Page 51 of Double the Redemption

Naomi and Asher were his. He was going to do his damnedest to make them both realize it. Even if it meant moving into the apartment with them and camping out on the couch. It worked for his brothers, so why couldn’t it work for him?

Though, he wasn’t sure their women laughed at them like Naomi was. Not quiet chuckles either. Big, booming laughs that had Asher running over.

“Mama?”

“Mama thinks Ink made a joke, buddy,” he stated, boosting him into his lap when he tried to climb up.

“Mama laugh,” Asher beamed.

Ink wanted to roll his eyes, but he managed to keep his smile in place. “Yep, your mama’s laughing. She’ll calm down when she realizes the joy of what I said.”

That only made her laugh harder. Her head fell onto the table, her shoulders shaking. Okay, that was a bit much. He was starting to feel offended, but he held it together.

Asher giggled, crawling halfway across the table to pat his mother on the head. “Mama happy.”

“She is, buddy. She’s overcome with joy and happiness.”

Another snort.

Good thing he had thick skin.

Asher sat with him for another thirty seconds before he decided he’d had enough and headed back to watch his show. Naomi finally lifted her head and wiped her eyes as her chuckles subsided.

“Finished?” he asked, brows raised.

“You keep talking and probably not,” she rasped, pushing away from the table and getting to her feet.

“And just what am I saying that’s so funny?” He slowly got to his feet as she walked into the kitchen.

“Clearly, you lost your damn mind.” She opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. Another snort slipped out when she looked at him. “Everything in your power to have me? Ink, this isn’t some romance novel where you get to act all caveman and I fall at your feet. Whatever fantasy you’ve got going on in your head, I suggest you find another woman to act it out with. It’s not happening with me. I don’t trust you, and any crush I had on you was gone the moment that club girl got in my face and told me you were hers. You might not want her, but you only want me because I’m a challenge and you have something to prove.”

“That’s what you think?” It irritated him, but the rational part of his mind understood it. What else was she supposed to think? That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to prove her wrong.

“What else is there to think?” She sipped her water, watching him. “You think I haven’t been around men like you, Ink? That I don’t know that men see what they want, and when they can’t have it, will do whatever it takes to possess it? I gave you a signal or something, in your mind, and you took it as a green light. Now that you’ve screwed up, you’re going to work harder than ever to attain what you didn’t really want in the first place. You didn’t even want me at that party, because if you had, you’d have asked me to go, and she wouldn’t have been there with full intentions of spending her evening with you.”

He wanted to snap that she was wrong, but the truth of her words hit him like a gut punch. She wasn’t exaggerating. That mountain he was climbing to earn her forgiveness just got a hell of a lot higher and steeper. Good thing he was a determined man.

“I fucked up, Naomi, and I know it. This thing I feel for you? It’s messed with my head. I’m a bachelor. I’ve always said I never wanted to be with a woman for more than a night. But I was wrong. I didn’t want to be with the rest. They weren’t a possibility of more. With you, there is.”

“You’re going to make me laugh again, Ink. Do you hear yourself? Do you hear the bullshit coming out of your mouth?”

Irritation snapped to life, but he held it back. He never expected this conversation to be easy. “Fine, explain to me what’s bullshit?”

“You’re still a bachelor, Ink. I’m a woman who hasn’t fallen at your feet and given you the attention you’re used to. If I gave you a chance and slept with you, you’d walk away and never look back. You’d have achieved what you wanted.”

“No, I⁠—”

“How do you know?” Her tone was logical, but he bristled anyway. “I’m not saying that to be mean, but you said yourself you’ve never had a serious relationship, never wanted to spend more than a night with a woman. Suddenly, you’re so sure you’re going to have that with me. Patterns are there for a reason, and maybe you’ll change your ways now that you realize it’s something you want, but you won’t do that with me. I’ll be the guinea pig to try things out with. I’m leaving in five and a half months. It’s the perfect time to practice, right? See what you think of it with Asher and me, and then you’ll frame your next relationship on what you did and didn’t like with us.”

It sounded so cold and calculated. He hated it. That wasn’t him.

“I hate to disappoint you, sweetheart, but falling for the right woman out of nowhere is a tradition around here. Royal and Savage? They got together when he mistook her for her twin sister. She impressed him, and within a couple of days, she was living with him. Fury? He saw Esme and instantly went after her. Rogue? He knew Scarlett and the twins were in trouble, so he went after them hard. Razor, Code, and Jax? All the same. Every single one of them refused to ever settle down. Until their women walked into their lives.”

“And you think you’re going to be like them?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because from the sounds of things and the little rumors I heard over the last couple of weeks, you’ll screw any girl with a pretty smile and working parts.”