Page 55 of Avenging Azalea (California Made Men #2)

“Answer me, Vera, or do I need to have security throw you out?”

“I came here to talk some sense into you since you wouldn’t take my calls, but I see you’ve decided to slum it rather than be with a powerful woman,” Vera said.

Titus moved so fast that I didn’t even know what was happening until the decorative bust beside Vera exploded. Vera screamed and jumped away as Titus marched toward her with a gun drawn. I covered my mouth, the shock rendering me speechless as I watched.

Vera scrambled as Titus bore down on her until her back hit the wall. He touched the barrel of the gun between her eyes, and I cringed. Was he really going to kill Vera in front of me?

“Titus, please don’t kill her,” I said.

Vera looked truly terrified, and her once-perfect makeup was running in streaks down her face as she cried.

“Since my texts telling you that we’re done, and to stop harassing me, clearly didn’t get through that thick skull of yours, let me make it crystal-fucking-clear now that we’re face to face.” His arm didn’t waver, and it was as if the air in the room held still.

“We. Are. Over,” Titus snarled, the sound sending a shiver down my spine. “You are not welcome here. You show your face again, and my guards will put a bullet in your chest and dig a hole so deep in the Arizona desert, God won’t even be able to find your body.”

Vera whimpered, and I couldn’t believe it, but I felt bad for her.

Yes, she’d brought this on herself, but this was the kind of fear I’d lived through for years before Titus found me.

I’d blocked out so much of it that part of me forgot what it was like to stare death in the face.

To know that another held your next breath in their hands.

I didn’t like that this was partially because of me.

It made me sick to my stomach that I had anything to do with this kind of terror in another.

“Speak to Fawn like that again, insult her, or even breathe wrong in her direction, and I won’t just kill you, I’ll make you swallow my bullet. Then I’ll visit your father and teach him what happens when you raise a child with no respect for bloodlines, business, and broken contracts.”

Titus’s voice dropped low and more lethal than I thought possible.

“Yes, I’m Titus Mikhailov, and everything they say about my kindness…is true. Until it’s not, beneath this composed exterior is the same darkness that my family was built on. I don’t bluff. I won’t warn twice. So, tell me, Vera, do you understand me now?”

Vera didn’t move, and neither did I. We both held our breaths waiting for his next move.

“Answer the fucking question, Vera,” Titus growled, and her bottom lip trembled harder as she choked out her response.

“Yes, yes, I understand.”

He pulled the gun away and put it under his jacket, then pointed at the door.

“Get out and never come back.”

Vera scrambled for the door, her high heels slipping on the marble floor like she was on ice.

“Oh, and Vera,” Titus called out just as she reached her exit.

“If my father mentions anything about this to me because you’ve run home to your daddy and tattled like a child, then you may as well sleep with one eye open.

Don’t stick your nose in my life again, or I will destroy you and everything you’ve built. ”

She nodded and darted out the door. Titus slowly turned and looked at me. My heart continued to race out of control as I stared at the man who had only ever shown me kindness, but could be a cold-blooded killer when needed. The two images didn’t fit in my mind.

Titus stepped toward me and gently cupped my cheeks, his touch warm against my cool skin.

“Don’t look at me like that, Little Bird,” he murmured. “I had to make a statement. A woman like Vera won’t stop unless you draw blood. You weren’t ever supposed to be caught up in the middle of this kind of shit.”

I licked my lips, the shock of everything still raw as he leaned in, pressing a tender kiss to my forehead.

“This…this is the part of my world I never wanted you to see,” he said quietly. “The part I’ve kept you away from because I know how it stains. I’m sorry that so much of it had to bleed through in front of you.”

His voice held the same tension that was thrumming through my body. Every word was rough with the weight he carried.

“Tell me now if it’s too much. If you can’t live with the darker pieces of me.

Because what I said to Vera wasn’t all an act.

My family clawed its way to the top, and very little of it was done with kindness.

Sometimes I have to be what I was born to be, what they made me.

” He paused. “I will kill Vera if she ever comes for you again, Fawn. Make no mistake, I will always protect you.”

He swallowed hard, eyes searching mine.

“Tell me you still love me. That you can still love me…even when I must be like this.”

I copied him, cupping his cheeks as I searched his face. Titus had always been honest with me, and I’d always known the truth about his family. The shock was slowly fading, and even with the Vera insanity, all I could see was a future with him.

“I will always love you, Titus. And I’ll always choose you even when the things you have to do scare me.

” My thumbs ran over his skin, caressing like he’d done so many times.

My touch was steady, but my voice was steel wrapped in warmth.

“But this isn’t just your world anymore.

If we’re in this, truly in this…then it’s ours now.

I’m not running anywhere other than to you. ”

The silence between us filled the air until all I could hear was my heartbeat. I felt Titus holding his breath as if he still didn’t believe what I’d just said.

“Titus, I want a future with you. All of it. The light, the dark, and everything in between.”

An electrical charge raced through my body when I leaned in and brushed my lips against his.

“You mean that,” he asked, and I smiled.

“You once said I was yours.” I pulled back just enough to look him in the eyes. “Well, you’re mine too, Titus. That means every part of you, including the darkest parts, like tonight. I’m not scared of them, and I’m not scared of you. Yes, I mean it.”

“Fuck, I love you,” Titus said before he kissed me hard, stealing the breath from my lungs.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave myself over to him and whatever that meant. All that mattered was that we were together, everything else…we would find our way through.

“I love you, too,” I said when Titus broke the kiss.

The smile on his face solidified every word that I’d said. Titus was my forever. I’d known it from the second I met him.

“Can I just say that you telling Vera off was really fucking sexy,” Titus said, and I smirked.

“I would’ve clawed her eyes out for threatening to take what is mine,” I said as he held me tighter.

“I know. That’s what makes it so hot,” Titus said against my lips as his hands pulled the bottom of my dress up and over my ass. “Fuck you look incredible…I think it’s time we christened this office.”

“What about dinner,” I asked, unbuttoning his shirt.

“Oh, we’re still going to dinner. But if I don’t fuck you right now…then you’re going to be what I’m eating off the table.”

Just when I didn’t think he could melt the panties off my body any faster, he always found a way.