Page 67 of Midnight Dissonance

Contrite, she nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

She used the moniker to pacify him. It didn’t work. If anything, his scowl deepened. “Let’s go.”

On the drive home, he followed her, parking beside her two seconds after she had. She didn’t wait for him to climb out of the car. And his gaze darkened further. He grabbed her guitar and escorted her to the elevator. They rode up in silence.

Her skin prickled with awareness. And her heart whimpered. Had she messed things up beyond redemption?

She didn’t know. He felt volatile. Dangerous even.

She knew he would never really hurt her. But she worried that he might be done with her after tonight. That she might have pushed him too far and he decided she was too much trouble.

It’s the way her family had been with her. So why not him too? No one else wanted to stick.

He escorted her off the elevator with a firm hand on her lower back. At the front door, he unlocked it and shoved it open. “Inside. Now.”

His short, clipped words made her shiver. She hated confrontations. But there was no avoiding this one. Not if she wanted to be with Josh. And she did.

She waltzed inside, setting her purse on the kitchen island. Josh closed the front door. But he didn’t slam it. Although the click of the lock had shivers coursing down her spine.

“I know what you’re going to say.”

“Oh, really.” He stalked her way with narrowed eyes.

She held up her hands and backed up. “Look. I’m sorry. I just know I don’t want to live at my sister’s house much longer—”

“So you think living with other men is the answer?”

“They’re my bandmates. They’re my brothers from other mothers.”

“I don’t give a bloody shite. You will not be living with any man but me.”

She opened her mouth to argue. But he cut her off before she could reply and backed her up against the counter. He bracketed her in with his hands on either side, forcing her back to look up at him, exerting his dominance.

And her pussy pulsed. She hated how much he could play her body.

“If you’re wanting to move out of your sister’s, then you will be living with me. It’s nonnegotiable, lass. What part of you are mine and belong to me are you not understanding?”

“It’s just so fast. What happens when you get tired of me? Then I won’t have a place to live. Except to go back to my sister’s house with my tail tucked between my legs so I can rent the crappy room from her.”

“Who says I’m going to get tired of you? We’re building something, you and me—or I thought we were. But you seem hell bent on trying to destroy it. Why?”

“My past history does. No one has ever stuck by me, Josh. No one. Not when it mattered. Why would I expect you to be any different? You want me to trust you, great. Tell me why I should? Prove to me why I should believe this isn’t some twisted way of getting back at me for turning you down.”

He growled. “That’s it. Before the night is over, you will no longer question whether I will stick.”

“And how do you plan on doing that? Do a memory wipe?”

“You’re not even sorry, are you?”

“Of course I am,” she argued, frustrated beyond belief at his stubborn stance.

“Prove it.”

“How?” she asked, perilously close to tears. She hated crying. Hated it because it made her seem weak. And it gave others power over her.

He backed off her and strode into the living room, sitting on a chair like a king on his throne. His face a stern mask, he murmured, “You want to apologize? Strip and crawl to me like a good girl. And then we’re going to deal with your pesky refusal to accept that I’m not going anywhere. That this, you and me, is worth fighting for.”

She swallowed past the lump in her throat. She could walk away right now. She didn’t have to subject herself to the humiliation of crawling across the floor.

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