Chapter Ten
It took Bishop a momentto catch his breath and realize that Winter had gone limp beside him.
Shit.
He could see her pulse making the side of her neck flutter and her chest rose and fell as she breathed.She seemed to be okay, but how could he be certain?
He made himself get up.He cleaned up a little, disposing of the condom and using a wet cloth to clean her up, then he sat beside her, watching her.After a couple of minutes, he smoothed one hand along the side of her face.
“Come on, Spitfire, wake up.I need to see those pretty blue eyes.”He wondered if he should get another damp cloth and put it on her forehead.He would give her a few more minutes, then, if she didn’t wake, maybe he’d try that.
He didn’t have to.A few seconds later, her lashes fluttered and her eyes opened.She blinked a couple times then smiled up at him, her expression soft and sated.
“What’s wrong?”she asked, reaching for him.
“You passed out, babe.I’ve never had that happen before.I’m worried.How do you feel?”
Winter lifted her arms over her head and stretched, either not realizing or not caring that she was naked.Her back arched, thrusting her tits with their beaded nipples upward as she moved, drawing his attention.Bishop fisted his hands in his lap to keep from reaching out and giving one a squeeze.This was not the time.He needed to know how she felt.Had he hurt her?
“I feel amazing.Let’s do that again.”She grinned and reached for him.
“Be happy to, but we’ll have to wait a bit.”She frowned, clearly not happy.“I don’t want to make you too sore.Plus, the guys should be back before too long with your stuff.You’ll want to decide what to do with it all.What you don’t want in here, we can put in one of the warehouses until we figure out what to do with it.”
She frowned at him.
“What do you mean, the rest?Viper was just getting my truck and the stuff off the list I sent him.”
Bishop rolled his lips inward and bit them as he tried to find the best way to tell her the truth, without getting his balls ripped off.Maybe they should get dressed for this conversation.But it was too late for that.
“Actually, no.They’re packing up everything in the apartment.You’re not going back there.”
She sat up and glared at him.
“What the fuck?That’s my apartment.You can’t tell me where to live.”
“Spitfire.”He sighed and tried to figure out how to say this in a way that wouldn’t make her even angrier.“Were you aware you lived in the most dangerous part of town?This city covers nearly fifteen thousand square miles and somehow you managed to live smack in the center of the most dangerous forty.”He shook his head “Even if that fuckwad didn’t know where you lived, I couldn’t let you stay there alone now that I know.And don’t try to tell me the Angels would have let you live somewhere like that either.”He gave her a stern look.
Winter rolled her eyes.“It was cheap.Well, cheapish.I could have a place of my own and still save as much as possible.”
“Do you have any clue what could have happened to you?If you’d run into the wrong people, or seen the wrong people in the middle of a deal?”He watched her, realizing she didn’t understand what he was thinking.“You could have been kidnapped.From here, hell, the where doesn’t really matter, but the people who do that kind of shit have it down to a science.They take you, they drug you so you can’t fight, at least until they get you out of the country, away from everything you know and are used to, and that’s only the beginning.”He laid a hand on her shoulder, making her turn and look at him.Her scowl as gone, but she didn’t look happy.
“I know those things happen.But I’m not an idiot.I kept an eye out.I can defend myself.”
He pressed his lips together to keep from telling her that every single woman trapped in a trafficking situation thought it couldn’t happen to them.He wanted to let her know how lucky she’d been without terrifying her.Maybe he could bring her around by coming at the issue from a different angle.
“You’re staying here.There’s no point in wasting money on rent,” he pointed out.“This way you can save faster.”
“You really think it’s safe for me to go to work if it’s not safe for me to go home?”She turned the tables on him.
“You do have a point.”He hadn’t gotten that far, though he had no doubt Bulldog had thought about it.“I guess we’ll have to figure something out.Where do you work?”He wondered for a moment if he could send men to keep an eye out while she worked.
