The grin couldn’t be wiped off his face even if a damn car fell out of the sky and hit him. Cashmere was entertaining as hell and cute as shit.
“Don’t mind her. She just doesn’t like new people. She’s the mean sister. I’m the nice one,” Ivoree joked. Her voice was soft, and he could tell she was on the shier side, though she seemed to know her way around some banter.
“I definitely ain’t payin’ her temper tantrums no mind,” Savio assured.
They reached Cashmere’s luxury car, and he had to stop her from getting in the driver’s seat. “Nah, you a passenger princess now.”
“Huh?” she asked with a pout. He wanted to lean down and kiss her pretty lips.
He nodded toward the passenger side. “You heard me. Go ’head.”
Cashmere opened her mouth to argue, but Ivoree stepped in and saved the day. “Come on, Sis. I need to do my makeup class in the morning, and I don’t want to stand out here all night listening to you guys argue.” Ivoree got into the back seat and slammed the door as Savio grinned down at her in triumph. Two against one.
“Don’t you need to drive your own car?” she asked lamely.
“Twizz drove.”
Savio hadn’t planned to stay the night at her house that night. He was actually going to wait until the following day to properly pack and move in, but fuck that. The way this new plan got under Cashmere’s skin was highly entertaining to him. Plus, a part of him yearned to be under the same roof as her. He wanted to see how she lived and what made her tick. Curiosity tugged at him, and he easily followed.
Cashmere rolled her eyes and walked toward the other side of the car. Savio made it a point to beat her to the door so he could open it. He gestured dramatically for her to get in. Once she was safely tucked in, he closed her door and hopped into the driver’s seat, ready to get to his new home and settle in for the night.
The yawn thatescaped Cashmere was a loud and long one. She looked at herself in her full length with a frown. Her doe-shaped eyes looked puffy from lack of sleep. Since meeting Cassydie, Cashmere hadn’t lost much sleep. Back when she struggled to survive day to day, sleep acted like an enemy to her. Now that she didn’t have too much to worry about, her body relaxed easier and could rest at night with no problems.
Last night, something had shifted and allowed sleep to evade her. She had a suspicion that Savio was the cause.
“Get your shit together, girl,” she muttered before she turned from the mirror and grabbed a pair of designer shades from her sunglasses rack.
When she exited her closet, she fought the urge to fall back into bed and walked right out of her room and through her home as her mind wandered to the night before. Not even she could front like Savio hadn’t thrown her for a loop last night. Although the general population didn’t know about the council or thatshe was a part of it, there was some unwritten rule not to fuck with her. Savio was clearly a rule breaker. Even before she was inducted into the council, people tended to give her a wide berth because of her resting bitch face. Savio clearly gave no fucks. The way he spoke to her gave her pause. How he bossed her around made her permanent frown twitch with irritation.Heworked for her. Well, technically, he worked for Marcellus, but still. His job was to make sure no harm came to her, not boss her around.
By the time she made it to the kitchen, Cashmere decided that she would lay down the law that day. It was better to do things like that early on and establish the dynamic before things got twisted and out of hand. Since Cashmere always had to be in control, it was better to nip all this shit in the bud quickly.
Spotting Ivoree at the kitchen island eating a croissant, Cashmere smiled.
“Morning, Vee. You sleep okay?” Cashmere asked as she made a beeline for the coffee machine. She made a mental note to thank her kitchen staff for always having a fresh, hot pot ready for her to start the day.
“Best sleep ever, honestly,” Ivoree said, but she sounded distracted.
Cashmere glanced behind her after she finished adding vanilla creamer to her mug. Ivoree seemed locked in on her phone, which seemed odd. Her baby sister normally lost track of her phone and never answered phone calls or texts because she was too busy with her head buried in a book.
Cashmere finished making her coffee and slid onto a barstool next to her sister. “What has you so focused?”
Though she asked the question, Cashmere had a suspicion that she already knew.
Ivoree shrugged nonchalantly. “Nothing, really. I was just texting Twizz our address. He’s coming to pick me up so I can get to school all protected and whatnot.”
“He should have gotten the address from Marcellus or Savio or someone at security headquarters. Why did he need to text you about that?”
“Y’all talkin’ ’bout me?” a deep voice asked.
The hairs on Cashmere’s arms rose as she slowly turned to look at Savio. The man was irritatingly beautiful. That morning, he wore all black and looked like he was there to do a job. Cashmere didn’t miss the imprint of a gun on his waist. She also didn’t miss the imprint of something else resting between his legs—in jeans, no less.Jeans.He had to be working with something large down there to have a visible print through some damn jeans.
Ivoree’s voice made Cashmere jump. She realized she had been blatantly staring at the man’s crotch, and she quickly turned around and focused on sipping her coffee with heated cheeks.
“Only good things,” Ivoree said. Cashmere cut her eyes at her sister, who grinned at their new head of security.
“Word?” he asked before he walked into Cashmere’s eyesight. He leaned his elbows onto the counter across from her and looked at her with a shit eating grin. It was the kind of grin that told Cashmere that he had caught her staring at his dick print. Cashmere wasn’t the type to get humiliated easily. She had been through entirely too much to get embarrassed easily. Eating out of dumpsters had a way of humbling a person and making them realize that there wasn’t really shit to be embarrassed about.
All that flew out the window now, though, as she peered at Savio. Because she was so uncomfortable, she automatically snapped at him. With a mug on her face, she asked, “Can I help you?”
