Assumed Master by Lila Munro Read Free Book Online

of his desk. "Would you go wake Julie and
let her know she needs to get ready to go to lunch?"
    "Yes, Master." Blake stood and left without
looking back.
    ****
    Dante watched Julie’s eyes wander across the
chokers gleaming under the spotless, streak-free glass case. They darted along
the row of precious metal chains of all shapes and sizes before settling on
one. He couldn’t help but smile. She was such a girl and had high quality
taste. Could he really expect less after she’d been married to someone with
more money than God?
    "We’d like to look at that one,"
Dante said, tapping his finger over the necklace comprised of tiny, interwoven
platinum hearts. One larger heart of the same metal, but encrusted with tiny
diamonds, looped through the two hearts at the ends of the choker and snapped
shut, locking the creation around the wearer's throat.
    "Dante," Julie said so low he barely
heard her. "No."
    "Why not?" he whispered
back.
    "It’s too expensive," she hissed.
    "We’d like to see that one," Dante
reinforced to the sales clerk.
    "Don’t try to argue with him, pumpkin,"
Blake said from her other side. "He’s like a pit bull. Once he latches on
to an idea, his jaws lock and there’s no turning loose."
    "It’s too much," Julie insisted,
crossing her arms under her breasts and hugging her middle. "You don’t owe
me anything."
    "I know I don’t." Dante took her
elbow and steered her away from the counter as the clerk worked on getting the
piece he wanted to see out of the display case. "Jules, why on earth would
you ever think I’d do something for you out of a sense of obligation? I want
you to have something nice."
    "Aren’t you just keeping me because you feel obligated? Why would this piece of
jewelry be any different?"
    Dante wondered if he could ever kick his own
ass enough to make up for what he’d done to Julie and Blake over the course of
a few short hours. It hadn't occurred to him at first that his reaction to
Mason’s announcement probably made her feel unwanted and unloved, not just by
him but by her own husband. It never occurred to him that she might have heard
his answer to Drake when he told him he didn’t have to do his father’s bidding.
Of course she probably felt like a piece of property, not a person with
feelings. No wonder she was reluctant.
    "Listen to me. You are not just an obligation to me. Yes,
finding out what Mason deemed was a shock. But not because I
don’t want you. I just can’t believe he never thought to discuss any of
this with anyone. I’m sorry, Jules. As much as I love you and as much as I
loved Mason, this sort of put him in the asshole column of my list of friends.
True, you’ve been a slave for years, but you’re a person first. I’m not sure he
took that into account when he did this. Had he asked, the answer would have
been irrefutably yes. I want to take care of you." He pulled her to his
chest and kissed the top of her head. "I’m sorry I made you feel that way.
I want to make this work, but not because I feel I owe it to him . I owe it to you out of love, Jules. Would you please just try the damn thing
on?"
    All those things were true. He did want to
take care of her and make it work, but Dante also understood he no more knew how he was going to do any of that than
the man in the moon. She was so fragile and soft and different from Blake.
Well, hell, she was a woman. Of course she was those things. Wasn’t that why he
loved her? But he was set in his ways and had no idea if he could change. He
felt like he was making empty promises based on vapors of half-truth.
    Once the choker was paid for and secured
around her throat, Julie reached up and fingered it and the most amazing thing
happened. For the first time in days, she smiled and Dante swore she breathed a
little easier.
    It was after Julie ate more in one sitting at
lunch than she’d eaten in the past week combined they made their next stop at
the boys’ school to pick them up and deliver them to