Chapter Eight #2
“You’re giving off scary vibes, Keys.”
He leveled his gaze at her. Those eyes of his. He could pierce armor with those eyes. Like laser beams. The kind that targeted you right before you got shot.
Lyric found herself moistening her suddenly dry lips with the tip of her tongue.
His gaze followed the movement, and something she couldn’t identify flickered like a hot amber flame.
Not understanding him, but knowing he meant business, she stepped over his outstretched leg and stood between his thighs.
His gaze softened just for a moment. It was terrifying how much that affected her.
She liked being his only female friend. She liked knowing him better than anyone else.
She liked that he left his mask off most of the time when he was around her.
What she didn’t like was her need to please him. To make him happy.
Lyric liked her independence. She didn’t want to be one of those women who lived for that tiny look of approval from her man, but Keys could do that to her. He could take and take, and she would give and give, and her life would be hell.
She had always known she was going to have to find a way to let him go, but then she hadn’t slept in the same bed with him.
She hadn’t done her rehab with him. He’d been so gentle and never left her side, not even to go take care of that monstrous hard-on that frankly scared her.
What woman could really handle his needs on a daily basis? She’d probably never be able to walk.
“Wildfire, I told you never to play poker. Stop thinking about fuckin’ me and pay attention. You need to know what’s going on here. There are a few rules we’re not going to break. I went over a couple of them with you up in the mountains, but you weren’t paying attention.”
She glared at him and stuck her chin in the air.
“I did pay attention. I shot that man. I would never have done that if I wasn’t doing what you asked me to do.
Never.” She was adamant. “I’m absolutely willing to help you when someone threatens your life, but this killing business isn’t for me.
It isn’t, Keys. I didn’t like it, and I never want to have to do that again. ”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in tight against him. She could feel the hard muscles of his thighs. His cock was a large, thick weight pressed against her stomach.
“Babe, never wanted you in that position and don’t ever plan on letting it happen again. I’m sorry you had to go through that. You’re too damn soft inside, but lucky for you, I’m not. I’ve got you covered.”
“That’s good, because I’m all about scissors, not guns.”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, she wished she could retract them. His eyes glittered like two champagne diamonds. There was nothing soft about the look he gave her.
“Yeah, babe, about that. I made it clear that I was going to teach you a lesson if you didn’t do what I said. I want you remembering that when I tell you to do something for your safety, you’re going to do it.”
She gave him the stare-down. “I told you I wasn’t going to let anyone kill you. Not that I’m sure why I feel so strongly about that. You’re as annoying as hell half the time.”
He put a hand on either side of her waist, lifted her and deposited her facedown over his lap.
There was no talking, no hesitation—he smacked her bottom hard.
Very hard. He did so several times, and it hurt.
She had a high pain tolerance and he knew it.
He made sure she felt every single smack on her bottom through the thin fabric of her jeans.
She was not going to give him the satisfaction of tears.
She’d burn in hell first. She read books about spankings men gave women that were supposed to be a turn-on.
Erotic. Ones that made a woman wet and wild.
This was not one of those spankings, nor could she imagine ever wanting a man who smacked her butt because he was upset with her.
Just as abruptly as he’d laid her across his lap, Keys sat her up, forcing her legs on either side of him, so she was straddling him, facing him. Her bottom burned but not nearly as hot as her temper.
“Don’t start, Lyric. You fuckin’ deserved that. I told you the consequences, and you just ignored them.”
“You know, I don’t like half the things you do—should I get a belt and smack your bottom? Is that how we resolve things between us?” She was seething with anger. “Because, quite frankly, I don’t think that resolved anything.”
“Made me feel a whole hell of a lot better. Maybe you won’t be so quick to put your life on the line to save mine.”
She took a deep, calming breath. “There’s something very wrong with you, Keys.
But I’m overlooking this because you’re clearly stressed out and need sex.
Please go far away from here and take care of yourself so we don’t have any more incidents like this one.
I honestly don’t know what I’ll do if you try it again. ”
A slow smile softened the cruel edge of his mouth. “You did get something right in that not-very-well-thought-out plan of yours. I do need to bury myself in a hot little pussy. I’ve been waiting for a few months now.”
