The soft way he said it made me realize he wasn’t talking to me. My eyes narrowed on Molly, and I watched the panic set in.
I decided to let it be known that, “Molly doesn’t work for you, Tama. She works for me, and I don’t have any plans to let her back into the fold.” He turned to me, and if I wasn’t who I was, having seen the shit I’d seen, I’d think he was a scary man. Fortunately, his intimidation tactics didn’t have shit on mine. “Especially not after the shit you pulled the last time you called her out.”
His deathly stare landed on her once again, and his response was rough, low. “Never said I wanted her for work.”
My stomach clenched with anger, painfully tight. “Not about to make my girl turn tricks for you either, so if that’s the plan, you can take this opportunity and get the fuck on out of my house.”
Tama didn’t speak for a long while, but I noticed the way his hands clenched into fists, then released constantly, before he said, “What opportunity?”
I internally grinned.
Got him.
“I hear you got a guy. A guy who runs surveillance. And I hear he’s good.”
“Amoho.” Tama chest puffed out with pride. “He’s not good. He’s the best.”
His confidence spoke volumes. “I need him to keep an eye on Ling Nguyen.”
But Tama was already shaking his head. “Nah, bruh. We don’t fuck with The Dragons.” He blinked down at the table. “They’re mental. No rules apply. That queen of theirs has a screw loose upstairs. Let’s ‘em run rabid.” His lip curled. “Disgusting. Shameful.” He took in a deep breath before shaking his head once again. “I won’t have my men killed for you, and that’s what will happen if we take this job.”
“Not if I kill her first,” I drawled, and damned if that didn’t get his attention. “The Dragons are a pain in everyone’s ass, and I plan on forcing ‘em to disband.” Oh, yeah, he was listening, all right. “You help me out here, their territory is yours.”
It was prime territory. A city spot that no one other then The Lost Boys held.
Yeah. Tama was listening.
I don’t think he understood how this worked because the cocky fuck felt the need to negotiate. “I still want Molly.”
A short bark of a laugh left me. “You can’t have her.” My mirth faded to nothing and I laid it down. “You get the territory or you get nothing. But greedy fuckers get a parting prize too,” I told him. “A free hole in the head.”
At that, the giant man actually cracked a smile. He seemed to contemplate my offer, and he did this a long while before he stood, and said, “I’ll talk to my men. Get back to you.” I stood and walked him out of the kitchen, but when he suddenly twisted back to face Molly, he paused a second, then muttered, “Coming?”
To say she was stunned was an understatement. Her brows creased, looking like she was in a huge amount of pain, and her mouth parted in disbelief, but she didn’t move.
The giant Maori watched her a moment before his lips thinned, and he nodded in understanding before continuing out the door. What he didn’t see was Molly move to stand.
I stopped her with, “You’re not going.”
She looked completely rattled, as though she was being pulled in all different directions and she wanted to follow them all.
“Molly, you’re twenty-two. He’s my age,” I said sternly. “You can’t go with him.” When her eyes narrowed on me, I fought a chuckle but shook my head, muttering, “I’m not allowin’ this, girl. Sit your ass down.”
And when her eyes flashed and she snarled, “Fuck you!” she rushed to her room a moment before returning with her bag.
I forced out a long sigh. “Get back here, Molly.”
But she ignored me, running after him. “Tama!”
The front door slammed shut, and from the window, both Lexi and I watched on as Tama turned just as Molly launched herself at him, and the second her caught her, their lips met in a hard, desperate kiss that had me grinning in victory.
By my side, Lexi sounded irritated. “It’s not up to you who she’s with, Twitch. She loves him and—” When she faced me, her big blues narrowed down at my lips. “Why are you smiling?”
My baby.
God, she was beautiful.
Gently moving her hair behind her ear, I continued to smile, as I stated, “I don’t pretend to know much about women, but I do know one thing. They do not like when you tell ‘em what to do. Or to stay away from somebody they want.”
I saw the exact moment she caught on. Her eyes widened and she dipped her chin to hide her smile, and when she finally looked up at me again, her eyes were full of mirth. “You sneaky shit. You did all of that... said all of that on purpose, knowing she’d go to him.”
Tama carried Molly to his car, kissing her like she was air and he was dying to breathe again. Fully deadpanned, I uttered, “Oh no. Molly, come back.”
Lexi tipped her head back and laughed out loud, and I grinned down at her flushed and smiling face before my heated gaze landed on her full lips. “I need that mouth, Mama.”
Her eyes flashed a moment before they turned lusty, and I loved how after all this time, we were still as affected by each other as we were in the beginning. “Just my mouth?” She sounded disappointed.
I shook my head slowly as I took her hand, pulling her close. “Every journey needs a starting point.”
A choked sound left me as her greedy fingers came out to rub my cock through my jeans. Her voice breathy, she let out a hushed, “Aren’t you going to tell me off?”
She wanted to be told off.
Fuck me. She was perfect.
But today, I just wanted my smiling, sweet angel. Just her. And I wanted all of her. “Touch me.”
Walking her backward down the hall, I kept my eyes on her, and she kept her small hand on my straining fly. When I lowered my face to kiss her, she backed away playfully, smiling as she avoided my lips, and my heart did this weird kind of jittery thing.
Huh.
That was different.
Whenever I was around this woman, I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off her or my pants on.
The second we were in the bedroom, I put my hands to the bottom of the cotton dress she wore and whipped it off, and the sight of her in her tiny lace panties and matching white bra...
***
Lexi
He’d been standing there a long time. I was beginning to get self-conscious.
“Honey?” My brows knitted lightly.
What was wrong with him?
Suddenly, he frowned and swallowed hard then blinked and he was back. But when he pulled out his phone and pointed it at me, I lifted my hand with a gasp, almost knocking the cell out of his hands.
“Do not take photos of me.” Totally outraged, I hissed, “Not like this.”
He had the gall to look annoyed. “Why not?”
“I’m...”
Oh, no.
My eyes shut tightly, and the insecurities I’d fought since I had A.J. returned wholeheartedly. I covered my stomach pooch with a splayed hand, completely embarrassed, and then I whispered, “I’m not the same.” I said this in a way that he couldn’t misunderstand my meaning.
And he got me.
Taking a step forward, his hard length pressed into my hip. Looking down at me with meaning, he uttered a rough sounding, “That feel like disappointment to you?”
No.
It felt like my ruin.
Unexpectedly, my mouth opened and all the words flew out. “I’m not as thin as I was.”
“I like you like this.”
“I have a gut.”
He scoffed. “It’s hardly a gut.”
“My butt is bigger.”
At that, he grinned, sliding a hand over my hip to squeeze a rounded cheek. “I know.”
Asshole.
Feeling direct, I went on, “Pregnancy made my tits huge. Look.” I pressed my arms into them to make my point, and when the globes protruded obscenely, I blinked up at him. “See?” His eyes were on my boobs, and when I ran a hand through my hair, sighing in irritation, I said, “It’s so not fair that I look like this when you look like—” I threw an arm out to his entire being. “—that.” I went on, “I work out. I run. I yoga. It doesn’t matter what I do; these curves do not want to leave me.” When his eyes crinkled in the corners, I revealed sadly, “They’ve made themselves at home and, apparently, are not going anywhere.”