Chapter 15
Cullan
“ C ullan, will you get off your goddamn phone?” Tyrant throws his linen napkin on the table and glowers at me.
We’ve finished eating the beautiful meal that Vivienne prepared, but it all tasted like ashes.
I haven’t been able to concentrate on the taste or the company.
All I’ve been able to think about is Elena.
She’s out on a Saturday night wearing that jaw-dropping black dress.
Every man on Flockton Street will be drooling over her, and she won’t know how to defend herself against all the attention because she doesn’t know she’s beautiful.
“I have to check where Elena is.” I glower at the blue dot on my screen. She hasn’t moved from a bar called Pixie in over an hour. I was on edge when she was barhopping, but I’m tenfold more tense now that she’s staying in one place. Why is she still at Pixie?
What’s so fucking fascinating at Pixie that she’s not moving on?
Is it a man? Is he touching her?
“Is the dot going to tell you if Elena is making out with someone?” Tyrant asks.
I lift my head and glare at him. “Shut the fuck up.”
Vivienne touches the black sleeve of her husband’s suit jacket. “Tyrant, don’t. You wouldn’t like it if I were on Flockton Street.”
By the sounds of it, Vivienne was always bookish and never a party girl, so Tyrant doesn’t know the unique torture of watching your woman head out on the town looking devastatingly sexy in a dress that signals I am available .
“Angel, you can go out on Flockton Street all you want.”
She smiles flirtatiously at him. “Well, maybe I will.”
“As long as you’re with me.” Tyrant turns to me. “You knew that Elena being out on her own was going to bother you. Why did you let her go?”
I shove my phone into my pocket and sit back.
Still fuming, I cast my gaze around the wood-paneled dining room.
There are silver candlesticks on the table.
Oil paintings on the walls. Dark beams on the high ceilings.
“I’m pretending I’ve backed off. Elena told me she’s afraid she’ll lose her job if anything happens between us, so I’m making her feel secure until she realizes that I’m not going anywhere, and neither is she. ”
Tyrant nods in understanding. “Tonight’s frustrating for you, but look at the big picture.
Elena is living in your home already, you lucky bastard.
” His eyes narrow as he looks at his wife.
“What I wouldn’t have given to lock Vivienne up in this house from the first night I met her, before she could steal Barlow back from me. ”
Vivienne looks down her small, pert nose at him, amusement dancing in her eyes. “Instead, you pretended I was free to do as I pleased while you were tracking my every movement.”
He grins at her, darkness glimmering in his eyes. “Of course I was.”
I take out my phone and check Elena’s location again, but she hasn’t moved in the last forty seconds. “I have no cameras where Elena is. I can’t see what she’s doing,” I growl in frustration.
Mercer and Vivienne exchange looks. I know what they’re thinking.
“Yes, I have hidden cameras all over my house, but I don’t look at her in bed or the shower.” Though I did watch my son go down on her. I point a finger at Tyrant. “Don’t judge me for being insane, Mercer. You’re just the same.”
“Vivienne’s my wife. I’m allowed to be insane.”
“You were insane before I was your wife,” Vivienne points out.
Their banter is irritatingly cute. I’m glad they’re happy in this beautiful house while four guys could be feeling up my future wife as dozens more stare at her.
I groan and swipe my hand over my face. I’ve never been a particularly jealous man, but lately the green-eyed monster has been rampaging around inside my skull.
What if Elena meets some young, horny idiot and her friend persuades her that casual sex with him on her birthday is a great idea?
I picture Elena pushed up against the wall of a club while some man paws at her and rips at her dress.
Is she wearing the red-soled shoes? I shouldn’t have given Elena fuck-me heels for her birthday. Scratch that. I shouldn’t have let her leave the goddamn house.
I shove my phone in my pocket and stand up. “I’m sorry. I have to go see that she’s all right. Thank you for dinner.”
Vivienne gives me a sympathetic look, which is kind of her. She should be telling me not to be so possessive over a woman who isn’t mine. “Leave Rosie with us tonight. Tomorrow morning as well.”
“Good idea, angel.” Tyrant smirks at me. “Give Elena a birthday kiss and calm the fuck down.”
I glance toward the nursery where I put Rosie down to sleep with Barlow and Huck. Vivienne and Tyrant are excellent parents. I installed the security system on this house myself, and I know it’s tight. “Are you sure?”
Vivienne smiles reassuringly. “Of course. You know I love Rosie, and it will give Tyrant some practice being a girl dad. He’s got his heart set on us having a daughter.”
Tyrant nods at the door. “Go get your woman. You’re no fucking fun in this state. ”
“Thank you both. I mean it.”
“Bring Elena around sometime,” Vivienne says. “I’d love to meet her.”
I mutter something about doing that, but I’m already hurrying to give my sleeping daughter a kiss goodbye before jogging out to my car.