“No.” As Lily turned her face back to the wall, she heard his deep sigh.
“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.”
“You can’t seriously believe I would have gone with you.” Lily stared at his harsh expression.
Understanding dawned on her; his clear blue eyes were telling her he wouldn’t have given her a choice. She started shaking. He wasn’t going to give her a choice now.
“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.
“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.”
“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.”
Lily sucked in a deep breath. Her sense of betrayal went so deep that she didn’t know if she could bear it. Beth and now Penni had kept secrets from her.
“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.”
Lily refused to look at him.
“Lily, look at me.”
She wanted to deny him, but she still 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.” It was then Lily realized she no longer had her cell phone.
She frantically looked around the room for it, seeing it lying on the floor where Shade had caught her. 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. He resumed his seat.
“Before you make a call, you should open that envelope.”
Lily knew she shouldn’t, dread filling her at the unopened contents.
Slowly, she tore the envelope open, pulling out the papers and then looking through them. They were ownership papers of The Last Riders, 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. Then horror struck. While the name of all the assets were divided equally among the members, the property that everything was built on, including Beth’s new home that she loved, was owned by Shade. She looked back up at him.
“When we all got out of the service, we wanted to start the business, but they had no capital. They had the ideas; I had the money. My money combined with what they had managed to save was invested in the business. The land, being in my name, was to ensure I wasn’t left without anything since I took the most risk.”
“Beth and Razer’s home...”
“Is on my property,” Shade confirmed her worst fears.
“Oh, God.”
“There’s no need to be upset. I have no intention of taking their home from them… if we come to an agreement.”
“What do you want, Shade?” A lone tear slid down her cheek. She already knew what he was going to say.