Page 52 of Ruthless Redemption

He laughed. “Figured we’d get back around to that. Damn straight. No one else wants you safer, I guarantee you that. So I took, no insisted, on this assignment. No one else is getting the job.”

“How did you even know I was looking for protection? I haven’t seen or heard from you since the hospital.”

“Izzy. You think I haven’t kept tabs on you this whole time? Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously.” I was starting to remember I was still kind of annoyed at him. I knew it wasn’t exactly fair, but I remembered how much it hurt when he left even if I was the one to push him out the door. I was pretty sure no one ever said love would be fair. “You left. I didn’t hear anything more.”

He shook his head. “You have no idea how much you thinking like that makes me want to turn you over my knee and spank that fine ass ‘till it burns. I had eyes on you the whole time. I don’t take chances like that on what’s mine. And make no mistake, you’ve been mine since that first night on the pier.”

My mouth dropped open as my body went from alert to full on five-alarm fire. That low ache in my belly had rushed between my legs. I was also pretty sure I was about two seconds away from tackling him to the ground so I could ride him like a maniac.

“Although you were right to send me away.”

The reminder of our last encounter pulled me back from my runaway thoughts. It had been right, but every night I spent alone I would have disagreed.

“I needed to get my head on straight and make sure I could extricate myself from the club before I made any promises I couldn’t keep.”

“You really don’t want to be a part of it?”

“I didn’t exactly say that. But being with you and giving you what you need is always going to be more important. You said you didn’t want to go back to Seattle and I got that. So we’re here. Together. If and when JD gets back in touch, I’m willing to work with him on a temporary basis as long as it works for us. Understand?”

“Maybe?” I didn’t really. JD had been very intense and he and Axel had made it very clear that club came before everything.

He laughed, his hands now rubbing along my sides to the curve of my hips and curling around to my backside. The trail of heat he left behind made me almost swallow my tongue it felt so good.

“I’m in the security business now. The Hawkins Group is a nationwide operation, soon to be international. When the time comes we’re ready, I will be traveling.”

“So this is only temporary.” I could feel my walls shifting back into place around my heart. I should have known that it all sounded too good to be true. However, there was one thing I knew for sure.

I couldn’t take him leaving again. I just couldn’t.

That was my truth.

And it had been since the beginning.

Chapter Twenty-One

Houston

He did his best to hold onto his calm. His need to cement their relationship couldn’t supersede Izzy’s needs. He clearly wasn’t a take it slow and see how it goes kind of guy. Not when it came to her. But he didn’t have to be an asshole about it either.

“No, babe. Definitely not temporary. I made my mind up about you a long time ago. I just had to take some time and work it out for the both of us. Now I’m here. All in.

“In addition to that, I take my job as the head of your security very seriously. I’ll be handpicking the entire team.”

After several long heartbeats while she stared at him like she didn’t know him, a slow smile finally crept across her face.

“You’re still serious about that?” She laughed. “I mean I know what you said, but I still figured that was a ruse to get access to my suite.”

He frowned and a wicked gleam came into his eyes. “I don’t need a ruse to get access to anything. I’ve got skills you haven’t even dreamed about yet.” He didn’t bother to hide the arrogance from his voice. She needed to know that he could do and/or get whatever the hell he wanted.

He’d already proven that he could and would do whatever it took to get a job done. Especially when it came to her. Like it or not, she brought out a fierce protectiveness in him that refused to be bound by rules or societal norms.

He would be the one to decide when a line got crossed, not some false sense of morality that society wanted to thrust on everyone.

“I haven’t forgotten that you haveskills. Believe me.” She smiled and despite everything she’d been through, he got the sense she had some wicked in her that wanted to come out and play.

That made his cock twitch. Although to be honest, he’d gone hard the second he saw her in that outfit. Something he was more than ready to explore.

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