by V. Theia
She came up short as she saw who Tag was talking with.
Fabulous. Sofia was back.
And she had her head tipped up in reverence to him, with a hand on Tag’s chest.
It was not possible for Marianna to hear what was being said over the Eminem song playing.
Jealousy came alive, burning her from the gut upward.
Was Sofia in love with him? Her adoring eyelash flutters, and territorial touch said as much.
Did he have feelings for her, if not now, then before?
She watched him shake his head, grab her upper arm and all but drag Sofia across the gym. They disappeared into his office, slamming the door hard enough she felt it ricocheting in her stomach.
She was sick with unfiltered jealousy.
Dropping the cookies on a table near his office, she all but sprinted away before she eavesdropped.
There was no claim on him, was there?
She’d kept her feelings so locked tight, he had no idea how she felt.
It was her own dumb fault if he was fucking Sofia on his desk right now.
God, her belly revolted at the thought.
Old Marianna, the confident one, would have thumped on the door to demand to know what was going on with her man.
If he could have real happiness, baggage free, with a gorgeous woman like Sofia, shouldn’t she want that for Tag?
It took her 2.4 seconds to come up with the answer.
No. She didn’t want him happy with someone like the viperous shrew.
She wasn’t the one for Tag.
What about you… are you the one for him, Marianna?
She waited.
And she watched.
It felt like hours, but in reality it was only minutes before the blonde came strutting out in her tight trousers and fluffy winter boots. The moment Sofia caught Marianna’s eyes, she deviated direction, coming straight for her.
“Is there something I can help you with?”
Maybe stab you in the neck with your own acrylic nails.
Trap your head in the vending machine or bury you in a snowdrift.
“You can stay the hell away from my man for a start, is what you can do for me.”
While it didn’t come as a surprise, the spit of words from the younger woman’s tight lips raised Marianna’s brow. “Excuse me?”
“You speak atrocious English, babe, might want to fix that while you’re in America, but you understand me fine. You need to stay away from Tag. Having you around only makes him play the hero. He likes to help weak people who are too dumb to help themselves. No offense.”
“You misunderstand me. I meant,” Marianna stared her dead in the eye, unfazed by the threat. One possessive woman would not make her cower. She’d endured the fucking mafia. “Would you like a towel or a key card for the steam room?”
The woman made a noise like a hissing cobra. “You don’t want to become a person of interest to me, do you understand? It won’t work out well for you. So stay the fuck away from Tag. He’s mine. He’s always been mine, and he always comes back to me when he’s had his fun with his little projects. I’ve seen how you look at him.” Marianna wanted to know when. Save for the three times seeing this woman, she hasn’t been around her before.
Bitch was a liar.
“Don’t set your heart on his, babe. It’s not yours to have.”
Before she could spit her own retort, a stern voice got there first. “The exit is that way, Sofia.” Tag said, icily.
The woman’s nastiness morphed into a smile, giving Tag a finger wave. “Sure, babe, have to head to work.” The stare aimed at Marianna would have turned her to stone had these been biblical times. Watching Sofia strut out, she turned to Tag, who was watching her with serious, unsmiling eyes.
Not as though she was his girlfriend with rights to bitch him out.
His sigh, when she walked away, gusted across the gym.
Trying to keep Sofia’s words out of her head.
He likes to help weak people who are too dumb to help themselves.
Don’t set your heart on his. It’s not yours to have.
Was she a project to him?
She’d never felt that way.
When she’d held him at arm’s length, he’d been the one to push for closeness.
It didn’t explain Sofia’s status, though.
The hour was late, and the weather was chilly when she finally pushed open the door to leave that night. Her simple snow boots skidded to a halt when she saw Tag climbing out of his truck parked out front. He came around and opened the passenger side door without a word.
His stance was challenging as though expecting her to refuse.
“Spasiba.” She thanked him and climbed in. The blast of the heat hitting her in the face as she slipped on the seatbelt was welcome while she watched him climb in.
There were many things she could have said as a conversation starter.
How was your day?
Did you have a good training session?
Are you excited for your fight?
Though, maybe not that one because Marianna wasn’t excited for him, she didn’t want him to get seriously hurt again.
After fiddling with her phone to make sure she was about to say the right thing. It was nothing so polite when she spoke. “You have lousy taste in girlfriends, Tag. She’s clearly a cobra.”
Sitting forward with her gloved hands tucked neatly on her lap, Marianna didn’t need to look at Tag to feel the temperature around him dropping to below frigid.
“I happen to disagree. But I think we’re talking about different girlfriends.”
What did he mean by that?
“What I mean is, the woman you are seeing is pretty horrible.”
“She’s damn near perfect.”
Ow. Ow. Ow. An enormous ball of pain swirled in Marianna’s belly.
Okay then, now she had her answer. If he liked a mean girl, that was his business.
“When she’s not fucking avoiding me,” he finished, taking a left at the lights. She realized he was heading to her place and not his. Something sour pooled into her mouth. She didn’t realize how mad he was at her until he snapped responses.
