• Twenty-Seven •
· Twenty-Seven ·
When she could be trusted, then she would be treated like my queen.
Storm
“The car is parked in your garage. I messed it up some, like you’d said, but all the important stuff was left untouched,” Marty said as I stood beside my truck, watching the front door of Maeme’s house.
Marty was a guy I’d known since high school that I used on occasion to handle things under the table. I’d helped him become a prospect for The Judgment MC, and he owed me for it. I wasn’t ready to say he’d paid me back yet, but this last job I’d given him had been successful.
“Good. If you took anything of value—” I warned him.
“I swear I didn’t. It’s all there. Even the bankroll of cash.”
Cash? She’d been driving around with a roll of cash?
Jesus, Briar. That’s so fucking reckless.
“How much?” I asked him.
“I have no fucking idea. I wasn’t touching it and losing my fingers over it.”
If he’d taken any of her cash, he’d lose more than his fingers. I started to say more when the door opened, and Briar stepped out, looking like a goddamn angel. Fuck, that woman could wear a pair of jeans. Maybe I should have gotten her a different top. I’d seen that one and known it would match her eyes, but I hadn’t thought about the way it would flash her flat, tanned stomach every time she moved.
If she knew I’d chosen, bought, and paid for the clothes Maeme supplied for her, then I doubted she’d be wearing them. The shift inside me, the one I had given up fighting and accepted how I felt about her, was one she didn’t know had taken place. I wasn’t exactly sure when it’d happened myself. But there was a switch I hadn’t known existed, and Briar Landry had found it and flipped it.
“Camera’s installed?” I asked him, lowering my voice.
“Yep.”
She was getting closer, and I needed to get off this call.
“Gotta go,” I said into the phone before ending the call and slipping my phone into my pocket.
Briar did a little shake of her hips that made my mouth literally water. “I don’t know whose clothes Maeme borrowed for me, but I need to send them a thank-you card. These jeans are not meant to wear while riding a horse. They’re designer.”
And they were worth every fucking penny. I’d buy her a closet full, but not yet. First, I had to make her fall in love with me. How the table had turned on me. I had made this a hell of a lot harder on myself by being a complete dick to her. But in my defense, I hadn’t known I was gonna go from being disgusted with her life choices to being completely obsessed with her.
I wasn’t over the men and her past. I fucking hated it. I wanted them all dead.
“My sisters are spoiled and have closets full of clothing they’ve never even worn,” I replied. Which wasn’t a lie.
Dovie was wearing Nailyah, my baby sister’s, clothing. Briar, however, was wearing new things. I hadn’t liked the idea of her putting anything used on her body.
“You have sisters?” she asked, pausing.
The surprise on her face reminded me of how much she didn’t know about me. Things I wanted her to know. The more I convinced her I wasn’t a bastard, the easier it would be to get her to love me.
“Two. Lela is twenty-two, and Nailyah will turn twenty in a few weeks.”
“I bet you’re the overprotective type of big brother,” she replied.
I chuckled. “What? Me? I’ve only killed two of their boyfriends.”
Briar’s eyebrows shot up as she looked at me in horror. I couldn’t keep a straight face as a laugh escaped me.
“Damn, you’re easy,” I drawled.
She frowned then and put a hand on her hip. “That was a joke?” she asked as if she wasn’t sure or not.
“Yes, it’s a joke. Hell, woman, I don’t kill guys for dating my sisters. Just if they try and fuck them.”
Another horrified expression, and I leaned over to open the passenger door to the Jeep while grinning.
“That was another joke,” she said, realizing I’d gotten her again.
“Yep,” I replied, holding out a hand for her to take.
She looked down at my hand, then back up at me questioningly.
“It’s big step up,” I told her.
She glanced at the truck and then down at my hand again before placing hers in mine. Wrapping my hand over her small one had me fighting off the urge to pull her against me and devour those full pink lips. Not yet. I had to play this slow. She was a flight risk, and I had to make sure she didn’t want to leave me. Ever. Because the day of sugar daddies was over for her.
Stepping up behind her, I slid my hand over her waist, enjoying the slight tremor in her body from my touch before lifting her into the truck. Having her ass in my face sent the pounding need through me to lean forward and bite it.
“Have you heard anything about my car?” she asked, sitting down and taking that incredible view away from me.
“Yeah, it’s making its way here,” I lied.
It was already here. In my garage. I wanted to go through it before I handed it over to her. I needed to know exactly how much cash she had and if I needed to make that go away. I’d invest it for her. She needed to be at my complete mercy. If that was all the money she had, then it was going to be easier for me to make her destitute than I’d thought.
A twinge of guilt stirred in my chest, but I shoved it away. I was doing what I had to. A woman like Briar Landry wasn’t one who fell in love easily. She was a master at making men want her, and then she walked away. Taking their money with her. I had to be smarter. Cut her off at every angle. Until she wanted no one else but me.
Then and only then, would I worship her the way I wanted to. When she could be trusted, then she would be treated like my queen. Every dream she ever had I would hand over to her. As long as it included her being mine. Because that was nonnegotiable. She was mine now.