Chapter 18 #5
“Are you excited for your girls’ dinner? Knight texted me. He’s not happy about Octy going out, but he’ll make sure you get home safe.”
“Is it okay if I use the card to pay for my meal?” I ask.
“You never have to ask permission to pay for anything. Ever. That’s your card and your money. Do you understand?” he growls.
“It’s not, though. It’s your money.”
“It’s our money, Verity, and if I hear you say it isn’t again, I’ll spank your ass raw until you understand.”
“Spank me…” I croak, hating the blush that rises in my cheeks.
His soft laughter seems to vibrate straight to my clit. “I see that’s not quite the threat I imagined it’d be, because you like the idea of me reddening your butt, don’t you? Once I’m home, I’ll lay you over my lap and spank your ass before I fuck it.”
“Warrick,” I say, intending it to sound like a chide, not the breathy whine it comes out as.
“Fuck, Verity. Now all I can think about is my handprints on your cheeks as I push my dick into your tight ass.”
“Warrick,” I say again, desperately.
“There’s nowhere private I can go or else I’d tell you to strip off your panties and show me exactly where my dick’s going to go the moment I walk through the door.”
“Stop,” I groan.
Chuckling softly, he smiles. “Fine, I’ll stop teasing. I’m serious, though, amore mio. Don’t ever ask permission to spend money on day-to-day stuff ever again. I got the card for you to use, not for it to sit in your purse and have you ask me if you can buy fucking gum.”
“I can’t just spend your money on whatever I want,” I say.
“I’m going to have to fuck you on your belly for a week when I get home, amore mio, because you won’t be sitting comfortably for a while,” he growls, his brows drawn together in frustration.
“I feel like I’m taking advantage of you,” I admit, being more honest with him than I’ve been since we met.
Sighing, he rubs at his dirty forehead with his equally dirty fingers. “You saying that shit makes me crazy mad when I’m not there with you. I fucking love you, Verity. Taking care of your needs is a fucking privilege, and it pisses me the fuck off when you make it sound like something dirty.”
His anger makes my stomach plummet and churn anxiously. “I’m sorry, I just…”
“No one has ever treated you the way you should be treated. I get that, amore mio, and I’m sorry that you’ve never had anyone to look after you.
I fucking hate it. But I get it. So how about this; until you fully understand that it’s my job and my right as your man to look after you in every fucking way I see fit, we’ll set some money rules. ”
I nod eagerly, hating that I’ve upset him, but appreciative of some guidelines.
“Anything you want to buy up to the value of a thousand dollars at a time, you can buy without asking me. I don’t give a fuck if you spend nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents.
If it’s under a thousand bucks, then buy it.
Anything over a thousand dollars, we talk about.
I’ll say yes, but we’ll talk about it first. Okay? ”
“A hundred dollars, anything over a hundred dollars.”
Rolling his eyes, Warrick scoffs. “A thousand dollars, amore mio and not a penny less.”
“Warrick—”
“Enough, Verity,” Warrick snaps, raising his voice to me for the first time since we met. “I don’t want to fight over money. A thousand dollars, amore mio, and I don’t want you keeping track of how much you spend either.”
“But—”
“And if you ever fucking mention paying me back for spending our money, you won’t get to come for a month.
I’ll drive you mad; I’ll take a month off work and spend all my time edging you day in and day out.
I’ll make you so desperate you won’t know what your own name is, because all you’ll be able to think about is the orgasms that I won’t allow you to have.
I’m not joking about this, amore mio. You saying shit like that pisses me off. Do you understand?”
“Okay.”
“Good girl. Now rules for tonight,” he says, giving me whiplash with the change in his demeanor.
“Rules?”
“No drinking. You’re not old enough, and even if you were, I don’t want you drinking without me there to take care of you.”
“Okay,” I concede easily.
“No walking around on your own. Knight will pick you up and drop you back home after dinner.”
I nod, because that was my plan anyway.
“No bars. You’re too fucking beautiful to be dancing or shaking your ass at a bar without me to growl at every dude who thinks they have a chance of owning you. If you want to go out dancing, I’ll take you once I’m off shift, but until then, you do not set foot in a bar without me.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you, amore mio. Now take me with you to the bathroom, set the cell on the counter, and let me watch you take a shower.”
We end up staying on the video chat for another forty minutes until he says he has to get back to work, tells me he loves me, to behave, and to call him once I get home later.
