Young, Allyson - Broken [Running to Love 2] (Siren Publishing Allure) by Allyson Young Page A

a place to paint without interruption. No, she wouldn’t think of Kyle and painting in the same sentence. She would need to paint. If nothing else, she could live away from people. Live until she died. In truth, she felt like she lived in the skin of yet another woman right now, or at least shared the body with someone else. The old Tabitha was gone, and so was the second chance Tabitha. There was the “before Kyle life,” the “with Kyle life,” and the “after Kyle life.” The “after Kyle life” was forever, and right now, she hoped it didn’t last too long. Tabitha wouldn’t take her own life, but she didn’t expect she would make any effort to prolong it either. The ache of her heart and ashes of her soul had crept past her busy brain, and Tabitha needed to get to her room and recover as best she could.
    Tabitha let herself into her hotel suite and was struck by the dimness yet noted the illumination coming from the bedroom. That was strange. Perhaps the maid had turned the lamps on. She threw the deadbolt and set her suitcase down, only then becoming aware of the shadowed form sitting in the very chair she had chosen earlier to wait in for the sounds of her future. There was no doubt in her mind who it could be.
    “Kyle,” she stated.
    He rose and advanced toward her, and it took all of her composure to face him and not back away. He reached out and fisted her hair, pulling her to him and taking her mouth in a brutal, punishing kiss. Tabitha endured and, somehow, did not respond nor surrender to him. He released her, only to take her arm and half drag her to the bedroom, snatching up her suitcase in his other hand.
    “Stop,” she said.
    Kyle ignored her and pushed her to sit on the bed, then opened the case and sifted through the contents. He pulled out the stockings and garter belt she had changed out of in the store and tossed them on the bed beside her. She knew he was thinking they would work as restraints. He stared at her, and she saw anger and lust in his eyes. There was something else, too, but too fleeting for her to recognize.
    “Take off your clothes,” Kyle commanded in a dark, intent tone.
    “No,” she said, staring at him.
    Kyle advanced on her and reached for her shirt, rage and lust dancing across his features before he schooled them into his usual composed visage.
    She shoved at his hands. “Benjamin.”
    Kyle froze and appeared to stop breathing. He backed away and repeated what she had said.
    “Benjamin?”
    “Yes, Kyle, my safe word. The one I never used. Never.” Tabitha’s control almost broke on the word but she continued, “But I expect you remember that.”
    “I’m not letting you have a safe word tonight, Tabi. You are going to receive punishment, and then you are going to make things up to me. Then I’m taking you home,” growled Kyle.
    “Where’s your honor, Kyle?” she asked calmly. “Or has that gone by the wayside, too, along with betraying the total trust I afforded you?”

    * * * *

    Kyle held himself perfectly still and reached for the control this woman had nearly stripped from him. When he was certain he wouldn’t push her down on the bed and fuck her senseless for worrying him, no, for terrifying him, he responded.
    “We need to work this out, Tabi-cat,” he said slowly. “You know we do.”
    “There’s nothing to work out, Kyle. I. Don’t. Trust. You. Anymore.”
    That flat statement blew Kyle’s plans, hopes, and dreams out of the water in an instant. He heard the certainty, the coldness in her tone and recognized her devastation. He briefly bowed his head then raised it to look at her.
    “I’m not backing away from this, Tabi-cat. We have something together, and I’m not giving it up. I’m not letting you go.”
    Tabitha replied in the same, flat tone, “We no longer have anything, Kyle, and I am not yours to keep. I want you to leave, or I will get hotel security involved if you can’t follow your own protocol.”
    Kyle’s eyes