Page 65 of Ruin Me, Daddy

“Whatever. Ask away.”

He was tempted to make good on his threat, but the more rational parts of him recognized that she must have been hurting something fierce to pull the kind of shit she’d pulled tonight, so he gave her a little leeway.

But just a little. For now.

“You said I was an asshole earlier. Care to explain?”

Now it was pure anger flashing in her eyes. “Don’t pull that shit with me, Elias. You know damn well what you did.”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking. And consider this your first and last warning, little girl. Watch your tone or you will not be sitting comfortably any time soon.”

“Ugh!” She threw her hands up in the air, exasperation and fury practically vibrating off her as she smacked them back down on the wooden arms of the chair. “I don’t see why I’m in so much trouble anyway! I told you I was coming to the club. It’s not like I snuck out like a rebellious teenager or something. You knew exactly where I was, you just didn’t care.”

It was the hurt in her voice as much as the words themselves that were like daggers in his chest. Stepping forward, he lowered to his knees in front of her so they were more eye-level with each other. “Baby. How could you ever think I wouldn’t care about where you are, or who you’re with?”

Tears shimmered on her lashes. “You ignored me all day. I could tell you were mad about something, but you wouldn’t talk to me. You shut me out. You promised I’d never have to guess if you were upset with me and you lied.”

“Silver, baby, I wasn’t mad. I was working.” Okay, well, that was only about half the truth. He’d buried himself in work because he’d gotten sick of wallowing in his feelings over letting her go when they returned to California.

Twisting around, he looked over his shoulder at Beckett. “Give us a few minutes?”

“Of course. I’ll be outside if you need me.”

He waited for the door to shut again behind Beckett before turning back to his babygirl. His sweet, more-fragile-than-she-let-on babygirl. “You didn’t do anything to upset me, baby. Let’s get that out of the way right now. Whatever… vibes you were getting from me this morning, I was never mad.”

“Upset, then. You were something. I could feel it.”

“Yeah. Yeah, baby, I was. Mostly I was feeling sorry for myself because it hit me hard last night that I’m going to have to let you go soon.” He let out a hoarse, bitter laugh. “And I’m pretty fucking sure it’s gonna kill me to do that.”

Everything about her softened, though she still looked uncertain. And it was that uncertainty, knowing that he’d given her a reason to doubt him for even a second, that tore at him. “I’m sorry. I know my coming to Charleston complicated things.”

“What I feel for you has always been complicated, baby. That’s for me to figure out. I’ll be okay.”

For a moment, she looked like she wanted to argue. But then she just sighed and it was as if all the fight left her with that one gesture. “All right. Just… promise me we’re okay? You weren’t pissed at me for some reason you’re keeping to yourself until you decide to spring it on me out of nowhere when I’m having a perfectly lovely day?”

Oh, baby. I’m so fucking sorry I didn’t protect you from him. “I promise.”

Her bottom lip disappeared between her perfect white teeth as worry filled her dark eyes. “You’re mad now.”

“Oh yeah,” he said with a chuckle. “Less mad than I was when I got here, which is good news for you. But still plenty mad.”

“Because you don’t trust me.”

Her voice was flat, but emotion still rolled off her in waves, making his chest ache for her. “It has nothing to do with trusting you, baby. I know I don’t have any claim to you. But I also know if you wanted to play with someone else, you’d be honest about it. I never for one second thought you were sneaking around behind my back.”

“Then why are you so angry?”

“Because you could have been hurt, Silver. You went off with a man you don’t know, and you were about to lock yourself in a room with him, alone. Killian being who he is makes it even worse, but I would be pissed to find out you’d put yourself in that kind of situation regardless of who it was with.”

She rolled her eyes, looking every bit the sulky teenager she claimed she wasn’t. “He’s a vetted member of the club and he was really nice.”

“Yeah, and if you’d wanted to play with him in the pit, that would be one thing. But going up to a room with him, alone? Seriously, Silver, I know you know better than that. Did you do any of your own vetting? Did you even talk to him at all?”

“We talked plenty, and I made it crystal clear that I wasn’t interested in playing tonight.” She sighed softly, her shoulders slumping forward. “But…”

“But?” he prompted, putting a hint of steel behind the word.

“I did sorta hope you’d find out. And that it would make you jealous. That was really, really shitty of me, and I’m sorry.”

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