She exhaled shakily but stayed silent.
She felt him press a kiss to the top of her head and then take a step back.
“How about we get dressed? You’ll have to wear your skirt from last night, but you could just tie the ends of my shirt in front until we get your clothes.”
Brylee cleared her throat. “I’ll do that.”
“Okay, good. Let’s get going. It’ll take us the better part of the day to pack your things up and go to the store and stock up our refrigerator.”
She stared at him with wide eyes. He talked like they’d been together for a while instead of one night. As much as she told herself not to get to attached until they knew each other better, she couldn’t deny the kernel of hope that continued to grow in her belly.
Brylee walked into the room he’d given her the night before and made the bed before she undid her braid and brushed her hair and then her teeth. She slid on her black skirt and then tied up Gage’s shirt. She grinned when she looked into the mirror. She had to admit to herself it looked almost stylish.
“Ready?”
Brylee turned toward the door to see Gage leaning against the doorjamb, in faded jeans and a tight black t-shirt, with his arms crossed and staring at her. “Yes, I’m ready.”
He straightened and held out his hand. “Then let’s go.”
Chapter Eight
Brylee directed him to the apartment building she lived in. He followed her up the stairs silently, but his heavy tread calmed her nerves about facing her roommates.
She turned toward him at the door before she opened it. “They might be a little hostile. One of them last night got in my face.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“Because the officer pushed her away, and my mind was on a hundred other things. I’m sorry.”
Gage cupped her cheek. “Don’t worry. We’ll be in and out in a short time, and then you’ll never have to see them again.”
Brylee exhaled. “You have no idea how good that sounds.”
She opened the door and stopped short to see her roommates sitting around the living room watching TV. Brylee closed the door behind Gage.
“My room is this way.”
She felt him protectively behind her. The breath exhaled in a painful rush when she saw her room.
“Goddammit,” Gage barked and turned toward the other women. “What the fuck happened here, ladies?”
Brylee slowly walked around her room as she listened to Gage take after them.
“One of you better tell me right now, or I’ll have a half a dozen cops here searching your apartment. I’m guessing there will be drugs because of the aroma of pot in the air.”
One of the women rolled her eyes. “We don’t know. We work up this morning, and it was like that.”
“You can smirk all you like. I’ll just buy her all new stuff. Things you’ll never have because you’re lowlife bitches.”
“Oh, yeah. Where are you going to get the money? Hustling?”
Gage grinned. “No, I own a dozen businesses in this town alone. I probably make more in a day than you do in a year.”
Brylee kept picking up things off the floor and setting the stuff that wasn’t broken on the bed to take with her. She stiffened when she heard Gage walk up behind her.
Her breath whooshed out when he turned her and pulled her into his arms.
Brylee hugged him tightly and closed her eyes.