Page 26 of Iron

“Hey, B.” Iron turned his attention to the man that had stepped in behind me.

The man stepped around me and his chin lifted in my direction.

I recognized this one. I had seen him at least once before. His big frame and short hair weren’t any different from the last time I’d seen him. However, his face wasn’t holding the deadly edge that it held that night.

There was a female trailing behind him and she didn’t pay me any mind as she walked over to Iron and happily scooped the baby out of his arms.

“Thanks, Prez,” The guy— B, I assumed— told Iron as he grabbed a bulky bag off of the coffee table. “Petra,” he said to me as he walked by me toward the door.

Then they were gone.

Iron abruptly stood. His steps were predatory as he crossed the room to me. My eyes stayed locked onto his. There was something there in his gaze, a fire of rage.

He wasn’t hungry.

He was mad.

Furious.

At me.

His hand went to my hip and my feet slightly stumbled as he forced me back against the door.

My head tilted to the side as I let my eyes hold his without having to lift my chin. I knew it was a power move and I wasn’t ashamed of it. It was who I was, after all.

I opened my mouth to tell him to back up but he stopped me with a short shake of his head.

“Now, it’s my turn,” he told me, his voice low and raw. “I’ve played it your way for far too long, Pet. I give you what you need because, believe it or not, I care about you.”

The corner of my eye twitched at his words.

“And yeah, I’m not done giving,” he went on. “But tonight you are inmyhouse. You are onmytime. And you comin’ here tells me something big.”

“And what’s that?” I asked trying my hardest to not show how he was affecting me. His hand on my hip. His arm bracing above me against the door. His mouth so close to mine. All of it was strangely causing a dizziness to cloud my brain.

The more I thought about his words the more I realized that he could have been right. I didn’t let myself think about the reasons I did things the way I did sometimes. I just did what made me the most comfortable. But I broke out of that and I had done something that was very uncharacteristic tonight.

I came to him.

It hit me all at once.

This was his plan.

This was what he wanted.

And I had needed him so badly that I went blindly.

I might have been angry but I knew deep down that wasn’t what was fueling the fire.

I waited for his answer. I waited to see if he saw through me even though I tried so hard to hide everything.

The look that fell over his face told me that he wasn’t going to hold back any longer. And the answer that was to come would be something I wasn’t ready to hear.