Tainted Bastard (Tainted Knights 4)

She laughed softly. “No, I guess not. You would never let anyone manipulate you into doing anything you didn’t actually want to do.”

I’d stopped letting anyone try to control me when Brandi destroyed everything. No one, especially not a woman, was going to twist me upside down and force me to do anything against my will. Ever.

Once the food was ordered, I grabbed my acoustic guitar out of the spare bedroom. Singing wasn’t my passion, but I knew my voice was decent. Maybe not on Jace’s level, but if singing with Roanna made her happy, I didn’t mind doing it.

For the next hour, we went over the song, with Roanna making notes and offering ideas on how to draw out certain lyrics to make the song different from previous covers. We wouldn’t be winning a Grammy for it, but it would definitely get people’

s attention when we performed it at the next Thursday night show.

“I love your voice,” she said, her eyes on my mouth instead of taking her cue for the next verse. “You should sing more.”

My fingers stopped strumming the guitar, and I leaned in for a kiss. “I’m good with just this.”

When I lifted my head, she looked up at me through her thick lashes. “You’re so stubborn, you know that?”

“You’re just realizing that, sweet girl?” She rolled her eyes, and I laughed. Before I met her, laughing was a rare occurrence for me. Now, I found myself doing it often whenever she was with me. She just made shit better, made me better.

I couldn’t fuck this up.

Once the food arrived and we were sitting on the living room floor, I found us something to watch. I didn’t have company often, other than Kale or Gray when they dropped by. Mostly we hung out at Gray’s because it was bigger and Kassa was there. I didn’t know how to keep guest entertained, but with Roanna, I didn’t feel like I had to.

She was content just to sit there and watch mindless television with me. There was no need for small talk, no need to ask if she needed anything. She made herself at home, going to the fridge to get us both beers before I could even ask if she wanted something to drink. It was like she belonged there, and I liked that.

While she was in the kitchen, her phone rang. It sat on the coffee table in front of where she’d been sitting, and I leaned forward to see who it was.

“Aubree’s calling you, babe.”

“Can you pick it up for me?” she called back. “I’m stocking the fridge with bottled water since I’m taking the last two.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’ll take care of it later.”

“If it’s not done now, you won’t have any cold later. Just answer the phone. This will only take a minute.”

Grunting at her stubbornness, I snatched up her phone. “What, Aubree?”

My voice must have surprised her because there was a brief pause on her end. “Hey, Sin. Is Ro still at your place?”

“Yeah. She’s gonna hang with me the rest of the day. Do you need something?”

“No, just looking out for her. She doesn’t go off by herself that often, and I get worried.” She sounded like a mother checking in on her baby. I was glad Ro had people who cared about her like that. As annoying as the other Blondes were, I could tolerate them because of how much they loved and protected Roanna.

“You don’t need to worry about her when she’s with me. I’ll bring her home when she’s ready to go.”

And if she never wanted to leave, that would be even better.

Liking the sudden idea of her living with me, I took a huge bite of my burger to keep myself from saying something stupid.

“We’re going out later. Ask her if she wants to meet up with us.”

Roanna walked into the living room, two bottles of beer and two waters in her hands. I wiped my mouth with a paper towel before asking her if she wanted to go out with her friends later.

She hesitated, her brows pinching together as she stared down at me. “Do you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t have any plans. I’ll go with you if you want.”

The frown smoothed out, and she sat down beside me on the floor. Taking the phone from me, she put it to her ear. “Aubree? Hey, yeah. Sin and I will meet you tonight. Just nowhere crazy… I’m just going to wear what I have on.” She sighed and looked up at me. “Do I look okay in this? Aubree wants me to change before we go out.”

I raked my eyes over her from head to toe. She’d kicked off her shoes and was now barefoot. Her jeans had holes in the knees and higher up on her right thigh. Her T-shirt was tight across her tits. With her hair slightly tangled from our earlier make-out session and zero makeup on, she looked sexy as fuck sitting there beside me.