Page 24

Twenty-Four

The clitoris has better nerves you can get on.

— Aella’s secret thoughts

AELLA

The party that Laney had thrown was a success.

I was partied out, and my tolerance meter for bullshit was quickly waning.

The problem with everything was that I hadn’t realized how overly fawned over the members of the Truth Tellers would be.

And, I guess since I’d never been to an actual club party before, I hadn’t realized that there were women out there that were willing to do absolutely anything asked of them at a moment’s notice—as long as those doing the asking were Truth Tellers.

I’d spent the entire night angry as fuck.

I hadn’t realized how angry I could get, but tonight had been a very painful lesson.

Chevy had been open and honest with me about how the night would go.

He’d told me that he would be wheeling and dealing—the whole point of this night was to finagle the citizens of Dallas and Fort Worth into spending their money.

So, he’d be busy all night making sure that was happening.

I’d watched him work his way around to person after person, while I sat by my lonesome at the bar.

At first, it wasn’t bad, because the people that Chevy was dealing with were normal people.

Then they became beautiful women vying for his attention.

Truthfully, had it not been the entire club that was going out of their way to sweet talk their way into people’s wallets, I would’ve been having a lot worse of a time.

Chevy wasn’t doing anything that the rest of the club wasn’t doing.

Even my father.

I’d thought that maybe I wouldn’t be completely alone because he’d be here, or even Chevy’s brothers would, but I’d been wrong.

Milena had the good sense to stay home, which was why I’d finally broken down and walked out to my car and gotten my schoolbooks.

If I was going to sit alone, I might as well get some homework and studying done.

I’d been doing said homework for over an hour now and had very little left to do when I picked my head up and saw Chevy finally making his way over to me.

Just when I thought I could get a hug, Chevy was stopped by a woman in a red dress that was barely long enough that I didn’t see her pubic hairs.

Anger seethed low in my belly as the woman walked up to Chevy and smiled.

She’d just started to put her hand onto his arm when she asked, “What cologne are you wearing? It smells so great!”

I gritted my teeth, telling myself that I didn’t need to intervene.

I mean, technically, we hadn’t given our relationship an actual title yet.

He may have called me his girlfriend, but I took that as a way to get his grandfather off his back about a girl that he brought to dinner with he family.

Sure, I loved him.

Sure, he was the best sex I’d ever had.

Sure, I couldn’t see myself ever living without him now.

Sure, he stayed over at my place every single night, or we stayed over at his.

However, he hadn’t given me any indication that we were more.

Which meant I shouldn’t have such a high amount of anger swirling through my blood right now.

“It just smells so good!” the woman continued as if I wasn’t about to break her in half over my knee.

“I…”

“It’s called leave him the fuck cologne,” I snarled. “Stop touching him.”

I hadn’t been aware that I’d even moved.

One second, I was writing a review about sanitizing instruments, and the next I was standing next to the woman pointing my finger in her face.

Chevy’s eyes were sparkling as he looked down at me.

Still no expression on his handsome face, but his eyes were all the encouragement that I needed.

“Well, I never…” The woman took a step back from my finger.

I turned, giving the woman my back, and caught Chevy by the lapels of his cut.

Pulling him down to me, I said, “That was uncalled for.”

I finally got a small smile.

My grumpy man, with his perpetual scowl, thawed as he came down to place his mouth on mine. “Are you ready to go home?”

I wilted. “I thought you’d never ask.”

When we got back to my place, I stuck my key in the door, only for it to turn in my hand.

Silver was standing there eating an ice cream bar, staring at the two of us. “Where have you been?”

I blinked. “At that fundraiser for the club. Why are you here?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m here to go with you to the bank. We had a date.”

I heard Chevy growl in frustration from behind me.

I grinned, because the entire way home, I’d been teasing him with my hand.

He’d tortured me all night long, so it seemed only fitting that I’d torture him back for the thirty-minute ride home.

I looked at my watch. “They’re about to close.”

“I know, so let’s go,” she urged.

I looked at Chevy, and he shook his head. “Go.”

I grinned and patted him on the chest, but my eyes promised him more later if he was patient.

He winked and said, “Since you’re heading to the bank, I’m going to go to my place and grab some clothes.”

His phone rang, and he answered it before I could reply.

Something swift came over his face as he said, “I’ll be there in fifteen.”

I raised a brow at him, and he said, “I’ll be here later. Don’t wait up for me.”

I sighed as I watched him walk away.

“More time for us,” Silver chirped. “Come on. Let’s go. This is so exciting!”

We made it to the bank in the Walmart in time to get my bank account opened.

I also got a brand-new Yeti cooler because I had been the 1000 th customer to come in that month to open a bank account.

Yeti cooler and new debit card in hand, I made my way out to Silver’s car and stuffed the huge cooler into her back seat. When I reached for my phone to snap a picture, I realized I didn’t have it on me.

“Oh, I left my phone there. I’ll be right back,” I said as I rushed toward the building.

The woman who’d helped us was just locking up, and I said, “Oh, ma’am. I left my phone on your desk.”

She turned around with a smile and said, “Come on in. Let’s go…” Her voice trailed off and I looked up, following her gaze to a masked gunman standing there with a gun pointed at me.

I blinked.

Then pain exploded in my face, and I fell to the floor.

A tortured scream came from somewhere in front of me, but I was too focused on my pain to care.