Off-Limits, page 6
Figuring it had something to do with Gwen, I nodded and scooped Josie into my arms. “Tell Grandma you’ll see her after lunch, Jo.”
“See you, Grandma,” she said with a wave as we walked into her father’s office.
The door to Howler’s office was closed, so I knocked twice before opening it. Walking in, I put Josie on her feet, and she skipped over to his desk. “Daddy, we brought you leftovers and salad.”
He lifted her onto his lap and kissed the top of her head. “Thank goodness. My stomach sounds like there is a bear in there. Shh, listen. I bet you can hear him.”
Giggling, she kissed his cheek.
He put her on her feet as he stood, then slowly crossed to me. As I watched him through my lashes, he ran his eyes over me hungrily from head to toe. Licking his lips, he stopped only a few inches away. “Fuck,” he muttered low enough so Josie wouldn’t hear him from where she was now sitting in his chair at the desk. “I’ve missed you all damn day.”
Pleasure filled my chest, and I stepped into his personal space. “I missed you too,” I confessed. “Is that why you’ve been growling at everyone? Or did something happen?”
Wrapping his arms around my waist, he buried his face in my neck. “Let’s talk about that later,” he said close to my ear. “When little ears can’t overhear.”
I pulled back enough to see his face. “Is it that bad?”
He shrugged, his face tense. I stroked a finger down his nose, wanting to erase the worry lines forming there. “Nothing’s going to happen to Josie,” I promised him. “No matter what.”
Closing his eyes, he pressed his forehead to mine. “You’re amazing, you know that? I love you so damn much.”
Even though it wasn’t the first time he’d said those words since last night, my heart exploded with joy like it was. “Are you hungry?” I asked, needing to distract us both before I kissed the breath out of him right there in front of Josie.
“Starving,” he said with a groan, but I wasn’t sure if he meant for food or me, because I could feel just how hard he was pressing into my belly.
Grinning, I stepped back and started pulling containers out of the bag I’d packed for us. “I made fresh garlic bread this morning since I couldn’t go back to sleep after you called. Then Josie helped me make a salad to go with our spaghetti.”
“It smells amazing.” Moving around the desk, he started clearing a spot for the three of us to eat, while I set out our individual dishes.
Josie sat in her father’s chair, and the two of us took the two guest chairs in front of the desk. She kept us entertained with conversation while we ate, distracting us both from whatever was bothering Howler, but I could feel the tension practically radiating off him as our meal came to an end.
Once we were done eating, I put everything away and then took Josie into the bathroom to help her wash the spaghetti sauce off her face. With her face freshly clean, I left her with Cherie before going back into Howler’s office.
“I’ll pick you up when your class is over,” he said before I could speak. “Just text me when you’re done.”
“I can just get a ride to your place from Barrick or call for the town car,” I told him.
“No. I’ll pick you up.” Pulling me against him, he kissed me. It was a quick kiss, but it still left me breathless when he lifted his head. “Mom’s going to watch Josie tonight and tomorrow night, and Judge is going to put someone on her house to make sure nothing happens.”
There was something in his tone that had the fine hairs on my body rising. Josie spending the night with Cherie wasn’t unusual; I knew that. But there was just something…off. “Howler, what’s going on?”
Exhaling heavily, he dropped down into his chair and reached for my hand, his fingers playing with mine before he brought them to his lips and finally answered. “After I called your brother this morning, he decided to have someone follow Gwen. The guy found her coming out of one of the drug dens on the south side of town. From there, she walked to a house a few blocks away, and when she left, the guy thought he saw a gun barrel sticking out of her tiny-ass purse.”
“I’m not going to class,” I told him, starting to shake. A gun. Gwen had a gun. Fuck. Was she that desperate to take Josie away from her father? If she came near my little Jo-Jo, I was going to kill her. “I’ll take Josie home with me. I won’t let that bitch anywhere near her.”
