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“How’s she doing?” I ask when I go inside Toi’s room. I left instructions for String to stay with her. It doesn’t make me happy that I find Ghost with his ass parked beside her bed. For that reason, there’s a bite to my voice. He and I are definitely going to have words before this is over.
“She’s resting. Ride had Kasha give her something to help her rest.”
“Toi and Kasha don’t exactly get along.”
“Yeah, that might be understating it. But Kasha respects her. She told Ride she was out of line earlier, though she didn’t bother to elaborate.”
“Interesting,” I murmur, even though I don’t give a damn. I’m looking at Toi. She’s lying in the bed with her hair fanned out over the pillow case, and she just looks so freaking young.
Too innocent for me.
And now…she has blood on her hands because of me. Her own father. I don’t know what to do with that, or how to process it. I do know that if I go back to my unwritten rule, the one I uphold to all others, I have to admit that Toi is strong. She’s more than strong enough to survive in my club. Fuck, I could see her thriving in it.
Here.
As my old lady.
“You hear me, Marcum?” Ghost asks, bringing my attention back to him.
“What?”
“I said Cherry being here is going to mean trouble, especially for Toi.”
“It won’t,” I argue, but hell—he may be right.
“It will. Women get strange when there’s competition and that’s exactly how Cherry will view Toi. If she’s back, it’s because she wants to be where she was before. The very spot you’re looking to slide Toi into as a replacement.”
“Listen motherfucker, Toi isn’t a replacement for anyone. What does or doesn’t happen in my personal life isn’t your business. So do us both a favor, and get over it before it causes some permanent damage between the two of us.”
“I’m letting it drop.”
“Good. Then if you don’t mind, I’ve had a fucked up day and I want to be alone with Toi. We have things to talk about.”
“I’ll leave,” he says unnecessarily, since his ass is getting up and walking to the door. “But I’ll leave with a straight-up warning, Marcum. You hurt Toi, or she decides you ain’t worth the trouble, I’m moving in and I’ll do it in such a way she will know she comes first with me.”
With that, he leaves. I let out a deep sigh. There’s going to be trouble, I can feel it in my fucking bones.34ToiI come awake slowly, as if I’m digging myself out of a thick fog. I half expect to see Ghost, but the room is completely dark, indicating I’ve been asleep for a while. I stretch, but I’m sore and stiff everywhere and I can’t stop the whimper that comes out.
“You okay, Dragonfly?”
I freeze, every muscle in my body locking tight. Marcum is in bed with me, lying on my left side. We’re not touching… unless you count the fact that my head is using his arm as a pillow. I start to sit up, but Marcum stops me by pulling me deeper into his body and turning on his side. He shifts so he can rise, resting his upper body on his elbow and looking down at me.
He reaches across me and turns on the lamp and I mourn the darkness for a minute. There I could hide, but with the pale light now I can see his face. I can see his beard mere centimeters from my face and I see his dark eyes full of concern… for me.
“You’re here.”
He smiles as if I surprised him. He brushes his fingers across my cheek gently, but that small touch manages to reignite my body. A body that seems to come alive when Marcum is near.
“Where else would I be?” he asks with a soft laugh.
There are a lot of answers to that and some might make me appear a jealous fool. These new feelings for Marcum are confusing. So, instead, I try to concentrate on the here and now.
“Why are you here?”
“I explained that earlier today,” he says, and if anything his grin widens. It’s the kind of grin I’ve seen him get around his kids. The kind that makes the laugh lines around his mouth and eyes deepen. The kind that makes his dark eyes warm and look like liquid.
“Maybe you could explain it again.”
If I could freeze a moment in time, it might be this one. I have the attention of a sexy, virile male. I have all of his attention at the moment, and I’m talking. Not loudly, but then with our lips this close, it’s not necessary. I almost feel… normal.
“Remember what I told you when I said I couldn’t kiss you, Toi?”
I think back. I wish I could say I remembered it all, but at the time I was mostly mourning the fact he wouldn’t kiss me. I suck my lips in, nibbling on them as I think over that non-kiss-semi-kiss we shared.