Alarms blared loud and long. She started to slide off his lap. Self-preservation was finally kicking in. This wasn’t Keys teasing the hell out of her. This was Keys being dead serious. She could not handle this version of Keys.
He caught her waist and anchored her on him. “Stop being such a scared little rabbit. I laid it out to you in that cave. I was very to the point, and there couldn’t have been any mistakes about my meaning.”
Lyric shook her head. “One of my very bad traits when I say I’m not normal is sometimes I hear things but don’t always comprehend them.”
“You didn’t want to comprehend because you don’t like change. This is a huge change for both of us, but it’s happening.”
“No, it’s not. You don’t get to decide that.”
He ran the pads of his fingers down her face, tracing her cheekbone and then her lips. That barely there smile curved his mouth. “You forget that you’re with a biker, Lyric. This is my world and my rules. You came here of your own free will.”
“I did not. I was unconscious.” She wanted that on record because evidently, she would need it.
“You promised me you’d come home with me.”
That was true. “I was under duress.” Because she’d wanted him happy. That had been the worst of the duress. She’d wanted him happy, so she’d agreed to something she knew wasn’t going to end well.
“It doesn’t matter how you got here, Wildfire, you’re here, and you’re not going to leave.”
“Whatever happened to your motto? Live free or something like that.”
“I do live free, but you don’t. You have a lot of choices, babe, but leaving me isn’t ever going to be one of them.
If you didn’t feel about me the way you do, this would be a very different conversation, but you do.
I know you don’t want to, and you’re doing everything in your power to shut it down, but since you have to stay, you may as well learn to live with it and enjoy every fuckin’ minute we have together. ”
She knew she was frowning. He wasn’t making any sense. She’d had the brain injury, and she knew she had lost a little time here and there, but that didn’t mean the things she knew about Keys weren’t true.
“Honey,” she said, rubbing her finger along his jaw. “You were hit over the head with a baseball bat. You haven’t told me how bad that injury was.”
That smile of his lit his eyes briefly. “You think I’m talking to you like this because I have a brain injury? I’ve always talked to you like this. You just couldn’t hear me.”
“I can assure you, Keys, had you talked to me like this, I would have run for the hills. I know you. You’re not a one-woman man. I’m not made for one-night stands.”
“And I told you, I don’t need hundreds of women to satisfy me.
I didn’t want a relationship or to claim a woman of my own until I met you.
I made up my mind, and you came home with me, so now you’re here, and you’re going to stay.
Having said that I don’t need hundreds of women when one will do, I like sex.
I like it my way. You’re going to learn to give it to me the way I want it. ”
“Selfish much?”
He burst out laughing. “You won’t think that when you’re begging me for more. If there’s one thing I won’t fuck up with you, it’s sex. Everywhere else, you’re going to have to have patience with me. If you’re not happy, you lay it out for me. We’ll fix it. I’ll do the same.”
Her insides began to quiver. Roll. This was Keys being 100 percent serious.
“You’re shaking your head.”
“It won’t work. You know it won’t. You’ll move on the way you do, Keys, but I won’t recover.
It’s just a bad idea.” She didn’t want to hurt him.
She just needed him to understand. Her fingers stroked a soothing caress along his jaw.
“You have to listen to me when I tell you I’m not like other people.
I am very good at blending in. Fitting in.
That’s what I do, and I hardly ever make mistakes. But what people see isn’t real.”
“I’m aware, Lyric,” he said softly.
“I feel too much. I pretend I don’t, but I feel too much. It’s part of my…condition. You don’t. That’s not a dig at you, it’s just how you’re wired. There are so many reasons why we’re not compatible…”
“Yeah, I heard every one of them. I’m not being dismissive of your fears, Wildfire. I can see they’re very real. But we have a bottom line here, and we may as well skip all the bullshit in between to get to that. You get me?”
She was really shaking, not just inside. Keys had no idea how bad his idea was. He just couldn’t understand. “No.”
She held up her hand to stop him. Her fingers ended up too close to his face. He leaned forward and sucked her fingers into the hot cavern of his mouth. Her world stopped. Exploded. Sparks rained down. A thousand little stars burst around her head. In her head.