by Jordan Marie
“You touch me and I’ll de-ball you in ten seconds. Don’t forget that you taught me how to take care of myself, Liam and I’m damn good at it.”
“I haven’t forgotten, Ice. I also know that because I taught you, I know exactly what you will do. So, you’re free to try. In fact, I want you to. The end result will still be the same. I’m spanking that ass of yours. You’ve got one minute.”
I see the exact moment she begins to get uneasy. She’s remembering who she’s dealing with. I’m not like the boys she used to deal with, the ones that she could lead around with the crook of her finger. I’m a man and I never fit into any box she tried to put me in. That’s part of the reason she fell in love with me. Hell, maybe it’s why I fell in love with her too.
“You aren’t touching me. We’re over Liam. What you pulled out there was bullshit. If I want to go out with Wayne, or any freaking man, I will. There’s not a thing you can do to stop me.”
“If you think that, you’re in for the shock of your life, Ellie. You’re mine. You’ve always been mine and I’m not going to pretend any longer that you’re not.”
“I’m yours?” she asks, disbelief making the words come out as a question, so I feel the need to confirm it and not leave room for argument.
“Mine.”
“You’re delusional.”
I take a step towards her and she backs up, taking two away from me. Pretty soon she’s going to crash into her desk, but since that’s where I want her anyway, I’m more than good with that.
“Turn around and put your hands on the desk, Ice.”
“Go to hell, Liam.”
“That just bought you an extra slap.”
“You take one more step towards me and I’ll have Hank in here so quick your forking head will spin!”
“Forking?” I laugh, knowing that Ellie’s strange words only make an appearance when she’s nervous or pissed. In this case, it’s probably both. It’s kind of hard to tell which, actually. I like both looks on her, so either works for me. She flails around behind her, keeping me in her eyesight the entire time. She picks up the phone and holds it out like it’s some kind of shield between us.
“You come one more step and I’m calling him,” she warns.
“Who in the fuck is Hank?”
“Our bouncer.” She huffs out the words like she’s announcing that the current heavyweight champion of the world is going to come rushing in here to save her. What she apparently hasn’t grasped is that no one can keep her from me. I’d take on the world to keep her. I’ve tasted time without her and I didn’t realize how bitter it was, at least not fully, until I saw her again.
“He’s welcome to try, but you and I both know he’s not keeping me from you, Ice.”
“Liam, be reasonable. We’re divorced.”
“You want another piece of paper between us, Ice?”
“Are you—”
“We’ll go down to the fucking courthouse right now and get that shit done.”
“You are delusional,” she mumbles.
“I’m telling you that I don’t care if it’s been a year or—”
“Liam, it’s been almost two years!”
“Or fifteen years, Ellie,” I snap. “You’re still mine. You’ve always been mine and you always will be.”
“That’s not how it works,” she argues. “You can’t say that and you especially can’t say that shit now. The time to try and keep me with you was when I told you I was going to leave if you went through with Diesel’s orders!”
“And I told you, we’d deal with shit when I got back. You packed up and left. You made your choice and what has become clear as fucking crystal to me is that it was the wrong one!”
“I…I don’t even know what to say to you right now, Liam.”
“Good, because the time for talking is done. Now, you bend over that fucking desk and you offer me your ass.”
“Offer you my…Liam Maverick, if you come near my ass I’ll gut you!”
“There’s my Ice, so full of fire it could heat the fucking world.”
“I’m not your Ice! I’m not anything to you!”
“You know better. There’s no way in hell you believe that, Ellie.”
“I do! You let me walk away, Liam. You didn’t try to find me, you didn’t call, nothing.”
“Ellie—”
“You dismissed my concerns. You treated me like some weak-brained woman who would wait at home and do as you said. You didn’t care that I was scared, and you sure as hell didn’t care if what you were doing would destroy our relationship!”
“Is that what you’re pissed off about the most, Ellie? Because I didn’t come after your ass?”
“No!”
“Liar,” I growl. I have just enough time to duck before she throws the phone at me.
Yeah, my Ellie is definitely back.
Ellie
I hate him. I hate him for so many things, but most of all right now, I’m afraid he’s right. I mean, it tore my heart out to make the decisions that I had to make—that I felt forced to make. I grieved him and he didn’t call to check on me once. He didn’t try to find me. He’s right, that’s what cuts the most. I was so insignificant that he didn’t try to even call me and yell because I left.
I’ve been stupid. This past week I’ve let him back in, all the while hoping something magical would happen and erase the past two years. It’s not. Nothing is going to change what happened, nothing is going to change Liam.
Or me, apparently.
I’m still the girl in love with a man who takes the law into his own hands. I’m still the girl afraid of what his decisions could mean for our future. Except leaving him just assured that we have no future at all. The worst part is, I’m still here in love with him, but now I’m alone and miserable all the time.
And I am miserable.
I live on coffee and doughnuts. I rarely have a regular meal. I work constantly and it’s not because I’m in desperate need for money, although that part is nice. It’s because staying home alone gives me too much time to think and too much time to regret. I do regret leaving Liam. I had my reasons at the time, but my life now is not the same and I miss my husband.
