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“Let’s not talk about that right now,” he blurted.
Awkward silence filled the air as he continued the massage, and she continued to let him.
“Then… what are we going to do for the rest of the night? Be awkward and uncomfortable?”
Wanting to get back to the connection they had been enjoying before his emotions rolled him, Trick leaned down and licked up her neck to her ear. “I was in the middle of my meal. I’d like to finish eating. Or would that be tooawkward and uncomfortablefor you?”
Stella turned her head and looked into his eyes. “Want a dinner partner? I’m feeling pretty hungry myself.”
Without saying a word, Trick laid flat on his back on the bed, gripped her hips, lifted her, and positioned her where her pussy was right over his face. His mate didn’t need any instruction. She lowered her core to his face as she fisted his erection in her hand.
Then they ate.
Chapter Eleven
A month later… Trick
Trick’splanwastospend the day surveilling the entrance to the academy, but he ended up driving back to the cabin several times to check to make sure his mate hadn’t taken off while he was gone. It was the first time he had left the place for more than a half hour without cuffing her to something.
When they woke up the morning after their first sexual night together, they spent the day awkwardly cordial and calm. The next day, they were silent. The day after that, they returned to normal, snapping at each other and questioning each other’s motives. That was the same day he started cuffing her again. He did it out of spite, but he couldn’t say it didn’t make him feel better. It was like they were taking two steps forward and three steps back.
For the next three weeks, she was cuffed unless he was at the cabin. Hell, she was cuffed unless he wasinthe cabin. He didn’t trust her not to try something stupid. Every time he thought she was vulnerable with him, she proved she was just using it as a tool to get what she wanted. It got to the point that he was questioning what her motives had been the night they fucked. Had that just been her way of getting him to let her go without the cuffs at night? If that’s what her goal was, it had worked for a few nights.
Two days ago, she had asked if she could cook dinner, explaining that she had a craving for her faux grandmother’s chicken chili. He asked what she meant by faux grandmother, but she just handed him a list of ingredients and replied, “You haven’t earned that knowledge yet.” Then she sat down at the kitchen table and held her arm out next to the leg.
Something about the way she did that with such acceptance made Trick overcome with sadness at the situation they found themselves in. They had fucked a handful of times in the last month, yet he didn’t trust her with a bit of freedom, and she didn’t trust him with the knowledge of someone she held dear. How backwards could they get?
He decided in that moment that he would try to give her some trust, whether she earned it or not. They had to start somewhere. He also made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t do shit out of spite. He wouldn’t say shit just to hurt her, and he wouldn’t use the power he had over her against her. He was better than that.
Trick was not making a promise to just let her roam free all the time. He still had to protect himself and his family. With her being so close to the academy, and not yet sure of her allegiance, he needed to be smart and pay attention. But how was he supposed to become sure of where she stood if he didn’t give her the opportunity to show him?
That day, after staring at her outstretched arm for several moments, he turned on his heel and left the cabin. As he had driven away, he just prayed he wouldn’t have to track her down when he returned.
After running to the grocery store, he returned to the cabin and found her still sitting on that kitchen chair.
He hadn’t cuffed her again, except for at night when he was his most vulnerable. He also hadn’t left the cabin again until that morning when he decided he needed to start doing some surveillance. Trick only hoped he had made the right call.
The day’s mission hadn’t been cleared by Axle, but he was there to do a job. They needed as much information as possible if they were going to organize a takedown. Just like with his relationship with Stella, they had to start somewhere.
When he returned to the cabin at the end of the day and found her asleep on the bed with an open book in front of her, Trick let out a sigh of relief. As much as her stubbornness annoyed him and as much as he doubted her trustworthiness, he would be lying if he denied that he had grown to love her spirit and her strength. Hell, he even admired her in a lot of ways.
After kicking off his boots and slipping out of his jeans, Trick carefully climbed into bed behind her. As gently as he was able to, he cuddled up to her back and wrapped his arm around her waist. When she only settled back against his chest, Trick smiled and closed his eyes, allowing himself to drift off to sleep.
Trick’s dream was about sitting in the main room of the clubhouse, at a table with Rock, Brute, and Diamond, with Stella sitting on his lap. They had been talking, laughing, and drinking. Not a care in the world. It had been easy, light, just the way it was supposed to be.
Then he felt a weight on his chest, and he opened his eyes. That was when the coolness of the metal blade pressed to his throat caught his attention. Staying as still as possible, despite his racing heart, he stared up at his mate. She was straddling his chest and looked pissed the hell off.
“You had my stuff,” she said through gritted teeth.
He didn’t say anything. She obviously knew he did. Trick had no doubt that her stiletto knife was the one pressed to his throat.
“I have spent the last six weeks wondering how I was going to get new identification and shit, and you had my wallet the entirefuckingtime? How?”
“If you want my answer, move the blade,” he said carefully, and watched her as she thought through his words.
A few moments later, she put some space between his throat and the knife, but not enough for him to relax. “Now, explain.”
Trick cleared his throat. “The guys went through every address we found in their records and their vehicle after Doc…”Fuck. She hadn’t known who had done the deed. If she still held some allegiance to the academy, she could give them the intel on who exactly took out their soldiers. Once again, he was swamped with guilt.
