Mateo frowns down at me. “I have more than enough money. You don’t need to work.”
I snort at that. “If you think that my independent, stubborn,savageass is going to be a kept woman, taken care of by an organized crime king, you are sorely mistaken. Also, I don’t even know what this is between us. Are we exclusive? Are you my boyfriend?”
His dark eyes flash with that gold, and he tips my chin up. “I wouldneverask you to give up your art because it’s fucking insanely beautiful and the world is a better place because of it. But Iwillassign a detail of two men to you because people want to hurt me, Violet, and the way to do that is to hurt what matters to me. You matter.”
He kisses my forehead and then keeps talking.
“You’ll never bekept. That’s insulting. But you’re not alone, so take all the time you need to heal and don’t worry about the fucking money. Youneverhave to worry about money. If you told me that you wanted to work full time for free just because you love it so much, I say do it.”
Well, shit, he knows how to make a girl swoon.
“And as far as what’s happening here, between you and me? I’ve told you a hundred times.”
He points to me.
“Mine.”
He points to himself.
“Yours.”
He waves his hand back and forth between us.
“Exclusive. If someone else even looks at you sideways, I’ll remove his liver from his body, cook it, and feed it to him.”
“And if someone touches you, she’ll get all of her fingers introduced to her fucking asshole.”
His lips twitch, but he clears his throat and doesn’t laugh.
“You reallyaresavage.”
“I’m glad we cleared the air.” I lean in and press my cheek to his chest, listening to his heartbeat. “I should go home today.”
His phone rings, and he pulls it out to answer it.
“Report. When? Do you have them detained? Good. Call some soldiers to get them to the cell, and I’ll deal with them later. We’ll go over there to make sure nothing was disturbed.”
I frown up at him. “What’s wrong?”
“That was the man I’ve had tailing you. I had him staked out watching your apartment, and he just caught two assholes trying to break in.”
My heart lodges in my throat. “Into myapartment?”
“We have to go over there so you can look around. And we might as well pack up some of your stuff to bring back here. You’re safer with me, and I don’t want to be without you anyway.”
“We went from fuck buddies to living together really fast.”
“No,youdid. I’ve been at living together since I first saw you. Let’s get this over with.”
When Bobby approaches the SUV, I realize that I recognize him. I’ve seen him around a lot the past couple of weeks, including when he dropped breakfast off to me, and all that time, I didn’t even realize that he worked for Mateo.
“Cat’s out of the bag,” I inform him.
Bobby has the decency to blush a little when he smiles. “Hello, ma’am. I hate to tell you this, but someone tried to break into your apartment.”
“But they weren’t successful?” I ask.
“No, I caught them before they entered.”
