“You wanna do somethin’ stupid, I’m guessin’ I can’t stop you short of monitorin’ every single step you take, and, Li, love ya, but I gotta fuckin’ life to live, and I’m not doin’ it chained to your side. So, if you think about it, you asked for this.” He opened his tatted hands and shrugged.
“I asked for this? What exactly is this?” I seethed.
My family moved around the other side of the island, sensing correctly that I was about to lose it.
“Twenty bucks she goes ape shit,” Huds whispered to Milo, who hushed him then tugged his wallet out of his back pocket and retrieved a twenty which he slapped on the counter between them.
I spared a moment to shoot them both an unimpressed glare then set my sights on the asshole in front of me.
“You’re movin’ in with me,” Nova had the audacity to say casually, the way someone might mention a change in the weather. “Correction. You’re already all moved in thanks to the family. Oliver wants you to make maduros as payment and Ares wants you to take him to Paradise Found for some new books.”
My mouth fell open like a fish out of water, moving open and closed as I struggled to find words for the outraged horror threatening to drown me.
Nova continued conversationally. “You gotta shit ton of plants, but I found a way to fit them around the apartment. Your girly ass sofa had to stay, and that ugly as fuck coffee table, but we got the rest of your stuff sorted. Molly packed your lingerie,” he added with a wicked grin. “Had to clear out a whole drawer for it in my dresser. Whole lotta lace and garters in there, babe, gotta say I’m surprised.”
Harleigh Rose muffled a chuckle poorly behind her hand and leaned into Oliver who wrapped an arm around her and squeezed in camaraderie. Even Ares, my beautiful boy with the somber eyes, grinned minutely.
The fucking traitors.
“You had no right to do that,” I started, trying to keep calm in the face of Nova’s blatant possessive, overprotective alpha assholery. “You don’t own me. You don’t decide shit all for me, let alone where I live.”
Nova’s affability dissolved at the acid of my tone, and his face darkened so suddenly, I almost took a step away from him. Instead, I held my ground as he pushed off the counter, forearms corded and brown beneath his ink as he stalked toward me.
He only stopped when we were toe to toe, and he was looking down at me from his much greater height. His dark eyes sparkled with intensity, coffee set to scalding as that his moved to my mouth then back up to my eyes. We weren’t touching, not quite, but the air between us was molten with heat and buzzing, bumping electrons.
“There’s no gettin’ outta this, Lila,” he said softly, silk over steel. “If I gotta tackle you and drag you outta here like a fuckin’ caveman, you are comin’ with me. I’ll lock up your greenhouse, slash your fuckin’ tires so you rely completely on me. ’Cause you don’t seem to get somethin’ I’ve been tryin’ to teach you all your life. You’re my fuckin’ family. You wanna put yourself in danger ’cause your too damn brave and too damn stupid and completely, in-fuckin’-sanely loyal, then you do you. But I’ll be there to protect you from yourself and the pit of vipers you’ve put yourself in bed with. I’ll be there droppin’ you off and pickin’ you up, I’ll be there sleepin’ in the room beside you so if anyone gets any ideas about takin’ ya, they’ll have to get through me to do it.”
He stopped talking, but his eyes didn’t stop speaking.
You’re mine, they said, you’ll do this because I’ll make you.
“I hate you,” I whispered, hot with shame because I was a liar and shaky with rage because I knew there was no getting out of this. And how the hell could I remain immune from his charms if I lived with him?
Nova’s smile changed, already brittle, it cracked at the edges and went flat. “Sure, Flower Child. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
“For the record,” Diogo grunted, “there’s no way I’d let you go if I didn’t think it was safer with Jonathon than it would be for you here. We’re gonna have a talk about why you put yourself at risk without talking to me about it, Li girl, but until then, you’re going with him.”
“Put five bucks in the jar, Dad,” Nova said off-handily, referring to the cookie jar we kept on the counter that everyone paid into when they called him Jonathon instead of Nova.
“I can stay with H.R. and Lion,” I countered without breaking eye contact with Nova, daring him to refute the safety of that plan.