She blushed. She still blushed after all this time. It drove me crazy. “I…I need to make a call. Then I’ll buy some clothes. Where do I meet you?”
“I’m not leaving your side.Prezwill kill me if he knows I left hisol’ ladyunprotected even for one second,” I snorted.
“But…”
“You can make your call in private. Unlike him, I trust you, Jo.”
She raised a brow at me. “Thanks to you. He doesn’t trust me because of you.”
“Me? What have I done?”
“Mark Chadwick. Seriously, Tirone? You’re throwing your friend of all people under a bus? That was low, even for you.”
“Don’t worry about Mark. Nothing is gonna happen to him.”
“Oh yeah? Furore wants to fucking kill him.”
“But he won’t because Mark came out last month. Two minutes in town, and Furore will know he’s not the guy he should be jealous of. I just wanted to buy us some time until I knock some sense into you. Then you’ll know I’m the only man for you. You leave his sorry ass, and we have our happily ever after. Problem solved.”
“You’re crazy.”
I smiled. “Crazy for you.”
Shaking her head, she rolled her eyes with a sigh, her fingers busy dialing a number discreetly so I wouldn’t see it. Who was it she was calling in secret?
Jo valued her privacy for obvious reasons. Respecting it while Furore didn’t could win me some points. I needed all I could get. I did trust her. Jo wasn’t a player. But I was utterly curious. It had to be someone from her past. A connection to her old, dangerous life. She’d never told me the story about the man who saved her the night they murdered her mother. They must have stayed in touch. It had to be him she called on a burner phone.
I watched her from a distance as she held a hand over the mic while she paced behind one of the mall emergency exit doors. A few minutes later, she came back, her fingers still busy with the buttons.
I scrutinized her white and red face. “Making another call?”
“No. I’m erasing the number and the call log. Here.” She handed the phone to me.
“What?”
“Do me a favor and keep it with you. I don’t think your father gave you permission to buy it for me. I don’t want to fight with him over it when we go back home.”
“Are you for real?” That was so unlike her. She drove into a gate to defy him for fuck’s sake.
“I’m just tired of constant fighting. I want one night of peace. Just hold on to this for me. I’ll take it later.” She pointed at a clothing store for men and women. “I’ll grab a few outfits. You should do the same. Meet you at the cashier?”
I took the phone, nodding once, and put my hand on the small of her back, ushering her inside the store. While she shopped, I pretended to give her some distance, looking for clothes for me, but I was keeping my eye on her the whole time. She was in serious danger after all, even during the two-week grace period. But that wasn’t the only reason I was watching her. I’d missed her details. The way she behaved when she thought no one was looking. How she took her time to pick her clothes. How her beautiful lips curved up when she finally found the perfect pants that contained her curves in a flattering way.
She was done with day-to-day and school outfits. Then she was eying rock t-shirts, torn jeans and leather jackets.My little faerie wants to be a biker’s chick.
Did she really dig this lifestyle or was she just desperate to fit in somewhere, anywhere?
She grabbed a few items to try on, and then she headed to the underwear section. Oh. The man in me did a happy dance. Imagining Jo in underwear she picked was making my day. Knowing she wasn’t choosing it formypleasure but for my fucking father’s, made the demonic animal in me breathe out flames. My cock jerked territorially.
When she turned toward the fitting rooms, she found me sitting in the waiting area, arms spread across the velvet back of the sofa, legs wide, hard-on unmistaken.
She blinked as if she hadn’t noticed it, but the redness of her cheeks gave her away. “Are you done shopping already?”
I pressed my tongue against my cheek as I eyed the red lace bra and matching panties on one of the hangers in her hand. Again, she noticed what was now a universal gesture ofI want to fuck youbut pretended not to. “You should be done, too.” Red was straight fire on her creamy white skin. I’d kill just so that no one but me would ever see her in red underwear. Literally.
Her sigh protested as she spun and entered the fitting room.Wrong move, Jo. Wrong move, my little faerie.
I counted until sixty. One minute was enough time for her to have changed or at least stripped naked. Getting up, I looked around for store assistants. There weren’t any close by, so I snuck in and closed the curtain.
