However, one side effect of not having to make it explicit was that conversation remained strangely guarded, all the way up to being thirty thousand feet in the air back to Vegas. It wasn’t like the trip had no moments of tension; there were a couple of times she brushed my knee or vice versa on the plane, moments when I gave serious thought to just fucking her right there. But it almost felt like a letdown to have such a massive buildup at the gala and the penthouse, only to do it in broad daylight on a plane. I could fuck her anytime on a plane; last night was a moment that required intense buildup to get there.
Nevertheless, when we landed, I had a vehicle waiting for her. We needed some separation to rekindle that buildup; absence made the heart grow fonder, yes, but it also made the passion grow hotter.
“Don’t go anywhere,” I said. “You can stay in the same hotel room for the next two weeks.”
“But—”
“I already paid, so don’t act like you can’t afford it.”
Sarah just smiled and shook her head.
“I’m not done with you yet, Sarah,” I said. “But go enjoy your day. I’ll have you soon enough.”
Her eyebrows raised, but I showed nothing otherwise. I’d finally said what I needed to say, and that was that. Sarah turned and got in the car, and as soon as her vehicle turned out of the private runway, I headed to my own.
As I got into the backseat of my private ride, exhaustion swept over me. Fuck. I did not expect to feelthistired. This wasn’t just fatigue from a restless night of sleep or an excessive amount of flying in a short window; this was the kind of fatigue where I knew I was going back into the boxing ring, yet the round had just beat me up so much. Not to mention the still-present confusion about what I actually wanted.
Well, fortunately, after an early afternoon nap, there would be a few people who could help me figure things out. Three people, specifically.
Later that afternoon, as the sun began to set on the November sky, Adrian, Lucas, and Dante arrived at my top-floor penthouse. I had called them for one reason, a reason that was not without merit—the discussion of Leo Morril. But quietly, apart of me hoped that we might dive into what the hell to do about Sarah.
Of course, it hadn’t been the first time since I'd seen Sarah atAllurethat I’d wanted to rely on my brothers for help. But this was the first time since anything sexual had happened—even if it never involved us touching—and that felt like it elevated the urgency just a bit more.
“Flew all the way to New York City, and the fucker followed you like a desperate boy after the prom queen,” Dante said as we got settled into our chairs. “Sounds like a multimillionaire who wishes more than anything he was a billionaire, yet can’t figure out how to turn a penny into a dollar.”
“He kissed Sarah’s hand right in front of me,” I said. “He might be stupid as a businessman, but he fucking knew what he was doing. He knew he’d get under my skin, or at least force a less professional act in front of him.”
Adrian and Dante exchanged a quick look before Adrian spoke.
“And did you do anything unprofessional?”
“No,” I snapped. “I should have said, hethoughthe’d do those things. But you know better, Adrian. We’ve been picketed, we’ve had signs made at us, we’ve been spat on. Has any of that affected us?”
Has anything except Virgil’s death affected us?
Fuck, how I wish that last thought hadn’t come to mind. It truly was the only thing that could crawl under my skin and linger like a cockroach you couldn’t remove from your pantry. Everything else would do nothing more than irritate me for a fleeting moment.
Although… I couldn’t pretend Leo’s actions hadn’t bothered me for more than a moment. Fuck, I was bringing it up here.
“Why don’t you answer your own question?” Lucas said.
I snorted, but my brothers would not be so easily dismissed by simple cold gestures. They knew my false shields, my hand waves, anything that would work on anyone else.
“I don’t know if it affected me, but it affected Leo Morril. He called me a mama bear and stepped back. You know what that reminds me of? When the rising bully thinks he can talk smack to the big bully, but then gets put in his place. He can’t bear to leave without doing, saying something, and so he throws one last remark out. Mama bear. Fucking weak.”
“But not inaccurate,” Dante said.
I glared at him, but he met my gaze right back. My brothers never broke under my stare; they might acquiesce to my wishes, but because they agreed with them, not because they were intimidated into them.
“Oh, don’t be an intellectually dishonest fool, Cassius,” Dante went on. “We getAllure.To a certain extent, we even get theRed Court.But New York City? Brother, you flew her on your private plane across the country on a night’s notice. Don’t fucking act like you’re not invested in her, certainly not protective of her.”
“She is mine to do with as I please,” I growled, far too fast.
Far, far too fast. Now I wasn’t just answering to my brothers. I was fucking answering to myself.
“And what, exactly, do you plan to do with her, ‘as you please’ as you put it?” Lucas said.
“You wanted press?” Adrian said. “We’re not famous enough to have TMZ follow us everywhere, which thank fuck. But we have gotten tabloid talk here. Or I should say,youhave gotten tabloid talk. If you’re waiting for theLos Angeles Timesor TMZ to come knocking, don’t bother until you star in a movie or win a Super Bowl.”
