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“Orderher?” I laugh hysterically. I guess we’re in a world where we can just order up whatever we want. Sex. Food. Murders. At least, that’s how Johnny sees it. “Right,” I say. “Your dad…hired you an escort. Well, isn’t that…fucking insane?” I end. I’m too pissed to try to tiptoe around their father-son dynamics. What kind of father fucking does that?
“He thought he was helping.”
I laugh again. I’m totally jumping straight into the deep end on this one. “Helping? That doesn’t even make any fucking sense. He knows you’re with me.”
“Enough!” Johnny roars, shoulders tightening, muscles popping out of his jaw and arms. His ice-blue eyes cold and unfeeling.
I take a step back. The old Johnny just peeked his head out of the sand. Again.
If I was having an argument with a normal boyfriend, I’d get the fuck away. I’d take a walk. I’d calm down. I’d get the hell out of his face before I smashed it, but Johnny Rocket isn’t a normal boyfriend. I glance around the suite and realize there’s nowhere to escape. I can’t get away from him. I’m just here to do whatever he feels like with me.
He moves toward me, and I back away. “Kyla,” he growls out, a warning if I ever heard one. He takes another step toward me, and I do the same, getting just out of reach of his fingertips. He stops, glaring at me. “Don’t.”
I press my lips together, arching a brow in challenge.
He steps forward again, and I retreat. He makes a noise of pure exasperation, taking several quick steps forward. Each step he takes toward me, I take one back until my legs hit the side of the couch, and I end up planting my ass on the cushions, Johnny following after me. I try to push him away now, but he takes my hands and pins them over my head while he straddles my lap.
My chest raises and lowers with every rapid breath I take.
“Let me fucking explain.”
“You can explain without touching me.”
“No, I can’t. Because I need to remind you of the connection we have.” He lowers himself over me, his chest grazing my nipples. They peak to attention despite the fury brewing inside me. “Now, if you’re settled,” he says, placing both of my hands in one of his and using his other to cup my cheek. “…I’ll fucking tell you what just happened.”
Unwillingly, my heart skips a beat. Despite the fact that I’ve just worked out all my sexual frustration not an hour ago, desire returns between my legs. I try to stop it in its tracks. “If this is about you fucking other women, I already told you how I felt about that.”
His touch circles around to cup my chin. His fingers bite into me a little before letting go just as quickly. He rubs his thumb over the sting and then cups my cheek again. “I wanted to have a nice dinner with you because we need to discuss things.”
I swallow. His close proximity cages me in. I’m wrapped up in him again. He was right that we have this crazy connection. I just can’t understand it.
“After what happened between us the other day,” he starts, voice calming by the second. It’s taking him great restraint, but the more he talks, the more relaxed he and his body become. “I had a talk with my dad. I asked him to explain the stipulations of his rules regarding us, specifically our romantic relationship. I told him that we both want to take it to the next level, but that webothdidn’t want to do anything to jeopardize his faith in me.”
I couldn’t give a rat’s fucking ass about his pathetic excuse for a father and his archaic rules. I look away.
Johnny patiently moves my face back to look at him. “I reiterated that I want you more than ever. Not sexually, but in life. He suggested we move into separate rooms.”
I blink, everything coming to focus. My hairbrush and clothes. I don’t even need to look around to know that my shit isn’t in this suite anymore. “That’s why my things are gone?”
He nods.
My temple throbs. I’m constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve by making plans, but sometimes, I’m just too fucking tired. I never thought it would be this hard, but since real feelings have entered the picture, I’m constantly having to war against them. What’s best for me and what’s best for my ultimate goal are sometimes so completely at odds it’s enough to drive me fucking insane.
However, anger has gotten me here now, so I lead with that. “So, because your daddy says we have to live separately, you’re going to follow along? You moved me out of your place without even telling me, or hell, asking me?”
His icy blues flare at me again. I’m prodding the beast, but with Johnny, maybe I sometimes like it. Subconsciously, maybe I’m trying to make him into the terrible person I want him to be so I can completely write him off.
Or maybe I do just get off on this shit.
“You’re the one who threw yourself at me.”
“I’ve never had guys complain before.”
He gets in my face, noses touching. My heart stops for a second. “Don’t ever fucking talk about you with other guys again,” he seethes. “You’remine.”
Theoretically, getting out of Johnny’s suite is a good move. More freedom, maybe. But I’m used to having someone around again. When I was at my aunt and uncle’s, it was just me. Now I have people who care, and just because this one is psycho, doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. “It’s not right,” I tell him. “You’ve told me before that your dad wouldn’t be in our sex life, but he is. You told me we’d have freedom, where is it?”
“Give it time.”