Page 37 of What He Wants

Screwing Lucy wasn’t the solution. I yanked back the sheet. “Get the fuck out of my room now.”

A pout spread across her face as she crawled out of my bed without protest. She knew better than to try and change my mind, especially in the condition I was in right then. I didn’t trust the bitch, and her story that I’d asked her to come see me was too convenient for me to believe. I loved my brothers, but I wasn’t in the habit of fucking any of the club girls once they’d been with a brother earlier in the evening. I’d made it clear to Lucy right at the beginning that if she wanted me for the night, I was the only one she fucked.

I watched her pick up her tiny pieces of clothing and then leave my room with a huff. Once my door was closed, I relaxed back against the headboard with a mental note to start locking my door. I was good and awake now, and Daisy’s pretty face flashed before my eyes and what she’d looked like the last time I’d seen her. She’d been as turned on as I had, but the arousal had given way to confusion and hurt, and maybe a little anger.

That was all on me.

I should have explained why I’d acted the way that I had, but I’d been so fucking shocked at the time that I’d frozen up and told her to leave. Would it have been the end of the world if I’d fucked her without a condom? No, but the consequences could have changed my way of life in a big way. I didn’t want an old lady, and I sure as shit didn’t want a kid. I wasn’t saying that Daisy would have ended up pregnant, but that wasn’t a chance I wanted to take.

The image of Daisy pregnant with my kid suddenly came to mind, and I threw my arm out to the side of me, slamming my fist into the wall because it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be. Fuck! I snatched up my phone from the nightstand to check the time. Too early to get on the road with Jumper. We needed to give Clay and Cooper enough of a head start to get into position. I was ready for this shit with Shooter to be done.

Then I could deal with Daisy Mae Flowers.

Chapter 16

Daisy

I was in the back when I heard the bell ring, indicating that someone had entered the salon. It was probably Jasmine, since I’d called her first thing and told her that we would be opening today. Later, when Jackie and Betty came in, I’d go into Solon and take care of business. If I couldn’t get a restraining order against Paul, then I’d get a gun. I refused to let him slink back into my life without protecting myself. I was not going to let him turn me back to the fearful, cowering woman I’d been. The changes in the last year had been good for me. I was finally the woman I wanted to be.

“I’m in the back, Jasmine,” I called out, finally finding the product I’d been looking for and grabbing the box to bring out front. I pushed through the curtain and came to an abrupt halt, my gaze landing on Big John. I felt my heart skip a beat at the determined look in his dark eyes, and God help me, I felt a quickening of my breath and a flood of warmth in my core.

I wasnotgoing to let him affect me.

Someone needed to tell that to my body.

I quickly pulled myself together and continued further into the room. “What do you want?” I realized that my tone was less than friendly, but he had it coming. I walked to the shelving that housed the product for customers to purchase and set the box down on a nearby chair.

“I’m on my way out of town. Decided to stop by.” I met his eyes. “Don’t fucking know why.”

“Then maybe you should leave me alone until you figure out why,” I said without hesitation. I was being a bitch and I knew it. “Because I’m tired of you running hot and cold with me. I don’t deserve that.” I opened the box and pulled out a bottle of shampoo to place on the shelf.

“No, you don’t,” he surprised me by agreeing. I paused to stare at him. God, why did he have to be so freaking big and sexy? He was unlike any man I’d ever met, and everything male about him appealed to everything feminine inside of me. “I want you, Daisy.”

I snorted. “Well, you have a strange way of showing it.”

“Maybe too fucking much.”

Butterflies fluttered in my belly from the passion behind his deep admission, and I was sure that I was growing wet with arousal. Still, I didn’t move, forcing myself to breathe slowly. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell Big John that I felt the same way, and that I was ready to show him with actions. He, on the other hand, seemed to be having a problem dealing with our physical attraction.

“What does that mean, Big John? I didn’t exactly tell you to stop last night when we were in the shower, and you don’t strike me as a man who’s afraid to take what he wants.”

He stepped closer to me, and I backed up instinctively, crashing into the shelving. Several of the bottles tipped over. I swung around to save them from crashing to the floor, straightening them before facing him again. My heart was pounding erratically, my breathing hitched with anticipation.

“What are you afraid of, babe?”

“Not you,” I said quickly, a trembling smile on my lips. “I’ve got your number. You turn me on until I nearly burst into flames, and then leave me right at the crucial moment. I’m not willing to go down that road again.”

“There’s a reason I did what I did,” he said gruffly. “I wanted you too fucking bad, baby. So, fucking bad that I nearly lost control and fucked you bare.” My eyes flared at that. “I’ve never lost that kind of control with a woman. I was afraid for you.”

“I’m on the pill,” I said.

Big John shook his head. “It wasn’t just that. I was afraid that if you didn’t get out of there fast enough that I was going to say fuck it and just take you.” He moved closer. “Lose control and hurt you without meaning to. All I could think about was how much I wanted to sink my dick inside your tight, wet cunt and fuck you raw.”

I caught my breath on a shudder, growing very wet between my legs.

“Like now.” Suddenly he was flush against me and I had nowhere to go with the shelves at my backside. “I fucking come undone when I’m near you.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but that was an invitation to a man like Big John. He swooped down and smashed his mouth to mine in a clash of teeth and tongue and raw passion. His tongue thrusting against mine made me moan, and then I was biting down on his lower lip before smoothing my tongue over it. His grunt fueled my hunger, and then we were attacking each other’s mouths as if we couldn’t get enough.

---