Chasing her down was fun, though.
Honey didn’t put up as much of a fight as I thought she might. I anticipated claws, her swinging on me even, but she didn’t. She ran like hell though, but she wanted it just as bad as I did. Honey purses her lips and looks like she’s going to fight me but I cut her off.
“You think you’re going to fight me on that and I’ll spank your ass again. Go wash your face.Now.”
She narrows her eyes but does what I say with a stomp of her foot. She’s still wearing the wedding dress and when she sashays out of the room my eyes go to her ass. I know she’s not wearing panties. I ripped them off her. They’re still outside on the floor. Let that be enough proof for Zeus. My eyes go to the door and I wonder if anyone is out there waiting on us.
I already texted Taylor to have the car ready. I’ve played my part and so has she. I’m taking her and leaving this shit hole behind. She’s never setting foot here again. He might be her father but I know better than to trust Zeus with Honey. He’s used her to tie me to his family.
To his empire, as he calls it.
I knew what he was doing. He wants my resources at his beck and call and I am willing to pay the price for Honey. At least, until I figure out how to bring him down. If there is a loophole, I’ll find it. And now that Honey is mine, I just might have the leverage I need to do it. The door to the restroom Honey vanished into bangs open and I don’t miss the glare on her pretty face when she steps out.
“There,” she says and gestures at her face. “Happy?”
Her face is scrubbed clean of the make up she’d been wearing. She looks fresh faced and more like her than she did before. The make up gave her someplace to hide. A mask to vanish behind while the night went on, but that’s gone now. Her skin is slightly pink from the warm water she must have used and I sigh at the sight of her. She used to look like this before bed when she stayed with me.
All that’s left is my girl.
“Very,” I tell her and finish buttoning my coat. “Get your things. We’re leaving.”
She pauses, the hands she was about to put on her hips stop and she gives me a surprised look.
“Really?” she whispers.
I nod at her. “Really. Unless…you want to stay here?”
I haven’t been alone with her since the night we ended things. In all my plans for tonight, I hadn’t let myself consider the fact that Honey might be attached to Zeus now. He is her father after all. Even if she doesn’t know him, the bonds of family run deep for some. Not for me. But for those with family? The pull of home and hearth is enough for them to abandon logic.
It’s not family that has me ready to forget what’s logical. Abandon what’s reasonable.
It’s her.
Honey’s eyes go to the door before they’re back on me. “No. I-I want to go with you.”
I give her a dip of my chin. “Then we’re in agreement.”
“I guess so…” Her voice is soft and she sighs. “I don’t really have anything. It’s just stuff that he had his assistants buy me but…I should probably bring it with me.” She moves hesitantly towards the closet doors. The room is sparsely decorated. Well, if you don’t count the roses. There are dozens and dozens of bouquets in colors that range from crimson to blush pink. They sit in vases on the floor and small tables I see. They’re on the bedside table and beside the doors.
“What's with the roses?” I ask her.
“That’s what you go with?” Honey’s voice is coming from inside of the closet. I hear her rustling around in there. No doubt gathering the clothing she plans to bring. I still have all of her things she brought to my penthouse—no, not my. Ours. It’s our penthouse.
Our home.
I take a step closer to the closet, intending to help her but also curious to see what she thinks she should bring.
“I don’t know,” she confesses and comes out of the closet with several hangers. There’s garment bags hanging from the hangers and she winces as she hefts them higher in her arms and looks around the room. “They just started appearing. I thought it might be because of something my m-” she stops, swallows and then starts again, “what Rosario told him.”
She’s referring to her mother by her name. Interesting.
“What would she have told him for him to do this?” I think about the rose petals that had been scattered on the floor of the club when I first arrived. There’s something to them.
She shrugs. “They’re my favorite flower.” She bites her lip and then shrugs again as the bags slip. “That’s kind of boring, isn’t it? Who doesn’t love a rose?”
“You like what you like.”
“I’m sure she told him and he just went overboard like he does with everything. That’s just how he is.”
