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“Come on,” Karen said, clutching my wrist in her hand. “Let’s get inside and get a table before Cassius gets here and sees Coran standing there like this.”
Needless to say, Cassius wasn’t handling the whole situation well. Neither was my father or brother.
The other men of Cassius’s motorcycle club weren’t fairing much better.
Just yesterday, Etienne had all but gone off on Coran when he’d found him lurking across the street from his office where I was working.
Days before that, KD, the professional bodyguard, had all but threatened to beat the absolute shit out of Coran because he kept creeping in and out of the shops that I was going to. Each one that I’d go to, he’d sneak in a different entrance, or back door. And he’d just be there. Which KD seriously didn’t like.
Needless to say, Karen was right. Everyone was on edge, but Cassius was more than most.
Speaking of Cassius, I’d all but moved in with him.
Whatever cliffhanger we’d been hanging on, dancing around our relationship with each other, was now gone.
We were both well and truly committed to each other.
At least, I thought we were.
“Karen,” I said to my new friend. “Do you think that Cassius and I are in a committed relationship now?”
Karen tripped on her way out the door.
We’d just ordered some food from a local taco boat—it was really a boat that floated and everything at The Marina—and were walking down the short walkway that helped you reach the vessel.
“I’m sorry, what?” Karen asked, looking at me with wide eyes.
I gestured toward a table that was with our backs to the bay and in a corner that made it to where Coran couldn’t go behind us and creep—unless he wanted to swim with the fishes, that was.
She sat down heavily, her eyes taking in the area for so long that I wasn’t sure she was going to answer.
Then she said, “Watch.”
I frowned, looked up, and spotted Cassius.
His eyes were intense and watchful, taking in the entirety of his surroundings.
I knew the moment he clocked Coran.
His body went stiff. His hands fisted. His face transformed into rage.
Then he looked away, saw me, and it was as if his world just… stopped.
The fisted hands remained, but his eyes were now a soft, warm, melty color that made me want to drown in them. His jaw was no longer stiffened, and his body language was completely transformed.
He was still pissed that Coran was there, yes. But he was no longer to the point of rage killing.
“That man is the type of man that loves hard. I think, with his past, that he tried his damnedest not to care about you. Not to love you. When you ask if you’re in a relationship with him… I wouldn’t even consider that what y’all have,” she said.
My heart leaped in my chest. “What?”
Did I hear her correctly? I’d almost said it as an ‘I’m in this so deep’ kind of thing. But I hadn’t expected her to say he wasn’t right there along with me.
“Don’t,” she said, reading my freakout correctly. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Then what are you saying?” I asked, still freaking out.
“I’m saying that whatever he feels for you.” She turned to watch Cassius and watched him work his way toward us. But this was The Marina. There was no way he could get over here without saying hi to at least twenty people. “It’s the type that you can feel in your soul. The type that he would know if anything happened to you because there would be something missing right here,” she pressed her hand to her chest, right above her heart. “He tried really hard not to want you. Not to love you. But it was useless for him to try. When two souls are meant to be together like you and him are… that’s not something you can stop.”
I felt the sweetness of her words in my soul.
“He loves you. He may not have said the words yet, but he feels them. He wants you more than he’s ever wanted anyone in his life, and let’s be honest. He likely wasn’t a saint before he met you. But the difference between you and everyone else? You, he couldn’t have pushed away if he tried. One, because you wouldn’t have let him, and two, because you can’t live without your soul.”
I felt tears gather in my eyes.
I wasn’t sure if Cassius was able to see them from where he was standing, but he didn’t waste any more time talking to anyone else as he came up to our table.
He didn’t stop a respectable distance away. He was Cassius. Him and respectable were rarely put in the same sentence together.
Additionally, I hadn’t seen him for most of the day. He’d gotten up early for work, way before I’d even opened my eyes. By the time that he was done, I was at work with Etienne, who’d picked me up in his work truck and kept me there all day.
