Chapter 20
Dixie
Tyler led me upstairs to his apartment. When the door closed, he faced me. “That lake is barely an hour away. I’m sending my full team, plus apparently Convict, and Kane has a four-hour time limit for being away from Lovelyn. Since I claimed ye, I’ll obey the same rules, though I willnae leave the building.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll coordinate their efforts from the comms centre downstairs.”
My cheeks heated, but I didn’t try to escape his intense stare. “Don’t you want to go?”
He’d been stuck kidnapping and babysitting me. No sex, so no using up all that testosterone. Boy needed a run.
Tyler shrugged, stress obvious in his tensed shoulders.
I tried again. “I don’t want to get in the way of your job.”
“And I said I won’t leave ye. I’ll ask Riordan to guard the hall so you’re safe going to and from Cassie’s, but I won’t be far away. Any second ye need me, I’m there.”
Swift relief replaced my fear. I didn’t hide it.
Tyler’s eyes gleamed in the light.
He examined my features as if searching for something. Then he turned away, opening one of the boxes on the table. “Earlier, downstairs.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “On the cam girls’ floor?”
Still he didn’t look me in the eye, sorting through objects I was certain he didn’t see. “That man. Your ex-partner.”
“Lex who you nearly beheaded? What about him?”
Tyler failed to form a sentence.
I tried for him. “You know I’ve never slept with anyone for feelings.”
“I know.”
“Or had any partner beyond for work.”
No reply this time.
“So what’s with the jelly vibes?”
Tyler was quiet for a moment. “If that’s the kind of work you’re considering, which makes sense, would you do it with him?”
The rush of something new flooded my system. A shiver of delicate need over my skin. This, I liked so much. Knowledge that he, huge, patient Tyler, wanted a part of me. And he didn’t want to share.
Slowly, I moved closer. “Yes, I thought about working as a cam girl. It could solve my problem of what to do with my life, and I’d get to stay here. But I also told you I couldn’t have sex like that again. Lex is a nice guy, but I don’t want to work with him. Even if videos of couples make bank.” I pushed my luck. “Know what I do want?”
“What?”
“To see if I can still do it. Perform while someone watches me.”
Finally, he raised his gaze. It scalded. “That what ye need from me?”
It was my turn to go quiet, my breath catching in my throat and stealing my words. We didn’t have long. He had to go coordinate a raid, and I was meeting the girls. That tight timing added to the tension stringing me up. If we’d had a full evening ahead of us, it would have been too much. But cut that down to mere minutes, like the girls working the cameras had, and suddenly this felt easier.
Tyler reached behind him and gripped the table. “Ask me, Dixie.”
