Page 24 of Indecent Lies

The women he’d spent time with on his travels these past few months had been, in a word,forgettable. Not as though they shared many conversations to determine how mouthy they were.

“Why? You don’t want me here.” Her bottom lip quivered.

“I bought you, little girl. You belong to me. Now sit your little ass the fuck down, we’re not done talking.”

He had no clue how she dropped her things, got back on the stool and sat there quietly. By some miracle, he supposed, because there was nothing quiet going on in her eyes.

Hell no, she was blazing behind the pupils, probably organizing his death.

He’d had a long ride, paid over the fucking odds for her freedom and now he wanted to sit, eat some food and not deal with the drama this little girl was bringing.

He could eat.

The drama was staying.

He must need a lobotomy, that was for damn sure.

For a man who’d been in control of his life for years, this last one felt like he’d been on a permanent rollercoaster, just hanging on by his nails, in hopes of not dying.

He’d fucked up.

Lost everything that meant anything decent to him.

And now he was living alone with those consequences.

Maybe if he helped someone else out it would appease the gaping hole in his soul.

“Eat your meal. You can stay. Until we can figure out what you want to do.”

The glee on her face about did him in.

When was the last time he made anyone genuinely happy?

Not his family

Not his brother.

Not the woman he thought he loved.

Penelope started chewing on the food like she was in a pie eating contest.

He got back to his pancakes and wondered…

In a one bedroom apartment where the fuck was he going to put a socialite princess?

SEVEN

“Blast from the not too distant past.” – Rider

“I can take the couch,” She said for the millionth time that night.

“The bed,” was all Tait kept repeating monosyllabic like, as if he’d forgotten how other words worked.

He’d already changed the sheets.

She silently watched him take a load of laundry through to the utility room, then he tossed their dinner plates into the dishwasher and wiped down the countertops before taking out the trash.

She’d never been around such a domesticated man before.

---