House Rules(48)

“Ray’s in the wind and Marcello has men out looking for both of them.” Dean’s eyes ran over Tess before looking back at me, bracing himself for my reaction. “He checked Tess’s old apartment, but hasn’t been able to find the new one yet. No one seems to know where you’ve gone, Tess.”

“I’d like to keep it that way.” Her hands shook as she set the glass on the table in front of her.

I gripped her chin between my thumb and forefinger. “I told you, nothing is going to happen to you. I need you to trust me on that one.” She gazed into my eyes for a long time before nodding her head once. I turned to face Dean. “I want you to see what you can do about setting up a meeting between Marcello and myself. He needs to understand that Tess is mine now, and if doesn’t back the fuck off we’re going to have real problems.

Dean nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.” He stood and glanced down at Tess. “Sorry we couldn’t meet under better circumstances, but we’ll get all of this taken care of for you.”

Tess tried to smile. “Thanks, Dean, it was nice to meet you, too.”

I didn’t care if it took a bottle of wine, a foot massage, me fucking her until she couldn’t remember her own name, I was going to make her forget everything she’d just learned and make her enjoy the rest of the evening.

Dean nodded at me and left. He’d get everything set up. The question would be whether Marcello would even listen. I needed something else to focus on and dinner with Tess seemed like the perfect topic.

“So . . . dinner?”

“You still want to do dinner after all of this?” She gestured to where Dean had gone through the door.

I took her hand in mine. “I do. Now pick what you want, or I will.”

She went quiet for a moment and I thought I was going to have to put my foot down until she said, “Sushi?”

“Sounds perfect. How about I drive and I’ll bring you back to get your car later? Or I can have Dean or Charlie bring it to the house in a bit so you can go home when you’re ready.”

“I can do that. Are you sure they won’t mind bringing it over?”

“Not at all.” I laughed. “The both probably want every opportunity to gloat.”

She looked puzzled. It was a cute look on her. Fuck, did I just think the word “cute”? “Why would they gloat?”

“How about I tell you over dinner? I’m starving.”

She nodded and I followed her out of the office and through the bar. I saw people watching us, their eyes following the path we made to the doors, I wasn’t interested in their opinions.

Today was a chance for me to learn more about Tess, not worry about bullshit we couldn’t deal with until later.





CHAPTER 16





Theresa




Dinner was nothing like I expected. I thought Miller would spend the whole night trying to sleep with me again. Surprisingly, he was much more forthcoming about his life than I’d expected him to be. I won’t lie and say the wine didn’t help me relax, but this time I made sure to drink each glass slower, savoring the taste and keeping myself from getting drunk.

"You promised to tell me what Ashton said to make you change your mind.”

He smiled. When we got back to his house, he’d changed into jeans and a simple blue T-shirt. In a tailored suit the man was sexy; in a pair of jeans he was an orgasmic feast. One look and you knew the man would help you experience things you never had before. Once again my body was on high alert, but that didn’t stop me from trying to get to know more about him.

“I did. He called me a ‘fucking idiot’ and told me to get my shit together. Said that you weren’t the type to only want sex. He also made me realize that wasn’t all I wanted from you, either.”

And there was the golden question. What did Miller want? Was this some sort of experiment? I saw the way my stepfather treated my mom. That wasn’t what I wanted for my life. He never physically abused her, but that didn’t mean he treated her well.

“And what is it that you want from me? To be honest, I don’t want to be some experiment for the guy who’s never been in a relationship before.”

“Is that what you think?” His tone was harsh and caught me off-guard.

“I’m not sure what to think. I want to believe that you want me . . .” I paused and my voice was low as I admitted, “I guess I’m afraid you’ll get bored of being in a relationship.”

His jaw clenched and unclenched. “It pisses me off that you think that, but I guess I deserve it. I’m not sure this will make you feel any better, but it’s all I have.” He reached over and refilled the almost empty glass in my hand. Warning bells went off in my head that I really wasn’t going to like what he had to say. I took a sip of the drink and braced. “The blonde that came into the bar a few weeks ago was part of my attempt to fuck you out of my system.”