Page 17 of Laila Manning (Shadeport Crew #3)

It took six men to separate us, and when we stood a few feet apart, bleeding, chests heaving and glaring at each other, nothing else needed to be said.

Our fists said it all.

Our friendship was over.

Because neither of us would concede our claim for Laila, even if we weren’t in competition with each other in the least.

But it didn’t matter.

Minds didn’t change after fists were thrown between men like us.

I shoved the guards off and stared him down as I walked past him toward the exit. “No one will ever take care of her like I can.”

“I killed for her!” He roared. “I lost everything for her!” He thundered behind me, but I kept walking.

I scrubbed the day off in the shower, angrily washing the glass out of my wounds and letting it go down the drain. Most of them were on my back from the ride through the window, with Jed on top of me.

Cheap shot, asshole .

My fists ached and my jaw burned every time I opened it, but I didn’t regret a single hit I took. Or any I threw.

They had been necessary.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t mourn the end of a friendship all the same.

I laid my fist against the tile wall and leaned into it, letting the weight of the day wash away with the blood.

Bang, bang, bang!

I groaned as someone tried knocking down my front door with their fists when all I wanted to do was ignore the world for a few more minutes. I contemplated ignoring it, but even as I tried, the banging continued.

“Zeke!” A feminine voice echoed over the sound of the water, and I cut the shower off instantly as both excitement and trepidation coursed through my veins.

I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked to my front door, dripping water on the floor as I went.

Before I could reach the handle, another cry sounded from the other side. “Please open the door, Zeke!”

“Laila.” I sighed, ripping it open as I got the confirmation I sought after the first time the soft voice called out.

She stood in the hallway, wringing her hands together in front of her as she paced back and forth. She froze when I opened the door all the way, and her brown eyes traveled over my wet body, to the towel hanging around my hips, and then back to my face.

I expected arousal or excitement to fill the bottomless depths of her perfectly warm eyes, but ice water slid down my spine as tears filled them instead.

“What’s wrong?” I cleared the doorway, alert and anxious as her shoulders fell in defeat. “What happened? ”

“He did this to you?” She whispered, ignoring my panic as she stared at the wounds on my arms and face.

“What?” I felt like we were both moving at two different speeds as I tried to wrap my head around what was happening.

She shook her head, and the tears that had been building fell, cascading down her cheeks.

“Oh my God, Zeke.” She backed up as I took another step out into the hallway.

“I’m so sorry.” She rambled. “I just got home, and Jed was waiting for me in the driveway! He said you guys fought, and then he forbade me from coming to you—” She gasped and shuddered.

“Shh,” I commanded, closing the space and taking control as she slid down the slippery slope of panic.

I rubbed my hand across her cheek and around the back of her head, pulling her to my chest as she gripped my wrist, anchoring herself to me like a life raft in a hurricane.

“Stop. Slow your breathing down before you pass out.”

She shook her head against my hold and covered her shaking lips with her fingers. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t,” I ordered her, pressing my lips against her hairline as she sank into my hold. “Don’t you dare, Laila.”

“He hit you.” She cried against my chest, and I wrapped my free arm around her waist, holding her closer.

“I hit him back.” I tried for levity, rubbing my hand up and down the length of her spine as she trembled. “It was a long time coming.”

“Because of me.” She pulled back and looked up at me with her wide, teary eyes. “He hit you because of me.”

“So what?”

“He hurt you!” She cried, scanning my split lip and swollen cheek.

“I’m not the victim here, Laila. Stop treating me like one.” I demanded, and she hesitated, fighting her urge to listen to me. “It had to happen. ”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” She shuddered again and tried to pull away, but I wouldn’t let her. “We’re in the hallway.” She argued. “And you’re almost naked.”

“We’re the only two who live here.” I countered, and she rolled her eyes, finally focusing on something other than her guilt. “Would you prefer to go inside?”

She went still as her fears and wants battled inside of her brain; her eyes flicked to the open door into my apartment behind us. “I can’t.”

“Your place then.” I offered, “Though I have no problem standing right here, just like this.” I raised an eyebrow at her, tightening my hold on her waist.

She sighed, relaxing once again in my hold before pulling back out of my grip. “My place.” She twisted the doorknob and opened the door, walking into the dim space as I stood in the hallway, suddenly unsure.

