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“I will. With you and Leo.”
She glared up at me and I glared right back.
“You’re not a nice guy.”
“Never claimed to be, sweetness,” I said, allowing another grin to pull at my lips as I deliberately used her less preferred nickname. Damn, I really was smiling a lot around this girl.
“What I am is a man,” I continued when she didn’t budge. “An MC president, a business owner, and a father. I will keep you and Leo safe, but I need you to work with me. At least until we can verify that there isn’t anything suss going on, or a danger ready to pounce on you.” My gaze remained fixed on hers as if I could make her do what I wanted with that alone. “I’m trying to be nice.”
She gasped. “Is that a threat?”
I sighed, all sorts of frustrated, and stood up. “No, Ellie, it’s a promise. I want you and Leo closer to me so I can keep you safe. The minute we start looking into Stacy, all kinds of shit might get dug up that doesn’t want to see the light of day. You might not be safe. Neither of you. And I just got Leo—there’s no fucking way I’m going to risk losing him now.”
Fear darkened her green eyes and she let out a shaky breath.
“Any porch surprises this morning?”
She shook her head.
“I’m not trying to scare you, pixie… sweetness but you should be scared. If it’s nothing, we’ll have you back in this little place in no time. But we don’t know shit yet about what happened to Stacy and what’s going on with those notes.”
“I have to go through the boxes,” she tried again.
I nodded. “We’ll take the boxes with us.” It was an easy solution to a non-existent problem. “We can still go through them together.”
“Fine.” Ellie tossed her arms up in resignation. “I need a few hours to pack everything up and I need to rent a van or…something.”
“I’ll take care of that,” I assured her, and sent Rocky a text to have a couple prospects show up ready to help move a lot of shit. “Just let me know what you need me to do to make this easier for you, Ellie. We have to be a team right now.”
Our gazes locked for a long time while Ellie decided if she was going to keep fighting me or just give in and do what was right. To make the smart choice. “And if I don’t?”
I smiled in the face of her defiance. “If you don’t, I’ll just have to try harder to make you see things from my perspective.”
Chapter Eight
Ellie
I gave in. One look at those beautiful blue eyes, daring me, coaxing me, promising me all kinds of things and I folded like a cheap suit. I felt like one of those silly women who became putty in the hands of a good-looking man because, well, because that’s exactly what the fuck happened.
But it was more than that. It was more than the teasing blue eyes and the way his mouth curved up into a smile at the corners. It was the fact that Diesel seemed worried, and that worried me. I’d been scared witless when those letters and gifts kept arriving, the present for Leo was the final straw. It was one thing to play fast and loose with my own life, but that little boy was my world, and I would die before I let anything happen to him. Could it really be true that whatever trouble Stacy had found herself was coming back on me? On Leo? And why now?
No. I couldn’t think about that, or rather, I thought too fucking much about it, which was why I’d agreed. Keeping Leo safe had to be my main priority, and one look at Diesel with Leo and I knew he would scorch the earth to keep that boy safe. Which was how I found myself standing in the middle of a beautiful four-bedroom home with a spacious and well-lit family room.
“What does a single man need with so much space?” It wasn’t the question I meant to ask but it was what came out of my mouth.
Diesel flashed a smile that showed off two rows of gorgeous white teeth and laughed. “I’m a big man, Ellie.” The heat in his gaze was unmistakable.
That was an easy answer, but as I looked around at the nice furniture and electronics, the place was clean and tidy, and my heart sank. This was the life that Leo could have if I let him. There was no doubt Diesel wanted to give him the best of everything, but the thought of letting him go made the backs of my eyes sting fiercely.
I felt the heat of Diesel’s body behind me. “I don’t want to lose Leo,” I whispered in a rare display of vulnerability I hoped he wouldn’t turn around and use against me. I braced myself for his response, which I expected to be some tough guy bullshit about him having a right to his son.
What I hadn’t expected was two big, tattooed arms to wrap around me and pull me right up against his chest. The feel of his heartbeat, steady and strong, calmed me in ways I hadn’t felt in years. In mere seconds my heart fell into step with his and the worry didn’t disappear, but it settled.
“Ah, little pixie,” he groaned, and dropped a kiss on top of my head. It was an unusually intimate move, but I couldn’t find it in myself to complain. “I’m not trying to take Leo from you, I swear. But he is my son too and I think there’s enough room for both of us. Don’t you?”
Dammit. Why, oh why did he have to be so reasonable? I took a step back, needing some semblance of control over a life I suddenly didn’t recognize. Diesel was a man who took control, not in a toxic alpha bullshit kind of way, but naturally. I looked up into his eyes and immediately realized my mistake. A surge of desire curled around my body, and I sucked in a breath at the same time his nostrils flared.
I didn’t know who moved first, but in the next heartbeat our mouths were fused together like two people who just couldn’t get enough of each other. His hands gripped my hips and pulled me close, his erection pressing into my belly as a testament to his virility, to his desire for me.
