Page 48 of Wild Ride

“You’re serious?”

I snort, my lips twitching into a smirk. “Yeah, baby. I’m serious. I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay right fucking here. With me.”

“With you.”

Dipping my chin slightly, I make sure to make eye contact with her again. “You a parrot?” I ask.

She shakes her head, but I can tell that she is thinking. She’s not one-hundred-percent focused on this moment. Then, as if the wheels and the words all click into place, her eyes sharpen, and she narrows them on me.

“I’m not a parrot,” she snaps. “But I don’t understand what you mean, with you?”

My eyes search hers for a moment. She knows exactly what I fucking mean. “As mine.”

She lets out a heavy sigh and then shakes her head. “I don’t know how to do relationships. I don’t know much about them,but I’m not sure that’s what you want from me. I don’t think that it’s going to be what you need.”

Fighting smiling, laughing, or just fucking her again, I dip my chin and touch my mouth to hers.

“You’re all I need, baby,” I murmur against her lips, brushing my mouth against hers. Then I lift my head. “Now let’s go inside that office and tell your lawyer that you’re not selling a single fucking thing.”

She doesn’t turn toward the door. Instead, she watches me for a moment, then shakes her head a couple of times.

“That woman, that situation. It’s not for me. The fact that you sided with her was everything I needed to know. This isn’t for me. I lived a communal life for long enough to see the good and the bad. I don’t want to share everything with anyone else.”

My response is instant. Reaching behind her, I grasp the back of her hair, gripping the strands tightly, and tug her head back. Her neck arches, her eyes widen, and I hear her breath hitch.

“You think I’m going to share you with anyone?” I ask, but I don’t give her the chance to answer because I continue. “I don’t fucking share, Dakota.”

“That woman is shared,” she whispers.

My lips curve up into a grin. “That woman is a whore. It’s her job, just like you do your personal assistant stuff. She spreads her legs.”

She wrinkles her nose, probably in disgust, but it only makes my smile widen because she’s that fucking cute. “So, I stay here, and you won’t be with her or anyone else, just me?”

My brows lift as I watch her, my gaze searching hers for a moment. I’m not really sure what I thought she would want in a relationship when I started this.

Honestly, I figured she wouldn’t give much of a fuck what I did when she wasn’t around. It’s the way the club life has always been. What you don’t know won’t fucking kill you.

But as I stand in front of her, I realize that she not only doesn’t know jack shit about club life, which I knew, but she also doesn’t want anything remotely close to her childhood. Which, oddly enough, somewhat aligns with the club, at least when it comes to sex—in some ways.

“Never had a woman before, Dakota. Never had anyone exclusive at all. Not sure I know how to do it. And if you had asked me this even a couple weeks ago, I would have told you that I would never be loyal to anyone. That I would do what I wanted, the way I wanted, and everyone else would be damned.”

She smirks as her honey gaze searches mine for a moment before her expression changes to a serious one.

“You hate me, Bishop. That kind of anger and the way you despised me from the moment you knew I existed doesn’t just go away. I’m not sure what all of this is, but I think it’s best if I just sell everything and leave.”

Gripping her hair tighter, I don’t let her attempt to take even one step away from me. Lowering my head, I slide my nose alongside hers, shifting my lips to her ear before I whisper so that only she can hear me.

“There is a fine line between love and hate, baby.”

She trembles in my arms, and only then do I release her and take a step backward, holding out my palm for her to take. She looks down at my hand, then slowly lifts her gaze to meet mine. I don’t know if she’s going to go with me or tell me to get the fuck lost.

“I don’t know anything about relationships. And I have a feeling that this is going to hurt me in the end because, love or hate, there is no way this is going to have a good outcome.”

“Yeah?” I ask.

She hums, nodding her head. “I’m not stupid, Bishop. I’m naive and ignorant to the way the world works, but I’m not stupid.”

I wait for her to continue, knowing that she’s going somewhere with this. Instead of interrupting her the way I want to, I just wait. I watch her and wait. I know she’s going to continue, and with this, I’m not going to rush her, even though that’s exactly what I want to do.

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