Without missing a beat, Sadie hits me with another verbal assault.She’s going to kill me one day.
“You think dicking me once gives you permission to stay the night like you belong here?”
“Ever tell you how cute you are when you’re being nasty?I’m here more than you are—consider me a permanent fixture.”
“The hell is that supposed to mean, here more than me?”
“Literally or figuratively?”I dish, knocking back the rest of my whiskey.
“Ignorant as fuck to answer a question with a question.”
“Ouch, right in the heart,” I quip, returning a bit of her dryness.
“Yeah, feel that because my fork’s about to go in it.”
“I’ve been shot, stabbed, hung, hit with a truck, and thrown thirty feet or more from explosive blasts.Your little fork doesn’t scare me.Literally, however, I’m here more than you are—digging your hair out of the drain, fixing the holes in your closet from where you stabbed it like it personally offended you, and taking care of things you never have to call maintenance for.”
Sadie’s face goes red, like my own vicious little cartoon.
I must have struck a nerve.
On her feet, she scrapes the last two or three bites into the trash then places her dirty plate in the sink with the delicacy of a mortar.Spinning around, she lifts a finger and shakes it at me.I probably shouldn’t laugh, but the chuckle breaking up her tirade is unavoidable, especially with how adorable her five foot seven, one-hundred forty-five-pound ass looks scolding me.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, thinking you have a place here.That shit from earlier?It will never happen again.I’m not even into old men, let alone men one twisted ankle away from being sent to an assisted living facility.”
Typically, I don’t respond to provocation quickly but sometimes she gets the best of me.Most of what she’s said is loaded, trying to get a rise out of me or see if I cave—I haven’t in the past and that shit isn’t starting today.Covering the distance, my hand captures her neck and drives her into the front of her fancy fridge with just enough force that something falls over inside.
Now in her precious bubble, my tone lowers and loses its warmth.
“I beg to fucking differ.It will happen again and the more you swing your kitten claws at me, the sooner it does.It’s about time you’ve learned I’m not deterred by your venom.In fact, it makes my dick hard, and if there’s anything we’ve discovered in the past several hours, is dick makes your mouth shut.”
Chapter sixteen
‘Lias
IseethemomentSadie’s fight or flight kicks in—rather her fightandflight.She won't get the drop on me, I’ve made that promise to myself, and now we’re about to see what she can do.
If she’s capable of doing more than sneak attacks, running her sharp mouth, or letting one of the riders take over, we might get something accomplished tonight.Yet, knowing her as well as I do, she’s gotten herself in too deep and the only way out is to show me her worst, or give in.
My vision narrows on her, like I’m back in the minefields looking for trip wires and explosives large enough to blow the front of a Humvee.
Then she swings.
I anticipate the strikes to my torso, since it’s open and vulnerable; easy access for her height and how she’s pinned.The second her body shifts, I brace for impact.Muscles tighten in my core as bare feet anchor in place.It’s going to take more strength than she has to knock me off of them.
When Sadie jerks her arm up instead of throwing it forward, slicing her bony elbow through the tight space, I’m left reeling.My head slings back as she jams it into the underside of my mandible, clattering my lower teeth into the upper ones.
The pain throbs in my temples, but I force myself to shake it off.If I don’t, I may just squeeze her scrawny neck until her pretty face turns purple.The time for de-escalating the adrenaline induced tension has come and gone.
She wants to play hardball, we will.
Hauling her forward, she crashes into me as I turn her and walk her backward out of the kitchen—her bare feet fumble under legs that could put a new born deer to fucking shame.
Of course she goes for my wrists, her sad excuse for nails try to dig into the skin there but her clawing does fuck all.My arms and hands have decades of combat exposure and hardening that has toughened the flesh there.She’ll need something sturdier than thin layers of keratin to make me bleed.
Every struggle, sharp word, and threat she makes stokes the warrior within me—the soldier in full gear waiting for orders to advance and eliminate the threat holding my woman hostage.
Somewhere between our sparring session and today, Sadie’s either watched videos or has been practicing because I sure as hell didn’t teach her how to knife me with that sharp bone of hers.Now if she would have used the same critical thinking, she might have kept her ass out of jail, but here we are and she’s about to get put on her ass because I’m not playing this shit.
