Takedown Teague (Caged #1)(72)

“Deal!” she responded immediately.

I eyed her for a minute and knew she was completely serious.

“I don’t…” I started, then closed my eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “I don’t talk about my history. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

Tria’s chest rose and fell with a deep breath. She shook her head slightly and then rolled over to face away from me.

“Don’t do that,” I said.

She turned her head to look over her shoulder.

“You said you’d try this,” she reminded me. “What exactly do you think is involved in a relationship?”

“I also told you I wasn’t going to tell you shit and that I was going to f*ck it up. Do you believe me now?”

“That was yesterday,” she said. “You made a deal with me just now. Are you going back on it?”

I glared at her for a moment, but this time there was no wavering in her determination to get something out of me. It was too late to start this shit, but I knew I was going to have to give her something.

Besides, her ass was calling to me.

I sighed, knowing that I couldn’t deny what she was saying, either. I didn’t know a lot about being in a relationship, but I knew enough to understand there was give and take; there was compromise. If I give a little, it sounded like she was willing to give a little, too.

Maybe a short and quick version would be enough.

“My dad kicked me out when I was seventeen,” I told her in a rush. “I haven’t spoken to him since. My uncle, Michael, tries to get us back together every once in a while, which is why he offers me jobs. I don’t want them. I don’t want anything to do with them.”

Tria rolled back over to face me and propped herself up on her elbow as we talked.

“Your father owns the hotels, too?”

“My father is the owner and CEO of Teague Silver,” I told her. “It’s a conglomerate of companies that started with a bunch of silver mines. Originally, it was a chunk of the Comstock Load, if you remember anything about US history, but now there are mines in Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina—all over the place. That expanded into smelting ore and mining copper. Now there are jewelry stores and a bunch of other related shit, too.”

“That’s why the earrings are significant,” Tria said with a nod.

“Yeah—everyone in the family has them,” I told her. “They’re engraved on the inside, too. You have to look closely, though.”

Tria’s face scrunched up a bit.

“How does that fit into hotels?”

“Michael wanted to expand and diversify the company,” I explained. “When I was a kid, he ended up buying this failing hotel chain and turning it into Silver Springs. He’s got a few other things like that—casinos in Vegas and some riverboat casinos in the Midwest, too. I think the last thing he started up was partial ownership in some computer hardware company.”

“So your family owns all of that?”

“Yep,” I replied. “The silver goes back generations.”

“Wow.”

“Like I said, I’ve been there and done the rich thing. It isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.”

“But still,” Tria said with a shake of her head, “you walked away from all of that? Why?”

No f*cking way.

“Enough for one night,” I said. “Go to sleep. We still have a ways to go tomorrow.”

Tria growled at me a bit, but I wasn’t going to budge, and she didn’t really have the energy to argue with me about it anymore. I moved my fingers up her arm and to her cheek, which I stroked softly. Tria’s eyes drifted closed for a moment, and I took the opportunity to press my lips against hers. She responded, her hand gripping the back of my neck again.

As our tongues touched, I let my hand drop back down her arm, over her elbow, down to her waist, and then to her hip. I paused for a moment before reaching around, going slowly just in case she hadn’t really meant what she said or had changed her mind.

She didn’t move to stop me.

With my fingers spread out, I cupped one ass cheek and pulled her lower body closer to mine. I groaned into her mouth, unable to help myself as her grip tightened on my neck. Our mouths moved together, and I held her firmly against my body as we kissed and touched.

We broke apart, breathless.

Relaxing my grip, I let go of her ass and my fingers drifted back up her body until they reached her cheek again. I leaned forward, touched her lips softly, and then backed away.

“Now go to sleep,” I commanded.

With an exaggerated sigh, Tria settled against me with her head on my shoulder and was asleep in seconds. I joined her quickly afterwards.

*****

I woke hugging the pillow Tria had slept on.

It still smelled like her, and I found myself gripping it tighter and inhaling the scent before I even bothered to open my eyes. The bedroom was empty, and the door to the bathroom was open and the light was off, so I figured she must have been up for a while. I dragged myself from the Egyptian linen sheets to take a piss.

In the outer room, Tria was on the computer, intently staring at whatever was on the screen. For a long moment, I just watched her face as she sat there, and I wondered if that’s what she looked like when she was in class, listening to a lecture. She glanced up at me when I shuffled to one side, and her eyes narrowed into a glare immediately.