“I’ll go get dressed.” I nodded back into my place.

“I can’t tend to your wounds if you cover them up.” She said, and held her hand out, inviting me in for the first time.

And she didn’t have to ask more than once.

I closed my door and followed her into her apartment, locking the door behind me.

With her standing a few feet away from me, and off the edge of a panic attack, I finally took the time to look at what she was wearing. “Hang on a second.” I closed the distance between us and tapped my finger against the logo above her right breast on her black V-neck t-shirt. “Explain this.”

She swallowed and dropped her eyes from mine to somewhere below my chin, as she usually did when uncomfortable. “I got a job. ”

“At Neat ?” I questioned naming the trendy new bar and restaurant in the city. It was a decent place, with good owners, but at the end of the day, it was still a bar.

And bars attracted seedy people, no matter how expensive the drinks on the menu were.

“Yeah, I’m in training.”

“When did that happen?”

“I had an interview the other day.” She licked her lips and sucked the bottom one in between her teeth. “I started that night.”

“Doing what, exactly?”

“Hosting right now.” She nibbled that lip distractedly. “And training to serve.”

I took a deep breath and fought everything inside of me that wanted to tell her to quit. A bar was not the kind of atmosphere she needed to be in to heal the trauma of her past.

But I wasn’t going to tell her to quit because, at the end of the day, she needed support more than anything.

Not another dominating asshole standing over her and dictating what she did. Jed did that often enough.

“Do you like it?” I asked.

She raised her eyebrows as her lip fell free of her teeth in surprise. “Do I like it?”

“The job. The bar. Your bosses?” I reiterated. “Do you like it?”

“Yes.” She whispered, nodding her head slowly. “A lot actually.”

I smiled down at her, surprising her. “Good.”

“Good?” she questioned, frowning a bit.

“Is that not a good thing?”

“It is.” She stammered, rubbing her fingers over her forehead in confusion. “I’m just—,” She paused and tilted her head to the side as she watched me. “That’s not the reaction I expected from you. ”

I smiled again, though I felt the darkness in it as I ran my fingers down her arm, desperate to touch her again.

“If you’re happy there, then I’m happy for you,” I replied, feeling the pulse in her wrist skyrocket now that I was touching her again. “Is that okay?”

“Yes.” She whispered as her eyelids fluttered closed distractedly.

“Good,” I whispered, lowering my lips to the side of her face above her ear. “Then nothing else matters.”

She groaned and put her hand flat on my bare stomach, leaning her weight against it. “You’re trying to distract me.”

“How?”

“By shocking me into forgetting the whole reason you’re standing here in my apartment, wearing a towel and nothing else, covered in cuts and bruises.” She sighed. “Will you let me help you?”

“I don’t need your help, Laila,” I responded, standing up to my full height so I could see her. “I’m not that hurt.”

“Will you let me do it anyway?” She whispered, and I swore I saw a bit of seduction behind the quick flutter of her eyelashes and the way she nibbled her bottom lip. Whether she knew what her body was doing or not, she was trying to use seduction to persuade me.

And the responsible man inside of me knew better than to let her do that because she deserved better from me than to let her use such tactics to get her way.

But the monster in me wanted all of her.

The shy, seductive woman, testing boundaries and comfort levels included.

“You can do whatever you want to me.” I held my arms out at my sides. “You’re in charge here.”

She swallowed and then smirked slightly before nodding her head like she was the boss. “Then turn around so I can see all of it. ”

I raised my eyebrow at her seductively, “All of it?”

“Your wounds!” She gasped, widening her eyes as she realized her blunder. “On your back!”

I chuckled, letting her off the hook as I turned so she could see the cuts on my back, though I would have given anything to distract her into forgetting about the fight altogether.

Because the second she saw the deep wounds along my spine, the flirty seductress that had been in the room with me a moment ago was gone and in her place was the anxious, worrisome woman who blamed herself for my wounds.

“Zeke.” She sighed, gently pressing her fingers to a particularly tender spot on my lower back. “This is all my fault.”

I walked away silently, creating space between us as frustration bloomed anew.

“Where are you going?” She gasped as I reached her door.

