Mastered (The Enforcers 1)

Instead, he sighed, and she imagined him running an agitated hand through his hair, his lips set into that firm grimace that made him look so intimidating.

“Angel, the clothes you have are shit. Now don’t get me wrong. You being you and as beautiful as you are, you rock that look. But other women would never be able to pull off your kind of shine in shit clothing. This has nothing to do with you embarrassing me, and it sure as fuck has nothing to do with you not being good enough for me. It has everything to do with the fact that you’re mine now and I take care of what belongs to me. Which means that what you wear, the shoes, the jeans or dresses, and especially the underwear, I pay for. I wanted to do something nice for you and you need nicer clothing, not shit you had to walk into a fucking charity shop to buy. My woman will never wear anything that’s been worn by another woman. Period. So get that fucked-up shit about you not being good enough or you embarrassing me out of your head right now or you’re just going to piss me off. Because it’s complete bullshit and I won’t have you thinking it every time you put on something I bought for you.”

Evangeline was stunned into silence and sat on the edge of the bed, mouth gaping open. This time, however, he didn’t take her silence as her being upset or angry, as he’d picked up on her earlier silence. How the hell could the man tell when he needed to address something when he wasn’t even within a mile of her, much less able to see her or gauge her body language or facial expressions?

“I’ve got to go now. I have an important meeting. Justice should be there soon if he’s not already, so you might want to make yourself presentable because I’ll be damned if another man sees what’s mine and mine alone to see. He’s going to take you to eat and then shopping. I don’t want you hungry.”

And she thought she couldn’t get more flustered than she already was.

“I need to know you get me,” Drake said impatiently. “The words, Angel. Give me your acceptance.”

“All right,” she finally said in a near whisper.

“Good.” And she could hear the satisfaction in his voice. “Now get a move on and get dressed so Justice doesn’t see what he shouldn’t and then I have to beat his ass.”

She thought he’d already hung up when his last statement came through.

“And, Angel, just so you know, I will not be pleased if you refuse to accept any of the items I have arranged for you.”

Slowly she ended the call and let the phone fall to the bed, then glanced back at the note that she still hadn’t finished reading. She started at the beginning again, quickly skimming to the parts she hadn’t yet read. At the very bottom, in Drake’s distinctive scrawl, was written:

And call your girls and give them your new number so I don’t have to have my men haul one or all their asses out of my apartment again at five in the morning.

She laughed and then drew her knees up, hugging them to her body as she looked around in wonder. Was this really happening to her? How on earth had she fallen down the proverbial rabbit hole into an alternate reality?

She shook off the overwhelming sensation that she was fast spinning out of control and called Steph first, because the last thing Evangeline wanted was for the police to burst into Drake’s apartment determined to rescue a kidnapped woman. To her relief, all three girls were at the apartment together, so they put her on speakerphone, which meant she wouldn’t have to tell the same crazy story three times.

In as level a tone as she could manage, she outlined the events ending with her coming back to Drake’s apartment with him. Their reactions were explosive.

“Have you lost your mind?” Nikki squeaked. “Vangie, what do you even know about this guy? What if you go missing and we never hear from you again?”

Evangeline sighed. “Is it too much to ask for a little trust from my best friends?”

“We just think you should give this a little more time, preferably away from him where you’re not overwhelmed,” Lana said diplomatically. “You have to admit, this is awfully sudden and completely out of character for you.”

“Yeah well, so was going to Impulse, but y’all didn’t mind coercing me into that,” Evangeline snapped.

Until now Steph had been silent, and that should have told Evangeline the worst was to come.

“And how long do you think it’ll take this Drake guy to get tired of you and scrape you off? What the hell are you going to do then, Vangie? You can’t let yourself be solely dependent on any man, and especially not one with his kind of power.”