Yours to Keep part 3: Billionaire CEO Romance (Captured and Claimed) Read Online Free

laughing mood.
    “I did a bit of research,” Sophie explained. As her friends continued to stare at her she took a sip of her drink and said, “What? I was curious.”
    Rebecca eyed her friend. “What are you getting at?”
    “Did you ever stop to think that maybe Quinn feels guilty?”
    “Guilty?”
    Sophie took a sip of her martini. “I only met him briefly, but he strikes me as the kind of guy who’d hold himself responsible for this.”
    Rebecca recalled the rage in his eyes, and how he’d left Felix for dead. “Maybe, but it wasn’t his fault.”
    “If you don’t hold him personally responsible, then why can’t you continue to have a relationship with him?”
    “Because I’m done dabbling in that lifestyle.” Everyone at the table went silent, waiting for her to continue. “Look, it’s like this, a leopard can’t change its spots. Quinn is who he is and I would never ask him to change for me. I want him to be happy and he won’t be able to find that happiness with me.”
    “You’re right,” Melanie said. “A leopard can’t change its spots.” She paused, jabbed her finger in the air toward Rebecca and added, “What you fail to see in that old adage is that it applies to you too.”
    Rebecca eyed her over the rim of her martini glass. “What do you mean?”
    “He introduced you to a world you liked, right?” Melanie said.
    “Yeah, but—”
    Melanie cut her off. “Do you think you can just go back to vanilla sex after that? You were so completely and utterly bored with the men in your life, Becs. Quinn changed that for you.”
    She set her glass down. “I can’t.” The olives collided, splashing gin over the side. She grabbed a napkin and wiped her stemware before adding, “I can’t go back to that. Felix put a blindfold on me, Melanie. That was a hard limit for me.”
    Lilliana squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry, honey. I really am. But it was Felix who did that, not Quinn.”
    Rebecca blew out a breath. “I know but…” She knew her friends were trying to help, but what they failed to understand was the significance of the blindfold, or how her foster mother used the dark, rat-infested basement to punish an innocent child. If she stepped back into that lifestyle something horrible could happen again.
    Her stomach knotted as she thought about the woman who claimed to be taking care of her because she cared about her well-being. What Dorothy Kean really cared about was the money she received in return for providing a roof over Rebecca’s head. The second Rebecca turned eighteen and Dorothy could no longer collect government funds, she’d tossed her out the door. Rebecca was glad to go. She’d never had any intention of staying in the abusive household once she was of legal age anyway. From that day forward she’d worked two jobs, sometimes three, to put herself through college. She’d met these three wonderful women she called her closest friends when she went to work at the firm a few years ago, and had never once revealed her abusive past. They had no idea how hard it was for her to be blindfolded, how the darkness had suffocated her, choked her until she couldn’t breathe.
    Her hand went to her chest, and she could feel the room closing in on her as her heart pounded against her ribcage. She took another drink to wash away the anxiety rising in her throat.
    “I think you should give him another chance,” Sophie said quietly.
    “The only way I could do that is if he left that lifestyle behind, and like I already said, I would never ask that because I care about his happiness.”
    Just then, her cell phone pinged. She swiped her thumb over the screen and her pulse leapt when she read the message.
    “Is it Quinn?” Sophie asked.
    She nodded. “Yeah.”
    “What does he want?”
    “To see me.”
    “Don’t you think you should at least talk to him, see what he wants?” Melanie asked. “Maybe he’s ready to give it all up for you.”
    “I told you, I’d never want