Chapter 6
NITRO
Istepped out of the shower and dried off, taking my time while doing my best to push the adrenaline coursing through my body away.
I’d arrived home ten minutes ago after spending the night working my rage at Earl out of my system.
I’d need Vegas to help me work the rest of the wild energy I was left with out of me.
However, the fact she was currently asleep in our bed with Renee meant I’d either need to wait or find another way to get rid of it.
Wrapping the towel around me, I left the en suite to find some clean clothes.
The sight of Tatum with Renee slowed me and caused my gut to tighten.
The way she loved my family always caused that.
Vegas had a heart the size of Australia, and I’d watched as she slowly opened it to my family after closing it off for so long.
Fuck, being with her and watching how she loved had changed me too.
She stirred and her eyes came to mine. Wordlessly, she left the bed. Taking my hand, she led me out of the bedroom and into the living room.
“What time is it?” she asked softly, sleepily, her hand to my chest.
“Fuck you’re beautiful like this,” I murmured, smoothing her hair from her face. “It’s just after four; you should go back to sleep.”
“You just got home?”
“Yeah.” Reading the question in her eyes, I said, “He’s been dealt with.”
She moved her hand from my chest to my waist and gripped me. “Good.”
“This won’t happen again, Vegas.”
Her brows pulled together. “What?”
“Me holding back on someone because you ask me to. If they’re threatening you, I’ll take care of them.”
“Nitro,” she started, but I cut her off.
“Don’t argue with me. You won’t win.”
Her eyes searched mine and she exhaled a long breath. Moving into me, she reached her hand up to wrap it around the back of my neck. “You’re a stubborn man,” she said, pulling my mouth to hers.
Tatum’s lips were soft and fucking tempting, and I was a man unable to resist. But no fucking way was I doing that in the living room where my niece could stumble across us.
Lifting Tatum, I carried her to a spare bedroom at the other end of the house.
Kicking the door closed behind us, I threw her on the bed and straddled her.
Smiling that sexy fucking smile of hers that always got me hard, she said, “Fuck, I’ve missed you and your fury.” Her hands went to my towel. A second later it fell to the floor and her hand wrapped around my dick.
“Fuck,” I hissed, dropping my head for a moment. When I met her gaze again, I growled, “This is going to be fast and I’m not fucking apologising for that.”
She increased the pressure as she moved her hand up and down the length of my cock. “You’re still pissy I worked so much this week.”
“Yeah,” I said as I stripped her. “I’m also pissed off that I let Earl get away with his shit for as long as I did.”
“So you’re going to take that out on me?”
I grasped her chin roughly and rasped, “Damn fucking straight I am. You need to learn that being so fucking independent isn’t always a good thing.”
She picked up the pace of her hand job. “And you need to learn that being a caveman isn’t always the best thing. I know my limits, Nitro, and I know when I need your help.”
Fuck, I was close to coming, and I wanted to do that inside her, so I removed her hand from my dick. As I thrust inside her, I growled, “No, you fucking don’t.”
Her legs wrapped around me, her nails dug into my back, and her eyes held mine as she took everything I had to give.
It was as fast as I’d promised her.
And harder than I’d fucked her in a while.
I fucking brought my fury with me this time, because my brain couldn’t get past the fear of what could have happened if Earl had taken his hatred out on her.
He’d made it clear during the night that he’d planned some nasty shit for her if she didn’t stop giving him hell.
He’d also made it clear he wished he’d just ‘given it to her’ a long time ago.
There were too many men out there like Earl, and while I agreed with Tatum’s refusal to tolerate men like him, her inability to accept my help meant she was a target for them. And that shit fucking terrified me.
When we’d finished, we clung to each other for longer than we usually did. And when she finally let me go, she took hold of my face and said, “Something’s gotten into you. What?”
“I can’t fucking lose you, Vegas. And I won’t allow anyone to hurt you. So I need you to understand I’m deadly serious when I say I’ll step in if another Earl comes after you.”
She thought about that for a beat before slowly nodding her agreement. “Okay.”
I lifted a brow. “Okay, as in you’re not arguing with me over this? Or okay, as in you intend to let me think I won this round?”
Pressing her lips to mine, she kissed me in a way she didn’t often. Soft. Gentle. Surrendering. “Okay, as in I understand what this means to you, so I agree to accept your help from now on.”
“Fuck me,” I muttered, relief filling every cell in my body.
Her expression turned serious as she said softly, “Thank you.” I knew what those two words conveyed: a helluva fucking lot that she would never say because it wasn’t in her nature to get deep and mushy over shit.
It wasn’t often that Tatum shed her skin like this, exposing her vulnerable side and handing me a piece of her heart, so I took it with the care needed and didn’t continue to push the point. She’d given me what I wanted—what I needed—so we were done with this conversation.
She left me to go to the bathroom and when she returned, I spooned her, my arms wrapped tightly around her. “Is Renee okay?” I asked. Finding her asleep with Tatum led me to believe she wasn’t.
“No, but she will be. Zed broke up with her.”
“Why?” If she said the little asshole cheated on Renee, there would be no holding me back.
“Apparently his ex has moved back to town. He told Renee he still loves the ex, so it’s not fair to Renee to continue seeing her while he’s sorting through those feelings.”
“Fuck, who knew teenage boys gave a shit like that.”
“Yeah.” She rolled in my arms to face me. Tracing my lips, she said, “I love you. I’m sorry to cause you so much worry, and while I’ll try not to be so independent, I need you to know this might take me a little time to work on.”
I ran a hand down to her ass, my dick hard as steel again. “Vegas, you’re the fucking definition of independent, and I don’t expect you to change for me. I just needed you to know to expect a lot more fucking fight from me over it.”
She rubbed herself against me, causing the kind of friction that meant we weren’t going to get any sleep for hours.
Not that I’d intended for us to sleep. However, I’d wanted to catch up with her first, but that was off the table now.
“I received your message loud and clear, champ. I like it when you fight with me. It usually means your fury isn’t far away. ”
“Fucking hell,” I growled, pushing her onto her back and reaching for her pussy. “You’ll be the death of me, woman.”
She wouldn’t be, though.
Tatum had breathed life back into me.
She was strong, and fierce, and brave.
Full of grit.
And loyalty.
Tatum was the kind of woman who could never be the death of me when she was everything I’d ever needed in a woman. When she was my heart and soul.