Say You’ll Stay

Chapter 14 – West

Chapter Fourteen

WEST

“ W hat are you really doing in my home, Evers?” Thomas Ware's eyes follow me as I wander around his study. I get the sense that he’d like to plant his boot in my ass and send me across the street. Sad for him, but I spent a decade in the military. I’m immovable when I want to be.

I take a seat. “You have a problem, but you’re too busy doing Wall Street stuff to see it. Fortunately for you, I’m here to protect my girl and yours.”

A muscle in the back of his jaw twitches. “Are you going to tell me what it is or do I have to come around the desk and beat it out of you? I’m happy to do the latter.”

“Why’d you marry? From what I read, you seemed to have been disinterested in holy matrimony. No one saw you with any woman at all, and then suddenly your wedding announcement to a random social climber appeared in the paper. Some speculated that you got Roberta pregnant, but no baby ever showed up. You don’t love her, so that’s not why you tied the knot.”

“Are you an expert on love?” He hands me a glass of whiskey and returns to his place behind his desk.

I take a sip. The stuff is good. “I am now.”

He grits his teeth. “Do you think your past with Vasey gives you the right to question my personal decisions?”

“No. It’s my future with Vasey that gives me that right. I’m trying to be respectful here, Ware. We don’t need to fight. Not with our fists or our wallets, but I’ll spend every last dollar of yours and mine to secure a future with my woman.”

His jaw muscle ticks again, but after a few beats of silence, he gives way. “I did a background check on Roberta. My people interviewed her friends, family, even her parents. She’s greedy and vain, but she’s a devoted mother who puts her child first and presents no danger to her family.”

So he married her to provide a mother for Jasmine in the form of Roberta. “You miscalculated. Her loyalty only extends to Gideon. The only child she is protecting is hers, and she doesn’t consider Jasmine hers.”

“Spell it out.”

“Jasmine has been the recipient of several dead animals. All small—rats, mice, frogs. The latest was a bird whose neck was wrung. I followed Gideon the other night to a shady club where he was cutting a sex worker’s hair off. That’s what he paid to do. Not to have sex with her but to mutilate her appearance. I gave him a card to my friend’s boxing gym so that when he showed up, I’d have someone beat some fear into him, but Jasmine isn’t safe with him, and neither is Vasey.” I explain to him what happened to Vasey this morning and how Roberta planned to blackmail her. “Obviously, I won’t be allowing him into my school where he could terrorize other girls, and I won’t leave your home until you do something about him. You can fix this or I will.” I get to my feet. “Thanks for the whiskey. I can see you have decent taste in some things.”

I arrive at Vasey’s room to see her pacing. She stops abruptly at the sight of me and then races over to pat my face, my shoulders, my arms. “Are you all right? You didn’t fight, did you?”

I capture her hands and press a kiss to them. “No fighting, and I’m fine. Come over here and I’ll tell you all about it.”

I lead her over to the set of pretty chairs situated by the window overlooking the stone terrace and the river beyond. I drop into the chair and draw her onto my lap. “Is Jasmine sleeping?”

“Yes, it took her some time, but eventually she drifted off. I had to put a chair under her doorknob and show her how no one could get in and I promised to do the same to my room.”

We both look at Vasey’s unprotected door.

“I knew you were coming,” she says in protest.

“I should spank you.”

An evil smile spreads across her face. “I’d like that.”

“Jesus.” I close my eyes and count to ten.

“You’re hard,” she whispers and wiggles her ass against my erection.

“Yes,” I choke. I gather up the tattered ends of my control and open my eyes. “Good job at distracting me. Do you want to know the rest of the details, or should I just give up and fuck you?”

She pouts a little. “I can’t have a little fun?”

I surge to my feet. “Okay, fucking it is.”

“No. No, I’m kidding,” she squeals softly, a giggle in her throat.

I sit back down, my cock aching but my heart happy at seeing a smile on her face. It’s almost like the last ten years never passed and we’re sitting in a borrowed pickup in the middle of a copse of trees arguing about whether it would be more comfortable inside the cab or in the bed of the truck. We almost always made love inside the cab. The corrugated steel truck beds were uncomfortable as hell. “Fine, but after I’m done, you’re on your knees and sucking me off in penance.”

“How is that penance?” She licks her lips. “That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about doing.”

She’s a menace. But I can match her. I slip my hand up the bottom of her nightshirt and right past the elastic of her panties. She’s wet, like she’s been thinking of that spanking and licking and fucking for the past few hours. “This is what I’ve been thinking about doing.” My long fingers dive right inside of her in one hard thrust. She cries out and spasms.

“God, West.”

“Oh, I know, sweetness. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”