Page 17 of Stripping Keys
“Then talk away,” I say, letting my voice drip with sarcasm.
I throw myself onto his bed. Might as well get comfortable. Who knows what the hell he’s going to talk about.
Keys gets up and closes the distance between us, though he doesn’t get on the bed.
“You left without so much as a word to your family,” he starts. I open my mouth to say something, but he holds up a hand, stopping me from speaking further as he continues. “You stay quiet and listen.”
Did he seriously just say that?
“Like I said, you left without a word to them. They’ve been worried about you. Marley was freaking out because none of them could find you, and neither could she. There was no contact whatsoever,” he bites out those last few words and dips down to get in my face. “Then you show up at the clubhouse. Not for a ‘hey, how are you’ type deal, instead it’s to hand over a shit ton of intel that could have gotten your ass killed for getting.”
“I was helping.”
“You could have been killed,” he snaps. “To make matters worse,” he gets nose-to-nose with me, “you left like it wasn’t a hardship for you to give over what you did to people who you mean something to, then walk away. Doesn’t help that everyone pretty much lost their minds after you left. You’re Griz’s family, and because of that you’re family to this club.”
“I’m not his family,” I mutter.
“Yeah, you are. He’s marrying your sister. He’ll be your brother-in-law. So, you’re family to this club. Meaning, when you left, he lost his shit when we started looking at what you gave. How you acted was fucked up. I fucked up and lost it right along with him. Hell, all of us lost our minds. Not just because of the intel you dropped on us either. You just up and show up, then leave like it doesn’t affect anyone around you.”
“It’s not like any of them really care I’m around or not.” It was the truth.
“I care. Your family cares,” he grinds out. “I told you before you left that we did this, you needed to strip the bitch away because I won’t gonna put up with it.”
“And as I remember, I didn’t agree,” I point out.
“Doesn’t mean you weren’t already mine. I’m not going to put up with you being a bitch, not to me, but I get it, baby, it’s your shield.”
I suck in a breath as he reaches up to trail a finger along my scarred cheek.
“You gotta do what you think is best to protect you. Fine, do what you need, but when it’s me and you, the bitch doesn’t exist.”
“There is no me and you,” I whisper, my chest heaving with each breath I take.
Keys grins and brushes his lips against mine. “Trust me, Marla Keys, there’s a you and me. A part of me knows there shouldn’t be, but I just can’t seem to keep you out of my head.So, we’re gonna see where this thing goes between us. We can keep it between the two of us for the time being if that’s what you need.”
“If that’s the way you want to see it—to be your dirty little secret, we can play it that way for now. Is that how you want it?” Why did the thought thrill me and, at the same time, upset me in so many ways?
“You wanna put it that way, sure, you can be my dirty little secret, but I see it as me dipping into what we both know you want as well. You’re like the forbidden fruit that I can’t seem to keep myself from biting into.” He chuckles and pulls back. “If it makes you feel better to be a bitch in front of everyone else, go for it, but remember when you’re in my bed, you check her at the fuckin’ door. In this room, you’re mine, and I want the woman I know you hide, not the one you pretend to be.”
Oh boy.
I’m not sure I could do that.
Being the woman he claims I hide is far too close to the truth.
But honestly, maybe this could work. I could get him out of my system once and for all.
CHAPTER EIGHT
KEYS
What the fuck was I thinking? I’ve gone and lost my mind.
No, I didn’t lose my mind. I knew exactly what I was doing when I brought Marla back to the clubhouse and locked her in my room.
I expected her to go off on me when she woke up to find she wasn’t in the hotel but in my room. She surprised me by not flipping her shit. She’d been much calmer than I expected her to be. Simply demanded to leave.
It was probably more she was waiting for a moment to get one over on me, but I know her. She’ll go off in time, and I’ll be waiting. There’s no way she’s gonna go off on me and me not be prepared for it.
