Page 29 of Shep
He held up his hand, then came over to me. I backed up, bumping into the counter. “You’re staying here from now on.”
Outside, the wind whipped and whistled. I wasn’tmaking it a quarter mile, let alone back to his parents’ house in this weather.
I looked up at him, at the fierceness I saw. The anger. The… something. Something I didn’t understand.
“I can’t stay with you,” I said. “You’re my boss.”
“Yeah, you said that at Ma and Pops’. You know why I bought you Saturday night?” he asked, cupping my face with his big hands. I felt the rough callouses on his palms. Their heat.
I blinked. The answer was obvious. “Um… so you could have sex with me.”
He shook his head, gaze locked onto mine.
“I bought you so none of the others could have you.”
I couldn’t help but frown because he wasn’t making any sense. “What?”
“You heard me.” His voice was almost lethal. “I saw you standing up on that dumbass tree trunk coffee table and I wanted you as my own. I declared you mine then and there.”
He wanted me as his own? He’d saidminethat night, but I thought it’d been in the heat of the moment or because he’d spent so much money that he had earned the right to be greedy with the other guys.
“But you were determined to sell yourself and I’d pay anything to keep you safe.”
“We still had sex,” I reminded, still confused.
Heat flared in his eyes at the reminder, then his gaze dropped to my lips, as if he were doing anything he could not to kiss me. “It was only a matter ofwhen. Sex with you was happening. You felt the connection between us. Hell, you were dripping for it.”
My cheeks heated because he was right and he knew it. He’d felt it. He’dlickedit.
“Your first time was gonna be with me, cherry.” Why did his deep voice make that sound so sexy?
“Then what changed?” I asked. “You said no sex yesterday morning.”
He huffed, dropped his hands and stepped back. “You’re my employee and that gives me power. Not the good kind like in bed when you give me control.”
My mind went to that idea, but he plowed ahead.
“You obviously needed the money if you were at Rocky’s Saturday night. You wanted a job at my shop. You said you needed it. I didn’t want you to think sex was a condition of the job. I’m not a dick.”
“Then you do want me?”
I’d been alone for so long I didn’t even understandwhyShep would want me.
Surprising me, he picked me up in his arms andcarried me to the sofa. Dropped down onto it, then tugged me onto his lap. I sat sideways so my legs dangled, his arm around my back.
“More than anything,” he said, with more vehemence than I’d heard from him. “That means I need you to tell me what’s going on so I can take care of it.”
I shook my head. “I can’t put my problems onto my boss. I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for years.”
His fingers on my hip clenched and I felt a rumble in his chest. A growl?
“You aren’t alone any longer, cherry. Don’t think of me as your boss.”
My eyes flared wide in panic. “You’re firing me?”
“No. But I’m your man now. Tell me what’s going on. Colt said you were evicted.”
I took a deep breath, let it out. I couldn’t ever remember sitting in someone’s lap before.
