Unconditional (Masters and Mercenaries #5.5)(24)

Some people are sticky, baby boy. You’ll meet them and they never leave you. You have to hope to meet a lot of sticky people in your life.

His mother would like Ashley. She’d never loved Lena, but she’d been a dutiful mother-in-law right up to that day in the hospital when she’d explained how she’d betrayed him since the day he’d been born.

“Hey, I want to talk to you.”

Ryan strode through the door and Keith practically jumped up and down with glee. A fight. Thank god. It would keep his brain from going where he didn’t want it to go.

And maybe Ryan would save him from himself because he sure didn’t seem to be able to.

“And what would you like to discuss?”

Ryan pointed a finger his way. “You know damn well what I want to talk about.”

“My sub?”

Ryan’s jaw clenched slightly. His problem in the business world had always been that he couldn’t manage a poker face. He was too emotional. Ryan was what he liked to call a “big idea” guy. He came up with some brilliant ideas. He simply lacked the ruthless will to carry them out. Of course, he did have the will to force Keith to pay him a shit ton of money for them.

It was a good business partnership that looked like it was about to blow up over a girl.

“I want to talk to you about Ashley.” Ryan was practically growling.

“My sub.” Something nasty sparked in his gut. She’d agreed to be his sub. He didn’t care that Ryan was a friend. He was also a long-term Dom, and he knew the damn rules.

“Stop calling her that,” Ryan said, his voice hard.

There it was. That possessiveness he’d started feeling about her. He was a bit possessive of any female he trained, but it reached some epic places with Ashley. “We’re in a club. Here, she’s my sub. We signed a contract. She’s way past legal age and we’re getting along nicely. So if you can’t honor my rights to her here, maybe we should take this off-site.”

Ryan slapped the locker beside him. “Do you honestly think leaving the club and going somewhere else is going to change things? This is my problem with you. You compartmentalize.”

And Ryan didn’t. There were rules in the club, rules that didn’t necessarily translate to the outside world. “It’s what makes me good at what I do.”

“This isn’t business, Keith. Do you know what that girl’s gone through? Do you have any idea what her home life was like?”

“Restricted. Cold. She obviously had parents who didn’t love her enough. I suspect they were dutiful but never let her forget that she was a burden.” Unlike his own mom and pop, who had been warm and supportive and who had lied to him all his life.

What would his life have been like if they had told him that one particular truth? If there hadn’t been that moment in the hospital?

It didn’t matter because it wouldn’t change the fact that he couldn’t give Ashley what she would need. He just would have known about it sooner.

Ryan’s jaw tightened and he leaned against the locker, loosening his tie. “Yeah. Their dad headed out when Jillian was just ten. She can still remember him telling her mom that he didn’t want to listen to their whining anymore. They were whining because they were hungry. He spent everything on booze and women.”

It didn’t surprise him, though it did speak to Ashley’s own inner strength. She hadn’t had a ton of love as a child and yet she had an enormous amount of affection to give. She had a smile for everyone. He’d had a great childhood and couldn’t even call his parents. “She doesn’t talk about it a lot. I know her mother died and Jill had to pass on college to take care of her. I assume the dick dad wouldn’t take her in.”

Ryan pushed a hand through his hair, leaning against the locker. “He had another family by then. He didn’t want to have anything to do with her or Jillian. But what you have to know is that their mom never once let them forget how they had wrecked her life. She blamed them for their dad leaving.”

The testosterone level seemed to be dipping. It looked like he wasn’t going to get his throw down. “Do you want me to be one more person who leaves her?”

Ryan sighed, long and deep. “I want you to love her, but I don’t think you will. You know what my first instinct was when I heard you were seeing her?”

He could guess. “To set my entrails on fire?”

Ryan huffed out a little laugh. “After that. I would have had that reaction about anyone. She’s a sweet girl. I love her and I adore Emily.”

His gut churned every time he heard the name. Emily was the very reason he would never take the relationship any further. “I understand.”

“No, you don’t. I was happy because I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have in the family. Damn, man. I love you. You were there for me when no one else was. I would give just about anything for you to be the right man for Ashley. What I can’t stand the thought of is her being one of your many girlfriends.”

He’d kept his relationships deeply casual since his divorce. He’d spent time with a lot of women, sometimes more than one at a time. It was just sex, just pleasure, just a way to forget for a while. “I’m not seeing anyone but Ashley.”

He’d meant to. He’d actually meant to keep the dates he’d made. He had a couple of standing appointments with women who wanted nothing more than sex from him. He should have called them, but he’d broken off everything after the first night with her. He couldn’t stand the thought of seeing one of those women and then facing her.