“I don’t care,” he grumbled. “I drive.”
“No,” I blurted. I knew then that I sounded like an idiot, but after staring at me while I worked with Luna and Amy all day, I wasn’t exactly capable of clear thought and speech.
“Manny, drive the Tahoe to her place,” he commanded as he tossed the keys to the second in command. “Eric will pick you up in the other SUV.”
“But I’m just going home,” I replied, crossing my fingers over my chest. “Straight home. Scout’s honor.”
“Were you ever a Girl Scout?” he asked me with a stern look on his face.
“No, but that’s not the point.”
“Adrienne,” he prompted after a moment.
“Yes?”
“Get your ass in the car.”
“Okay.” And then I got my ass in the passenger seat of my car, and King drove me home. Why? I have no idea. There was just something about the low timbre of his voice when he told me to get in the car. I was helpless to stop it. I just… submitted. That’s not like me at all.
I’ve been thinking about it all night, hoping against hope that it was a fluke, a one-time thing, but I have my doubts.
I thought about it the whole way back to my house, with a trail of security badasses behind us so they could carpool. I had no idea my entire world was about to flip on its head.
“Code,” he barked when he pulled up to my gate, and I sat there in stunned silence.
Like a cartoon character once again, I slow-blinked, totally unsure of what he was asking me. And I am usually anything but unsure. “What?”
“The code,” he said, staring at me like I was an idiot, and I was, because I couldn’t figure out what he wanted. My bank code? The nuclear codes the president carries?What code, man?“For the gate.”
“Oh!” I did know the answer to that. I unbuckled my seatbelt and leaned over the center console so I could reach the button on the visor over his head. I froze, realizing I was practically in his lap, and the way that his hazel eyes bored into mine was positively indecent. My nipples were hard, and the air I was holding in my lungs began to burn.
“Fresa, what the fuck are you doing?” he ground out.
“This,” I whispered awkwardly as I hit the button to open the gate, and then I plopped back into my seat. As I twisted to drop back down, I saw Manny behind us, laughing his ass off. I tried to smile and wave, but I’m pretty sure, looking back now, I was only able to pull off an uncomfortable grimace.
“This,” he practically growled, “is not fucking secure.”
I didn’t say anything, just nodded once, and then he pulled through the gate. My car growled to match his suddenly black mood. I watched in the side mirror as two black SUVs followed us through.
King parked in the garage. Manny and Eric pulled their respective vehicles into the driveway and climbed out. Eric tossed the keys to King, and then they stepped toward where we were in the garage.
“Need to get the lay of the land,” King said to me.
“Okay.”
“Anything me and my boys should know about?” he asked, and again I was rendered mute. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Uhh…”
“Babe, you got any guns, dogs, or booby traps?” he asked, and Eric smiled widely, and Manny chuckled.
“Oh,” I whispered. “No?”
“Is that a yes, you do, or a no, you don’t know?”
“It’s a no, I don’t have any of those things,” I answered. “Do I need those things?”
“Honey,” Eric called quietly, drawing my attention to him.
