Free Ambition 2: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Driven) by Lauren Landish

end of the month Tabby told me about the way her parents had reacted to her sexuality, basically making her emotionally an orphan from her teen years. Afterwards I had excused myself to go vent my frustration, Sophie finding me twenty minutes later in the gym, beating the hell out of a punching bag. "At least you're doing better than Mark last time he got this pissed off," she noted. "He didn't wear any gloves."
    I ignored her, pounding away until the tide of my anger subsided. "Why?"
    "Why what?" Sophie replied. "Are you asking why he didn't wear gloves? Why I'm here? Why the Spartans are only two and two despite having one of the better defenses in the league this year?"
    "You know what I mean," I replied, peeling the gloves off and throwing them across the gym in a final spurt of defiance. "That someone like Tabby is left feeling as alone and abandoned as I did? Fuck, I can at least understand if not like my feelings, my mother was a drug addicted fuckup. But to do that to your own flesh and blood while they live with you? How could someone do something so shitty to someone so adorable?”
    "Welcome to the question I've asked myself for most of the time I've known her," Sophie replied, still leaning against the wall with a bemused expression on her face. She did that a lot when she was in her teaching mode, like the answer was clear, but she was still taking the time to explain it anyway since I wasn't connecting the dots. "I still don't have an answer, but I don't think one exists. It doesn't stop me from trying to answer it though. You know what I do instead?"
    "What?" I asked, wiping my face with a small towel that had been hanging on the wall. I realized it was one of Sophie's and folded it up. "Sorry. I'll wash it."
    She waved it off. "Forget it. But what I do is, I love Tabby for who she is. If you want my advice, do the same. Not that you aren’t already. But her own family was stupid, and she can’t take more heart break.”
    I nodded firmly, which said all that needed to be said.
    Sophie left, and I followed back into the main house after putting Sophie's now dirty towel into the laundry. Tabby met me near her room, taking my hand. "I didn't mean to upset you," she said, giggling when I pulled her into a hug. "Although I guess you weren't that upset."
    "Never could I be upset with you," I answered, inhaling her clean, subtle scent. She didn't wear perfume, she didn't need it. "I just don't want to see you in pain. Ever."
    Tabby let go of me and stood back. "You know you can't prevent that. Nobody can."
    "Doesn't mean I don't want to try," I said. "I just want to see you happy, no matter what."
    Tabby stood up on her tiptoes, and kissed me. I was surprised at first, then kissed back, her lips and tongue soft and wonderful. I wanted her so badly, but I was already exhausted even before my burst on the bag. Despite her body being pressed against me, despite the soft swell of her breasts against my chest and her hips pressed against me, my body wouldn't respond. I was so damn exhausted. We parted, and she chuckled when she saw my hangdog expression. "Don't worry about it," she said, rubbing her hands over my chest. "First of all, you're drained from today. You've been going through so much stress physically and mentally I'm surprised you even think of sex with me."
    "I dream of you more often than you'd believe," I said honestly. I shook my head, realizing how I sounded. "Wow, that was creepy. Not over obsessed stalker type at all."
    Tabby laughed and kissed my chest through my shirt. "That's okay, I know that what's here is clean enough. Listen, let me talk to Sophie and Mark. You don't have anything late night tomorrow, do you?"
    "No, why?" I asked, a thread of hopeful anticipation making my pulse quicken. Or maybe it was just feeling Tabby so close to me in the privacy of the hallway, knowing her bedroom was so close I could imagine it.
    "Because tomorrow is date night, just you and me Councilman McCaffery. And