“I thought he was here to buy the blanket.” I lift it up to show him.
“I can see your nipples,” he says, slowly walking towards me.
I blush, looking down at the thin material. When he wraps his arm around my waist, he pulls me flush against him, and then I think about what I was doing before the knock on the door. His other hand goes to my neck as he holds me close.
“You gave that man your address?” His voice is low, but it’s not scary anymore.
I nod. I don’t know why I assumed it would be a woman. Bear shakes his head and I don’t know what to do. I drop the blanket and put my hands on his chest.
“Don’t be angry with me.” My words come out in a low whisper.
“I’m not angry with you, Pepper.” He’s gentle, and I know he was just worried about me.
“You called me Pepper.” That knot that was in my stomach has now moved to my throat.
Bear’s phone rings, but he ignores it. “Doll face,” he corrects as he leans to kiss me, but then his phone rings again. He curses before he lets me go and walks over to the table. When he sees the screen, he lets out another curse and answers it.
“What now?” He pauses for a moment and then lets out a frustrated sigh. “All right. I’ll be down in a second.” He drops the phone on the table and I’m suddenly really sad. I don’t want him to leave. Not right now.
“I’ll be back,” he tells me, and I shake my head. He looks like he’s about to come back over to me but then opens the door. “Lock it behind me and keep your butt in here.”
When it’s closed, I walk over and flip the lock. I have no idea where he’s going, but he left his phone here. So he has to come back. Right?
The timer for the oven goes off, reminding me that I have food still cooking. I take the chicken out and place the pan on the stovetop. I have no idea what’s happening, but it feels like the whole night is ruined.
Chapter Ten
Bear
It’s late by the time I get finished with the police. The fucker who got upstairs called the cops and wanted to press charges. Then the news showed up and shit got crazy. I ended up having to call my agent to release a statement, press my own charges against the asshole and have a meeting with security. I’m not sure what kind of story they ran tonight or what’s all over social media, but I’m done for today. I can’t deal with that shit anymore.
I’ve never experienced panic like I did at seeing that man hovering over Pepper. I saw the fear in her eyes instantly and it was all I could do not to rip him apart. But I knew if she saw me react that way it would scare her even more and I had to keep the situation under control.
The guy told the police that Pepper invited him up to her place. He wouldn’t show anyone the emails as evidence, which makes me believe that all she did was try to sell some of her stuff and that fuckhead was trying to take advantage of her. I knew some of those guys following her were only there to look at her. She’s breathtaking, but when she’s excited and talking about something she loves, it’s the most captivating thing I’ve ever seen. I would want her if I saw her on a video, too, but she’s mine now and I’m not letting that shit happen.
Thankfully the police were on my side with the whole thing and ended up hauling the guy out of there. I don’t think he’ll have the balls to come back from how he cowered every time I looked at him. The only reason he said anything is because I’m famous and he thought it was going to be a payday for him. Think again, asshole.
I glance back at the mob of people outside the building and shake my head. I get on the elevator and punch in the new code and take it all the way to the top. It’s after midnight and I’m supposed to be up at dawn for a training session. It’s getting close to my final fight and I need all the workouts I can get. I was supposed to have a press conference this week to talk about it, but my agent thinks it’s a bad idea after tonight.
On top of all that, I didn’t get to spend any time with Pepper. I got caught up talking to my agent and then my aunt called me right then. I ended up talking to her for an hour because I was telling her all about Pepper. Then when I was just about to leave, Rico called me and told me I needed to do a conference call with my doctor. They had to go over all my tests to make sure my body is clean and ready for the fight.