I’m nervous when Knight pulls up outside the house in a huge black SUV. Checking I have my cell and house key, I pull the door closed behind me and rush out to the car, hoping that I’m dressed okay.
Knight climbs out of the driver’s seat and prowls around to open the back door of the car for me, watching while I clip my seat belt in place before he closes the door again.
“You look so cute, those pants are gorgeous,” Octy gushes. Once again, she’s dressed in her usual style, only instead of a dress, she’s wearing a white blouse with puffed sleeves and a high collar, paired with a pink pleated skirt with a black net underskirt beneath it.
Glancing down at my own outfit, I feel boring in my beige wide-leg pants and black asymmetric one-shoulder shirt. This is one of the outfits Cora’s mom styled for me. In the store, it made me feel confident and sexy, but in comparison to Octy, I feel utterly dull.
Octy chatters away, while I occasionally offer a few words as Knight drives us down the mountain and into town.
When we slow to a stop outside a restaurant, I feel sick with nerves.
Most of the people I’m eating with tonight are strangers.
Will they like me? Will I like them? Will they tell Warrick if they hate me?
My hands are shaking when I open the car door and slip onto the sidewalk.
“Are you okay?” Octy asks after Knight literally lifts her out of her car seat and places her carefully on her feet again beside me.
“Nervous,” I admit.
“You don’t need to be nervous. You’re adorable and you already met James, Tori, Cora, Lulu, and Alice, right?”
“All of you are important to Warrick, I guess I just want to make a good impression.”
Before Octy can say anything else, a huge black vehicle stops at the curb ahead of where Knight parked and within seconds seven beautiful women have piled out of the car.
Grabbing my hand, Octy tows me over to the intimidating group. “Hi ladies, some of you have met her already, but this is Verity. She’s Warrick’s.”
Pushing her way to the front of the group, Cora throws her arms around me and hugs me as much as she can with her pregnant belly squashed between us.
“I’m so glad you came,” she gushes, hooking her arm through mine.
“You remember Alice and Lulu, right? Well, these are the rest of my sisters. Bonnie, Juni, Missy, and Betty.”
“Hi,” I say, lifting my hand to wave. The introductions are interrupted by more people arriving. James and Tori arrive together, quickly followed by Etta, Parker, and Henry.
Octy lets go of me for long enough to be lifted into Knight’s arms and thoroughly devoured in a kiss that’s so not PG, I look away.
The restaurant feels full once the fourteen of us have all sat down, the noise level dramatically increasing as they all discuss what to eat and drink.
I promised Warrick that I wouldn’t drink alcohol, but when Tori starts excitedly asking how many people want margaritas, I feel suddenly self-conscious.
“Verity, margaritas?” Tori asks.
“I’m only twenty,” I say quietly.
Smiling conspiratorially, she shrugs. “I doubt anyone will ask you for ID.”
“Oh, err…” How do I admit that I promised my sort-of boyfriend that I wouldn’t drink without him?
“They do really good mocktails here too,” Alice says sweetly. “That’s what I’m having.”
“You don’t drink?” I ask.
“I do. But we just found out I’m pregnant,” she says, laying a hand on her flat stomach and smiling with such a serene glow that it makes my breath hitch a little.
“Okay, hands up if you’re on mocktails tonight?” Tori calls.
As I scan the group, James, Cora, Alice, Betty, Etta, and Octy all raise their hands, so I don’t feel out of place lifting mine too.
“Okay, seven virgin margaritas and seven slutty ones,” Tori says, laughing as she relays our drinks order to the server.
“They’re a little overwhelming at first, but you get used to it,” the man sitting on my right, who by process of elimination must be Henry, says, nudging me with his shoulder. “I’m Henry, by the way.”
“I guessed,” I admit.
“I don’t think you’ve met my fiancé, Anders, yet, have you?”
I shake my head. “Not yet, I’ve only met James’s husband and Nero and a few of the Barnetts.”
“These guys, they’re the best. I honestly didn’t know this many good people existed until I came here. It’s a lot, but the moment Warrick saw you, you became one of us. So if you can give everyone a chance, I promise you’ll go back home tonight with thirteen amazing new friends.”
After the server arrives with our drinks and takes our food order, all eyes turn to me, and I shrink down in my chair.
“Where are you from, Verity?” Bonnie Barnett asks.
“Everywhere and nowhere. I moved around a lot growing up, but I’ve been in Montana for a few years.”
“In Rockhead Peak?” Betty asks.