Page 48 of All Tied Up
Ransom took my phone and placed it on the table, then picked up the champagne flute he’d poured me earlier and handed it to me.
“I won’t actually tell her everything,” I assured him.
His gaze met mine. “I know. But I don’t mind if you want to share just how hard I make you come. I’d like the brother to be made aware that I’ve already claimed this pussy. He needs to go sniffing elsewhere.”
I had to cover my mouth to keep from spitting the champagne I’d just taken a sip of. My eyes watered as some went up my nose and burned. He smirked as he watched me.
“Might as well have her spread the word to the other brother, too, in case he has any intentions of trying to move in on what belongs to me.”
“I told you they were like my brothers.”
He shook his head. “No, baby. No straight man is going to think of a woman who looks like you as his sister if they aren’t related,” he told me as he wrapped a strand of my hair around his finger. “But damn if I don’t love how fucking naive you are. It’s cute.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I am not naive.”
“Yeah, Shakespeare, you are. Trusting, kind, thoughtful, witty,smart, adorable, sexy as hell, and incredibly naive.” He reached over with his other hand and pinched my chin, tilting my head back further. “You’re fucking precious.”
Okay, so maybe I could live with being called naive. My stomach fluttered, and every cell in my body tingled. Oh, what my sixteen-year-old self would have thought if she’d known one day that Ransom Carver would call her all of those things. I smiled, thinking about her, the girl I had once been. She was so lost and broken, but she’d been a fighter.
If only I could go back and tell her how proud I was of her and what all she would overcome.
“All I have is tonight,” he said huskily. “I’ll have to go handle things in the morning. You might not hear from me for a while. But you will be all I think about. I’ll watch over you. I’ll know where you are and if you need me. But I can’t be with you. Not right now. I just need you to trust me.”
I swallowed as my throat began to tighten. What was it he had to do? After all this, I had thought he’d be coming back to my apartment and staying for a couple of days.
“Your number was disconnected,” I told him.
He’d not explained that. Actually, there was a lot he hadn’t explained, but I was going to leave it for tomorrow. I had wanted tonight to be magical. But if he wasn’t going to be here …
“I know. That wasn’t my doing. I have another. I can’t give it to you because I don’t know if your calls are being traced.”
“My calls?” I asked, confused.
He nodded, then let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah. Shit I can’t tell you, Shakespeare, and I’m sorry. When it’s over, I will explain. But for now, trust me.”
I swallowed hard, not wanting to ask the next question, but needing to know at the same time.
“When you said your being here was going to get you killed …” The last word got stuck in my throat.
He shook his head. “I’ll be fine.” Then he leaned down and pressed a kiss to my lips. Gentle, the briefest brush. “I have too much to live for, Shakespeare. We have that forever I promised you’d get.”
Twenty-Two
Ransom
This was peace. The silence. Noa curled up against my chest, asleep, my fingers slipping through her silky locks as I watched her. I much preferred this version of observing her while she slept. I could hold her, touch her, and even feel her heart beating, see the pulse in her neck, watch her slow, even breathing up close. I didn’t want to ever fucking leave.
But that wasn’t my reality. If I wanted this—and I did, more than my next breath—then I had to go. I wanted her safe and away from the dangers of my life, but I also needed her so goddamn much. It wasn’t fair, but had my life ever been fair? I’d not been born into a family where I got to make my own decisions. I didn’t have the freedom to decide I wanted to move off and do something different.
Truth was, I’d never resented it until now. Until I was told I couldn’t have the one thing on this earth I was willing to die tohave. Her. Noa. My Shakespeare. The girl who had charmed me with her wit and brain alone when she was only sixteen. Even back then, when shit got dark, I had found myself thinking of her last witty comment, and I’d text her. Needing to be distracted. To smile.
If I were any other man, I wouldn’t have heard it. The smallest click. Most would have assumed it was another guest going into the room nearby. But I wasn’t most. I knew exactly what it was, but the who I wasn’t certain of.
Easing my arm out from under Noa, I slipped from the bed, grabbing my jeans without bothering to find my briefs, and jerked them on silently. I reached under the mattress, where I’d hidden my .22, just as the light from the hallway spilled ever so briefly into the entryway.
Flattening myself against the wall, I eased closer to the corner, where whoever had the disengage tool on hand to unlock the bolt to a hotel room door was just as fucking silent as me. This was family. It had to be. They’d found me. I probably had a goddamn tracker on me and didn’t realize it.
I was fucking pissed. Linc could have stayed out there and called me. I’d have come out. They didn’t have to break into the room where Noa slept. Damn him and his commands. This wasn’t her fault, and they had no right getting so damn close to her. If she woke up, she’d be terrified. It was best I faced them and left quietly. Although I didn’t even have on my boots.
