Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
“I don’t show my emotions unless I want to show them. So this little setup all of you cooked up to see my reaction won’t get you anywhere.”
Lyric spoke directly to Keys, but she had already stopped looking into his eyes. She gave him the same treatment she did total strangers: she looked at the bridge of his nose. She pulled her jacket tighter around her and looked toward the ocean, with its rolling waves and diamond-blue surface. “I’m going to take a walk because I don’t want to breathe the same air as all of you. I expect you to have my car waiting for me. It’s mine and I want it back.”
“Lyric, I didn’t know,” Keys said.
She didn’t stop to assess his voice. She didn’t want to look at him ever again. She turned away from them and walked down the quaint, uneven sidewalk toward the headlands.
There was a long silence as Keys worked to get his temper under control. “Which one of you is going to tell me what the hell that was all about? When did her salon burn down, and why wasn’t I informed immediately?”
All he could think about, aside from beating the holy hell out of his brothers, was going after Lyric and doing damage control. He’d finally gotten her to a place where she was willing to take a chance on him, and the family that mattered so much to him had treated her like a pariah.
“She isn’t your type, Keys,” Maestro protested. “At all. Not once in all the years we’ve been together have you ever looked at a woman who faintly resembled that.” He gestured toward Lyric’s retreating back.
“Face it, Keys,” Player said. “You go for tits and ass and an empty head.”
“You aren’t acting like you,” Master agreed. “You’ve been at that house for two weeks. I’ve never known you to go more than a few hours without sex, let alone two weeks of abstinence. Steele confirmed she couldn’t have sex.”
“Something isn’t right about the entire setup,” Maestro said. “She’s holding you hostage someway. Got her hooks into you, and you’re feeling sorry for her.”
“You ever known me to feel sorry for a bitch?” Keys demanded. “Have I ever put one on the back of my bike? Or called in my brothers to make a promise to protect her if I’m gone?”
“You had a concussion, Keys,” Player said. “Maybe it wasn’t as bad as Lyric’s, but you returned acting completely out of character. It’s our job to protect you.”
“That’s fuckin’ bullshit. It was your job to make certain the best thing that ever happened to me doesn’t walk.” He shoved a hand through his hair, glaring at them. “Didn’t you learn anything from the shit you stirred up with Seychelle? Savage nearly lost her with your crap advice.” He gestured to Lyric. “I wasn’t living. I wasn’t going to last. No reason. None. I just didn’t give a damn about anything until the first time I laid eyes on her.”
He wasn’t the kind of man to pour out his guts to his brothers. It went against everything he was, but he wanted family for Lyric. He wanted to give her more than just him because he didn’t feel like he was enough. Maybe it was too fast or he was too desperate, but he’d gone about it all wrong. He should have waited, should have made his brothers understand what Lyric was to him.
“She doesn’t care about money. You read that all wrong. She’s so independent, getting her to take clothes when she needed them was a fight. She’s a loner. Loves to go on solo backpacking trips. Lives simply. Has no family, but she’s comfortable with who she is. First fuckin’ time I saw her, I came alive. Didn’t have a clue what to do with her because I had it stuck in my head I wasn’t allowing any pussy to lead me around by my cock. I was living free even if it meant I wasn’t living.”
Player threw his hands into the air. “Are you listening to yourself? How do you think it’s going to work when you go back to being you? Because you can’t change, Keys, no matter how much you want to. You like to fuck tits and ass, and you do it on a far more regular basis than anyone I know. I’m being real with you. That woman”—he jerked his thumb toward Lyric—“falls in love with you, you’ll destroy her. Better we run her off than you crush her down the line. Women in love tend to want to be exclusive.”
Keys shook his head. This was his fault, no matter how he wanted to look at it. He had the reputation. He’d earned it. These three men knew him, and yet they didn’t. He had struggled with coming to terms with what it would mean to make his claim on Lyric. He also knew that without her, he was empty. Fucking tits and ass was an empty way to live and should have told his friends just how little he cared about himself.