Page 108 of Bae

Seriously. I’d been walking around with the bitter taste of fear in the back of my throat. Seeing her the way I had the day she lost Evie ignited it in me like nothing had before. Even Zach.

How did I deal with these assholes?

I couldn’t sue them all. I couldn’t be with Rim night and day. Even if I put a bodyguard on her, they’d still harass her from afar. That isifI could find a bodyguard I trusted enough to follow her around. I couldn’t, despite the many calls I’d made. None of them were good enough.

I needed action. To set an example. A standard.

I needed to send a message.

Don’t fuck with my wife, or I’ll fuck with you.

I liked it. It was very decisive.

Don’t you think?

Braeden and I flew to New York, then on to Chicago. The Knights were playing well. So far, we’d won all our games. I wasn’t naïve enough to think we’d get through the season without any losses at all, but we could make it through with less than a handful.

Chicago had been a tough game; it was my worst game so far this season. Even at my worst, I still played well. We still won.

I craved my wife. The sound of her voice, the scent of her skin, the feel of her body. I had her three times the day I was home after her accident.

Three times bareback.

I wanted her again. And again.

I also wanted her safe.

I called my father between traveling, football, and press shit. I’d dodged questions left and right about her accident and the state of our marriage. It was a bunch of bullshit. I played football; I didn’t run a damn gossip rag.

The two assholes who ran my wife off the road had been arrested; the cops had actually caught them the night of the accident. My father was pleased about that because the cops seized their cameras immediately.

There were photos of my wife on them, photos of her outside the doctor’s office and getting into her now-totaled SUV. We were pressing charges. They weren’t going to walk from this. They would be example number one.

I also had him draw up some documents, which sat in my wife’s lap in a discreet manila envelope as we drove into town.

Have I mentioned lately how much I fucking loved my Hellcat? Best car in the world.

She still purred over the road just as perfectly as the day I got her.

Rimmel was quiet during the drive, and when I pulled into the lot and killed the engine, I turned to face her. “You can stay in the car if you want.”

She gave me a withering look and adjusted her glasses. “Maybeyoushould wait in the car.”

“Give me a kiss with that sassy mouth, woman,” I growled and leaned forward.

I was smiling when she leaned in, but her lips didn’t meet mine the way I expected. Instead, she kept her lips out of the kissing and licked across my mouth.

My eyes shot open. She licked me lightly again, lingering where my top and bottom lip met, teasing, enticing me to open.

I did. She stroked deep into my mouth, and I palmed the back of her head to deepen the kiss.

The loud sound of a slamming car door caused her to jump back and spin around. “It’s just someone over there,” I said quietly, still feeling the slickness from our kiss on my lips. “It’s not a reporter.”

She grimaced as if her reaction embarrassed her.

“Let’s do this,” I said. What we were here for would empower her, and I was all about that shit.

She nodded once and climbed out of the Hellcat.

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