“Have we been handling ourselves, King? You tell me. From my perspective, it feels like we’ve lost some of our edge because of Ryland. He’s too close to us for you to even consider this attack. Bronze isn’t shitting you when he says the feds will be all over us if we do this.”
“So we just sit with our hands tied, holding our balls, and allow one man to decide what we can and can’t fucking do? Fuck that. We’re in the middle of a fucking war here, Hyde. We don’t run from war. We stand and we fucking fight to the bitter end.”
I pushed my anger away. I needed to get my point across without my temper getting in the way. “We stand this time? It might be the bitter end.”
King stood with his hands clenched by his side, with an expression on his face I knew to mean he’d already made up his mind. “Tomorrow, Hyde. We get this done.”
Chapter 27
Monroe
I relaxed into my comfy chair in my office, both hands wrapped around a hot mug of coffee, and let the stress of the day leave my body. It was just after five on Wednesday night, and Fox had two more clients to finish up with. One, he was almost done with, the other waited patiently for him. He had one of the best reputations in Sydney, so people were always happy to wait for him. I was certain that if he ever left me, my business would go downhill fast.
I’d spent the day going over everything that happened with Hyde the night before. My heart warred with my head yet again, and while I felt uncertain about what to do, I knew deep in my gut exactly what I would do.
I’d keep seeing him. He’d worked his way that far into my heart already. But he’d have to step his game up, that was for sure.
Paperwork called my name that afternoon, but the front door bell tinkling dragged me back out to the front of the shop. I slowed when I saw Hyde standing near the front counter holding a tape measure.
Closing the distance between us, I nodded at the tape measure and said, “What’s that for, tiger?”
He didn’t miss my intent when I called him tiger. It was my way of letting him know I’d softened my stance since last night. We’d talk it over later, but for now, we could move forward knowing where we stood.
Jerking his chin, he said, “I’ve come to measure the space you want converted for this waxing room of yours.”
Surprise flooded me. I hadn’t seen that coming. Placing my hand on my hip, I cocked my head to the side. “You’re good with a hammer and nails?”
A sexy grin spread across his face. “I’m good with my hands, full stop. Anything you need doing, I’ve got it covered.”
“Mmm, the cost of the building supplies is a little out of my reach at the moment, but I’d be happy to put your hands to work in other ways.”
His arm slid around my waist so he could pull me close. “I’ve got contacts in the building industry. How about you let me worry about the cost for now?”
“No, I don’t ever let men pay my way.”
“I figured that already. That’s why I said for now. When you’ve got cash coming in from the waxing business, you can pay me back then.”
Every independent gene of mine wanted to say no, but the businesswoman in me knew this was a good deal. My independent side tried to win the argument, but she lost badly. That could also have had something to do with the horny side of me wanting Hyde spending time working in my shop. Possibly with his shirt off. Definitely with those arms of his on display.
“Okay, yes.” I pointed my finger at him. “But you agree to take my money, without argument, when the time comes, or I’m taking that yes back.”
He chuckled and dropped a kiss to my lips. “Deal.”
“And Hyde?”
“Yeah.”
“We’re going to talk about last night. Preferably tonight if you’re free.”
His mouth brushed my ear when he said, “You trying to boss me, sugar?”
“Damn right I am.”
His eyes met mine, and I couldn’t miss the earnestness there. “Tonight is blocked off for you.”
The fact he took this so seriously made me feel like I’d made the right decision. “Good. If you’re lucky, I’ll cook you dinner.”
Lines formed around his eyes as he smiled. That smile morphed into a cheeky grin when he said, “I like a woman who knows her place is in the kitchen.”
I smacked his chest. “You did not just say that to me!”
Laughing he said, “Calm down, red, I was just fucking with you.”
“You better have been. It’s gonna be a long night for you on my couch taking care of the hard-on I give you if you weren’t.”
“Sounds like any night I don’t spend with you,” he murmured as he let me go. “Now tell me where you want this room built.”
I’d been with Hyde for approximately two hours, and he’d managed to drive me almost to the point of not being able to hold myself back. No, scratch that. I’d been with him for exactly two hours and eleven minutes, and I was way past the point of not holding myself back.
We’d made it to my place after I closed up at the shop, and after putting steak in the microwave to defrost, I’d practically thrown myself at him. My intent for the night had been to talk to him first and then have sex, but the man was skilled at messing with my thoughts. Just by existing. It was maddening.
He dragged his mouth from mine and took hold of my arms that were around his neck. Pulling me off him, he said, “We need to talk first, sugar.”
My eyes widened. “You’re shitting me, aren’t you?”
His lips twitched. “I wish I was, but I’m not. I want nothing more than to fuck you right now, but it’s important to me that we discuss how you feel about last night.”
“Stop it.”
He frowned. “Stop what?”
“Stop saying all the right things. I was so mad at you last night, and I wanna keep feeling entitled to that, but you’re making it hard for that to happen.”
He continued to frown. “You wanna keep feeling mad at me?”
Ugh. Why couldn’t men just read women’s minds? Like, seriously, it would make life a whole lot easier. “No, but I feel so conflicted about you that it would be easier for me to feel like I was right to be mad.” I waved my hand at him. “You coming here and saying stuff like that, about it being important to you to talk about how I feel, well that makes it hard for me to hold onto those feelings of being right.” I mean, how often was it that a man actually wanted to discuss how I felt about the shit he’d done? Most men I dated wanted to move past their fuck-ups as fast as possible.
“You were right to feel mad, Roe. There’re no two ways about that. I don’t want to take that from you. But I do want to know you can move on from it. I’m not a fan of shit being thrown in my face later on in a relationship. We need to deal with this now and then never let it be rehashed in retaliation for something else.”
And that right there made me fall for him a little more. He may not have dated in years, but he certainly knew how to do relationships.
“I can move on from it, Hyde. I wasn’t sure last night because it had just happened, so I appreciated that you gave me the space I asked for.”