“Back to my place.” I looked at her. “I won’t stay here if you’re going to blame yourself.

Because we’re both big boys.” I reminded her when she opened her mouth to argue, but I cut her off.

“We’re responsible for ourselves. You aren’t, and I’m not going to allow you to put that burden on your shoulders.

So, you can either knock it off and play doctor, or you can stew in here alone while I patch up myself. ”

“Okay!” She rolled her eyes and then sighed. “Sit.” She pointed at the couch and raised her brows at me in challenge when I didn’t move right away. “I want to play doctor, Zeke.” She baited me with that innocent seduction again. “But I’m the boss in my apartment, just like you said. So, sit.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I smirked, sauntering back to her and sitting down on the couch like she had ordered me to do.

She shook her head, still smirking to herself as she grabbed supplies from her bathroom and then came back to me.

“I kind of like bossy Laila.” I joked as she pushed my shoulder, so I’d turn around and show her my back again as she got settled on the couch next to me.

“Be careful.” She quipped, “Or I’ll pour peroxide directly into this deep one.”

I laughed and leaned forward with my elbows on my knees as she went to work. She worked on a few cuts, cleaning them and applying ointment before speaking again. “Why did you say this fight had to happen?” She asked quietly, continuing to work as she talked.

I mulled my answer over before giving it but was honest with her.

“Because I refused to stop pursuing you,” I replied as her hand stilled on my back, so I looked over my shoulder at her.

Her lips were parted, and her eyes were wide as she stared back.

“I want you, you know that.” I reminded her. “And Jed doesn’t approve.”

“So now what happens?” She whispered, going back to patch me up. “Now that you’ve fought.”

“Nothing.” I shrugged my shoulder, winning a playful slap when I disturbed her work. “I won’t stop unless you tell me you don’t want me.”

Her eyes flicked back to mine, and she blinked rapidly before looking back at my wounds as if we didn’t make eye contact, she was somehow braver for it.

“I want you.” She whispered after a while.

“You know that.” She repeated my words as she worked, and my body responded to her, even as I tried to control it.

“But he’s my brother.” She sighed, pouring ice water on my cock that was hardening under the towel I still wore. “I can’t just cut him off.”

“I’d never ask you to.” I immediately countered because I wouldn’t. Asking her to cut ties with someone so significant to her was something I’d never do. “We’re men.” I tried to downplay it, “We’ll get over it. ”

“Do you really believe that?” she asked, dropping her hands from my back as she finished up and I turned to face her. “Do you think you two could be friends after this?”

“I have no ill will towards Jed, Laila.” I admitted, with a hand on her knee: “But I’m not a pushover either. I’ll always stand up for myself and the respect I deserve from the men inside the crew. Your bother included.”

“You’ve earned your spot at Ryker’s side.” She looked at me head-on. “Everything I’ve heard about you since I got here has spoken of your honor and loyalty to the crew. To Ryker.”

“Does that bother you?”

“Not in the least.” She replied instantly. “If a man is honorable and loyal to something important in his life,” she shrugged and swallowed uncertainly, “Maybe he can be honorable and loyal in other aspects of life too.”

“To you, you mean.” I cut to the point. “You’re talking about yourself.”

“Yes.” She shrugged. “I’ve never been honored before, Zeke.”

I growled, cocking my head to the side as the protective side of me fought for control. “You have no idea how good I can treat you, Laila.”

“I want that.” She whispered, closing her eyes as she leaned closer to me. “I want this.” She put her hand on mine atop her knee. “I want you. But I don’t know what to do.”

“Trust me,” I growled, sliding my hand up her thigh as her nails dug into the top of my hand, pulling it higher.

She had jeans on, so my ascent was safe, but knowing she wanted it was what was important.

“Trust me to take care of you.” She nodded, clawing at my hand as she panted.

“Open your eyes, Laila,” I commanded, and her golden-brown eyes flicked open, hazed with arousal as she fought for focus.

“I need you to see that it’s me touching you.

” I slid my hand further up her thigh until my thumb rested near the apex of her legs, and she trembled.

“No one else exists anymore. Once I have you, no one else will.”

“Yes.” She moaned, arching her hips until my thumb brushed over the seam in her jeans, right against her pussy. “God, yes.”