“You’re not running off in a snit.” He made it a decree. “If you’re going somewhere, you can wait for Hyde or Glitch to get here.”
“I’m not your child. And I’m not in your club either, Savage. Since all of those members will be privileged to know why and who wants you dead, but I won’t, I don’t particularly want to be around them right now. I feel out of place.”
“This is fucking bullshit, Seychelle.” He sounded as frustrated as she was.
“Exactly, Savage. I’m glad you see it my way.” She turned, taking three steps toward the sliding glass door.
The sharp crack was her only warning, and fire wrapped around her waist, effectively stopping her. The heat spread through her body, up toward her breasts and down toward her sex, rushing through her as if a volcano had erupted. Her heart pounded as she felt Savage at her back, pressed tight against her. His breath was hot against her ear as his palm curled around her throat, his thumb tipping her head back so it fell against his shoulder.
“You’re not walking out the door pissed at me, Seychelle. And you don’t leave without someone with you.”
“I’m not angry, Savage. There’s no point in being angry. We’re going over and over the same thing, and it isn’t ever going to be resolved. I get that. It just makes me sad, not angry.”
Savage was silent for a moment, and then he skimmed his lips over her ear and down the side of her jaw. “It isn’t a big deal, baby. You’re making too big a thing over nothing.”
She turned her head to look at him, head on his shoulder. “I’m supposed to be your partner. If someone threatens to kill you, I think it’s pretty important for me to know about it, but you don’t seem to think the same way. I don’t care about your stupid club business, Savage. Have your secrets. I’ll stay here or at my house every stinking time you want to go to your little boys’ club. But this is something else altogether.”
His expression shut down. Eyes those twin points of ice. He might not realize he went that way, put his mask on, but he wore it. He was impossible. He wasn’t going to listen, no matter what she said. Someone was trying to kill him, and he wasn’t even going to talk to her about it, only with his club members. Yeah, that made a lot of sense.
“Don’t you fuckin’ cry.”
She hadn’t realized she was, because she knew tears were useless. “I’m not crying. Let go of me.”
“You are crying. You think I don’t know when you’re crying?”
His lips moved from her ear to her cheek, soft, sipping at her tears in that way that stole her heart, even as she wanted to shove him away from her. He had her body tipped back so she was nearly off balance and couldn’t move.
“All right, baby, stop. Don’t cry anymore.”
“You don’t understand, Savage. You said we’d find ways to compromise, but you don’t think in terms of compromising. It’s going to be your way.”
“I told you that. From the very beginning, I was honest with you that some things had to be my way.”
“Not this. This is an emotional need, Savage. My emotional need. There’s a big difference. You promised to see to my emotional needs, remember? Isn’t that part of our relationship? Our agreement. We talked right from the beginning, and you said you would make me happy. There is no way for me to be happy if you insist on ignoring my emotional needs.”
His thumb rubbed back and forth along her cheek in a soothing caress. She wasn’t certain who he was trying to soothe, her … or him. There was nothing to say. There wasn’t going to be a marriage though. She might live with him, but she wouldn’t let him put a ring on her finger.
“We’ll figure it out.” His hands went to her waist, and he helped her straighten slowly even as he slid the whip from around her. “We’ll work it out.”
She took a step away from him. “That’s what you said a few days ago, when this kind of thing came up. We didn’t work it out though, did we? We had sex, and the sex was great, but we didn’t talk about what was wrong. We didn’t resolve it.”
“Seychelle. I can’t talk about club business, no matter how much I might want to.”
“But then, you don’t really want to, do you, Savage?” she challenged.
“Damn it, Seychelle, why are you making this so fucking difficult?”
“You’re right, Savage. I am being difficult. I shouldn’t want you to care how I feel, and I sure shouldn’t care that someone wants you dead.”
“That’s a bullshit thing to say.”
“It seems that everything I say is bullshit. I’m not certain what you want me to say. I don’t want to fight. Keep your secrets, Savage. Tell them to your brothers and sisters and leave me out. I’m getting used to it. I really am. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”