Page 56 of Monster

What the fuck was that?

Why the hell did she affect me so much?

Fuck, but I didn’t even feel this way about Veronica, Kai and Braxton’s mom.

I had been ready to make her my old lady and give her all the benefits of being mine.

But the time we were together, the club was just taking off.

I was fucking busy, and any free time I had was dedicated to the boys.

It was something she should have fucking accepted, but she hated it. She hated coming in second to the boys, and I didn’t fucking put up a fight when she told me she wanted to leave everything behind, including her sons—her fuckingsons—and go back to Las Vegas.

I might be a lot of things, but I would never abandon my kids, and I couldn’t fucking understand how she could. Braxton was just a baby at the time. He barely remembered her, but Kai sure as fuck did.

And both of my boys were hurt over that.

No one mentioned Veronica in this house.

It wouldn’t have mattered because the only reason I had allowed her to be as close to me as she had been was for the boys.

But I didn’t fucking feel the need to claim her as mine, to protect her from all the bad shit in this world, even if I was that bad shit happening to her.

I didn’t feel like my fucking dead heart was trying to beat at the sight of her.

I stepped closer to Emmy, and from the light in the hallway, something silver glinted on the bed.

I frowned a little and extracted the kitchen knife she had hidden under her pillow.

Fuck me, but if I wasn’t trying to be quiet and let the poor girl sleep, I might have fucking laughed over the ridiculousness of this.

What did this girl think would happen?

I towered over her by about a foot and outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds.

How much damage did this little wildcat really think she could cause?

She was like a little kitten trying to take on a lion.

And I fucking ruled this jungle.

I smirked at the little innocent and dragged the covers off.

She was in my clothes.

She fucking looked good in my clothes, but the image of me dressing her up in pretty, girly shit took hold, and fuck, but that had its appeal, too.

I could present her like a fucking queen to the outside world, gifting her with all expensive and pretty things, but behind closed doors, dress her up like my own little whore.

My pretty little sex doll.

Shaking away the thought and trying to keep my hard-on under control, I lifted her into my arms.

She shifted and made a small noise before turning her head and burying her face in my chest.

She didn’t wake up when I brought us back to my room and put her on her side of the bed, furthest from the door.

My heart finally calmed at the sight.

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