She’d regrouped and licked her wounds. Accepted she’d failed again, and then she’d spent as much time with the kids as she could.
They were fine. Healthy and cared for.
They could be in a worse situation if not for Galina.
In amidst her family drama, she hadn’t accounted for Tag’s feelings.
Reason #543 of why she wasn’t any better for Tag either.
She was another form of Sofia when she thought about it. She might not be a cunning bitch, but Marianna was using Tag, wasn’t she? Using him to keep her heart beating, for a piece of normalcy, for the way he made her feel good.
Her heart wanted so badly to crawl across the console and climb into his chest.
“You are being vague.” She all but huffed. “You know I don’t catch these things.”
“And you are not being direct. Say what you wanna say now you’re not ignoring me.” He pulled up outside of her building and turned to face her.
Moody eyes, stern face. So, so handsome.
He still stole her breath.
Her stupid heart wanted.
“I was not ignoring you.”
“Felt like it.”
“Well.” That was fair. “I was not.”
“You didn’t come to me.”
God, did he have a response to everything? Marianna scrunched up her nose, laced her gloved fingers together to stop from reaching for him. Because that’s all she wanted to do. She wanted to touch him and smell him and climb onto his lap.
“I had thoughts to work through.”
“And have you?”
“Da. I think so, yes.”
His sigh took her by surprise because it was as big as the whole of Colorado. She swiped her gaze to him in time to see him reaching over and then snapped open her belt, plucked h
er from the seat and Tag plonked her into his lap sideways. “Don’t like you being so fucking far away.”
His face went immediately to the side of her neck.
Marianna sighed because her world righted again.
For days now she’d felt so unsteady, so lost and alone, and she thought she knew why.
Of course it was her family.
But now she was learning it was because of the distance she’d put between her and Tag.
He made things right in her world.
Desperate fingers, with a mind of their own to touch him, creeped into his hair, scratching a manly moan out of him.
“How would Sofia think about me being here?”
Tag growled. “Fuck Sofia.”
“Da. I think that is what she wants.” The thought of him with her, or anyone else, made her earlier tuna sandwich sit heavily in her belly.
She was possessive over a man she had no rights to.
His head reared up with eyes so stormy and breathtaking.
“You listen up, brat. You’re going around the fucking houses not to ask me about Sofia. So I’ll tell you straight so you can’t use it against me to put up more walls between us. Sofia and me were a thing a long time ago. It was casual, and it suited us that way until it didn’t. Until she wanted more from me than I could give, and she started to play stupid fucking games to get what she wanted. She flirted with my boys, got clingy.” Marianna’s fingers caught in his hair to keep the connection between them. “It also included walking in on her poking holes in my condoms.”
“She… she wanted to trap you with a child?”
“Crazy yeah? She doesn’t like to lose, and that’s why you’re seeing her at the gym. I don’t wanna be mean, that’s not me, but she doesn’t get the message we were over a long time ago. She saw me with you at the bar and put two and two together and turned into jealous Cruella with a headful of catty games she knows I won’t play.”
Marianna didn’t understand some of his words, but she got the gist.
“You are not together and she’s acting jealous because of… us?”
“Yes.”
Oh. Well.
“She’s warned me off you twice.” She shared. Tag became still. “She fucking what? When?” Marianna told him and was rewarded with his great powerful growl coming from his chest. “The fuck, Anna. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I thought she was your girlfriend.”
“You thought I had a woman, even while I was putting my head under your skirt to taste your pussy as often as I could? Putting you in my bed… following you around like a besotted puppy.”
Time slipped sideways. Her vision became blurry.
He hadn’t ever used that tone with her before.
After a long time, shame clinging to her skin, she looked at him. “I know. I’m sorry, Tag.”
“You thought I had a woman, and you still wanted me.” This time his voice was smoke, and the talons of it curled around her throat with an invisible hold. His stare did something squirmy to her tummy.
“You know I make bad decisions.” She breathed. “I’m famous for it.”
That’s when he grinned. “Not about this.”
Indeed. Not about him.
“Admit it.” He rasped, his hand snaked around the back of her neck, squeezing. Marianna swallowed her groan of pleasure and felt more of her world steady again. It felt like weeks since he touched her. All her fault. “Admit you feel this between us, Anna.”
She playfully narrowed her eyes at his tone. “This is not the time to boss me around.”
“Isn’t it?” A devastatingly hot grin twitched his lips. “I get results when I demand shit. You never volunteer how you feel or what you want until I coax it out of you.”
Dammit. She couldn’t even feign being mad, not when his magic fingers stroked and charmed her into melting.
He wanted pure, undeniable love. He deserved that and so much more.
And Marianna didn’t know if she was capable of that.
Could she give him everything and risk losing more of her heart?
“I did not like thinking about you having a girlfriend.” She admitted.
