Twenty-Four

  Nothing. Google knew nothing. At least nothing more than the number of champions the Hughes Farm had in their ranks. It also had pictures of Blaise with more women than I cared to see. Rarely did he take the same female to a race or event. That should make me feel better, but the fact that he went through females so quickly didn’t. Also, my age stood out. He had women on his arm. They were his age. They weren’t teenagers. I only had two months before I wasn’t a teenager anymore, but twenty wasn’t a big deal.

  Tossing my phone back on the bed, I glared at it in frustration. That had given me no answers and only made all these unanswered questions worse. It was easy to forget everything when I was with Blaise. He consumed me. Admitting that wasn’t helpful either.

  He was coming to get me tonight. I was supposed to take a bag of clothes with me. Although I was confused and unsure of what was going on, I still wanted to go. I wanted to be with him. I was overthinking this. That was what I got for eavesdropping.

  I had put on new panties the moment I got in my room, but I’d not changed out of my sundress. Going into my closet, I found a pair of hot-pink shorts and a lacy white halter top that Melanie had bought me when we went shopping that one time after I went to Trev’s. I stopped and looked at my choices, realizing I was trying to dress older. Normally, I’d come in here and pick out the most comfortable items I could find. The pictures of the women Blaise had dated were getting to me.

  I waged an internal battle, and in the end, I put on the dang halter top. Yes, I was dressing for Blaise. I had to accept it. I liked him more than a lot. Pushing that thought aside, I put some things in a bag and placed it on the bed, then decided to go eat lunch. I was about to walk out the door when my cell phone alerted me of a text. Stopping, I went back to get it. I rarely got a text or call. Melanie and Trev were the only two who had texted to contact me. Saxon just came and found me.

  Blaise’s name was on the screen, and I frowned. I’d not put his number in my phone. I didn’t know his number. We hadn’t exactly been on good terms until last night. I opened the text.

  Keep your phone on you at all times.

  That was it. That was his message.

  Why? And when did we exchange numbers?

  I sent that and stood there, waiting for a response. It came almost immediately. As if he had known what I was going to ask.

  Because I want to be able to get in touch with you. Melanie gave me your number.

  That didn’t explain why his name was in my phone.

  But your name is in my phone.

  I waited again, and his response came quickly.

  Melanie probably added it.

  If I hadn’t heard the conversation earlier, I would have found that odd. But he was right. She probably had. After all, she had given me the phone and told me my passcode to it. She could use my phone anytime she wanted. I had nothing to hide, and she paid for it.

  I slipped the phone into the pocket of my shorts before leaving the room.

  When I entered the kitchen, I hadn’t expected Saxon to be sitting at the bar, eating a sandwich. He looked at me when I walked in and pulled out the stool next to him. There was a plate beside him with an identical lunch. I was glad he had come inside to talk to me. I trusted him, and I felt like he would answer some of my questions.

  “Thanks,” I said, taking the seat beside him. “I love Mrs. Jolene’s Reubens,” I said, looking down at my plate.

  He nodded while chewing the bite he had taken. I took a drink of my water and waited before taking my own bite. When he swallowed, he turned to look at me. I was hoping he’d start the conversation.

  “I think I missed something,” he started. “Last night, what was that?”

  Okay, good. We were going to talk. Melanie hadn’t scared him off from discussing Blaise with me.

  “Well, it confused me too. At first. Blaise hadn’t been nice to me since I’d arrived. Then, at the gala, things got weird.” I paused. Not sure how much I should tell Saxon.

  This was new to me, too, and I didn’t want to share details about Blaise and me with him. That seemed dishonest.

  “There was something there. Then, the horse riding lesson. He showed up. You were there.” I shrugged. I didn’t think Saxon wanted to hear how Blaise had affected me from day one. That even when he was a jerk, I noticed him. “Until he came here and we … talked … I’d misunderstood things.”

