Page 12 of Keeping What He Wants

“Who are they?”

“Nurses.” Her brow furrowed more. “We’re having lunch and then we’re going shopping. Derek got a new place, and he wanted us to help him decorate it.”

“No.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“I’m coming home. Wait there.”

Before she could respond, he hung up. She dropped her phone in her purse. There was no way he was going to tell her what she could and could not do. He spent the night with women all around him. She wasn’t stupid; some probably came on to him. Maybe they even copped a feel. He had no right to tell her that she couldn’t do a normal thing like eat lunch with people she usually ate lunch with.

Ella locked the door to her apartment and went down the stairs to her car.

The loud motorcycle engine roared behind her and she turned, watching as he pulled in the parking spot next to hers. He looked like he’d been partying all night. His hair and clothes were a rumpled mess. He had blood-shot eyes.

“Are you using again?” she asked.

“What? No.” He dismounted the bike. “Why would you ask me that?”

“You look horrible.” She unlocked her car and sat her stuff inside the driver’s seat. “It’s pretty ballsy to tell me what I can and cannot do to. What exactly is the issue here?”

“There are people being killed that fit your profile. I don’t want you walking around town like you’re not a target.” He smelled of stale alcohol and cigarette smoke.

“I’m not a target.”

“Ella, don’t fight me on this.” He walked around the car and rested his cocked hip against the front fender. “You’re not going out without some protection.”

“Get over yourself. I’m going to do what I want.” Ella turned, and he grabbed her arm.

She looked into his eyes and found a dangerous mix of possessiveness and violence there. In all the events that had transpired between them, she’d never been scared of him. He was dangerous on a good day, but right now, he was a heady mixture of something else. Something darker, and something she’d never seen in him before. She jerked her arm and shoved at his chest to get him to let her go. His gripped tightened around her wrist to the point that it became uncomfortable.

“Let me go. Don’t you dare grab me again.”

His chest puffed out as he clenched his teeth. “You’re not going out.”

“You do not make those decisions for me.”

He pulled her away from her car and stepped in front of her. For the first time in their relationship, fear crept up her spine. He really wanted to fight with her? He was holding her back like she was someone he commanded to do his will.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Ella waited, and he didn’t budge. She tried to move past him, and he blocked her. “Get out of my fucking way.”

“You’re not going out.” Ryker leaned against the door with his arms folded.

All her mother’s warnings came back in a rush. Abusive. Controlling. For the first time since they’d started dating, he looked like the biker that he was. Like a younger version of his father.

Feeling defeated, Ella stepped back. “Is this what our life is like now? You telling me what I can and cannot do?”

“You’re not going out,” he repeated.

“You don’t have any fucking right to tell me what I can and cannot do. I’m not some little slave to you. You stay out partying, drinking, and fucking anything you want. You come home whenever the hell you feel like it and leave on a whim when there’s club business. Fuck you, Ryker.”

“I don’t fuck anything I want, Ella.”

“Maybe not, but those women are there if you ever change your mind.”

He rubbed a hand over his face. “That argument is getting old. Just because I stay out or I’m at the club doesn’t mean I’m shoving my dick where it doesn’t belong.”

She snorted. “And you expect me to believe that?”

---