Page 20 of Trick's Elite

His gaze moved to her again. “Because you’re my mate. It’s my job to protect you.”

Stella wasn’t able to fully process that, so she changed the subject. “How did you know how to calm me down? Is that a mate thing, too?”

He shrugged and a slow smile grew on his handsome face. “I have a lot of brothers and sisters, Stiletto. Some of them have been through some shit. Hell, you know the clubs have been through the fucking worst. But… my niece, she used to have nightmares. Her mom was… troubled. Drugs. Alcohol. And Rock did his best, but he had so much on his shoulders. His kids were young, but they knew he was overwhelmed with it all. So, my little bug came to me to tell me she had scary dreams. I bought her a cell phone and told her she could call me anytime, day or night, if she ever needed someone to talk to or whatever.” He scratched at his facial hair and sighed. “As her mom got worse, so did the nightmares. The calls started coming almost nightly. Then they started coming during the day, too, when she was sad. One time, she called and could barely breathe because she was hysterical. I couldn’t understand what she was trying to tell me, and I was worried she would pass out. I just… I told her to breathe with me, just like I did with you, and it worked. After that, she would call me and ask me to breathe with her. Now, her new sister does it, too, even when they aren’t having anxiety. They just call when they need to be reassured.”

“So, Uncle Matthew breathes with them,” she mumbled as she continued to watch him. His love for his nieces was all over his face.

“They call me Uncle T, but yeah, I breathe with them. If that’s the only good I ever do in my life, I can die proud.”

Stella reached out and gave his bicep a squeeze. “You’re a good uncle. You’re a good man.”

“I want to be a good man for you, too. We need to figure this out. I want to love you, take care of you, build a life with you, be your partner. I want to bring you into my family. To do all of that, we need to learn to trust each other. Can we do that? You willing to do that?”

Stella wiped the tears from her cheeks and nodded. “Yeah.”

“No more cuffs,” he told her. “When we’re not working on the mission, we need to… build something between us.”

She couldn’t stop the grin from growing on her face. He was being adorable. “You mean… date?”

When he chuckled and winked at her, it was her Matthew, not Trick. “Yeah.” He cleared his throat and unfolded his arms. Taking her hand in his, he turned to face her. “Will you go on a date with me, Stiletto?”

She winked back. “Yeah, I think I can do that.”

Stella knew better than to think things would be trouble-free from then on, but she allowed a tiny bit of hope to spring up inside of her.

Chapter Twelve

Trick

Thinkingtheirfirstdateneeded to be low-pressure, Trick decided that he would make her dinner and set up a movie on his laptop. When he ran to the store, he grabbed movie snacks and what he needed to make his mom’s homemade chicken pot pie. It was one of the meals he asked her to teach him before he moved out. It was the meal he would teach his nieces and nephews how to make so Mama Nia’s recipes would never disappear. It had been years since he made it, so he was excited.

He was optimistic about the situation between him and Stiletto, but he was also still a bit wary. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake by just giving her his trust, but Trick didn’t know how else to get them on a different path. They had been in a loop of him not trusting her because she wouldn’t trust him, and vice versa. He needed to break the cycle.

When he returned to the cabin and found her waiting on the porch for him, he breathed a sigh of relief and so did his bear. She hadn’t run on him, even though she had her wallet, including her bank card and identification. That was a start.

He gathered the bags from the van and started up the stairs. “Grab the door for me?”

Stiletto got up from the top step, and Trick couldn’t help but admire the way her cargo pants hugged her hips and her ass. Fuck, she was hot. He forced his eyes away from her body as she opened the door and moved out of his way.

“Thanks.” He stepped inside the cabin and headed for the kitchen. “Hope you like chicken pot pies.”

“Can honestly say I’ve never had them.”

As he started unpacking the bags, she leaned against the end of the table. Trick shot her a look of disbelief. “That’s… just… wrong.”

She laughed. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re righting that, I guess.”

Knowing that, Trick felt the pressure to make the best damn pot pies he could. He had to make his Mama proud.

After sliding the pies in the oven, Trick knocked on the bathroom door and waited.

“Yeah?” Stella called out from the other side.

“Just making sure you’re good. Need anything?”

He heard her chuckle. “Some privacy to get ready for our date?”

Trick smirked. “Fair. I’m going to step outside and make a few calls. Dinner will be done in twenty-five, thirty minutes.”

---