But he was Branch Dillinger. Her partner. Her boyfriend. Her sub. But he was also the Honey’s new top guy, since Aryas had taken a step back from operations in order to focus on opening his new club in Tahoe, and he needed someone he could trust to pick up the reins.
And if Branch played it that way, wishing things to be private, he got it that way, and would even if the man couldn’t probably snap your neck with his bare hands then walk away and not give that kill a second thought.
It was just the life and everyone obeyed that rule.
Though the threat of having your neck snapped worked too.
Sixx was just relieved Evangeline was back, not to mention ecstatic she had a man in her life like Branch. Especially after what was done to her to make her take a prolonged break, all of this happening when Sixx was away.
It was good it happened when she was away. If she was close, retaliation would have been much different than what Aryas had ordered, and even much different than the vastly more thorough way in which Branch had handled it.
But it was handled. So at Aryas’s firm request, she’d let it be.
She was relieved and ecstatic for Leenie … and also jealous.
Jealous because she wondered what it would feel like to have a miracle happen after the world as you knew it turned to complete shit and then one day … you might not be healed, but you were again whole.
“And if you like, I’ll have a couple of male slaves available for your use. Fresh meat. I know a few who’d volunteer that I’m sure you’d like,” Stellan continued.
And that stomach cramp got worse.
He’d provide her “a few volunteers.”
Thoughtful.
And damned disappointing.
She wondered who he’d have there.
And how many.
“I’ll think about it,” she told him.
“Please do,” he said before taking another sip of his Scotch.
She followed suit with her gin, practically willing her phone to vibrate against her leg to give her a reason to get away from him.
Stellan spoke again.
“So you’re not in the mood, will you allow me to offer you some thing that might strike a different mood? One I’d wager you’d enjoy a great deal.”
At this proposal that came out of nowhere, Sixx almost choked on her gin.
But of course she didn’t, and again her voice was clear and cool when she asked, “What’s that?”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid it has to be a surprise. But I will say it will be a surprise you’ll like. I also have to say, you shouldn’t wait to make your decision or things will culminate and we’ll miss our chance.”
Things will culminate?
Oh no.
She was intrigued.
Damn it!
“Can you give me a hint?” she pressed.
He made a tsking noise that she felt tap against her clit, and as was his usual, he didn’t lose contact with her gaze.
But he wasn’t looking aloof anymore.
This was both an invitation and a challenge.
She just didn’t know to what.
And with Stellan—this sudden Stellan who was vastly different than the Stellan she’d been getting (or not, as the case was) for the last too-many-months—she wasn’t sure how to handle it.
“Don’t disappoint me, Sixx,” he said quietly. “The Honey’s Ice Princess, cool and composed in every situation, shying away from an adventure?”
“I simply need to know how long it would take,” she lied. “I have something I need to do tonight,” she didn’t lie.
“As soon as you need to go, I’ll bring you back.”
He’d bring her back?
He was going to take her somewhere?
“What’s it going to be, Sixx?” he pushed. “In truth, I should have asked you the minute I joined you in this booth. We risk missing the grand finale the longer we wait.”
“Stellan—” she started, wondering how to get out of it at the same time how not to appear like she was jumping on it by accepting too quickly.
She needed time to assess this change, plan, strategize, prepare, fashion a brand-new Sixx. One who could deal with the likes of Stellan Lange and come out the other side of whatever became of whatever was happening unscathed.
And more importantly, make certain he did.
Or time to find a place to hide. Or escape, her mind taunted. Coward.
“I’ve bought you a present,” he shocked her by announcing. “I did this some time ago. I’ve been wishing to give it to you but haven’t had the opportunity. Now’s the opportunity.” The movement was almost not there, but yet it was when he leaned slightly her way and warned in a low voice, “Don’t waste it.”
Again, eye contact, unrelenting.
Challenge.
Invitation.
Finally.
And a gift?
She lifted her drink, took another healthy swallow, put it on the table and then dropped her hand to her thigh to curl her fingers around the phone there while grabbing her clutch off the table with her other hand.
She looked back to him and said, “Let’s go.”
When she did, all vestiges of her stomach cramps disappeared.
Because when she said that, Stellan Lange smiled a wicked, roguish, beautiful smile.
Right at her.
two
Bait and Switch
SIXX
Her damned burner vibrated in her clutch the minute Stellan maneuvered his midnight silver metallic Tesla Model S into a parking spot outside a large building so far east of Phoenix that there was nothing but the building, its expansive parking lot and a lot of desert around it.
The trip there had not been short.
But it had been silent.
Sixx found this incredibly uncomfortable, and that grew by the minute mostly because it seemed Stellan didn’t.
Though it was more.
It seemed the edgier she got, the more he enjoyed it.
It was a Dom trick. She knew it. And because she did, she should have been able to handle it.
She should also have taken that time to get her head together, assess the risk she was taking, and prepare herself for all possible eventualities.
But not only was she Sixx, who prepared just enough not to get her ass handed to her (because what was the fun if you didn’t get thrown a few curveballs?), she also was in his fabulous car in the middle of nowhere with him.
Stellan.
Stellan.
In other words, she was off her game.
She pulled the burner out of her purse, flipped it open and read the text.
When and where?
Tapping on the number pad to reply, she typed, Wait for instructions and be ready.
She sent the text just as Stellan asked, “You have a flip phone?”
She turned to him to see him definitely turned to her, hand behind her on her seat and all, filling the opulent, state-of-the-art interior with an authority and hauteur like it was he himself who designed it.
And she liked all of that.
A great deal.
Oh yes she was edgy.
“It’s a work thing.”
In the lights of the parking lot she saw his gaze drop to her lap where her clutch and her hand around the burner was, and she could swear she saw his mouth get tight.
His eyes cut back up to her. “Ready?”
“Of course,” she replied.
That was when his face got lazy in a way she’d not once seen (and she’d been watching so she’d never have missed that).
Then he got out of the car.
She was out too, on her feet about to close her door when he got into her space.
In surprise, she twisted and looked up at him.
“A gentleman opens the door for a lady,” he declared.
“I’m very capable of—”
As unexpectedly as he’d gotten close, he completely erased the space between them and she snapped her mouth shut.
“A gentleman,” he took her elbow, “opens the door,” he put pressure on his hold on her and guided her from the car, “for a lady.”
He shut the door.
Okay then.
Sixx decided it was time to set some ground rules.
“It isn’t necessary—”
“Is this my gift to you?” he asked.
“Apparently,” she answered.
“My adventure on offer to you?” he went on.
“Yes,” she said shortly.
“So we play this my way.”
Her gaze slid to the large building. Having already noted there were quite a number of cars parked in that lot, it had been impossible to miss there was also a security guard at the entrance to it that Stellan had slowed to nod at before they’d driven in.
She looked back to him.
Well-guarded.
But why?
“Is this a new club?” she asked.
“No,” he answered.
She drew her brows together. “This isn’t a Pound, is it?”