“What did you say?” Rip asks.
“Don’t tell my daughter to shut up,” Mom shouts at Levar.
“Well, I did. I’m sick of the sound of her voice,” Levar replies while pointing at me.
“I’ll break that fucking finger.” Rip stands. “You must be out of your goddamn mind if you think you’re going to threaten and disrespect—” He doesn’t finish his sentence. He pulls Levar’s chair out so fast that he falls off.
“Get his ass,” Grandma says, but my mother and father run to the other side of the table and step between Rip and Levar.
“We are not that type of family. Sit or leave.” Mom points at his face.
Rip doesn’t move. Rather, he looks around my parents as if he’s contemplating going around them. So, I get up and take his hand.
“Let’s sit down, please,” I whisper. I rub between his shoulder blades with my free hand, and that does the trick.
He helps me to my seat, and we both sit down, but the tension at the table is palpable.
Chapter 41
Eden
“What are you looking at?” Rip asks. It’s barely six o’clock in the morning, and we’re both naked and wrapped in his sheets. His hair is a disheveled mess, but his chest is like a masterpiece, and I run my hand across it. His skin is soft, and his scent is intoxicating.
“You,” I say right before I bite his chin. “You’re my man, aren’t you?” My hand travels south and lands on his dick. It’s not hard. That’s not surprising since we just finished fucking.
“What kind of question is that?” he asks.
“Answer it.”
“What do you think?”
“That’s not an answer,” I say before I nip his earlobe.
He takes my chin between his fingers. “I’m your man. You’re my girl. Happy now?”
“Very, but why do I have to be a girl?” I ask, offended.
“You want to be a boy?”
“A woman.”
“You’re my woman, Thorny. My one and only. My baby. My forever.”
My breath hitches at his last declaration.
“My world. My everything. The person I would take on the world for.”
“And you’d win.”
“I have you, baby. I’ve already won.”
I fall on my back and put a hand to my heart at his words. This man, who barely grunts at anyone else, says the most beautiful things to me. And no one else gets to see this side of my big, scary boyfriend.
“I can’t believe I used to be scared of you,” I admit.
“I don’t understand why you would be. Everyone else, yes, but not you.”
“Following me and breaking into my house didn’t help my fear either,” I remind him.