“Stop overthinking, Ice and just admit it,” he murmurs softly, his voice going a little tender. I close my eyes, feeling defeated.
“You didn’t even call me, Liam. Not once. You let me walk away.”
“I gave you what you wanted, Ellie. At least that’s what I thought I was doing.”
“Then, you need to do it again. There’s too much time between us now and way too much butter in the gravy pan.”
“I have no idea what that means, de-Ellie it for me.”
I roll my eyes, but I fall short of smiling. There’s definitely nothing here to smile about.
“Homemade brown gravy is better with bacon grease, but you have these people that make it with butter. It’s a fine line, too much butter and it loses its taste forever. That’s us.”
“You’re comparing us to a food that is made to clog your arteries and kills you?”
“Breakfast isn’t breakfast without gravy,” I remind him, “But, maybe that’s a good analogy. We were something that tastes great on the tongue, but is overall bad for us.”
“I don’t know much about the horseshit you keep digging in, Ice. But, I do remember how great you did taste on my tongue. Starting every morning with my head buried between your legs was my life’s goal. Fuck, if I don’t miss that.”
“That’s just sex, Liam,” I mumble, ignoring the way his words makes these nervous flutters in my stomach. “I’m sure you had me replaced almost as soon as I walked out the door. God knows, the club girls were all itching to fall on your dick while I was there.”
“I warned you before, not to get that shit twisted in your head, Ellie. You’re the only woman I wanted.”
“You proved that while we were together. I’m saying once I left and wasn’t an issue for you anymore,” I defend, wanting
him to know that I never worried about him cheating on me while we were together. He gave me his word and I always believed him. Always. Fury never lied to me. He always laid it out plain and simple. He just never bothered taking me or us into consideration when it mattered most.
“Is that what you did, Ellie? Did you replace me quickly? Did you let someone else between those sexy, long as fuck legs of yours?”
“We’ve been apart for almost two years, Liam. Did you think I’d never find someone to give me what you used to?” I taunt, feeling the anger inside of me begin to fester again. I probably chose the wrong words, though. Because I see his face fill with anger, his entire body tense, his muscles stretch against his tight skin. There’s a reason the men nicknamed Liam, Fury. He’s intimidating as hell when you push him to the edge and his anger takes over. I’ve never been afraid of him, but when he’s like this, it’s only smart to get cautious.
I move away from him, the backs of my legs hitting my desk, as I watch him closely. I’ve always said that Liam had a grizzly bear inside of him. It would seem that I’ve just poked the bear out of hibernation.
“Who was it, Ellie? Was it that fucker outside? Did you let him crawl between your—”
“Stop it, Liam. You don’t have a right to ask me any of this,” I snap. I’ve never been one to back down from Liam’s rage and that hasn’t changed.
“The fuck I don’t.” His voice is quiet but deadly. He walks until he’s pressed against me, his hand at my neck. His thumb pushing against my pulse. “I don’t care how long it has been Ellie, I was your first and you will always belong to me.”
“That’s bullshit and we both know it. Do you expect me to believe you haven’t had one woman since we’ve been apart? What was that whore between your legs the other night? A figment of my imagination?”
“My dick hasn’t been inside another woman since you left, Ice.”
“You never lied to me when we were together, Liam. Don’t start now,” I snarl, his words are painful, because one of the biggest hurts I’ve had to deal with was knowing that by leaving, Liam would be free to give another woman everything that was once mine.
“You know me better than that, Ellie. The one time I decided to say fuck it and try, you show up. If that’s not a sign from above, I don’t know what the hell is.”
“You want me to believe you haven’t been with a woman since me?” I ask, torn between wanting to believe it and afraid of believing it at the same time.
“I’m not saying I didn’t try at first. I’m saying when you left, my shit was left broken,” he says, his lips stretching into an almost smile, that looks a little bitter.
“It didn’t look broken the other night.”
“And maybe it wouldn’t have been if I’d let her finish. I can’t say either way, what I do know is that once you showed up everything changed for me. These past few days have been so fucking good, I know I’m not giving you up.”
“Liam—”
“And I know you need to quit trying to run away, Ellie. Running didn’t work out before. Now we’re here.”
“I live here now.”
“You liked Tennessee.”
“My job is here.”
“There’s a job in Tennessee with your name on it, Ellie.”
“I’m afraid to ask,” I mumble, some of the tension I was feeling finally starting to bleed away.
“The pay sucks, but the fringe benefits can’t be matched,” he jokes, leaving no room to mistake what type of job he’d be offering.
“I can’t promise anything, Liam, and honestly there’s a real chance you might not want me now. I’m not the same person I was when I left.”
“We can take it day by day. I’m not rushing you, Ice. But that fucker out there doesn’t get one more taste of you.”
“He never had one to begin with, you idiot,” I mumble, still confused, but tired of fighting.
“Then—”
“I may have left you, Liam, but I still loved you. You know I’m not the type of woman to do the mattress mambo with someone unless I love them.”
