Page 49 of Bitter Desire
But that was when I saw the details description for the deposit.
Sokolov, L.
This wasn’t a fuck up by the banks or the app. This was no shit a deposit from Lawson to my bank account. “Oh my god!” I gasped, clapping a hand over my mouth and nearly dropping the phone. Lawson had deposited the cash into my account.
Law didn’t stop walking, just kept right on going towards the elevators. “You’re not working. Not anymore,” he said.
“Law, you can’t be serious. I have rent to pay. I have bills and-”
“And that’s on my dime now. Fuck it.”
I shook my head, hands coming up to push against his chest. “You can’t pay for me.”
Fuck. My man had been serious all right. When he’d said he would pay for me I’d thought maybe my rent. Enough to cover my expenses for a week, maybe a month, but this? This was insane. This was too much. I had to give it back.
“Honey, it’s only money. I can pay for you, and I’m going to. You are not going out there to work where some psychopath can get at you. I want you where I know you’re safe. You’re not working, and that’s final.”
Not even twenty-four hours later and he’d followed through on his word to the tune of five hundred grand. Why had he given me so much?
“If anything happened to you, I’d lose it, Honey. I love you.”
Love.
That was he’d done it. Law didn’t just care about me, he loved me. He made me feel safe. He wanted me, no,neededme to be safe, he had hurt the man responsible for grabbing me. The man whose voice I could still hear, the hands I felt on my body even though I was safe in Law’s penthouse. I dropped my phone onto the couch and wrapped my arms around my knees. Lawson had taken care of it. Taken care of the man the night before, and I knew he was working on the problem that was so much bigger than the single man that had grabbed me.
I knew that was what he was doing today despite him saying he was going to work. That he had errands to take care of before he’d be home. He’d transferred the money to my account, a move I would have thought he’d do when we were together. Why had he done it when he was gone?
Was there a reason Law had done that? I wasn’t foolish or naive enough to think he’d gone to work this morning. I knew Law was on a mission when he’d left this morning. It was one of the reasons I’d tried to stall and keep him here with me. I’d almost broken and begged him not to go, but I hadn’t. I’d recovered with a request for movies and time with him when he came home.
He loved me.
He wanted me safe and happy. He’d transferred five hundred fucking grand to my bank account. I could do anything with money like that. I could do whatever I wanted for a very long time. What if he was planning on me needing to take care of myself? What if Law didn’t walk through those doors again? My chest went tight, and I glanced over at the elevator doors, willing them to open, willing the telltale ding of the elevator to sound and open. God. What if Law wasn’t coming back? What if he was walking right into a situation he didn’t know he would come back from?
Was that why he transferred the cash to me?
He was always planning. Always thinking and I knew Law wouldn’t leave me defenseless if something happened to him. Money was a resource. It was power in a place like the city, and the amount he’d given me could keep me safe.
I dropped my head onto my knees and swallowed hard. What if this was it? I’d gotten one night in his arms with our feelings out in the open. It had been like a fairytale, the magic of it made real when Law touched me, but now reality had swooped in and brought it all crashing down on my head.
“Breathe, Honey. Just breathe,” I whispered to myself, fingers flexing and tensing on my legs. I hugged my knees tighter still and sucked in breath after breath until I was able to focus. It was going to be alright. It was going to be fine. Law was fine. He was, I knew it. He had to be. I needed Law to be safe, just as much as he needed me to be safe.
“If anything happened to you, I’d lose it, Honey. I love you.”
If anything happened to him, I’d lose it. I loved him.
The elevator dinged, the metallic tune filling my ears before the doors slid open. I lifted my head in time to see Law’s familiar form in the elevator.
“Law!” I threw myself to my feet and sprinted towards him. He’d only just cleared the elevator when I reached him. I barreled right into him, arms reaching and going around him, hugging him tightly to me. “Oh my god. I missed you. I was so scared.”
“What?” Law leaned back and I felt his hands tense on me. “Why were you scared? What happened?” He moved to the side, scanning the room and then pushed me behind him. “Is someone else here?”
“What?” I blinked at him, but he wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was standing in front of me, facing the living room, the empty living room, as if he were about to take on an attacker. “No one’s here,” I told him. “Nothing happened.”
He looked over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow. “Then what happened? Why are you scared?”
“You gave me money,” I said simply.
“What?”
