I checked in quick, eyeballing her the entire time as she stood at least five feet away from me. The sorry fuck at the counter learned awhile ago not to look at the brothers like they were animals. The other boys had shown him what this patch meant the last few seasons when they came here with their girls, and the media did the rest.
The Grizzlies were the biggest swinging dicks in NorCal again ever since we'd chased off the cartel. The Prez meant to keep it that way by keeping our Tacoma charter locked down tight, reminding me I was just a cog in a greater machine.
Just like her.
I got our keys from the nervous asshole behind the counter, then grabbed her tense little hand and led her to the elevator. A man could've cut the tension in the small space between us with a goddamned knife. I couldn't wait to get her clothes off and diffuse all that manic energy the best way I knew how.
When we stepped into the room, she walked straight to the window and paused, looking over the darkening mountains. Elle turned, hitting me with those ocean blue eyes for the first time since I reminded her what wearing my name meant.
“Don't get any ideas. I meant everything I said. I swear to God, Asphalt, if you try to force anything, I will tell my father. The truce won't hold if he knows you're treating me like shit. You'd better believe you're not just holding the ball, but the whole court.” She took a tentative step closer, her lips trembling, trying to lay down the law like I did – and failing miserably.
Sure looked cute when she tried to twist my balls, though. I fought the instinct to tear her lily white clothes to shreds and take what was mine.
But I wasn't a complete sonofabitch. I used my ears and shut off my cock, striding across the room, closing the distance between us.
“So, you're telling me if I toss you on that bed and throw those panties across the room, a whole bunch of people are gonna die? It'll all be my fault, yeah?” I gestured to the huge king sized bed, so plush the damned thing was begging to be defiled. “Because that's what's gonna happen if this fuckery between us falls through.”
“Yep,” she said coldly. “Go ahead and try it. I won't be able to stop you. But I can scream from the rooftops after the fact, and that won't be on me. It'll be you, asshole, and nobody else.”
It must've taken every little molecule of courage she had to reach out and jab her finger into my chest. I waited all of five seconds before I lunged, grabbed her wrist, spun her around, and had her against the wall so fast her head spun like a damned rocket misfiring.
“I'm not the evil motherfucker you think I am. I'm your husband, babe, and you're my old lady. My wife. You'd better believe I own you, but you're a fucking fool if you think I'd ever hurt you.” I tore myself away from her, listening as relief poured out her lungs.
She stopped back on the bed. We stared at each other for several hellish seconds, her eyes softening as she met the anger, the want, the shame in mine.
I still couldn't believe she thought I'd fuck her without any of it. I'd never sunk so low, and I sure as shit wasn't gonna start with Elle.
I'd have her sooner or later, oh yeah. But I'd make her beg for my cock. Wouldn't give her a single inch 'til she was dripping, moaning, coming apart at the seams if I didn't fuck her that very second.
“Asphalt...Austin...I didn't mean it like that. I don't know what to think. This whole thing is just so much to take in, and then after you talked to me like a Neanderthal at the tattoo shop...”
“Save your words,” I said with a nod. “Seriously, babe. Get cleaned up and get some sleep. We've got a weekend together before we decide what the fuck to do. I'll be a complete gentleman when I'm around, if that's what you're worried about.”
She tilted her head, making her gold locks catch the dying evening light. Damn if I didn't imagine that soft hair clenched in my fist, pulling on it while I bent her over and pounded her like keeping my patch depended on it.
“When you're around?” she repeated.
“Yeah. Look, I'm not sharing a bed with a chick who thinks I'll tear her up while she's fighting it the whole way. I had a dinner planned for tonight since the guys couldn't agree to a reception with so much bad blood between the crews. Fuck it, we can do that tomorrow. Tonight, I'm giving you the greatest wedding gift of all – I'm getting the fuck out and leaving you alone.”
“Austin!”
She yelled my name – the wrong goddamned name – and I cut it off by slamming the door before the whole thing was even outta her mouth.
It'd be a long ride back to Redding. Harder when I made the return trip to the lodge with poison in my veins and my balls much lighter.
If she thought I was gonna stick around and argue all evening on my own fucking wedding night, she was dead wrong. I'd take out my frustrations some other way. I was heading into town for some fun, and I wouldn't be back to deal with her shit 'til sunrise.