Page 16 of Royally Embraced: RBMC

He handed her the washcloth, then spun on his heel and left her in the toilet room. No matter how much he wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her close, he walked away. That’s what he was good at. He was fucking amazing at wreakingvengeance, not embracing women and telling them all the hearts and flowers they needed to hear.

“Okay. Um, do you have a toothbrush and toothpaste I can borrow?” she asked. Her face turned pink as she spoke. Hell, he wanted to strip her bare and see if she blushed so beautifully all over.

Waving a hand toward the counter where a few containers sat, he nodded. “There are complimentary ones in there. I brought my own, so feel free to use one of those.”

He didn’t want to make a bigger ass of himself and figured he should leave to make the call to his friend with the local MC. Enzo and he went way back. They both grew up with Mafia ties and after he’d landed in California and patched in with the Royal Sons, he’d been stunned to find out his old friend was in the Chicago chapter. Small fucking world indeed.

Going through his contacts, he pressed dial and waited for the other man to answer.

“Yo, Jeter. How’s it hanging, brother?” Enzo asked in his Jersey accent.

“I see you still ain’t got rid of that atrocious tone, brother?”

Enzo snorted. “Same as you, friend. I thought you’d sound like a Valley Girl or some shit by now. So, what’s up? I have a feeling you ain’t calling me to see if I want to grab a coffee and get our nails done?”

The other man was a straight shooter. Jeter gave him a rundown of why he was in town, leaving nothing out, including the shooting and subsequent need to lie low for a couple of days.

Enzo put him on hold for a few minutes while Jeter listened to Tori in the bathroom, hoping she didn’t get sick again. The toilet flushed twice while he paced in front of the terrace windows. He wasn’t good at taking care of others, but dammit, he felt compelled to help Tori. No, it was more than that. He wanted to ease her suffering.

“Hey, brother. My Prez has given permission for you and your ole’ lady to come and seek sanctuary here for as long as you need it.”

Jeter didn’t correct Enzo about who Tori was to him. Tori being under his protection as his ole’ lady would keep others from trying anything stupid. “Thank you, Enzo. We’ll be there within a couple of hours.”

He hung up after getting the address. The need to check on Tori had his nerves on edge. Shit, if he could, he’d insert a chip into her like some deranged bastard.

A ghost of a smile lit his face. “She’d cut my dick off,” he muttered as he walked back toward the bathroom. He may have just met the feisty woman, but he knew without a doubt Tori had a mind of her own. Hell, most people who faced being shot would’ve broken. Yet she’d stayed strong, calm, and collected until they’d made it safely to his hotel. Even then, she hadn’t become a screaming, inconsolable mess. He’d bet his left nut she would’ve stayed cool if they’d been unable to get behind closed doors for another hour or two. Pride welled within him, but he also wished she didn’t need to have the inner core of strength.

“How you feeling?” he asked, taking her appearance in from head to toe. She looked like she’d washed her face and had put her hair into a high ponytail, making her seem younger and more vulnerable. Jeter thought about leaving her in the hotel under an alias while he went on the hunt for answers.

Chapter Nine

Tori met Jeter’s gaze through the mirror. “There was a scrunchy in one of the boxes. I figured you wouldn’t be needing it, so I borrowed it. I hope you don’t mind?”

His eyes watched her as she lifted her hand to her hair. He wanted to run his hands through the silky tresses to see how she responded to his touch. A frown appeared on her beautiful face as realization dawned on him he hadn’t responded to her.

“Ah, you can have anything you need, babe. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, we can call down to the front desk and get it. If they don’t have what you need, we can stop on our way to the clubhouse and pick it up.” He moved closer to her. The urge to touch Tori was too much to ignore.

Her hand went to her chest. His gaze tracked every move she made. When she licked her lips, he groaned.

“Um, where are we going?” she asked, turning to face him.

He stopped right in front of her, shoving his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching out to her. Shit, she made him lose his damn head without even trying.

“Although this hotel is fancy as fuck and has security, I don’t trust that nobody knows I’m here or that we can’t be tracked to this location. If the shooter knew you and I were going to be out back, which seems to be the case, then they’d know where I was going to be staying. However, I wasn’t meant to be out in the alley behind that bar. That was truly accidental. You, on the other hand, were always meant to go out there at some point, since that’s where you were parked. Which means, I think it’s best we both go where nobody would suspect.” Jeter let out a heavy sigh, hating the way her eyes widened in fear.

“You think it was me they were shooting at?” she asked in a trembling voice.

He eliminated the small space between them, pulling her into his arms. The entire situation frustrated the hell out of him. “Sweetheart, I don’t know for a fact who they were aiming at. What we know is they were damn close to shooting one of us. I also know I don’t want them to get another chance at you or me, and the best way to do that is by figuring out the who and the why before another attempt.”

She let out a puff of air and nodded against his chest. Her arms went around him, hugging him back. “I hate this. Depending on someone else isn’t my strong point. In fact, you might find I really suck at it.”

He eased his head back, wanting to look at her. “Hey, it’s not a matter of dependency. How about you look at it as you and me leaning on one another? Remember, you’re the one who saved my ass, so it’s my turn to return the favor.”

Her lips lifted into a grin. “You’re so full of shit, Jeter. Oh, I don’t even know your last name,” she gasped.

Jeter kept his arms wrapped around her as she tried to pull away from him. “Jeter Calderone,” he said, watching her face for a reaction.

Tori’s eyes were like direct links to her mind. Jeter saw her freeze the moment he said his last. Yeah, his family name in Chicago tended to get one of two reactions. People either feared his family, or they loathed them. Of course, they garner respect either way. You didn’t disrespect one of the largest Mafia families in Chicago and live to tell about it. Although, to be fair, the Calderones weren’t complete bastards like the Rizzos. Why his brother had wanted to marry into that family had puzzled Jeter. He’d secretly cheered when he’d heard she’d run off with another man.

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