Free Until I'm Yours by Kennedy Ryan Page B

I’ve been carrying around for fifteen years hovers on the tip of my tongue, lured out of darkness by necessity. I had put this behind me. After two years of therapy and more than a dozen years living strong and making my own choices, I put it behind me. But now it’s rearing its ugly head again, and though I won’t expose it to the world, I have to tell Daddy. If he knew what Kyle Manchester did all those years ago, I have to believe he wouldn’t do business with him.
    “Sofie, this is a surprise.” Daddy shifts his attention to a stack of papers on his desk, giving me a cursory look. “Shouldn’t you be on your way home to get ready for tonight’s party?”
    “I’m dressing here at the office.” I fold my hands in my lap. “Leaving from here.”
    “So did you need something?”
    Right to the point. No affection or concern. My father doesn’t deal in either of those, and I should be used to it by now, but somehow I never am. I should lower my expectations of him, as he has done of me.
    “Could I ask you…well, how deep are you in with Kyle Manchester?”
    I’ve spent my whole life studying this man, trying to figure out how I can best please him. I can never seem to get that quite right, but trying has taught me a lot about him. And I recognize, even though his face remains completely relaxed, a certain alertness enter his eyes.
    “Why do you ask?” Daddy flips open a file, running his eyes over it, but not really seeing it. Not fooling me. I have his full attention.
    “He’s not a good man, Daddy.”
    His eyes flip up to mine, narrowed on my face.
    “Neither am I, Sofie.” A band of steel runs through his soft words. “Neither are half the men we do business with. Neither is Walsh Bennett, if it comes down to it.”
    “You’re wrong about Walsh.” I tug the corner of my mouth between my teeth. “But Kyle…”
    I inch forward until I’m literally on the edge of my seat.
    “Daddy, what if I told you that Kyle hurt me?”
    A frown pinches his brows together.
    “Hurt you how? When?”
    “On prom night, he—”
    “High school, Sofie?” His sharp laugh dices my confidence. “Next year this man will be one of the most powerful politicians in the country, and you’re talking to me about prom night? Really, Sofie. I expect better of you.”
    “No, Daddy, listen.” I lick dry lips. “On prom night he hurt me. He forced me. He ra—”
    “Stop.” Daddy slams his hand on the desk, rattling a bin of paper clips, rattling my nerves. “Don’t say it, Sofie. Not to me and not to anyone else. Have you repeated this nonsense to anyone else?”
    “It’s not nonsense, Daddy. If you’d just listen to what happened—”
    “And you’re just now telling me something like this fifteen years later?” He stands, walking back and forth and rubbing his chin between his fingers. “No, I think that time and memory twist reality. It’s understandable. You probably expected more from your…encounter with Kyle, and maybe you were upset when he moved on.”
    “That isn’t what happened at all.” I borrow some of his steel, weaving it into my words. “I know exactly what happened that night.”
    “I can’t let you endanger a man’s career because of something you think happened more than a decade ago.”
    “Daddy, please listen to me.” His dismissal whittles my voice, my heart, down to a nub.
    “No, you listen to me, young lady.” No one seeing this man’s face, hearing his voice, would think I’m his daughter. There is nothing soft or protective in how he looks at me, in how he speaks. “I am on the cusp of the most important deal of my life, and Kyle Manchester is the linchpin. No one, not even you, will ruin that for me.”
    “I don’t want to ruin anything, I just…I just thought you should know that—”
    “That he’s not a good man. I heard you.” His face softens, but it’s a calculated yielding. A deliberate act to put me at foolish ease. “Sofie, let sleeping dogs lie, and