When Chris returned the smile warmly, Ryker grunted. He touched Axel's shoulder briefly. "Why don't you show James your room now? I'd like to have that word with Mr. Weaver." Axel swallowed, but he didn't argue. I didn't blame him, because the intensity in Ryker's face was compelling, and I was very grateful for the fact that Ines was happily playing with her toys in the living room and couldn't have cared less about the conversation that happened in the kitchen.
I had a feeling it wouldn’t be fun.
After Axel led James away, Ryker listened for the moment the baby gate at the top of the stairs swung closed before he spoke in a cool, quiet voice that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on its end.
"I'll lay it out for you very simply. Calla does not exist for you," he said.
"Ryker!" I whispered sharply, shoving at his shoulder. The ridiculous man just couldn't seem to help himself from behaving like an asshole.
"Excuse me?" Chris asked, furrowing his brow as he tried to make sense of Ryker's words.
“Ignore him,” I hissed, glaring at Ryker out of the corner of my eye. “He hulks out randomly and has no idea when to shut his damn mouth.”
Ryker didn’t seem to care that I’d spoken, or hear the warning in my voice for what it was. "You make it very obvious that you want more from her. Enough that even Axel has picked up on the way you stare at her." Ryker crossed his arms over his chest. "As you can see, she is very much spoken for. Since I doubt you'll be able to let go of that attraction so easily, you deal with me from now on. You need to talk about something regarding the boys or a play date? You call me. Axel will give you my number."
"You're forbidding me from talking to your girlfriend regarding her son?" Chris asked, and from the way Ryker's face hardened I knew it had been the wrong word to use. Though what he was supposed to refer to me as, I had no clue.
Did hostage equate to girlfriend? Wife?
Who the Hell knew with his meatball ass.
"My woman," Ryker growled. "I realize for a man like you the distinction may not be significant, but know that for me it is. I won’t have another man looking at my woman like she’s a piece of meat."
"It's ridiculous is what it is," Chris laughed. "You don't own her. She can speak to whoever she likes."
"You have about thirty seconds to realize that you are in over your head and shut the fuck up. No, I do not own Calla, but she is mine regardless. Now tell me you understand what I'm telling you or we're going to have a far more serious problem than working out security for Axel, and you may want to think about security for yourself."
"Stop it right now. This is ridiculous," I said, giving Ryker another little shove to get him to turn his attention to me. But he held his stare with Chris, and something the other man saw in his manic blue eyes convinced him it was most definitely smart for him to agree with what Ryker said. "Chris, I'm so sorry-"
"I understand," he said finally, ignoring me entirely. He called up the stairs for James, and a moment later the boys came barreling down the stairs like only adolescent boys could do.
"Bye, Mommy!" Axel said, squeezing my legs tightly as I leaned down to kiss the top of his head.
"I'll see you tomorrow. Be a good boy."
"Bye, Ryker!" Axel said, hugging him tightly until he bounded out the door after James and his father.
"Mommy!" Ines called from the living room, finally having had enough of being ignored.
I glared at Ryker briefly, twisting my face into a glare that I felt in my soul. "I cannot believe you. You do not fucking listen to a thing I say, do you?" I asked him, leaving to go play with my daughter.
Maybe I could convince her to make voodoo dolls with me.
Twenty-Seven
Ryker
With Ines tucked into bed and Calla having gone up to the master to take a bath with a book to read, I’d gone to the home gym to work off some energy. The thought of Calla covered in bubbles, her body slick and oiled from her bath, was enough to drive me mad.
Knowing that she hid from me because I’d sufficiently pissed her off didn’t quell my need for her. I shouldn’t expect anything less from her. I’d thrown her into an impossible situation without warning or regard for how she might feel about it, and I kept pushing. But it was unavoidable, given that the alternative would mean letting Calla come around to understand her place in my life slowly.
I’d rather overwhelm her and get it over with, and I’d have been lying if I said I didn’t like my Hellcat when she was angry. I preferred her smiling, but there was something sexy about her when she scrunched her little face up at me in pissed off fury.
So it was only when I’d pushed myself near the point of exhaustion that I made my way up the stairs to go to the main house. I never expected to find Calla sitting in my home office, staring down at the box of cameras Enzo had dropped off at the gate earlier in the day. His guys had finally finished uninstalling all the security equipment I’d put around her house.
I’d needed them gone before the new owner finally moved in. I didn’t expect her to come to the office that time of night, because my Sunshine still never sought me out. She preferred to hide in the bath or spend her time hovering over the kids rather than risk having to spend time with me.
It had never occurred to me to hide the cameras, because I’d never intended to keep my stalking a secret from Calla. But I might have held off on telling her for just a while longer.