Page 45 of Natasha
"It's not a big deal," she said weakly. It was hard to concentrate when all she could do was think about Silas' hands hot on her ass. She wet her lips and did her best to keep her thoughts on the task at hand and not into tempting her Daddy to take her to bed again.
"What do you mean it's not a big deal?" Silas thundered at her as he turned the car onto another busy street.
It was then, Natasha realized he had bypassed her house entirely. "Where are we going?" she asked, glancing around the street.
He took a deep breath in through his nose and slowly let it out. "My place."
"Yours? Why?"
"Because there's a psychopath at yours."
Natasha jerked upright in her seat. "What?"
"My thoughts exactly," Silas rumbled with a disgruntled look on his face.
"That's why you picked me up? Because Peachtree is threatening me?"
"He what?" Silas jerked around to look at her. Thankfully, they were at a stoplight, but Natasha braced her hands on the dashboard at the sudden stop nonetheless.
"His messages," she said, avoiding Silas' eyes. "They were threatening."
"What'd he say?"
"That I'd pay."
"M'gonna kill him," Silas seethed.
"No. Please." She reached out and put a hand on his arm. The muscles beneath her hand were coiled tight, and she could practically feel the rage vibrating out of her lover. "Forget him."
"Forget him? He threatened you." Silas accelerated the car and shook his head. "I'm not letting him get away with scaring you."
Natasha tightened her hand on his arm, tugging his sleeve closer to her. "Please, it's nothing. I'm with you and I-I know you won't let anything bad happen to me. I was scared before, but not anymore." She gave him as confident a smile as she could. "See? I'm okay. Everything is okay."
"Everything isnotokay, baby." Silas shook his head. He looked at her briefly, his blue eyes nothing but storm clouds, not a hint of the summer warmth she loved in sight. "But it will be." He pulled into a side street and then drove into an underground parking garage attached to his building.
Natasha blinked at the sudden change of scenery. She'd been so wrapped up in convincing Silas that everything was okay, she hadn't noticed they'd traveled so far from Brooklyn. "What are you going to do?"
"Don't worry, Tash." As soon as the car was parked, he shot out of his seat so quickly that he was already rounding the front of it by the time Natasha had managed to get her door open. He was at her side the second her feet hit the pavement and ushered her toward a set of elevators, all the while staying just over her shoulder and scanning the parking garage.
Natasha said nothing at his strange behavior while they waited for the elevator, but as soon as they were inside, she spoke.
"What did he tell you?" she asked softly.
His jaw tightened, but he remained quiet. "Nothing, baby."
"Silas…" Natasha sighed. She crossed her arms and gave him a sidelong look. "What did he say?"
"Just more of what I suspect he told you," Silas replied, crossing his arms in a mirror of Natasha's posture. She rolled her eyes at his comment and huffed out an annoyed breath before she pulled out her phone and opened Peachtree's messages.
"Here." Natasha thrust her phone at him. She didn't want to show him the messages because she knew how they were going to snap the thin veneer of control Silas exercised over the anger she could plainly see in his eyes. It wasn't that she didn't think he couldn't handle Peachtree. It was that she was terrified of Silas getting in trouble and being taken away from her. The thought of a future where they were separated by bars was unbearable to her. Not when she'd finally found someone to cherish and fight for her.
An angry snarl escaped Silas' mouth when he read the messages from Peachtree. His finger squeezed her phone so tightly that, for a moment, Natasha wondered if he'd shatter the screen. "No one talks to you like this."
"They're just text messages," Natasha sighed, holding her hands out to Silas in a placating gesture. "Daddy, please. Let this go."
The elevator dinged, and Silas took her hand in his free hand while he glared at her cell phone screen like it was Peachtree, himself. Silas remained silent during the short walk to his apartment, but once they were inside, he took in a deep breath and turned to face her with a somber expression on his face.
"This," he held up her cell phone, "isn'tnothing. This is fear."
