Shade sighed, realizing she was going to fight acknowledging any attraction between them.
“Lily, I’ve wanted you since the first minute I saw you coming out of the diner with Beth when we first moved to Treepoint. I took one look at you and knew you were mine.”
Lily shook her head, still not facing him.
“Razer, unfortunately, made his move with Beth first, and I had to lie back and let him see where it was going. I also knew you were young and wanted you to have some time to yourself. I never intended to wait this long for you, but I let Winter convince me to let you finish school. So, I waited.”
“You didn’t suffer waiting, did you, Shade? With a club full of women at your beck and call,” Lily snapped.
“I am no saint. I’ve enjoyed every woman here at the club, but they weren’t you, Lily. Never you. I would fuck them for hours, trying to get me through the night so I wouldn’t get on my bike and come for you.” His voice was unintentionally harsh as remembered those lonely nights he had spent with the women, giving them his body while his heart and soul was already with her.
“You can’t seriously believe I would have gone with you.” Lily stared at him in astonishment.
He saw the moment when understanding finally began to dawn on her—that he wouldn’t have given her a choice. She started shaking. Hell, he wasn’t going to give her a choice now. That time had passed, and it was time to lay all his cards on the table.
“I am no longer going to hide anything from you, and you are going to have to learn to deal with what you can and what you can’t. You have your safe space, and I gave you the summer to get to know me.”
“I got to know too much: that you’re bossy, you’re mean, and you have sex with too many women.”
“I’m no cowboy,” he mocked, her words ripping his insides to shreds.
“You’re no cowboy,” Lily agreed.
“It doesn’t matter what I am or not. I will be the one whose bed you will be in, who puts my ring on your finger, my baby in your belly, and you will let me, Lily,” he told her with finality.
“No.” Lily shook her head, denying his words.
“Yes, Lily, you will. You won’t be able to help yourself. I’ll make damn sure of that. Since I want to make sure there are no more secrets between us, I’m going to tell you that Penni is my sister. Actually, my half-sister, but she says that doesn’t count.”
As Lily sucked in a deep breath, Shade knew it cut deep, and he felt bad for that. He was already on the path he was determined to take, though. He was going to make her open her eyes and see him. He might not be what she wanted, but someday, hopefully she would see he was what she needed.
“Beth didn’t know, and Penni thought I asked her to transfer colleges because of Beth. She has no idea of my interest in you.” He gave that lie to protect Penni, not himself.
With her finally getting over Beth’s betrayal, if she found out Penni had known, she would cut off all ties with her. Truthfully, Penni hadn’t known all the machinations he had committed, so technically, it was only a half-lie.
She refused to look at him after that confession.
“Lily, look at me.”
She turned her head to look at his grim face.
“I know that this is a lot for you to take in. You don’t do well with surprises; however, there is one last piece of business we need to take care of.
“You have pushed me all week. After I told you that you had earned a spanking, you deliberately tried to raise my temper. I don’t lose my temper, unlike you; instead, you have earned several more strokes. I will give you a chance to explain yourself, and you may be able to lessen your punishment if it’s good enough. Otherwise...” Shade shrugged.
“I will not take a punishment from you. I’m not one of your women who actually care to please you. You can go to Hell. I’m leaving. If you lay one hand on me, I’ll call the police.” Lily frantically looked around his room.
Shade saw where she was looking and got up from the chair, walking across the floor to the phone and picking it up. Walking back, he handed it to her before going to the drawer, opening it, and then handing her an envelope. Afterward, he resumed his seat.
“Before you make a call, you should open that envelope.”
Dread filled her eyes as she slowly tore the envelope open, pulling out the papers and then looking through them. They were ownership papers of The Last Riders’ land, the factory, and the house. It showed all the separate names of the corporation.
Her eyes lifted to his, not understanding.
“My name is John Hunter.”
Her eyes went back to the papers, going through them once again. Shade could tell from the horror on her face when she realized what the importance of the papers were. While the name of all the assets were divided equally among the members, the property everything was built on, including Beth’s and Razer’s new home, was owned by him.