As soon as I opened it, I realized it wasn't on top of the pile of shit.
That would be too easy.
Rummaging through, my hand grasped a medicine packet. My heart leapt into my throat. Her file had shown no illnesses, so I tugged it out with growing horror. I should have been relieved to see the birth control. From any other woman, I'd demand it. But knowing that Ivory was protected from pregnancy didn't fill me with any relief.
A pregnancy was one more way to ensure that she was mine, completely.
In a way that no one would ever have with her.
I lifted my phone, snapping a picture of the front and the back of the packet before replacing it in her purse. It didn't matter that it burned me to do it. When I found her phone, I turned and went back to my sleeping woman, suddenly determined to experience my first morning sex ever.
Thirteen
Ivory
I'd been in a daze all morning. After Matteo had woken me up with his mouth between my legs, he fucked me until all I'd wanted to do was curl back up in his bed and sleep for the rest of the day. With a sexy as hell chuckle, he reminded me that I probably had work to do. Though he made it clear he didn't object to me staying in his bed all day.
I wanted to slap myself. I'd let him touch me, let him have me again, let him finish inside me without a condom. I didn't understand what it was about Matteo that turned me into an incoherent mess who couldn't string together two letters to say 'no.'
I was so distracted that I'd had to turn the stove off and walk away, because I would get nothing pretty enough to photograph unless I found an outlet first. I'd taken to cuddling with Smaug, running my finger over his scales and watching with amusement as he closed his eyes in contentment. He really was the weirdest, most affectionate lizard I'd ever seen. While I'd never really thought of myself as a reptile person, I melted the second I saw him at the pet store and brought him home.
Even if he ate mealworms and crickets.
Blech.
The knock on the door seemed like a welcome reprieve, even as I wondered who would drop by. Duke was pissed that I'd gone out with Matteo again and not answered my phone for nearly twelve hours, and I couldn't keep bothering Sadie with my emergencies while she was working at the gym. So, I hadn't told her about my sleepover yet.
The courier standing on my front porch wasn't someone I'd ever received deliveries from before, and I squinted my eyes at him in the bright sun. "Can I help you?"
"Miss Torres?" he asked, and I nodded. "Sign here."
I took the clipboard, scrawling my signature quickly and then accepted the small box. Carrying it over to my trusty island, I shrugged at Smaug's look of curiosity as he peered down at the box. With a sigh, I peeled back the gold wrapping paper.
A note rested on top, and I picked it up, reading the handwritten words with growing horror.
It reminded me of you.
Exquisite.
Adrian
His phone number completed the note that I set to the side like it was diseased.
It probably was.
My trembling fingers lifted the white gold necklace out of the gift box. I may not have known much about jewelry, but I knew the stones in that necklace were diamonds. Fifteen of them in a Y shape that would dangle between my breasts.
I swallowed nervously, dropping the necklace back into the box and then wincing. That thing probably cost more than my car. The note followed, before I folded the box back up as best as I could.
Even if I'd been interested, I had no use for jewelry like that. But I wasn't even remotely interested in a man that would corner me in a bathroom and terrify me.
Picking up the box, I strutted my way outside to where Scar sat on guard duty in his car. He rolled down the window, looking on edge when he took in my bare feet. "You should go inside, Ms. Torres. It's cold."
I dropped the box in his lap. "I don't want this. Might as well make yourself useful if you must stalk me."
I turned and went back for my door. "Shit," he hissed, and I glanced back to see him already calling someone on his phone.
It didn't take a genius to guess who it might be.
Fourteen
Matteo
I felt like my bones would burst free from the confines of my skin. Rattled in a way I'd never been, pissed in a way I couldn't recall ever experiencing. He'd touched my woman, and when I'd warned him, I meant business where she was concerned, he'd sent my woman a fucking gift.
As soon as I parked the Aston in Ivory's driveway, I shoved my door open. It felt like I should have run to where Scar stood guard on her porch, but my steps were careful, controlled. If I didn't contain the monster who was out for blood, I'd frighten Ivory beyond what a gift from Adrian must have already done. As soon as I was on the porch, Scar pulled the small jewelry box from his suit pocket, his jaw clenched tight and his nostrils flaring.
On anyone else, the display of anger over Ivory might have made me feel territorial, but I knew Scar. I knew him well enough to know that the man was trustworthy, and his interest in Ivory was purely related to his dedication to me and my family. He'd been nothing but a street rat when we'd taken him in, a little pickpocket who'd been abused in every way a man could imagine—just another victim of the failed system that let kids like him fall through the cracks every day. I took them in, gave them a purpose.
Even if it was one that the U.S. Government didn't agree with.
While I wouldn't say my crimes were without victims, I did my best to keep the innocent out of it.
The note crumpled in my hand as I read it and stared down at the necklace in the box. I hadn't even given my woman jewelry yet, and this fucker thought he could buy her affection with a predictable gift. I dropped the crumpled note back in the box, turning to Scar where he stared down at me. I nodded, and he pocketed it. "Keep it. Consider it your bonus for making sure he doesn't get near her."
"Yes, Boss," Scar smirked, and I knew the man was thinking how much it would piss Adrian off to line my man's pockets.
"She's permanent. Got any objections to being her detail long-term?" I asked, and his eyebrows raised.
"Permanent like—"
"Like a ring is being custom made at this very moment, and she'll have my kid as soon as I can swing it."
He chuckled, a rare sound for the more stoic man. "She know that?"
"Not yet," I shrugged, because Ivory's opinion on the matter was inconsequential. "Let's go."
I opened the door, not even surprised when I found it unlocked. I didn't suppose Ivory thought there was much point when I'd just break in as soon as I got there and she had her own personal security, but I added it to the list of conversations we needed to have.
"Is it safe to assume that you'll deal with him for me?" she asked, slamming around in her kitchen. There wasn't a food item in sight, so she wasn't cooking. I realized quickly that she was scrubbing the cabinets, as though she didn't already keep them immaculate for her blog. I, perhaps wisely, refrained from commenting. Next to me, Scar's lips quirked at the sight of the leopard gecko clinging to her shirt. She'd probably forgotten the poor thing was there, jostling him around in her cleaning frenzy. I sighed, stepping up to her and holding out a hand. It surprised me when the thing was more than happy to abandon Ivory in favor of the safety my hand offered. She stopped cleaning finally, glancing down at her lizard and pouting at him. "I'm so sorry, Smaugy," she cooed, taking it from my hand and bringing him to his tank while she whispered to him. "I forgot you were there, baby." She set him in the tank, and I fought the urge to laugh as the lizard glared at her.