Page 44 of Sacred Vow

CAESAR

P ressing my foot to the gas, we sail down the street as Tilly holds a to-go tub of ice cream in her lap, her small plastic spoon barely surviving with each scoop she takes.

She’s barely tired now, her eyes wide open despite the massive night she’s had, and as I drive, I find myself passing the turn toward her apartment complex and head straight for my place instead.

Despite everything, despite knowing that I need to push her away and that she’s becoming far too attached to something that can never happen, I want her with me tonight.

I want her in my bed, I want her head against my chest as she sleeps soundly, knowing that I would never let any harm come to her. I want her to be mine.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

Tilly notices straight away, her gaze slicing out the window as we pass her turn off, and when she casually glances back down at her ice cream and gets back to work, scooping another bite, I let out a breath, grateful that she didn’t feel the need to bring it up.

Knowing that she knows I want her with me is one thing, but having to explain myself is another whole battle that I’m not even a little bit prepared to face down.

It’s a short drive back to my place, and after parking in my garage and closing the automatic door behind me, I start leading Tilly in through the internal garage door as she shoves the shitty plastic spoon deep into her ice cream.

“Jesus,” she mutters to herself, the spoon getting stuck in the ice cream.

I glance down as she pulls against the spoon, the ice cream clearly still very frozen in the center, and as she yanks the spoon back out, the flimsy plastic bends, creating a catapult that sends a sloppy, wet dollop of ice cream launching right toward my chest.

It splatters against me, and both Tilly and I just stare at it, each of us in shock.

“Oh, shit,” she starts to laugh, knowing she’s in trouble now.

I shake my head, lifting my gaze to hers to see her already shrinking back as though she’s about to make a break for it. “Don’t even think about it, hellcat,” I rumble, taking the ice cream tub from her hand and sliding it onto the hallway table. “You’re gonna get on your knees and lick it off.”

“Oh yeah?” she questions, stepping closer, her eyes dancing with excitement. “And if I don’t?”

My hand falls to her waist, firmly squeezing, when a sound deeper in my home has a chill sailing down my spine. I grip Tilly harder and pull her straight behind me, the ice cream instantly forgotten.

“What’s wrong?” she whispers, her hand lifting to my back as my gaze sweeps through the darkened house.

“There’s someone in the house.”

“Zeph—”

“No,” I say, cutting her off. “His Range Rover wasn’t in the driveway. It’s not him.”

“Fuck.”

My thoughts exactly.

A moment of hesitation rocks through me.

Do I send her out, lock her in the garage until I find the motherfucker currently in my home, leaving her as a prize to be found?

Or do I bring her with me, making sure to have eyes on her the whole fucking time, even if it means getting an up-close view of the man I used to be?

Shit.

I grip her tighter as I creep deeper into my home. “Stay right behind me,” I tell her, slipping the shitty plastic spoon out of the ice cream and snapping off the top of it to create a makeshift knife. It’s not ideal, but it will do until I can get my hands on a proper weapon.

Tilly sucks in a breath, and while it’s barely audible, I hear it like a wave crashing in my ear, her fear radiating out of her as she clings to me. “I got you, hellcat,” I promise her. “You’re safe with me.”

“I know,” she murmurs, trusting me with her life when she shouldn’t.

We make our way to my foyer and through the main entrance before creeping into the opening of the living room, when a voice sounds through the darkness. “Is that you, Caesar?” a familiar purr says. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Unease blasts through me, and I pull Tilly across the room before reaching for the light switch, sending a blinding brightness through the room, only to find the woman from Vixen spread out across my lounge in red lingerie.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing?” I demand, irritated with myself for not checking my phone. There would have been more than just a few notifications from my home security system alerting me to a break-in, but I’ve been so focused on Tilly that I didn’t even notice.

The woman gasps as she sits up, her eyes wide as she takes in Tilly behind me. “What the hell are you doing with her?”

“That’s none of your goddamn business,” I growl, raising my voice, suddenly wishing that I’d spent just a little more time learning who the fuck I’d been sinking into all these years. I don’t even recall her fucking name. “Why are you in my house?”

“I came to surprise you,” she says as Tilly steps around to my side, her lips twisted into a deep scowl. “But imagine my surprise finding you with her .”