“The gun was for you,” he said, stopping me in my tracks. “Judge’s guy went in and talked to the people in the house. After a little incentive, they all told him Gwen was ranting and raving, high off her ass, and saying she wanted to teach you a lesson. She wants to hurt you, Lyla.”
An indelicate snort left me. “Like that cunt has the guts to come at me, even with a gun.”
“Maybe she would, maybe she wouldn’t. But I’m not taking any chances. Josie is going to my mother’s tonight and—”
“Wait,” I stopped him, holding up my hand. “If Gwen is after me, then Josie shouldn’t have to leave her home. I’ll just go back to the dorm or stay with Judge.”
“The fuck you say!” he exploded. “You are going to be where I can see for myself that you’re safe. Where I can protect you. Me. Not Judge.”
“I can protect myself.”
“I. Don’t. Care!” he roared, backing me against the door of his office.
“I’m not fragile, Howler.”
“How many times do I have to tell you, baby?” Lowering his head, he brushed his lips lightly over mine. It was a tease of a kiss, but damn if it didn’t make me light-headed. “I protect you because you are one of the two most precious people in my world, not because you’re fragile.”
Everything inside me melted. I didn’t want to be dependent on anyone, yet I loved that Howler wanted to take care of me. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pushed up onto my tiptoes and kissed him, long and hard. He grabbed my ass and lifted me, and I wrapped my legs around his hips.
“I can’t fuck you against this door when my mom and daughter are on the other side, baby,” he muttered, irritable. “But tonight, I’m going to fuck you so hard, neither of us will be able to walk tomorrow.”
My head fell back against the door, and I clung weakly to his shoulders. “Howler,” I mewled. “I want you so bad.”
“Me too, baby. Me too.” He kissed his way down my neck, only stopping when he got to my shirt. With a growl, he attacked my mouth when he ran out of bare skin. “But we can’t.”
“Then stop kissing me,” I challenged. “You’re making me so wet, I won’t be able to walk around campus.”
“Don’t go. Stay here.” He lifted his head, his eyes seeing too much of what I didn’t want to share with the world. “Do you even want to go to college?”
I knew the answer I was supposed to give. Yes, I wanted to go to college. It was where you were supposed to find out new truths about yourself. Spread your wings and live it up while you could.
Only, I’d spread my wings, I’d found out all the truths about myself I was ever going to find. But all those dreams I’d ever had, all the wants and desires and plans for the future, they never changed even when I was thousands of miles away from home.
I didn’t want college. I wanted Howler and Josie. I wanted a house and a dog running around the backyard. I wanted a family I could call my own, kids clinging to my leg, and Josie calling me “Mom.” I wanted a ring on my finger and a husband who would move heaven and earth just to be with me.
And I suspected Howler already knew all of those things about me.
Only he hadn’t moved heaven and earth to be with me. He hadn’t done much of anything other than fuck my brains out. I’d gotten the words from him, that sweet “I love you” pledge, but maybe I should have been disgusted with myself for letting him have me so easily.
Part of me kind of was.
Yet I was too lost in finally being with him, getting to taste him and hold him, and calling him mine for the moment that I didn’t give a single fuck.
“Lyla?” His voice had lowered and became more imploring. “My offer to take over Mom’s job is always open. I’ll give you whatever salary you ask for and anything else you want.”
I put on my best smile and shook my head. “As tempting as that offer is, I’m going to have to pass.” I kissed him, keeping the contact quick and soft before unwrapping myself from around him. “I need to get to class.”
Groaning, he nodded. “Yeah, okay. Be vigilant. Don’t go looking for trouble. And stay in a crowd. I will pick you up as soon as you text me.” Placing his hand at the small of my back, he walked me out of his office.
As I passed Cherie’s desk, I stopped to give her a hug and kiss Josie. “Looks like you’re spending the night with Grandma tonight, kiddo,” I told her as she slung her little arms around my neck.
“Oh,” she said with a pout. “But will you still be at my house when I get home?”