  “I don’t think that’s changed,” Saxon muttered under his breath, but I still understood him.

  “What?” I asked, wanting him to clarify.

  He shook his head and stared down at his plate of food. I waited. He was thinking about his words. I could tell he wanted to say more.

  “Blaise is twenty-five. You’re nineteen. He’s done some shit. He’s dated daughters of some powerful people. Don’t you think his coming over here and taking you to his house like—” He stopped then, and I was glad.

  This wasn’t the conversation I had wanted.

  Saxon was verbalizing my insecurities, making them feel legit rather than something I’d made up in my head. Knowing he thought I didn’t compare to his previous girlfriends wasn’t easy to hear.

  “I don’t know why he came over here and why he is …” What, dating me?

  We never had that talk. Instead, we’d had sex again. He had called my vagina his, but that was about it. I was pretty sure that had been a heat-of-the-moment thing.

  “What are y’all?” Saxon asked me.

  I was the one studying my plate of food now. I could feel Saxon looking at me. He was waiting for an answer I didn’t have.

  I managed to shrug. “I think we are dating.”

  “Exclusively?” he asked.

  I turned to meet Saxon’s gaze. “I’m not sure. It happened fast. We kinda let the moment and all we were feeling happen.”

  Saxon scowled and turned his eyes to look out the window. “The moment, huh?”

  I didn’t reply.

  “Did he say when he’d see you again?” Saxon asked through clenched teeth. He was angry, and although I knew that, I was surprised he was letting me see it.

  “He’s picking me up tonight,” I replied.

  His gaze swung back to mine. “To stay with him overnight again?”

  I started to nod, but the sound of heavy footsteps caused me to pause, and we both turned to see Huck walking into the kitchen. It was odd to see him inside the Houstons’ house.

  Was Blaise back already?

  “Those sound like questions you might want to let go of, Sax,” Huck said and gave him a tight smile that didn’t meet his eyes.

  Saxon looked stiff as he stood up from the stool. “Yeah.” He took his plate from the bar. “Didn’t know you were here. Looking for Dad?”

  Huck shook his head as he studied Saxon. “Nope. I know where he is. I was just out, checking on things. Thought I’d step inside. See if Mrs. Jolene had any of her sweet tea made.”

  Huck had just been walking around Moses Mile? Since when did the rodeo squad show up here?

  Saxon didn’t look confused. He simply nodded and put his plate in the sink.

  “Might want to go on out yourself. See how things are going. Think your dad might be looking for you,” Huck told him.

  Saxon took a deep breath and gripped the edge of the sink before nodding. “Okay,” he finally replied, then gave me one last glance before leaving out the back door.

  I stared at the door, trying to make sense of the scene I’d just witnessed, then remembered Huck was still here. I looked back at him.

  He gave me a nod, then walked over to the fridge. “Sax is a good kid,” Huck said as he looked around. “But he’s a guy. Sometimes, a pretty face can make us stupid.”

  I said nothing. I was waiting for him to get to his point.

  He reached into the fridge and pulled out a gallon of tea. “Takes us males a while to grow up. Understand what’s more important,” Huck told me as he placed the tea on the bar. He smiled at me then, like he was having a chat with an old friend.

  “Is there a point to this?” I asked him finally.

  He nodded. “Yeah.” He pulled a glass down from the cabinet. He had been here enough times to know exactly where the glasses were. Maybe he had come to check on Empire or something, and I’d never seen him. “Sax might say something stupid that could end real bad. Don’t want to see that happen. If he’s your friend, then you don’t either. You got questions, ask Blaise. You get asked questions, tell them to ask Blaise.”

  He poured tea into the glass and took a long drink. When it was clear he wasn’t going to say any more, I stood up.

  “I’m not even sure what Blaise and I are. We haven’t talked about it. I don’t think that after one night in his bed, I’m now supposed to go through him for all communication. Sax is my friend. We talk. I trust him.”

