accuse me of sleeping my way to a promotion.”

“He what!? ” Sweet, sweet rage hits me like a freight train.

The only thing stopping me from storming to that office is the wince on Rosie’s face at my tone.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean…what the hell is going on, Rosie,” I ask desperately.

She finally looks up at me, her watery eyes filled with years of repressed emotions, and my rage evaporates.

I look at her helplessly and she falls to my side, her head resting on my shoulder, thankful that she lets me wrap an arm around her.

After a steadying breath, she tells me all of it.

How Daniel, that fucker, had ratted on her about us sleeping together, despite it having nothing to do with her job and being completely unrelated, he tried to use that to take her position.

Then she worked out that it was her father pulling the strings.

In retaliation to Rosie not being the perfect daughter, he threatened Chris that he’d pull his funding if he didn’t take Rosie’s job away.

Chris had done something to ensure she would stay employe, just not as the editor in chief.

There was apparently some heated conversations, some much-deserved scathing from Rosie, before she told him where to stick his job and she walked out of there for the last time.

“I don’t understand though. What have you done to your dad for him to do this ?” I ask gently, and a humorless laugh leaves her throat.

“I’m not the perfect, agreeable daughter.

That’s why.” She clears her throat, and though I get the feeling like she’s keeping parts of this to herself, she continues anyway, “I’ve been ignoring him, I disobeyed him the night of the gala, I use every chance I get to defy him, and here I thought I’d been building my safety net so if he ever decided to cut me off, at least I’d have the borrowed life I built to fall into, you know?

” No, I want to say, I don’t know, actually.

None of what she is saying is making any sense—safety net?

Borrowed life?—but Rosie is opening up, she’s letting me in.

I wasn’t about to let my dumb-ass questions ruin it.

“He just showed me that my so-called freedom is a lie. I haven’t been free, not a day in my life.

” I don’t understand, but I don’t press.

She sounds exhausted and utterly defeated as she sniffs through a few more rounds of tears.

She falls forward, her head in my lap as she curls against me and cries.

I wipe back her hair, feeling every tear like a lash against my skin.

I’ve never felt this before, so utterly helpless in the face of someone’s agony.

And it’s not even that I don’t know how to fix it; it’s that I don’t think there is anything I can do to fix it.

But she called me, she needed me. And so that’s what I’ll do, gladly.

I will be here for her, for as long as she’ll have me.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel some kind of sick pleasure that even with Addy and Casey here, she called for me.

That she came to my arms and fell apart for me.

The fierce possessiveness that shoots through me at the thought has me bending forward to place a kiss against her soft cheek, wiping away a few of her tears.

“What can I do, Rosebud?” I whisper to her ear, so utterly desperate to take away her pain.

“Just…stay. For a while.” Her fingers cling to my clothes and I nod.

“Okay, pretty girl. I’m right here.” I kiss her cheek again and she heaves a heavy sigh, her breathing slowing and evening out as her eyes flutter closed.

I let her lie quietly for a few moments, her tears drying up and her breath soft, though I don’t think she’s sleeping.

Not yet. With summer in full swing, the air is muggy, made only slightly better by the air vents, and I know Rosie.

I know she hates being in her work clothes for too long; she prefers to freshen up the moment she’s home, so she’s probably uncomfortable right now, with dried tears that have made her eyes smudge a little black.

I personally think she’s never looked more adorable. But this is about her.

So I tuck her against me, my hands under her knees, carrying her into the bathroom.

“What’re you doing?” she mumbles, her fist clinging to my shirt as I seat her on her vanity.

I bury the caveman-like pride at how she reaches for me, and instead smooth my hands on her thighs, placing a kiss to each of her cheeks.

Cheeks that are pale with despair. My knuckles lift her chin, forcing her to look up at me, her big eyes sad and pained but so, so beautiful. I can’t help but give her a soft smile.

“Wait here,” I whisper. And then I get to work.

I light a few candles and get the bath going, digging through a few of her perfectly organized drawers.

“How did I not know you’re a clean freak?

” I tease, and she chortles something that almost might be a laugh.

I take the win and undertake to double down on my efforts to get that full chuckle from her before the day is out.

I find a few different salts and other bath-looking things. I haven’t a clue what any of them do, but in the bath they go. I make the water cool enough that it’s more like a warm pool rather than a hot bath, given the state of the heat outside.

She’s slumped against the mirror behind her, her eyes vacant as she watches me head toward her.

My fingers go to the buttons of her blouse.

“Can I take this off?” I ask, gently. And though I’ve torn her clothes from her body and seen, kissed, and licked almost every inch of her exposed skin…

this is different. More intimate. It’s baring herself to me while she’s vulnerable, and the last thing I want is to push her too far.

Her eyes search mine for a beat before she wordlessly jerks her chin with permission.

Unbuttoning her blouse, I remove it and her bra next too.

When my fingers go to the back of her pencil skirt, I find her eyes first and she absently nods again.

I unzip and she lifts her hips to help me undress her, pulling her panties too.

Before I know it, she’s bare before me, utterly stunning.