Page 42 of Recaptured by the Crime Lord

“Do you find Marcus attractive?”

She turned in her seat towards him. “Are you fucking serious?”

“You let him touch you and you were hanging on every word he said.” Yeah, he sounded like a possessive bastard, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't stand seeing another man touch her or enjoy her company. It made him feel homicidal, thinking that she might have chemistry with another man. He wouldn't allow that.

“I still have your come inside me,” she said.

The unexpected comment made him glance at her. She looked furious, gorgeous and all his.

“You really think I would cheat on you?” Lyla demanded, voice rising in the small space.

“Don’t test me, Lyla.”

“You are such an idiot!”

“I'm an idiot for noticing your fascination with each other?”

“If you weren't such a blind prick, you would've noticed that our fascination wasn't for each other but a mutual caring for your company. The reason I came by today is because I've been going stir crazy. I've been on the road for over a year. In Maine I had a full-time job. It's all well and good to go out with Carmen and Aunt Isabel, but I need something to get my mind off the past.”

“I don't want you to get a job.”

“Why?”

He didn't know how to put it into words how he felt because everything he wanted to say was downright selfish.

“Why?” Lyla persisted and jabbed him in the arm. “Because you want me at your beck and call?”

“I don't want you to have to quit a job when you get pregnant.” That sounded like the least selfish thing to say.

“And if I never get pregnant?”

His hands tightened on the wheel. “Lyla, I run a company. When I come home, I want you there. I don't want you working a different schedule from me where we never get to see each other and you're exhausted.”

“But I need to do something and I love your company. If we’d never dated, I would still be working there.”

“Dad taught you a lot in a short amount of time.” That much was obvious.

“Yes. I want to go to the opening of Incognito. Have there been other parties that you've turned down because you don’t think I want to go?”

“Yes and no. I'd rather be at home with you.”

“I think it'll be good for us to go out. I'll have Carmen come too.”

Gavin gritted his teeth. Not only would he have to keep an eye on Lyla, now he had to watch out for Carmen too and she was unpredictable.

“If you won't let me work then I'm going to volunteer with Alice for outreach.”

That was something he couldn’t object to. If he tried to stop her, she might accept a job through Marcus and that couldn't happen. “That will make Janice happy. I believe Alice has a project every month, but you don't need to do everything.”

Lyla circled back to her earlier question, “Do you really think I would cheat on you?”

She hadn't done anything to deserve his accusation. He was the one who had been unfaithful and feared she would find someone kind, gentle and normal. He honestly didn't know what she saw in him. “No, I know you wouldn’t.”

“Then why accuse me of that?”

He was going to sound like an asshole. There was no getting around that. “I'm selfish.”

“I know,” she said.

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