Always Room for Cupcakes (Cupcakes 1)

“No. I told you in the beginning that when I’m with you, I’m with only you. Don’t question that shit again.”

Is he seriously getting pissed with me?

“I saw you with your hands on that cokehead, and you told me to leave … What was I supposed to think?”

“You’re supposed to trust what I tell you.”

“How can I trust what you tell me when you’ve obviously been lying to me.”

“I haven’t lied,” Cade argued, standing and moving closer so he towered over me.

Damn the man was imposing.

“Omitting shit is lying, Cade.”

“Darlin’,” he began, and I felt a sharp stab in my belly.

“Don’t call me that,” I pleaded softly, lifting my face to his. “I heard you call her that, and it may be stupid, but I thought that was just for me. You ruined it.”

I didn’t care if I sounded like a petulant child, he’d hurt me.

His face clouded and he lifted a hand as if to touch me, but I backed away before he could.

Cade clenched his jaw and said, “I may not have told you everything, but what I didn’t share was club business.”

“What kind of business? Have you been working the entire time we’ve been together?”

“Let’s just say we have a mutual interest in Hector, the Coke Club, and the man who hired you and Moose to get dirt on them.”

My jaw dropped and my heart constricted painfully.

“You have been lying to me this whole time.”

“No, Red, look…”

“Don’t call me that,” I said sharply, having no problem finding my inner bitch now. I was pissed. “Only my dad calls me Red. Forget the endearments, since it’s all obviously been bullshit. You can call me Delilah, or Lila, or better yet, don’t call me anything and get the hell out.”

“Stop jumping to conclusions and listen,” Cade said angrily. “What I said about seeing you on the street and everything since we met has been true. Yes, I kept my reasons for being on the street that first time I gave you a ride from you, but that’s because it was club business and you didn’t need to know.”

“What exactly do you do for your motorcycle gang?” I asked snottily.

Cade’s face conveyed that he was losing his patience, but I wasn’t ready to give up my snit yet.

“It’s a club, not a gang, and I’m a man who gets things done.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means if someone’s fucking with the club, I fuck with them. If there’s shit going down that’s bad for business, I put a stop to it. If some asshole is bringing drugs to my town and trying to get bitches to sell that shit on my compound, I do what it takes to make that shit stop.”

“Including fucking me?” I asked, and unfortunately, the hurt beat out the anger, and I knew Cade heard it when his face softened and he took a few steps until he was an inch from me.

“No, Lila,” he said gently. “You weren’t part of the plan, but the minute I saw you, I knew no matter what happened with the job, I had to have you.”

“Really?” I wanted so badly to believe him.

His dark eyes took me in and he said, “I really like this look.”

I brought my hand up to the hair piled messily upon my head, as I looked down at my bare feet and robed body and asked, “You do?”