She talks as though she has some kind of claim over me, and when Tilly releases her hold on my back, I already know what thoughts are rushing through that pretty little mind of hers.

“Holy fucking shit,” Tilly mutters, shaking her head as she steps away from me. “I thought she was just somebody you screwed at the club every now and then. I didn’t realize there was anything more to it.”

“Hellcat, there is nothing more to it. I don’t even know her name.”

Tilly’s eyes widen, surprise brimming in her stare. “Wait. What? How can you not? Izaac said you’d been screwing her for years.”

“Excuse me?” the woman snaps, grabbing her coat and hastily covering up, looking at me as though she’s never been so offended in her life, but none of that matters to me; all that matters is Tilly.

“You asked Izaac about me?” I ask her, completely ignoring the woman.

Tilly smirks and clicks her tongue. “You’re getting off track, Mr. Di Rozé.”

I roll my eyes and let out a sigh. “I’ve told you before, baby. I’m not a good man. She offers herself up to me at the club, and that’s as far as it ever goes. I fuck her and walk away. Just like every other woman I’ve been with at Vixen.”

“And you really don’t know her name?”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Her name isn’t worth knowing. It was purely a sexual relationship that came out of proximity, which is very clearly over now. Outside of Vixen, I don’t know a damn thing about her. I can tell you how she likes to be fucked, but that’s about it.”

Her brows furrow, and she subtly shakes her head. “But, that night you first invited me to come, you were sitting with her. You were talking.”

“No, hellcat. She was talking. I was looking at you.”

Tilly’s cheeks flush, and I reach out, pulling her right back in before she can put more distance between us. “Her showing up like this is inappropriate and crossing a line. As far as I’m aware, she shouldn’t even know my address.”

Tilly’s eyes widen, and she glances between me and the woman. “So that?” she says, pointing toward the woman like she’s some kind of disease.

“Is a huge problem,” I finish for her, pulling out my phone and dialing 911 before handing Tilly my phone. “Talk to the cops, report a break-in and have somebody sent out. I’m going to deal with that .”

“Wait. What?” the woman says, her eyes wide. “The police? There’s no need to be hasty.”

Tilly ignores her and presses the phone to her ear as she wanders into my kitchen to speak more freely while also keeping a close eye on the situation. And with that sorted, I focus my attention on the woman.

“What did you think was going to happen here?” I ask, striding toward her and letting her see the menacing part of me that I work hard to keep hidden. “You break into my home and assume I’m going to allow you to spread your legs like the perfect little whore, fuck you, and send you on your way?”

“No, I . . . I just . . . I saw you at the club tonight with her. I was trying to call for you, but you didn’t even look for me, and then you took her to a booth and fucked her with those masked men.”

“And?” I prompt. “How I please her is none of your goddamn business, and it certainly doesn’t give you the right to break into my home.”

She shakes her head, getting hysterical.

“I have been asking for something like that for almost three years with you, and you’ve never cared enough to give me what I wanted.

I’ve had to seek out other men just to get even the tiniest bit of attention, but this woman— child —comes along, and you give her everything.

You give her all of you, fucking her until you’re almost passing out, and then you bring her home .

You’ve never let me in like that, and I’m done being nothing to you.

It’s time to choose, Caesar,” she says, tightening her coat around her waist as I hear Tilly in the distance, letting the operator know what’s going down here.

“I’m not going to hang around, waiting for you to decide that I matter.

We have three years behind us, and it’s time to finally see what’s been right in front of your face this whole time.

So what’s it going to be? Some dumb, bitch hussy who’s young enough to be your daughter, or me? ”

I scoff. “Her. Every fucking time I’ll choose her.”

She gapes at me as if I’ve lost my mind, shaking her head in disbelief. “You’re lying.”

“Am I?”

She glances at Tilly in the kitchen before shifting her stare back to mine. “Tell me my name.”

I shake my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t do that.”

“It’s been three years.”

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you,” I say.

“Yes, it’s been three years, but there’s nothing more to it.

We fuck. It’s easy and convenient. You keep up with me, you know what I like, and accept it whatever way I’m willing to give it.

