Page 85 of Between Never and Forever

“He didn’t agree to being recorded, and he’d probably sue you and Dimitri for—”

“Everyone that steps into a HEAT property or Black-owned building gives us that right,” I informed her. “You signed that when you looked over our handbook.”

“That handbook is a million pages long.” She curled her lip at me.

“Exactly.” I shrugged. Our lawyers knew what they were doing. “Plus, people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the protection of our resorts. I came to your aid tonight, didn’t I?”

“Because you were monitoring my heart rate via a ring. Do you know how crazy that sounds?”

“Want me to apologize for it?” I asked her without an ounce of remorse in my tone. “I’m going to watch your every fucking move, Kee, and I’m not going to feel guilty at all. I’m here to protect you. Fake fiancée or not, you’re mine and everything that’s mine stays safe, heartbreaker. Even if I can’t decide whether watching you will break me or put me back together.”

“That’s borderline obsessive, Dex.”

“I didn’t claim to be sane, Kee.” I took a deep breath and leaned against the doorframe to try to quell the need running through me now. I wanted to bottle her up or wrap her in bubble wrap and lock her in a damn room so no one could hurt her after this.

“I guess I’m not exactly sane, either, because I want you watching me. Just you. Onlyyou.”

ChapterTwenty-Seven

KEELANI

On the wayback to our suite, Dex called Jimmy. “Take care of Ezekiel discreetly. Inform him that he’s banned from HEAT and Black Diamond resorts. His lawyers can contact mine.”

“Dex, I can take care of him,” I said, even though the idea made my stomach curl.

“Yes, but I will instead,” he replied and then he ushered me into our suite where I had him show me every camera throughout it.

He didn’t apologize for any of them. He pulled me through each room, even the bathrooms, to show how his technology worked. It was extensive in that it could track even the body temperature of skin, alert him to fluctuations, and pretty much monitor all my activities.

“So you basically know when I’ve…” I couldn’t even say it.

“I haven’t monitored you yet, Kee.” Still, I saw the hunger in his eyes. He wanted to monitor me. It was in him to control every single thing.

“But you’re going to.” My body heated at the thought, and I couldn’t hide the blush as we walked back down the hall to the kitchen where all my flowers sat in vases. I moved one so the petals of the peonies shone in the city lights just right, and my ring glinted as I did it. I remembered his statement about my ring earlier that night. “Is that why my ring is so big? So you could get the tracking in it?”

“The wiring is in the metal, heartbreaker, and the computer chip that transmits me the data is smaller than a grain of salt. I can fit my technology in just about anything, Kee. Your ring is big for other reasons.”

“Like what?”

He stared at me in the cocktail dress I still hadn’t taken off from the concert. The dark-purple sequins flowed around my hips and tapered off as the mermaid shape of it flared out. It was my favorite one that Pink had found for me because it stretched over every curve of my body but I could still move fluidly if needed.

A low rumble came from Dex’s chest as his eyes drank me in. “To show you’re mine even if you are the star that you are. You’re mine first, and I want a blinding display of that everywhere you go.”

“That’s ridiculously territorial of you especially considering you haven’t talked to me in nearly a week,” I chided. “Or especially when this is only for a few more months and you don’t even care to be seen with me.”

“I don’t care to be seen with you?”

“We don’t go out in public. Your social media post made sure of that and you haven’t asked me to—”

“I don’t care to be seen out in public when it’s only serving that crooked label of yours.”

“They aren’t that crooked.” I tried to keep some semblance of respect intact for them.

Dex scoffed at the absurdity of it. Then he said, “You want to go on a date, heartbreaker, just ask.”

“Over the past week when you were practically ignoring me?”

“I needed to figure a few things out first.” He smirked like it was all done now, like it was that easy.