“I’m jealous your friends sent someone for you.” He chuckled, looking up at me. “I think my people forgot about me.”
“Find people who don’t.”
I glided the blade up over his jaw, feeling the heat of his gaze.
“I did,” he said.
Us? We’re not his people. Not yet, anyway.
“Demanding obedience through intimidation doesn’t encourage loyalty,” I told him. “Only earning it can.”
He fell silent, watching me as I shaved against the grain of his cheek and chin. He knew what the hell I meant. Micah, Rory, and Taylor didn’t respect him. They were afraid of him.
“I know,” he finally replied. “You couldn’t get her to stay in the house. I did, and I didn’t have to raise a hand to do it.” He gazed up at me. “I didn’t even have to raise my voice. That’s loyalty.”
My gaze twitched.
“You have her heart, but I’m in her head now,” he taunted. “With a woman like Emory Scott, which do you think she’ll listen to?
I didn’t even have to think about that answer twice. My hand shook as I cleaned his upper lip.
“When you make your escape, do you think Emmy will run with you and your whore?” he asked.
I shot up straight, the blade clasped in my hand as I glared down at him.
She’s not staying here with you.
“I think when I make my escape,” I told him, “I’m taking a lot more than those girls.”
He laughed, pulling off the towel around his neck and wiping his face clean. “She is stunning,” he said. “I liked it when she grabbed your throat today. Many men don’t even know how much they’d like being dominated. But it’s such a turn on. She fucked you good. I really think she’s come alive here.”
I locked my jaw, using every ounce of restraint to keep my temper in check.
He’d seen us in the greenhouse. He’d watched her ride me.
I dropped the blade and walked out of the room, every muscle in my body on fire.
He didn’t get to have her.
I charged back to her room, threw open the door, and walked over to her bed as she shot up and looked at me in the light streaming in from the hallway.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
But I didn’t say a damn word.
I grabbed her glasses off the nightstand, slid my arms under her, sheets and all, and swept her up into my arms, taking her to my room with Alex and me.
There was no fucking way I was taking my eyes off her tonight.
She wrapped her arms tightly around my neck, her eyes on me the entire way up to the third floor and to my bed.
God, who the hell brought her here? She was ruining all my plans.
Will
Nine Years Ago
A locker slammed shut, echoing down the corridor, and I lifted the bottle to my mouth, downing another swallow of bourbon.