“You did with me after just three days, Ice,” he reminds me. I can feel my face heat as I blush.
“I loved you,” I sigh. “I’ve always loved you, Liam.”
“So, once you left, you were broken, too?” he murmurs, leaning in to nuzzle my neck. I close my eyes, realizing he wants me to give him the words. I should resent that, but for some reason, I don’t.
“Yeah, dummy. I was broken, too.”
“That makes me unbelievably fucking happy, Ice.”
“Because you’re an asshole,” I mutter.
“Probably, but I don’t really give a fuck. But, I’m feeling the need to celebrate…”
“I have to tell you, Liam. I’m not ready to bend over my desk, so if that’s what you’re thinking, you can get that thought out of your mind for now.”
“I can wait as long as you can,” he says with a smirk that tells me I just might be in trouble…
Fury
“Damn it!” I growl, tossing my phone onto the table.
“What’s wrong?” Ellie asks coming in from the kitchen.
“The guy I told you that I’ve spent the last year tracking?”
“Yeah?”
“Sister Evangaline just called. I showed her a picture of this fucker and told her he was dangerous. I told her to contact me if she heard from him.”
“He showed up,” Ellie murmurs.
“Yeah, Ice. I’m fucking sorry, but I’m going to have to cancel on dinner tonight and go over and see what is going on.”
“Can’t you go tomorrow?” she asks, watching me closely. If she only knew how much I want to tell her yes. I can’t though. If there’s even the smallest chance that I might be able to catch Wolf and end his sorry life, then I need to act immediately.
“He just left from there, Ice. If there’s a chance that I can get this asshole, I need to.”
“You’re playing hitman again, aren’t you?”
“Damn straight. This motherfucker deserves to die, Ice. He almost killed Devil, he destroyed Torrent’s life. I want him dead and I want him to fucking suffer when he does it.”
“So the conversation we had yesterday, was just that, right? Nothing has really changed.”
“I am who I am, Ellie. You know that. The club is part of me.”
“And I just have to adapt and pray that whatever you do, doesn’t destroy what we build together,” she responds, watching me closely. I know this is a pivotal moment and a lot rides on it. I can’t lie to her, though. If we go forward it has to be with her eyes wide open. So, I do the only thing I can.
“You leaving nearly destroyed both of us, Ellie. It didn’t change how I feel about you though and I think you still feel the same about me. So tell me, is your solution any better than mine?”
“You don’t have a solution. You just want to me to accept it and ignore the consequences.”
“I want you to love me, Ellie. That’s what I’ve always wanted. I want you to love me the exact same way I love you.”
“Liam…”
“What are your biggest fears about me, Ellie?”
“That you’ll always put your club first when it comes to us and do whatever they ask, not caring what it will do to us.”
“That’s a mouthful…” I respond, rubbing the back of my neck, thinking about what she just said. I let out a sigh as I devise a way to attack her fears.
“You asked,” she says with a shrug, her gaze never wavering.
“Fair enough. How about you answer two questions for me, Ellie.”
“I will try,” she promises.
“What is it you’re so scared of happening to me?”
“You mean besides you going to jail and leaving us separated for the rest of our lives?”
“Aren’t we separated now, Ellie? You’re making your worst-case scenario come true and I don’t have a thing to do with that.”
I watch as she conside
rs what I’m saying. Her face changes and I hope that means I’m getting through to her, but I don’t have any way of truly knowing. I watch the way her throat works as she swallows, my gaze drawn to the nervous way she licks her lips. God, she’s fucking gorgeous. Everything about her turns me on.
“Give me five minutes to change,” she mutters, turning away.
“To change?”
“If you’re going to this church searching for Voldemort, I’m going with you.”
“Voldemort?” I ask, not knowing what in the fuck she’s talking about.
“Harry Potter? The bad guy to end all bad guys?”
“No idea what you’re talking about, Ice.”
“Have you been living under a rock for the past ten years or more?” she asks, her mouth dropping open in disbelief.
“You’re cute as fuck right now, Baby, but I don’t want you near this fucker. He’d kill you without a thought.”
“Then, I guess you’re going to have to protect me.”
“Ellie…”
“You want me to accept you’re this biker who lives by his own set of rules? Then, you’re going to have to let me try, Liam.”
I frown, trying to intimidate her, but it doesn’t work. She crosses her arms at her waist and waits.
“You always were shit when it came to minding me,” I mumble.
“Oh, please, we were married, you weren’t my daddy.”
“It was fun when we pretended I was,” I tell her with a grin.
“Down boy. We’re going slow, remember?”
“We fucked for the first time on our third date. I’ve been here a week and haven’t even got a kiss, Ice. If we go much slower my poor dick will shrivel up like a prune and be covered in dust bunnies.”
“Oh, gross.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“You keeping putting images like that in my mind and we’ll never have sex again, Liam.”
“Get that cute ass of yours upstairs and change before I spank it,” I growl, my cock growing hard at just hearing her say the word sex. Hell, if I ever do get between her legs again, I may never come up for air.