I kissed the tip of her nose. “I will. I promise. You be good, and when you get home, we can make those birthday cake cookies again.”
Her entire face lit up, and she gave me a smacking kiss on the cheek. “I will. I promise. Bye, Lyla. Love you.”
“Bye, sweet girl. See you soon.”
As he walked me out to the car I’d come in earlier, Howler stroked his hand down my back. “It’s my turn to make you dinner tonight.”
My eyes widened. “You can cook? I thought you had a housekeeper who did that for you.”
“Sometimes. But I can cook just as well as you can.” Opening the back door of the sedan where my brother’s guard was waiting, he touched his lips to my temple. “Be good and stay safe.”
“You too,” I said with a smirk. “Get some work done, lazy.”
Laughing, he kissed my lips then stepped back. “I love you.”
I couldn’t get over him saying those three words to me so easily. Each time caused an explosion of pleasure to detonate in my chest. “I love you too.”
Chapter 9
Lyla
I was walking out of class, my phone already out to text Howler I was ready to go, when I caught sight of my brother standing outside the door.
Putting my phone back in my bag, I walked over to him, curious why he would show up on campus out of the blue.
Seeing me coming, he opened his arms wide, and I walked into them, hugging him tightly. “What’s up?” I asked when I stepped back, smiling up at him.
Growing up, it was just the two of us, even when our father was still alive. Our dad was a mean sonofabitch, using his fists on anyone who got in his way whenever he was drinking. Our mother stayed out of the line of fire, but I didn’t learn my lesson until I was almost a teenager. Before that, though, Judge would put himself between the old bastard and me whenever I happened to find myself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He wasn’t just my brother. To me, he was the only true father figure I’d ever had. The one person in the world I knew loved me without exception. His overprotectiveness had never really bothered me because I knew he was only doing what his instincts told him to do—protect those he loved the most.
Which, sadly, was me and very few others.
Dropping his arm around my shoulders, he guided me toward the door. “You got time for a coffee? I didn’t know your schedule, so I called Braxton to see where you were.”
“Sure. I always have time for you,” I assured him as we stepped out into the chilly fall afternoon.
As we walked toward the campus café, he kept glancing around, keeping an ever-watchful eye out for danger. I sighed. “Relax. Gwen doesn’t have the guts to do anything to me.”
“Gwen is a deranged cokehead who doesn’t know up from down on a good day, but she’s vindictive. She knows she can’t touch you. You destroyed her the other night, and she knows no one will let her near you even if she tried. That’s why she got the damn gun.”
I rolled my eyes so hard, I almost gave myself a headache. “Oh please, like that cunt knows how to use one.”
“Lyla!” he snapped my name. Stepping in front of me, he grasped my shoulders and shook me ever so slightly. “Listen to me. You don’t know what Gwen is capable of. None of us do. She bought a goddamn gun and was telling people she wants to make you pay. Even though he had primary custody, Howler was still paying her child support for when she had Josie overnight. That’s stopped now. Her booze and drug money are obsolete, and she wants to blame anyone but herself. She’s chosen you to be the villain in this, honey. You are her target.”
I shrugged off his hands. “I’m not scared of her.”
His laugh was dry as he shook his head at me exasperatedly. “Of course you aren’t, but you should be. She’s not stable.”
Not wanting to spend the time I had with him arguing, I changed the subject. “You didn’t tell me Ellianna was home over the summer.”
His entire face shut down, just as I knew it would, closing me off from everything he was thinking. I didn’t know what his deal was. I loved Ellianna like a sister, but he couldn’t even bring himself to speak of or even to her when she was around.
“I barely noticed she was there,” he said with a new coldness to his tone that made me want to smack him upside the head. “I guess I forgot about her.”
“Why are you such a jerk to her, Judge? Mabel treats us like we are her own children, and you can’t even be nice to her actual child for a single moment?”
“She doesn’t respect me,” he countered, sounding like a petulant child.
