Shade(159)

Shade wasn’t pacified when he heard footsteps running up the steps and saw Razer coming down the hallway. He stepped back into the bedroom.

“What’s going on?” Razer asked, seeing his wife’s pale face and Lily standing in the middle of the bedroom.

“Your wife is interrupting a discussion I’m having with Lily. Out of respect, I’m letting you handle your woman, but she needs to understand that, when Lily and I are arguing, she needs to back the fuck off.”

“Razer, he was yelling at her,” Beth defended herself.

“I’m not that crazy-as-fuck father of yours. I am not going to hurt her, but I am going to spank her because she took an unnecessary risk.”

Beth gasped. “Are you listening to him, Razer? He is not going to spank my sister. She’s a grown woman.”

“Yes, she is, and it’s time you realized that. Razer and I are brothers, and you and Lily are going to be sharing this house and our lives together for a long time, so we need to set some boundaries. One is that, when our door is closed and we’re arguing, you mind your own business. She can cry on your shoulder later, but you do not interrupt me again. I keep my nose out of your shit; you need to keep your nose out of mine.”

Razer put his arm around Beth. “He’s right, Beth. Deep down, you know he’s right. I would be pissed as hell if Lily or Shade came knocking at our door when I was giving you hell.”

Beth looked up at Razer.

“It was my fault,” Lily admitted. “I asked Rachel to drive me home after Shade had already asked Pastor Dean. Then I stopped at our house.”

“Lily, it’s not safe there for you.” Beth’s worried face gazed back at her from the doorway.

“I wasn’t thinking about that. I wanted my shampoo.”

“Your shampoo?”

At Beth’s dumbfounded expression, Lily explained. “I didn’t want my hair to smell like Jewell’s, Bliss’s or Evie’s. I wanted it to smell like mine.”

Beth’s eyes flew angrily to Shade, her mouth snapping open.

“We’re leaving,” Razer said in amusement. “I’ll handle her. Your door is off-limits when you’re pissed. Got it. Later, brother.” He turned a red-faced Beth away from the door, closing it behind them.

“I will never understand you, will I?” Shade said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“How would you like it if I doused you in Charles’s cologne? If every time you breathed in, you smelled like him?”

Shade winced at her words as she drove her point home.

She took a step forward, sliding her arms around his waist, laying her head on his chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

Shade’s arms tightened, drawing her nearer. “Next time, will you at least call me and tell me there’s been a change in plans? I almost had a heart attack when the silent alarm went off, and I saw you on the camera.”

“I will. I’m sorry, Shade.” Lily looked up at him, smiling in apology.

“Let’s go eat dinner. You can sit there and gloat while Beth throws me dirty looks,” he said in resignation.

Fuck, he was going to have to call Lucky back and apologize, too.

He shut the bedroom door behind them, seeing her happy expression. She thought she had manipulated him into forgiving her, and he begrudgingly admitted to himself that she had. It was a sad day when he found himself wrapped around a woman’s finger, and he hadn’t even fucked her yet. He was going to be in deep shit when she learned she could manipulate him with sex.#p#分页标题#e#

“Fuck,” he muttered as they went down the steps.

“Did you say something?” Lily asked, looking back over her shoulder with a soft smile.

“I think I’m having crow for dinner.”

* * *

Shade watched Lily, Beth, and Winter do the dishes as he played cards with Razer and Cash at the kitchen table. Lily blushed when she caught his gaze on her.

Before dinner, they had been playing around, and she had run up the stairs ahead of him. He had then caught her watching Raci and Train fucking in the room across from theirs. He had seen nothing except embarrassment and curiosity at her catching sight of Train and Raci. For a brief second, he had thought he might even have seen a brief flash of longing, but he couldn’t be sure. However, she hadn’t spiraled into the panic attack the sight once would have once caused.

It was almost Thanksgiving, and the woman had made huge strides since Halloween. He hadn’t touched her intimately since the night he had spanked her; instead, he had used every opportunity possible to fuel her desire without giving her the pleasure he expertly judged she wanted to experience again.