“Carry on.” Tillie pulls my attention away from my inner thoughts.
“Until we tie up a loose end with something, your ass needs to stay here, and that’s all there is to it.”
Her eyes whip to my dad, who is sitting on the other side of the table. “So you were in on getting me here too?”
“No,” I interrupt, grinning from ear to ear. “Gabriel is something else entirely.”
“But this doesn’t make sense to me. You bring me here—” She pauses, her eyes glazing over as they go over my shoulder.
My blood turns cold, my jaw tensing. Having this fucker hanging around isn’t ideal, considering he and Tillie’s connection. I’m not a fucking idiot. I saw what they had. It makes me want to rip the flesh from his face and feed it to her. Instantly, hate and anger bubbles to the surface, threatening to spill over the edges.
Tillie turns, and I watch as her shoulders visibly relax. “Oh, hey.”
Bishop’s eyes come straight to me. He’s trying to reassure me. Settle me down. It isn’t working.
My lip curls into a snarl and I open my mouth to tell him to fuck off, but Brantley’s foot connects with my leg under the table, breaking the trance that had me seeing red with the Kill Bill theme song playing on loud.
I look at Brantley, who shakes his head at me.
Exhaling, I clench my fist a few times, cutting out whatever the fuck it is everyone is talking about, now lost in my rage. I need to calm down. I’ve never felt such fucking anger until I met Tillie. She’s the only one who can reach the string and tug on every single fucking emotion that is inside of me.
I hate it.
She’s a fucking weakness.
Push her away.
“I need you back on land,” I find myself blurting out, and Bishop kicks me now. I don’t give a shit. She’s my game, not his. He ruined his game and now his key player is damaged beyond repair, for reasons I still don’t fucking know.
I bring my eyes to Tillie. “I need you back at the house. Until I say otherwise.”
She laughs, her little face tilting back as a sarcastic chuckle spills from those sexy fucking lips. “I don’t take orders from you, Nate.”
I push up from my chair, the scraping breaking through the silence. I start walking toward her slowly, not moving my attention from her. “Really?”
She doesn’t call my bluff. Any other chick would be afraid, maybe even cower. Madison always did. But not Tillie, and it fucking turns me on.
She smirks, leaning back in her chair and licking her lips. “Really.”
“Ah, not to be the asshole in the room,” Cash interferes. “But I’ll be the asshole in the room. You’re both insane.”
I lean down, both my hands landing on either side of her chair. “It’s cute.” I run the tip of my nose over hers, smirking while ignoring her scent.
“What’s cute?” Her eyes cross in briefly, her chest rising and falling slowly.
Click! I clasp a handcuff around her wrist, the other side around mine.
She gasps and then yanks on the handcuff.
I smirk, nipping her lower lip between my teeth before standing straight. “The fact that you think you have any power when it comes to me. Because just to be clear, princess, you don’t. Get up.” I yank her until she’s standing.
“I hate you.”
I roll my eyes, dragging her behind me until I’m back in my seat. She stands beside my chair awkwardly, the sight making me laugh a little.
“Shut up, Nate. I hate you.”
“Don’t have to like me to sit on my dick, princess.” Then I yank her down until her ass is pressing into my cock.
I groan, biting my lip while readjusting her position so she’s not right there.
She flicks her legs over so she’s sitting across my lap now, instead of directly on my cock. She moves again, smirking down at me. “You think you have the power, but last I checked, I’m the one with the pussy.”
I chuckle, my hand coming to her upper thigh, squeezing hard enough for her to cringe beneath that fake confidence. With my other hand, I grab her chin and tilt her face down to mine. “I’m well acquainted with your pussy, Princessa, but if you pull that shit again, I’ll tear off your clothes and fuck you until you’re black and blue and bleeding out on this table. Don’t fucking test me, baby, because your pussy will not be so testy once I’m done with it.”
Her eyes narrow on mine, and I wait for her to answer. “What?” I tease. “You know I can do this all day…”
“—I think we’ve been distracted enough. Nate, tell me what you mean by you wanting Tillie back on main soil. I thought we agreed she was to stay here until we figure out—” Bishop stops, with good reason.