  Huck put the glass back down and sighed loudly. “In the kitchen this morning,” he began, “he called you his.”

  He had. We’d kinda talked about that. We had sex again after that, and he made me think nothing in the world mattered but the two of us. But that had been in the moment. Out here, away from his private cave, things weren’t so clear. This was new. We were new. There were no actual ties, except the sex and obvious attraction.

  “You might not understand it yet. But Sax does,” Huck said, then drank the rest of his tea in one long gulp before placing the glass in the sink and heading for the back door.

  I wanted to stop him and tell him to explain to me what that meant. Something was wrong here. I could tell myself I was overthinking it all. I wanted to, but there was a secret I didn’t know. A secret where Blaise was dangerous or obeyed or whatever.

  I wasn’t sure, but the thought occurred to me, What if the secret is why my mother left? Who were these people?

  Twenty-Five

  The book I’d gotten from the Houstons’ library didn’t distract me much, but it was the best thing I could think of to occupy my thoughts until Blaise arrived. It was almost five when my bedroom door opened and Blaise stepped inside. I stared at him as he walked over to the bed and picked up my packed bag.

  “Let’s go.” It wasn’t a request; it was a command.

  I didn’t move. I sat there with my book and studied him.

  His eyes locked with mine. He was angry. This was the Blaise that I was used to. The one who had taken me to his cave blindsided me. He’d confused me and made me forget things. Like the fact that Blaise was normally an asshole.

  “Now, Madeline.”

  I wasn’t scared of him. Everyone else could be if they wanted to be, but I wasn’t. He was pissed. Probably because Huck had told him I’d had lunch with Saxon and the questions Saxon had asked me. I didn’t care. We hadn’t done anything wrong. Saxon was my friend. I lived in his house.

  “I don’t obey orders,” I replied putting my book down and crossing my arms over my chest defiantly.

  Blaise’s nostrils flared as he inhaled, and I knew I was pushing him. I still didn’t care. He didn’t have to walk into my room and treat me like his property. I’d had sex with him, not signed over my life to him.

  “Please,” he said through his teeth.

  I raised my eyebrows and said nothing.

  Blaise muttered a curse and tossed the bag down on the floor, then stalked over to me. I didn’t move an inch. I wasn’t going to show fear. He wouldn’t control me. Whatever god complex he had wasn’t going to be encouraged by me.

  “If you don’t move your sweet ass right fucking now, I’m going to carry you out,” he threatened.

  “Really? You think tossing me over your shoulder and walking out with me is the way to handle it? Instead of … I don’t know … being nice?” I said. “It’s not so hard. You were real nice in your bed this morning.”

  Blaise took another step, towering over me. “If that’s an invitation to fuck you right here, then I’ll take it, but it’s gonna be hard, and it’s gonna hurt.”

  I swallowed, wishing that his sex threats didn’t turn me on. I had a point to make. I did not need to be controlled by sex.

  “That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” I replied.

  He smirked then, and although it was arrogant, it still softened the anger in his brow. “Let’s go,” he said in a somewhat-softer tone this time.

  “You came in here angry. Why?” I wasn’t going to leave with him until he clarified some things.

  “Your lunch with Saxon,” he replied.

  “We had sex, and now, I can’t have lunch with my friend?” I asked as I stood up.

  Blaise shoved his left hand into my hair and grabbed it, then jerked my head back. “You have questions? Talk to me.” He lowered his head and ran the tip of his nose up my neck.

  I was not going to get distracted. I was not.

  “Saxon asked me questions first,” I said.

  “He won’t again,” Blaise replied, then eased his hold on my hair.

  “Why is he scared of you?” I asked him, not taking my eyes off his face. I was looking for anything in his expression that would confirm what I was asking.

  “I’m older, bigger.” He moved his hand from my hair to trace my jawline with his fingers.

  “It’s more than that, Blaise,” I pushed.

