It was dark, and the night held just a tiny bit of chill. Not much, but since my legs were bare, I felt it.
Theo was parked in his usual spot. Normally when he caught sight of me, he would hop out to open my door, because he was a gentleman like that. Tonight, there was no movement coming from inside his car.
He’d left it unlocked, so I climbed in the passenger side. That was when I saw him. Eyes closed, chin to chest, breathing deeply. Theo had fallen asleep waiting for me.
I worked four or five nights a week, and Theo had been here to pick me up each of those nights for weeks. I guess I’d been so caught up in school, work, Luc, and Theo, I hadn’t taken a step back to understand what that really meant. But here it was, right in front of my eyes.
Lashes brushing his cheeks. His mouth slack. Lips looking so soft, I had to quell the urge to kiss them. His arms hanging limp at his sides. Body slumped in his seat. Theo was exhausted, but he was here. He was always here. I didn’t want that to ping around my chest, touching raw nerves and filling black chasms, but it did.
I couldn’t do this. If Theo filled my empty places, I’d get used to it and crave it. That wasn’t what this was, and I didn’t want it to be that.
I poked his shoulder. “Wakey-wakey, Theodosius.”
He startled, jumping in his seat, hand flying up in defense. “What?”
“Time to go home, dude.”
Clearing his throat and wiping the sleep from his eyes, he straightened and turned to me. He took a long moment to look me over, his brow pinched in concentration.
“God, you’re gorgeous.” He sounded like he was coming out of a dream, and that rocked me.
“And you’re tired.” I couldn’t help myself. Reaching across the console, I snagged the back of his neck and brought him toward me. His mouth hit mine in a sleepy kiss that was so tender, I regretted it instantly. “Theo…”
“Tiger,” he murmured, kissing me again. His tongue slipped in my mouth, and his arm circled around me, pulling me halfway out of my seat. I clung to him, easily giving in and meeting his kiss with the same slow, sensual caress of my lips and tongue.
“You need to go to bed,” I whispered. “Come on.”
He released me, but he didn’t move to put the car in drive. In fact, he stayed looking at me while he gripped the steering wheel with one hand, the other catching mine.
“I hate that you work here.” His confession came out hard and fast, and kind of pissy.
“You don’t have to keep picking me up, you know.” Oh, I was definitely pissy.
“You don’t get me, baby. Picking you up is not the problem. I’d give you a ride out of hell if you needed it.” He nodded toward Savage Beauties. “I don’t want you working at this club, serving the kind of men who go in there.”
“I need the money. You know that.”
His fingers flexed around mine. “So, work at a regular bar where half your ass doesn’t have to hang out.”
If he had any clue there’d been a few times I’d let a lot more than half my ass hang out behind those Savage walls, he’d never look at me the same. No more tender kisses. No more sleepy smiles and calling me gorgeous. I read the judgment all over him.
“I wouldn’t make half the money at a regular bar, and I hate to break it to you, but dudes at regular bars are the same ones who go to strip clubs. It’s just that at regular bars, they can get away with being gropey because the bouncers don’t watch the floor like hawks the same way they do at strip clubs. Any time I have a customer even think they have a right to my body in there, Ronaldo, Hakim, or Xavier set them straight.” I yanked my hand away and crossed my arms over my chest. “If you have a problem with it, that’s on you. It’s not on me.”
His hand shot out to grip my nape, tugging me toward him so fast he took my breath away. Then his mouth was on mine, crashing, tongue fucking, plundering. I answered back with my teeth, nipping at his lips, scraping his tongue. It was hard, fast, a little painful, and it seared my chest like a brand. Then he gently shoved me back in my seat and pulled out of his spot, driving away from Savage Beauties at a careful pace.
“I do have a problem with it, but you’re right, it’s on me.” His lovely voice was low and tired, with an edge of bitterness, but he wasn’t angry. “I don’t want anyone thinking they get to have any part of you.”
“Dudes think that when I walk down the street, Theo.”
“Theodore,” he gritted out, his hands twisting around the steering wheel like he was trying to strangle it.
“Theodore.” I gave it to him soft, the way he liked it, and his shoulders almost instantly fell from around his ears. “You can’t control people’s thoughts.”
His jaw remained hard. “No one gets to think they can have you. That is not acceptable.”
I really didn’t know where this was coming from or how to handle it. No one had ever been this...I guess, possessive over me. I’d been a friend, a convenient lay, a hookup, but that had always been where it began and ended because that was how I’d always wanted it.
He parked outside my dorm, eyes on the windshield. I should have gotten out and made a run for it. Almost everything inside me screamed to run from this, from him. But the soft part of me Theo kept uncovering wanted him to understand me.
“I get to have Luciana when I graduate.”
Theo’s head whipped sideways, his expression fierce. “What?” he breathed.
“My mom and I have a deal. I support Luc while I’m in school, pay my mom’s debts, and I get my girl when I graduate. My mom’ll sign over custody to me and Luc will be mine. I’m going to take summer classes so I can graduate in two years because three years is way too long for her to live there.”
“You’re taking on your sister?”
I nodded hard. “Yeah. She’s mine. I’m hers. There’s no choice. I have to get her out of there as soon as I can. I refuse to let her live like that.”
He was so still, I had no idea what he was thinking, but I braced myself. I hadn’t told anyone my plans for Luciana, except Mads. She’d been the one to help me formulate my plan and pushed me—pushed me hard—to fulfill it.
“Jesus...tell me to fuck off.” He took my face in his hand, and even in the dark, I could make out his pleading expression. “Please, baby. I have no idea what I’m talking about. Do what you need to do for Luc and tell me to fuck off.”
Leaning into his palm, my mouth curved. “Fuck off, Theodore.”
“That’s right.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek, then, when I turned, my mouth. “You’re a good girl, Helen. You know that?”
Those words trapped me in a velvet web. Theo could come along, eat my heart out, and I’d just lie there and take it because he’d called me a good girl.
“I know nothing of the sort.” I unbuckled my belt and grabbed my bag, intent on making a run for it. But like always with him, I couldn’t quite tear myself away. “Don’t fall asleep at the wheel. I’d be sad if you died.”
His shoulders shook with laughter. “Sweetest thing you ever said to me.”