Kisses and Warfare

“Rebecca.”

I turn to see Snow looking up at her.

“What? She is. I heard she slept her way to be the boss of the club. Now she’s sleeping with the new boss to keep her position.” Blaze laughs because he knows all about our last boss. He’s happily married and hardly ever leaves his house. That man wouldn’t know what to do with me.

“You can go now, Rebecca.”

“No, I think you should. You can’t come here and tell me what to do.” She leans down. “You don’t run this place.”

Mischa, who we know as Silver, walks over too.

“Heard my sister pulled your hair and hit you.” I smile at her. She looks away and quickly goes back the same way she came. I look up at Rebecca. “I could do the same to you, but you aren’t worth my time.” I wave a hand in the air. “Toodles, Rebecca.”

“Fuck you,” she spits.

“Okay, that’s enough! You can fuck off now,” comes from Blaze, who doesn’t even look up at her.

A prospect is quick to grab Rebecca’s arm and escort her out. She swears the whole time, but the minute she’s gone, I breathe a breath of fresh air.

Blaze pulls me to him and whispers in my ear, “I’m going to fuck you tonight, and tie you to the bed, and make you scream my name.”

I turn in his arms. “Why wait?”

He doesn’t. He picks me up and carries me out without even saying goodbye to anyone.Chapter Twenty-NineKatOne year later.

Kat

Okay, okay, I got this. I straighten my shirt and smile as I walk in.

Fuck, maybe I don’t have this.

“You can do it,” Blaze says next to me, pushing me forward.

I nod, not sure if I believe him, but I do as he says anyway. That only usually happens in the bedroom, so he best think himself lucky right now.

“Just don’t talk, okay? I can do it all.”

“Okay, babe.” He smiles. He doesn’t call me Katarina all the time. Now it’s baby, princess, my love, or any other terms of endearment he uses. At first, I didn’t like it, but now, like Blaze, it has grown on me.

“Hi, I’m here to see Peter,” I say, smiling at the receptionist.

“Yes, right this way.” I follow her back to his office with Blaze right behind me. His hand on my lower back, guiding me, and also there to support me in case I turn and run.

I won’t, though.

No fucking way.

“Kat, so good to see you. Come. Take a seat.” Peter leans over and shakes Blaze’s hand. “So, we have some good news and some bad news.” He looks down at his paperwork as he sits.

“Okay,” is all I can manage to say.

“So, you have been approved for just below the amount you asked for, but you need a deposit close to twenty-thousand dollars.” Peter watches me as my eyes go wide. I don’t have that kind of money. I’m buying the club, and Blaze wanted to give it to me for less than what he paid, but I couldn’t accept that. So, I talked him into giving it to me for what he paid. But now, well, it looks like I can’t even do that.

“Oh, I don’t think…”

Damn! I didn’t expect that. I can’t ask my parents, they’re retired now, and Rochelle has a toddler.

“Do you accept checks?” Blaze asks.

My head spins to him. “No. No, you can’t.”

Blaze ignores me and looks back to Peter. “Can you give us five?”

I hear Peter push his seat backward, then he steps out, and the door closes behind him.

“Let me help, I have the means.”

“No. I said I wanted to do this myself.”

“Rent-free then?” he asks. I look at him, confused. “You take the money, and I move in rent-free for a year. That way, it will be paid back in full for the amount I would give you anyway,” he says.

I smile at his generosity.

He’s like that. You wouldn’t think so, but somehow, he throws random acts out that you just don’t expect.

“I never want to take your money,” I tell him. I want this business, though. I run it, and I might as well run it to my exacting ways.

“You never wanted to fall in love with me either, but yet here we are, me still waiting for you to let me move in.”

I blush at his words. I was actually going to ask him tonight. I’ve been holding out because I wanted to make sure it’s perfect before I said yes and bring him permanently into my life as well as my daughter’s. After all, it’s not just me I have to think about. Plus, I also want Mitchell to be at ease that another man will be around his daughter.

But he’s fine with it, and somehow, so am I. I’ve just been waiting for the perfect time to tell him.