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He gave a snide laugh. “Those jokers have been recalled.”
Her head whipped around and this time her eyes narrowed. “What? You can’t make them leave me. Only my father has that power.”
Dozer grinned and Janel’s stomach dropped.
“You talked to my father?”
His satisfied smirk was enough of an answer. She wanted to punch him in the gut when he announced, “I did and he agrees that you need to be under the club’s protection. So until further notice, you will walk your incredible ass inside and do as you’re told.”
Her back straightened. She never did well being dictated to and didn’t see this time as being any different. Her brow rose, her arms crossed, and she firmly planted her back against the leather seat. She wasn’t leaving the truck.
He snickered, unconcerned with her display of temper. “Okay, sweetheart, if that’s the way you want it.”
He was out of the truck, opening her door, and hefting her onto his shoulder before she even knew what was happening. “Put me down,” she cried out pounding on his back with her balled-up fists, which had no effect whatsoever.
“No can do, princess.”
All she saw from her topsy-turvy position was the pavement of the parking lot and then the concrete floor inside the building. He swatted her bottom and she yelped, but he left his hand resting where he’d hit her. The warmth from his palm sent a searing heat right to her core.
When he started up steps, she yelped again and grabbed ahold of the waistband of his jeans to keep from falling. At the top of the stairs, he continued to walk down a darkened hallway and Janel hoped he stopped soon before she embarrassed herself by throwing up. Whether the spinning feeling was from being held upside down or from literally having her body in close contact with Dozer, she couldn’t honestly say.
Finally, he set her down on her feet, holding her arms until she was steady. Once she had her wits about her, she tugged her t-shirt down that had come untucked and ridden up, and flicked her ponytail over her shoulder. She noticed they were still in the hallway, in front of a door. In her most regal tone, she commanded, “I demand that you take me home.”
“I’m not going to fight with you, princess. You’re going to have to trust that I know what I’m talking about. We both know that you are too sheltered and naïve to know what’s best for you.”
Janel screamed in frustration. “I’m so tired of people thinking I’m not capable of taking care of myself! I’m a grown woman and I may have led a sheltered life, but that doesn’t make me stupid. I’m a good judge of character or I’d never be here with you, and I know that Luc wouldn’t hurt me.” She jerked the door behind her open and slammed it behind her. She had to get away from him and all the people that thought she had to be handled with kid gloves.
The room she entered had a massive bed with a black cover and pillows. Was this his bachelor pad? Did he bring women here to have his wicked way with them? The thought both excited and repulsed her.
“Fuck,” she heard Dozer mutter just before the door opened and he was in front of her face. She wished she didn’t find him so handsome. She inhaled and added on she wished he didn’t smell really, really good.
She took a step back to put some distance between her and all his hotness and turned towards a window, giving him her back. “Whose room is this?”
“It’s mine.”
That’s what she was afraid of. “But you have a home. Why do you have a room here?”
“I lived here for years before I bought my house. Out of respect for my position in the club, Prez keeps this as my room whenever I need it.”
She turned back around and before she could stop herself, she asked, “Like when you want to have sex? I’m not stupid. I know exactly what that bed is for and I’ll tell you right now, I’m not sleeping here. It probably has a disease.”
“I do fuck women here, but I’ve not ‘entertained’ in this room in months. I promise the sheets are clean and disease-free. You’ll be as safe here as you are in your ivory tower. Take off those fucking rose-colored glasses you see the world through and see the ugliness that those not privileged see every damn day.”
The whole time he was talking, he’d been advancing until he had her back pressed against the door, his arm wrapped around her waist, and his palm resting against her stomach. It was hard to breathe having his warm hard body against hers from her chest down to her thighs.
Even though he was at least a foot taller than she was, they fit perfectly.
He leaned in until his cheek rested against the side of her head, his lips at her ear. When he spoke, his breath dusted across her skin and she shivered. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I never should have said that.”
The regret in his voice made those shivers multiply in her stomach.
She pushed those feelings down because he may regret he said it, but he didn’t say he was wrong. “But you meant it,” she softly whispered.
He pulled her tighter against him. “What I think is you are a force to be reckoned with—in your world. In mine, you don’t have the capabilities to survive. I don’t say that to demean you or make you feel less than the gentle woman you are. The more time I spend with you, getting to know you, I see your strength is in the quietness that is you.”
She blinked, trying to make the tears welling in her eyes disappear. He wasn’t the only one that underestimated her, but he was the first one that saw her strength. She wasn’t strong like her sister, Shayla, who flew military planes and, along with her husband, ran a secret security service to their country. She wasn’t next in line to rule after her brother Kaden, who’d always known his position in the family and excelled in everything he did. Her brother Creston was set to rule alongside his wife, Lis, when her father passed the crown to her. Her brother Will had stood up and mostly rejected the royal life in favor of pursuing his love of culinary work.
Just because her life plans were destroyed when James died and she’d never clearly seen her new path in life didn’t mean she was weak.
