Hope for a future which leaves me room to grow in a way that has nothing to do with fame.
Hope to find peace.
As I float down from my orgasmic high, my mind is blank and my heart is full.
Leave it all behind.
It’s not the first time I’ve yearned to make the thought into reality, but it is the first time I think I might have found where I belong.
CHAPTER 10
ACE
I’m nervous as we ride the elevator in Elysium up to the clubhouse floor. I’ve never been nervous in this elevator before, not like this. I’m not entirely sure what to do with these feelings. But it’s all because of the woman next to me.
I glance over to find Quincy gnawing on her bottom lip. I reach over and tug it free of her teeth with my thumb and her brown eyes snap up to meet my gaze.
“You’ll be fine, Hollywood,” I reassure her.
“This is your family,” she says it like the words have weight.
To her, I know they do. I can see it in the way she’s looking at me with worry in her eyes. Even though I don’t like anything disrupting her peace, even me, I like her anxiety. Because it’s for me.
Because she cares about me. Even if she isn’t ready to admit it to herself.
“They’re good people who will give you a fair shake. No matter what. That’s who they are. Just give them a chance to show you,” there’s a plea in my voice I don’t try to hide.
“I just hope they like me and don’t think I’m going to walk in and be some sort of diva. I’ve gotten that a lot and it’s not like I can’t understand why people would think it.” Her voice drops slightly, “They matter to you and you matter to them. That’s why I’m worried.”
“I know and it’s adorable,” I tease her.
Her brown eyes flare and she rolls her eyes with a huff. “I’m not adorable. That’s a word for kittens.”
I reach down and adjust my cock before I have a permanent indentation of my zipper on my fucking shaft. The way she smirks at me has me hooking an arm around her waist and hauling her against my chest.
She lets out a little gasp that is sexy as fuck.
Just as I close the distance between us, my lips hovering over hers, the elevator doors open and I let out a growl filled with annoyance. My woman smiles up at me, and it has my heart pounding in my chest.
“Saved by the bell,” she teases. With a grunt I haul her out of the elevator. She smacks my shoulder and hisses, “Let me walk.”
“It’s so much more fun when I carry you.”
She huffs and rolls her eyes, not even realizing that I’m leading her into the main room of the club. The brothers in the room freeze.
“Way to be cool, brothers,” I grunt.
“Hi,” Rian, Cowboy’s ten-year-old daughter, chirps brightly, the whiskey-colored eyes she inherited from her dad are locked on my woman as she approaches us. “I’ve seen you in movies and you’re very talented and so beautiful.”
Quincy fucking melts. And I’m not surprised. Rian is a little girl that is full of light. She’s sassy and doesn’t have a problem speaking her mind but is always kind. She learned to grab hold of the good and never let go.
I hate that it was a lesson she needed to learn, and that it was her biological mother who taught it to her, but she’s a strong fucking kid. And she has the support to face all those hard-earned lessons.
I’m proud to be in her life.
“Hi,” Quincy breathes out. “I love it when girls watch my movies. Have you watched one and felt it right here?” She points to her heart.
“Yes,” Rian breathes out.