“But I do have a girlfriend. She just hasn’t caught up to where I am yet.” He smirked darkly, like how she’d imagined a despicable demon with deviant intentions would. “I can wait.”
Her heart clobbered inside her rib cage and he leaned in and kissed her softly. “I want you at my fight. And then afterward, gonna start taking my girl on dates.”
It took her a second to switch gears.
“You do?” Now her heart raced for another reason. She ran her finger down his raised facial scar. Marianna remembered all too well the pain he was in and the surgeries he had to endure to fix the bones. She didn’t want that to happen again, or something worse. “What if… what if something bad happens again? I don’t want you to get hurt.”
His eyes softened, and his lips trailed along hers, tempting her.
Oh, she was tempted to take her clothes off right here. Every nerve ending she had was dancing under her skin.
“I’m good at what I do.”
“You were good last time and then you were blinded, Luke. Please don’t go blind or get killed. I would be furious with you.”
She sounded all pitiful, and he grinned widely.
“I won’t, darlin’.”
Soothed by his tone, she had to trust that he knew what he was doing, but it wouldn’t stop her from worrying. Not at all.
“Are you coming inside? I will make dinner.”
Tag was easily won over when it concerned his stomach.
She’d missed him terribly and wanted him close.
“My trainer doesn’t want me to exert energy.”
She didn’t quite understand; she wasn’t asking him to bench press the sofa, though his arms were thick enough to be capable.
“That means, darlin’, if I come inside I’m gonna want to fuck you and it won’t be a quick fuck either. It’ll be all night and into tomorrow until you’ve drained me.”
Stunned lust charged like a damn horse. “Oh.” Was all she could reply. Because in all honesty… she wouldn’t mind that at all. Keeping Tag at a distance hadn’t worked, not when her body craved him like a junkie.
“Don’t say it, Anna.” He rasped against her lips. She felt his hands span her hips, squeezing them. He must have read the words on her face, the ones where she invited him in to expel some of his fighter energy. “Not strong enough to refuse you if you tell me you want me inside you tonight.”
“You are the strongest man I have ever known.” The truth came kind of breathy as her thumb traced his scar. He shuddered, laid his forehead against hers, and then deposited her on her own seat before climbing out of the truck.
She was smiling when he pulled open her door.
She’d rattled him.
Big, tough fighter. And she’d rattled him.
Oh, how her heart sputtered.
“You told me I should let you know when I was ready.” She teased.
It was a delight to see how strained he looked, and Marianna grinned behind her glove.
She’d always wanted a man with clear intentions. And that was Tag.
A man who made an effort and was excited to spend time with her. Tag had more than proved that these past few days.
A man who wanted to want her.
She’d always known if a man had to fight himself to be with her, then chances were, he'd never fight for her if it came down to it.
What woman would ever choose somebody like that?
In this instance, she’d done the fighting, but she didn’t want to fight against them, but for them. To grab onto any happiness, for however long it lasted for. A lifetime wasn’t guaranteed, but today? Tomorrow? She could hold on to that if it meant she got to look at Tag’s face.
“You are a wicked woman.” He growled without heat and hooked her around the back of her neck. The next thing she knew, she was b
eing kissed roughly.
A hot, sweet tongue lashed her until his taste exploded.
Marianna turned loose against him.
He sent her up the side of the stairs a minute later with her lips swollen and a promise it would be continued soon.
God, she hoped so.
If they’d been aware of their surroundings, instead of being intoxicated in each other, they would have seen the dark gray car parked up the street.
And the livid woman behind the wheel.
Watching them.
TWENTY-SIX
“Careful what you wish for, Tag.” - Lawless
Earlier that night
“Prince Charming, I hear you need something.”
Tag smiled as he leaned his ass against the desk in the office. He’d been getting the invoices and books ready for the accountant—fuck; he hated being legal sometimes.
He hadn’t heard that rusty voice in a while.
“How’s it going, enforcer? Thought I was gonna have to take a ticket and get in line to talk to you. For a man in prison, you’re fucking busy.” He joked.
Lawless laughed, and it sounded like death had come calling.
“Boredom is a weakness I never thought I’d roll around in.” he confessed with amusement. Or whatever passed for amusement for Lawless.
“Aren’t you still entertaining yourself with the C.O.?”
“No, he became clingy, but has his uses when I need someone to play look-out while I make a call.”
Tag chuckled. Only Lawless would have a besotted guard under his thumb.
“I hear you have a woman.”
“Snake is a fucking gossip.”
“That he is.”
“She’s called Marianna. And it’s because of her why I needed to talk to you.”
“She’s on the up and up?”
“She’s not a sleeper cell for the Bratva, if that’s what you’re asking.”
The question was innocent and typical of Lawless.
Had he been on the outside, he would have done an in-depth search on Marianna.
Knowing this, it didn’t stop the bite to Tag’s voice.
He heard Lawless’ corroded chuckle. “That’s good. So what can I do for your woman?”
In a few sentences, Tag laid it out what he needed and why.