  He shrugged. “The racing business is what defines his family, just like mine. Moses Mile needs the Hughes Farm. We are powerful. It will be mine one day.” He said this as if it made complete sense.

  “And Trev’s,” I added.

  He shook his head slowly while he continued to run his fingertip along my bare skin. “No. Just mine. There can only be one boss,” he replied. “Trev was never the one. He’s too soft.”

  Boss. That was what Melanie had called him. She’d been referring to Hughes Farm. That made sense. If Garrett was handing it over to Blaise, then the Houstons didn’t want to make an enemy. Especially over a girl they had just brought into their home.

  I sighed, feeling like an idiot. My head had gone in so many directions today, and I blamed my stupid eavesdropping for it all. I should have minded my own business.

  “Okay,” I said. “We can go.”

  Blaise didn’t move as he ran his fingers over the cleavage the halter top showed. “I like this top,” he said, lifting his eyes to meet mine.

  I felt a blush warm my neck and face. I’d worn it, hoping he would. “Thanks.”

  His hand slid down my stomach and then between my legs. “Not a fan of the shorts. They’re in my way.”

  I smiled then and stepped around him. “Sometimes, you have to work for it. You can’t just take what you want, when you want it.”

  I went to pick up the bag he’d dropped.

  “Keep talking to me like that, and I’m going to spank your bare ass when I get you home,” he warned.

  The idea of being hit should make me cringe. It should. But thinking about Blaise doing it only made me squirm.

  “We need to leave,” Blaise said as he headed for the door, taking my bag from me on the way.

  I walked out as he held it open.

  “It’s only five,” I said, noticing the grandfather clock in the hallway. “You’re early.”

  “You were having lunch with Saxon,” he replied.

  I frowned. “That’s why you’re early?”

  He nodded his head once.

  I followed him down the stairs and to the front door. Pausing, I looked back. “I should tell someone I’m leaving.”

  “They know,” he said.

  Of course they did. Apparently, Blaise had Melanie on speed dial. I didn’t want to witness a confrontation between Saxon and Blaise anyway, so I left the house without telling anyone bye.

  When we got to his truck, he opened the passenger door, then tossed my bag inside. I started to get in, but then he picked me up and put me inside. While I watched him walk around to get in on the driver’s side, thinking about how sexy he made a pair of jeans, I saw someone standing off by the far round pen. It was Saxon. He was watching us. I wished he weren’t so worried. But I didn’t know how to ease that concern for him.

  Blaise climbed inside, and we pulled away. I didn’t look back at Saxon.

  Twenty-Six

  There was a crowd here. The moment we pulled up, I noticed extra vehicles outside the house. Three big, expensive trucks, some kind of sports car, and a few SUVs.

  “Fight night,” Blaise said simply as we pulled into the garage.

  “MMA?” I asked, thinking that season was over.

  My dad and brother had watched it when they could get it on TV. Most of the time, they’d had to go to a bar that was showing it.

  “Boxing,” he replied.

  “I didn’t know you were into boxing,” I told him, but then I didn’t know that much about his likes and dislikes.

  “I’m not. The guys are,” he explained as we got out of the truck.

  I followed him inside as he carried my bag in his hand. This would be his crowd. Not just the rodeo squad, but also his group of people. They were going to be older than me, and I wished I’d put on some makeup so I felt like I at least looked older. Saxon’s words about our age difference came back to haunt me.

  The television was loud, and people were sitting everywhere. Some standing. The kitchen had voices coming from it too. I felt somewhat better about things. I could blend in easier with so much going on.

  That thought was instantly wiped out when a large man with red hair and a beard saw Blaise walk into the room. He waved his beer in the air.

  “Boss!” he called out loudly, and every eye in the room was now looking in our direction.

  “You didn’t bet!” another man shouted, who was covered in tattoos and had a piercing in his face. “It’s an easy win,” he added, throwing his hands in the air.