“When are you going to understand I only want to keep you safe?”
She turns to face me. “You messed with my car, Dom, and made it look like someone else had.”
I tuck my dick back in my trousers and buckle my belt. “Because I needed to keep my eye on you twenty-four seven. Do you know how exhausting it was following you around and sleeping in my car?”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?” Her pretty round face scrunches.
“Because I couldn’t risk you running off again. It’s what you do, Red. I had to remove the option for you to run. I couldn’t risk you getting in your car and moving again. What if Malcolm caught up with you before I did?” I drag a hand over my face and sigh. This woman is too stubborn for her own good.
She takes my hand. Her thumb gently swipes over the broken skin on my wrists caused by the rope. “Did I do this? I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Her face softens to that of concern, telling me she does still care. She must know even after I deceived her with the car, it was only for her own good.
“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about me.” I rest my forehead against hers, enjoying the closeness. We may have just fucked, but this feels more intimate. “I couldn’t be sure what Malcolm’s intentions were with you, and I couldn’t risk him tampering with your car and messing with your brakes or something. The safest option was to remove your car from the equation completely.”
“All right. I understand your motives, even if I think your methods are messed up.” She gazes up at me, her eyes dazzling like precious gemstones under the dressing table lights. “Promise me you won’t lie or keep things from me again.”
I kiss her nose. “I promise I’ll tell you everything youneedto know.” My palms caress her cheeks. Cupping her face in my hands is like holding a rare trinket, one I want to keep locked up safe like the Crown Jewels.
A click snaps my eyes from her gaze. Her mouth parts as she inhales sharply. The door swings open, and I grab the knife from the dresser.
20
POPPY
Dom stands in front of me, hiding my half naked body as the door swings open. My muscles tense. Dom holds the knife in his hand, his other hand pressed against my hip, holding me close behind him.
“Oh. Sorry,” one of the dancers say.
I let out a strangled breath and relax my shoulders at the sight of Tia in a sequinned two-piece. “Just give me a minute, Ti.”
“All righty.” She smiles as she steps back into the hallway and closes the door.
I reach for the rail and lift my clothes from the hanger, then grab my bag from the lockers, needing a tampon. My body shakes with adrenaline. I’m expecting Malcolm to enter at any moment and re-enact what happened at the casino in London, where he slit some poor bastard’s throat. Only this time, it will be Dom’s head. And I quite like his head where it is, even if he is a crazy bastard. I’d sooner take my chances with him than the alternative.
“Breathe, Poppy.” His hands wrap around mine as my shaky fingers struggle to open the tampon wrapper. “Hey. Look at me. Breathe with me. You’re safe.”
Safety washes over me under his protective shroud. My arms slip around his waist and I haven’t felt this safe since I was a little girl.
Hard knuckles graze down my spine. His soothing voice hushes my strangled sob. “You’re my woman, Poppy. I won’t let anything happen to you.” His lips press against my temple. He steps back, takes the tampon from my hand, and opens the wrapper. “Let me help you.”
I pinch my eyebrows together? “Okay hunter, I can live with the constant surveillance and the watching me while I sleep, but I draw the line at inserting my tampons.”
He chuckles. “I meant, let me help you by getting you out of here. Although now you mention it. I kind of like the idea of the tampon thing.”
I snatch it from his hand. “Can I get a little privacy, please?”
He looks around as though I’m talking to someone else. “I just licked your pussy clean and fucked you raw and now you want privacy?”
I tilt my head and glare until he gets the message. There are some things he just doesn’t need to see and me straddling one leg on the chair while I insert this thing is one of them. He rolls his eyes, but respects my wishes and walks towards the door, digging his mobile phone from his pocket.
With my heart still racing, I quickly dress. When I open the dressing room door, Dom is on the phone, pacing in the corridor. “I gotta go. I’ll catch up later.” He slips the phone in his pocket.
Tia walks down the hallway. “Finally.” She pushes past me, entering the dressing room. I hook the strap of my purse over my shoulder.
“Let’s go.” Dom places his hand in the dent at the bottom of my spine. His hand fits nicely there as he guides me down the hall in a protective and kind of an obsessive sort of way. As we walk past the stage door, I glimpse the crowd. Malcolm is nowhere to be seen, causing the hairs to prickle on the back of my neck.
“Do you have your car keys? I gave them to Joe.”
Dom opens the back door to the club. “Yes.” He takes long strides to the car park. His eyes scan the area like the hunter he is, keeping a lookout for any sort of threat.
