Page 75 of Forbidden Want
Without her sling, she could rest her forearm on his shoulder and loop the other around him. “Don’t you want to go to the club?”
“No.”
“Why?” she asked, her fingers toying with the hair at the back of his head. “Stag’s where you do business.”
“Not tonight.”
He carried her upstairs, back to the bed she’d left not long ago. He sat her on the edge to take the shirt from her body and pushed her hips further onto the mattress before slipping off her panties.
“Why the star treatment?” she asked, watching him undress. “Not that I’m complaining about having the McDade patriarch’s undivided attention…” She smiled. “But it feels like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
He shed his boxer-briefs and climbed onto the bed to brace himself over her.
“People follow my orders, or they die.” As demonstrated in his basement. “They piss me off, they die. I don’t like them?”
“Let me guess, they die,” she said, resting her injured arm in her cleavage.
“I do what I want when I want. I don’t ask permission. I don’t apologize. I do things my way.”
“Okay,” she said, scratching her nails in his stubble. “How does that answer my question?”
“We heard the sirens before we knew about the attack.”
“You think they were coming for you?”
“No. I was pissed they were on my turf ‘cause I decide what happens on my turf.”
“Of course,” she said, her fingers finding his hair again. “And you probably sent your guys to check it out.”
“When they said it was you… They call me Ire, but I’d never known such instant, visceral rage.” As he hissed in a breath, he bared his teeth. “They touch my woman in McDade territory…”
Mm, his form was delicious. Hanging over her, no part of his upper body touched her. Much as she wanted skin-to-skin contact, she didn’t mind his muscles working. Either way worked for her.
“I think you sent a message.” Being both her attackers were already dead. “No one will start anything in McDade territory without your say so.”
“I went to the hospital.”
Her gaze sprang to his. “What?”
“You say I have power. I say I do things my way, but… I knew you didn’t want me in there.”
“You stayed away for me,” she said, her fingertips learning his brow. “So my family wouldn’t know about us.”
“I could’ve marched in and taken over. I’m fucking good at being in charge.”
That wasn’t his only strength.
She laid a palm on his cheek. “It’s not because I’m ashamed of you. I’m not embarrassed about being attracted to you, it’s just… complicated.”
“I didn’t hear your account until later. When we found out what happened, that they targeted you for being a McDade… that you kept your mouth shut.”
“I told you, they’d just have killed me.” Her fingertips trailed down to his torso. “They didn’t call me a McDade.” As far as she remembered. “I think they knew I wasn’t.”
“Wasn’t what?”
“A McDade.”
“You sure?” Their eyes met again. “If you’re not born a McDade, you join the ranks through graft or initiation. You bled for us. Showed your loyalty. You are a McDade now. Like it or not. You stood up to the other side for us. You have a target on your back now. One all McDades wear.”