“Because she doesn’t call you Judge?” I laughed. “Who cares if she calls you Zachary or Mr. Bennet or whatever the fuck else? You’re so full of yourself, you know that?”
His jaw tensed, but I just linked my arm through his and started walking again. “Come on. I want some coffee before I call Howler.”
“There’s no need to call Howler,” he grumbled. “I’ll take you home.”
I lifted my brows. “His home or ours?”
“Ours, of course. Why would you go to his? Josie is at Cherie’s for the next two days. You have no reason to be at his house when she’s not there.”
I stopped right in front of the main entrance to the café. Crossing my arms over my chest, I glared up at my brother. “Last time I checked, I was twenty years old and didn’t need to ask anyone’s permission if I wanted to have a sleepover with a member of the opposite sex.”
Judge’s face twisted with disgust. “I don’t want to think about my baby sister having any sleepovers with any worthless douchebag, least of all my best friend.”
“Whether you want to think about it or not, I’m still going to Howler’s tonight. He and I…” I paused, unsure how to explain to my brother what had happened without damaging either of our psyches. I didn’t want to just blurt out that I’d fucked his best friend the night before. Hell, I didn’t want to put those mental images in his head any more than he wanted me to. “We’re together, Judge,” I finally modified.
“No,” he snapped, his face twisted with pure anger. “I forbid it.”
“Excuse you?” I poked him in the chest. “You don’t get to forbid me to do anything. Ever. I’m your sister, not your servant. Or anything else, for that matter. Your sister, asshole.”
“You’re right. I can’t forbid you. I apologize.” But before I could even start to be mollified, he pulled out his phone. After doing something to the screen, he placed it to his ear, and my stomach dropped even before he spoke. “Howler, Lyla says you two are together.” He paused to listen, and I grabbed his wrist, pulling the phone away from his ear enough so I could listen.
There was a pause before Howler released a drawn-out breath. “Yeah?”
Closing my eyes, I waited for my brother to drop the bomb and make Howler choose. I held my breath, because even though Howler had said he loved me multiple times, he wouldn’t be picking me.
“Never mind,” Judge said after a moment, and my eyes snapped open. But my brother wasn’t even looking at me. His gaze was on something in the distance, and I could feel a new tension settling into his muscles. “We’ll discuss this later. I have to go.”
“What?” I asked, dazed from the sudden reprieve I’d been given. For the moment, at least.
Pocketing his phone, he turned away from the café and steered me toward the parking lot. “I’ll drop you off at Howler’s,” he announced. “I have something I need to do.”
“What’s going on?” I demanded. “Who did you just see that has put you in this weird mood all of a sudden?”
“No one,” he muttered. “Let’s go. That is, if you’re still going to Howler’s. If not, we can just go home.”
“I’m going to Howler’s,” I rushed to tell him.
Reaching his car, he opened the passenger door for me, but he stopped me before I could get in. “Look, Lyla. I gave Howler the chance to be with you in the past.”
“Wait, what?” I shook my head, not understanding what he was saying. “What are you talking about?”
“Three years ago, when you decided you just had to go work with Barrick, I told him to do what he had to so you would stay. That included the two of you becoming a couple. I was fine with it if it meant you wouldn’t leave.”
My heart was pounding against my ribs so hard, I was surprised Judge couldn’t hear it. “And?”
“And nothing,” he said with a shrug of his massive shoulders. “He didn’t choose you back then, Lyla. Just like he won’t choose you now.”
He didn’t have to explain that to me.
I already knew that if it came down to it, Howler would let me go without a single moment of regret.
And I would be left broken and alone.
Just like always.
Chapter 10
Lyla
Howler was already home by the time Judge dropped me off.
Before I could even ring the doorbell, the door opened, and a seething blond giant stood over me.
“I told you to text me and I would pick you up.”
I shrugged and walked past him into the house. “Judge showed up outside my class. He didn’t leave me much choice.”
