I never thought about the fact that the cops could decide to hassle the MC because of Darren. Feeling worse than I already did, I throw Ardan a look that says, This is exactly what I didn’t want.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he says, taking a chicken wing off my plate. “We’re just looking at the situation from every angle. We don’t know what shit he’s going to pull, or how much power he holds here, but we need to lay low until we figure it all out.”
I look at Lana and say, “I’d love to come out with you as soon as I can.”
She grins. “It’s a date.”
Tracker looks at me and says, “Now onto the important stuff. Lana doesn’t want me to cut my hair, so will you cut it for me behind her back?”
Lana elbows him in the stomach. “The man bun looks so damn sexy on you! Don’t cut it!”
“Man bun,” Ardan snickers from beside me. “Fuck’s sake, Tracker.”
“Hey,” Tracker says, sounding offended. “It gets all the bi—” As if just remembering his company, he clears his throat and tries again. “It got me this beautiful woman by my side.”
“Nice try,” Lana mutters, then runs her hand through his hair. “It’s always been like this ever since I met you. If you cut it off, that’s like false advertising. You made it seem like I’d always have this, and now you’re just going to take it away? You need to keep yourself how you were when I fell in love with you.”
“Where do you come up with this shit?” he asks, his lips twitching. He looks to Ardan. “She comes up with shit on the spot like that all the time. No wonder she’s so good at her job.”
Lana grins at me. “Lucky he’s cute, right?”
I laugh at their banter. The two of them obviously love each other so much.
“I’m more than cute. I’m a cover model,” he boasts, lifting up his T-shirt to show off a set of rock-hard abs. “I’m a god. And I’m practically famous.”
“Because you’re my man,” Lana adds, raising her eyebrows. Jess laughs and stands to leave the room. “See, you’re chasing everyone away now.”
“Including us,” Ardan says, smirking. He stands and offers me his hand, taking the now-empty plate from me. “Let’s go inside.”
We mingle with everyone for another two hours before we go back to my apartment. All I can think of after meeting everyone is that I really hope my being in their lives doesn’t bring them any trouble.
That, and that Ardan is a very lucky man to have such great people at his back.
The next morning, I wake Ardan with my mouth on him. I watch as he slowly awakens, his dark eyes pinned on me as my tongue works its magic. Keeping our gazes connected, I take as much of him as I can into my mouth, pulling back when I start to gag a little, bobbing my head as I pleasure him.
“Fuck, Valentina,” he growls, his hands gripping the white sheets. He lets go and brings them to tangle in my hair. He tugs on it a little, turning me on even more.
“Just like that,” he groans, sinking his teeth into his bottom lip.
I give it to him just how I know he likes it, swiping my tongue over him and sucking with just the right pressure. It’s not long before he comes, and I swallow every drop, loving the almost growling sounds he makes as he finishes. I sit back and smile at him and say, “Good morning.”
“It is, isn’t it,” he says, his eyes warm on me. “Fuck, I’d die a happy man if you woke me up every morning like that. I’m going to be cheery as shit all day.”
I laugh and crawl up the bed next to him, lying on my back.
He flips me over, rolls on top of me, and says, “Now it’s your turn.”
Yeah, today is going to be a good day indeed.
THIRTEEN
I’M walking to the fridge in nothing but my black nightie when I hear a banging on the front door.
“Police! Open up!”
I don’t recognize the voice, so it’s not Darren.
Ardan quickly emerges from our room in nothing but a pair of black track pants. He looks at me, rushes back to the room, and returns holding one of his T-shirts in his hand.
“Put this over your nightie, now,” he says in a no-nonsense tone.
I do as I’m told, his T-shirt hitting my knees and covering my breasts, and stand back as he opens the front door.
Two cops stand there.
And one is him.
Fuck.
He’s really here. He’s doing this. He hates me that much, that he’s going completely out of his way to make my life miserable. He came from across the country, dead set on what—revenge? Against the only woman who once loved him, the woman who tried to save him from drugs, the one who gave him everything she had?
The one he tried to destroy.
After he manipulated me, cheated on me, and verbally and emotionally abused me, he still wants more from me.
There’s a fine line between love and hate, but now we are well into hate, way past the line.
It’s sad it has come to this, and it breaks my heart, but sometimes people change, and there’s nothing you can do. Sometimes when you keep taking the high road, you just get tired of it. I can’t keep forgiving his actions; I’m just done with it all. He’s nothing to me. I stand there looking at him, and I feel nothing.