She closes the door, and when she turns back to me she seems nervous and unsure. She takes another step and then another and as she gets closer I can see the tears shining in her eyes.
“What has he done to you?” she whispers, the words thick on her tongue and heavy with sadness.
“I’m fine. Get your ass over here and hug your man.”
“Oh, Baby,” she whispers, dropping down to her knees in front of me and holding me close. Pain sears through me as she hugs, but I don’t give a fuck. It just feels damn good that she’s in my arms again. I breathe her scent into my lungs and hold her close. She pulls back to look at me, her hand lain tenderly along my jawline. “Your poor beautiful face,” she weeps.
A startled laugh leaves me and that hurts like hell, because I wasn’t expecting it and my face is sore as fuck.
“Baby, not sure my face has ever been pretty.”
“Everything about you is pretty.”
I push my fingers in her hair, holding her neck to pull her back and make her look at me. I need those eyes on me. I need to touch her, believe that this is real, and that I’m not imagining this shit. “Baby.”
“I’m going to kill my Dad.”
“You’re going to leave him alone.”
“Bullshit, have you seen what he did to you?”
“Didn’t need to see it, Baby. I was there, but yeah, I caught a glimpse in the mirror after my shower this morning. It’s not as bad as I expected.”
“Not as bad… Oh my God!”
“Cool it, Kayden. I’m good and more importantly, I have you.”
“Have… You still want me? After all of the shit you’ve been through?”
“Fuck, woman. After all of the shit I’ve been through, if I don’t get you out of it, I’ll kill these assholes.”
“That’s some mighty big words, coming from a punk who had to be lifted into my truck a couple days ago,” Dragon laughs from the door.
“Dad! I can’t believe what you’ve done. How could you do this to Chains?” she cries, jerking against my hold and even though it hurts like hell, I hold her back, refusing to let her go.
“Kayden, stop,” I tell her, my voice firm, though trying to soften it just enough not to piss her off.
“Stop?” she asks and from the look on her face, I’m thinking my whole trying to go easy thing, didn’t work. There’s sparks flying in those dark chocolate eyes and they’re shooting fire at me.
“Your father had every right to hand me my ass. I didn’t watch after you like I should have and I fucked up.”
“Have you seen your face, because I have and I hate to imagine what I’m going to find when you take your clothes off,” she huffs.
“That won’t happen until he puts a ring on it,” Dragon says, his voice deadly.
“Excuse me?” Kayden screeches and if my head wasn’t pounding and I didn’t want some alone time with my woman, to reassure myself that she was really here, I’d enjoy watching them go after one another.
“This is between me and the Nomad,” Dragon says, crossing his arms at his chest.
“You’re talking about my life and in particular my sex life with my boyfriend, Dad. It involves me.”
“You want your man to stay alive, Kayden, you’re going to let me live in the dream world where you’re still a virgin, untouched and wanting to watch Toy Story,” Dragon growls.
“I… Dad you gave me your blessing on my relationship with Chains. What do you think we are going to do? We’re both adults.”
“Not in my eyes,” Dragon shrugs, his eyes never leaving my face, so I’m doing my best to hide my smile—but, it’s not easy.
“Are you being for real right now?” Kayden huffs. “What in the hell do you think we’re going to do together in bed?”
“Until I see you married, nothing. After that, I don’t need a play by play. In my eyes you’ll be drinking that grape Kool-aid shit you like and playing that damn game you used to drive me fucking bonkers with.”
“What game?”
“That fucking game where you kept trying to pick fruit off the trees and then you’d cry because you always landed on that damn dog.”
“I… Cherry O? Really? You’re going to imagine that Chains and I are playing Hi Ho Cherry O in bed?”
“On your wedding night. You won’t be in his bed before then. That’s final.”
“You cannot give me ultimatums about when I have sex with my boyfriend. I can’t believe you. Isn’t it enough that you’ve held him hostage for weeks and almost killed him?”
“Please, he barely got a slap on the wrist. I think I’m being very hospitable.”
“Hospitable? Now you’re just shitting me. You don’t even know that word. If you do, then you think it means not cutting off a body part on someone.”