At Peace (The 'Burg #2)(135)
I ignored Joe and told Kate, “When you get back –”
I didn’t finish because Joe sat up, reached in, pulled the phone out of my hand and put it to his ear.
“Money’s yours, girl. Don’t listen to Vi.”
“Joe!” I snapped.
He nodded and said, “Yeah. Everything’s good here. Tell Dane to remember the speed limit and that he’s got precious cargo. No screwin’ around.”
My anger vanished, my body stilled and my mouth dropped open at listening to Joe sounding just like a Dad.
“Right, see you tomorrow. Later.” Then he slid my phone shut.
I stared at him then at my phone then my eyes went back to him. “I would have liked to say good-bye.”
“Yeah, and you would have liked to say other shit,” Joe said as he turned and tossed my phone on my purse.
“Like what?”
He turned back, his brows drew together and he got that sinister look when he asked, “Givin’ my money back, Vi?”
“Two hundred dollars is a lot.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Yes, it is!”
“No, it f**king well isn’t.”
He was getting pissed but I figured I was getting more pissed.
I turned to him and declared, “Joe, you can’t buy my girls.”
His body went still and his face got hard and he didn’t speak for long seconds, seconds I didn’t realize he was using to gain control.
Then, low and angry, he told me, “I’m not buyin’ ‘em, I’m takin’ care of ‘em.”
“They’re not yours to take care of,” I snapped and immediately he moved. Mooch jumped away and I found myself plucked out of the bed and planted astride him, my knees in the bed, his arms locking me close.
“It was a shit time for you, the worst, but you were there and you saw ‘em doin’ it. They crawled into this same f**kin’ bed with me, so did you, and when you did, you all became mine.”
“That’s insane,” I informed him.
“That’s the way it is,” he shot back.
“Joe, we were beside ourselves with grief.”
“Yeah, and when you are you don’t lock tight to some guy you don’t know or some ass**le you hate. You lock tight to what’s yours to remind yourself that it is and that you need it.”
“That wasn’t what was happening.”
“Buddy, you’re na**d in my lap, your girls want me in the house, you’re pissed at me, tellin’ yourself it’s over and all I gotta do is kiss you and you turn wild. This shit gonna sink in?”
“It did, twice,” I reminded him, “and no matter the signals you gave me, Joe, it wasn’t what I thought.”
“Not givin’ you signals this time, Vi, I’m tellin’ you straight out and I’ll tell you somethin’ else, always listen to your gut.”
“Joe –”
“It told you you belonged to me, I’m tellin’ you it was right.”
I felt my heart start beating fast and that feeling in my belly again, the one I liked, so I whispered, “Stop it.”
“And I’ll tell you somethin’ else. I’m fixin’ up my house to sell it, we’re movin’ on from this, from Sam, from Hart, and we’re doin’ it together, you, me and the girls and along the way, I want a kid, our kid.”
I stilled and stared at him, his words another sock to the gut but it was a gut that had already gone warm, it had gone soft and, even with the wind knocked out of me, I felt that gut flutter.
Then I asked in a whisper. “What?”
“You’re not cool with that, I’ll deal. The girls’ll be all I need. But I’m not tellin’ you what I need, I’m tellin’ you what I want and I want a kid, with you.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered and his hand went to cup the back of my head and bend it to his.
“You got a lotta shit in your head, I know, but I’m layin’ it out for you. There it is. That’s what’s goin’ on here. Now, buddy, you need to cut Mike loose or I’ll do it for you.”
“Joe –”
“You want him to know you spent this mornin’ with my c**k inside you, you keep playin’ this game. You wanna do it yourself, you end it with him.”
“I keep trying to but he’s like you, he won’t listen.”
“Then game on,” Joe announced.
“Joe –”
“He shoulda listened.”
“Why? You don’t listen.”
“You don’t belong to him, you belong to me.”
“That’s insane too!”
“Baby, you told me so your f**kin’ self.”
“Sexual coercion.”
He stared at me a second then burst out laughing, rolling me to my back and covering me with his body again.
“Joe, get off me!” I snapped, pushing ineffectually at his shoulders.
“Nope, feel like coercin’ you again,” he said in my neck.
“Joe, stop it.”
“Keep sayin’ Joe, baby, you’re makin’ me hard.”
I growled, he grinned against my skin then, Lord help me, he lifted his head, his mouth came to mine and he coerced me and before I came I told him I belonged to him.