Page 14 of Sly (Dragon Riders MC 5)
She sighed. “Do I have to, though?”
She even gave me the puppy dog eyes and the pouty lip, which was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen in my life. It didn’t change my mind, though. I couldn't let it.
“Yes, you do,” I said.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. But you owe me.”
I leaned my lips to her ear. “Trust me, I’ll cash in when we’re alone again.”
And after I watched goosebumps prickle against the nape of her neck, I relinquished her to her brother. Watching them ride off into the distance as the sun set beyond the trees.
Leaving me in darkness to clean up what could have been had B’Chains not been such a cock-block.6TaraI did my best not to touch Ben at all until we were back at the apartment. I didn’t want to hold onto him for stability or grip his shirt to keep myself level with the movements of the bike. All I wanted was to be as far away from him as possible, by any means necessary. I was infuriated with him for crashing my date like that. He had absolutely no fucking right to do as such.
Plus, I had no clue how the hell he found us.
“Are you out of your damn mind?” Ben asked as he parked the bike.
I hopped off and made my way up the steps quickly until I shouldered my way into his apartment. I made a beeline for my room, ready to close the door and lock it. But Ben had always moved quicker than me. He had always been stronger and much more agile, since he was the gym rat and I was more of a binge-watching television kind of person.
So, the second I went to close my door, his hand stopped it. And he invaded my room without a second thought.
“I asked you a question, Tara.”
I snickered. “Doesn’t mean I have to answer.”
“You will if you want to stay here with me.”
I glared up at him. “Or what? You’ll toss me out onto the street like some common beggar? Is that what you’re going to do if I don’t follow your every rule? And you wonder why you can’t keep a fucking girlfriend.”
He pointed in my face. “That’s because my job has me traveling so damn much.”
I slapped it out of the way. “Or maybe it’s because you’re a controlling, demanding, bull-headed human being that no woman can stand.”
His nostrils flared. “What the hell were you doing out there with him? You know he’s dangerous.”
I narrowed my eyes. “How did you find us anyway?”
His eye twitched. “What?”
My back stiffened. “We were out there for two or three hours before you found us. How did you find us, Ben?”
“Does it matter?”
I shoved his chest. “Yes, it matters.”
He stumbled back toward the doorway. “Put your hands on me again and see what happens.”
I looked him dead in his eyes and shoved him again, pushing him out into the hallway.
“What? You gonna beat me up? Huh?” I asked.
I went to shove him again, but he stood his ground. He refused to be moved, and the blow-back from my own shove forced me to the ground. And all he did was stand there, hovering over me. Looking down on me, like I was another common criminal he was chasing.
“I used your phone’s GPS to track you. I was worried when I got home from work and you weren’t here. Disappeared without so much as a note.”
I snickered as I stood up. “Can you blame me? I mean look at how you’re reacting right now.”
“And how do you think Mom and Dad would react to you being on a damn date in the middle of nowhere with a man who has killed people?”
“Sly hasn’t killed anyone.”
“You want to bet on that?”
I paused. “He hasn’t killed anyone, has he?”
He sighed, placing his hands on my shoulders. “I’ll talk with my boss and see if I can’t get this man’s file unclassified long enough for you to take a look. Because if you’re really hellbent on seeing this guy? You need to know exactly who he is and exactly what he’s done. Because it’s not good, Tara. Sly is easily the nastiest of that crew, and you have to stay away from him. For your own safety, okay?”
I giggled bitterly. “Out of this entire evening? With you and him? I felt the safest with him.”
He clicked his tongue. “If that’s how you feel, then that’s fine. But just because you don’t like what I did doesn’t mean I won’t do everything in my power to make sure you stay alive and you stay safe. Even if that means putting you up in an apartment somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else?”
“Somewhere out of state.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Even if you did that, I still wouldn’t go.”
“If I went to my boss right now and told him what you just pulled, he’d insist you be put into a protection program. All it takes is my honesty, and you’re out of this town.”