But that’s it. If you stopped showing up at Vixen, I wouldn’t even notice. ”

Tilly steps in behind me, gripping my arm as she watches the woman across the room. “There’s a patrol car in the area. They’re coming straight here.”

I nod, and the woman starts to back up, looking for a quick escape, but she won’t be getting away that easily. “How did you find my address? That information is confidential.”

She shakes her head and focuses on Tilly, scanning her up and down as if trying to work out what Tilly has that she doesn’t, and honestly, it’s simple. Tilly is everything that she isn’t.

“Why does it matter? You brought her here.”

“Exactly. I put her in my car and drove her here because the idea of not having her in my bed fucking kills me,” I say as Tilly straightens beside me, a soft gasp filling the air.

“But you? The idea of you simply being inside my home makes me want to burn it to the ground. You are not welcome. Not now, not ever.”

A knock sounds at my door, and Tilly hastily excuses herself to answer it, coming back a moment later with two officers on her heels, already deep into her explanation of what’s going down as the Vixen woman desperately searches for an escape, her eyes flicking around my living room.

Within seconds, one of the officers is reaching for a pair of handcuffs, and the woman makes a break for it, sprinting toward me as though preparing to gouge my eyes out.

Tilly screams in horror, only as the woman barges toward me, I reach out, grabbing her by her upper arm and slamming her down against the couch cushion, her wrists firmly behind her back.

“No. No, no, no,” she screams, pulling against my hold as though she’s not nearly finished here.

“Ma’am, please don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” one of the officers says, rushing through my living room to cuff her.

Once he has her under control, I step away, not wanting this to turn into something it doesn’t need to be.

After all, it’s not the first time someone has tried to sue me for ridiculous reasons as an attempt to get their grubby hands on my money.

They’ve never been successful, and I’m not about to let that change.

It takes both officers to drag her out of my home, and I make a mental note to mention this to Izaac. Tilly and I follow them to the door, watching as they lead the woman to their patrol car.

She fights them every step of the way, and seeing us watching from the door, she loses all sense of control.

“Watch your back, Natalie Bardot,” she screams as Tilly stiffens beside me.

“I know everything about you. There’s no escaping me now, bitch.

I’ll end you for taking him away from me. You hear me? I’ll fucking end you.”

The officers tackle her into their car, slamming the door right in her face as Tilly stands motionless beside me. “How does she know my full name? Nobody knows my full name.”

I shake my head. That’s a good fucking question. Don’t get me wrong, I know exactly how I ended up learning her full name. But this woman shouldn’t have had access to it, and it leaves me scratching my head.

Once she’s locked in the back of their car, the officers return, quickly taking a statement from each of us, and twenty minutes later, we’re watching the officers get back into their car and drive away.

“It’s Annie,” Tilly says a moment later.

“Huh?”

“Her name. It’s Annie.”

“Shit,” I laugh. “You knew the whole time? You could have clued me in. Would have made me look like less of a dick.”

Tilly glances up at me, her brow arched.

“I come here to find another woman, lying half-naked in red lingerie on your couch, waiting to surprise you with what I can only assume is a crazy sex-fest, and you thought I’d help make the situation easier for you?

Hell no. I was enjoying watching you squirm.

Usually it’s the other way around. It was a nice change of pace. ”

“Jesus Christ.”

I pull my front door closed and place my hand on the small of Tilly’s back before leading her back into my home, heading for the stairs. Then just as I reach the bottom step and go to make my way up them, Tilly captures my hand in hers, pulling me to a stop.

I look back at her, finding her brows pinched as those big green eyes stare up at me in confusion.

“You know my name,” she says, almost sounding unsure, and I realize she’s not just making a basic statement, she’s realizing that she’s not like the other women I’ve entertained at Vixen. She’s more than that.

I step right into her, my hand snaking up around the back of her neck, my thumb stretching across her jaw. “I know your name because you’re somebody worth knowing.”

Her hand lifts, gently taking hold of my belt buckle and pulling me even closer. “You said you brought me here because the idea of not having me in your bed kills you.”

I nod, not prepared to explain that. Instead, I smile. “Come on, hellcat. It’s late. Let’s go to bed.” And with that, I scoop my arm beneath her legs, carry her up to my bed, and spend the rest of my night deep inside her.