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“I don’t like being told what to do,” she said finally, breaking the silence.
“I know,” I replied evenly. “But you need to understand that I’m not just anyone. I’m not some guy you can just fuck and forget about. I’m not a one-night stand.”
“I didn’t think that’s what this was,” she retorted, her voice rising in frustration.
“Then what did you think it was, Storee?” I asked. I glanced at her quickly before focusing back on the road. “And I don’t want you working those parties anymore. I never liked it, and now that you’re mine, I definitely don’t want you there.”
Storee was quiet for a few moments before speaking again. “I don’t like feeling like I’m someone’s possession, Locke.”
“I don’t see you as a possession,” I replied. “I see you as mine. Mine to protect, mine to care for, mine to make sure you never have to work as hard as you do. The days of you workingmultiple jobs are over.” I glanced over at her, but then returned my focus to the road. “If you truly enjoy the jobs, that would be different. Do you?”
“Well… no. I don’t. But—”
“Then it’s time you start focusing on actually doing what you enjoy.”
Storee looked down at her hands, her voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t know what you’re in this for. But I know what I want. And I don’t want to be treated like some kind of object.”
“I don’t treat you like an object. I treat you like my woman.”
“I’m not your woman.”
“You are now.”
Storee’s eyes widened at my words, and I could see her mind working with the implications of what I had said.
“But being your woman doesn’t mean I have to give up my freedom or my identity,” Storee replied, her voice growing firmer. “I want to be with you, Locke, but I won’t lose myself in the process.”
“I don’t want you to lose yourself,” I said, my tone softening. “I want to help youfindyourself.”
I knew that I had to tread carefully with Storee. She was a fiercely independent woman, and the last thing I wanted was to scare her off.
“I’m not trying to change who you are, Storee,” I added, trying to break the tension. “I just want to take care of you. You don’t have to work yourself to the bone anymore.”
She looked at me, her eyes searching mine. “And what do you want in return?”
I shrugged. “Just… you.”
Chapter 26
Storee
“I really should go back to my place,” I said as we entered Locke’s house. “I need a shower and all my clothes are at my house.”
“You don’t need any clothes,” he picked me up into his arms and headed toward the bathroom, “and a shower is exactly what I had in mind.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling his muscles tense and flex beneath my fingers as he carried me, and my heart raced. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I had been crushing on Locke for a lifetime, and now here we were, in his house, and he was carrying me into the shower with him like two lovers who had always been together would do.
So normal. So easy.
He kicked the bathroom door shut behind us and set me down on the counter, his hands moving to the hem of my dress. He pulled it over my head, his gaze drinking in the sight of my bare skin as he turned on the water.
He leaned in, his lips trailing over the curve of my neck, leaving a trail of fiery kisses in their wake. My nails dug into his shoulders as he nibbled at my sensitive skin. His hands ran down my sides, the tips of his fingers trailing over my skin in a teasing caress.
“Don’t ever fight with me again,” he said with another kiss.
“Is that what we had? A fight?” I smiled, holding back a laugh. The fact that Locke thought our conversation was a fight was comical.
Locke was firm, domineering, even scary at times in the way he could stare into my very soul. But I had never actually seen him lose control or shout. If his version of a fight was what we had in the car, then I’d take that any day.
