She didn’t ask.
She let him watch his program, and when she’d finished what she could, seeing he’d finished his plate, she’d unfolded out of the couch and got up.
He looked up at her.
“Keep watching, Branch. I’ll deal with this.” She took his plate. “Do you want more?”
“Nope,” he said.
“Another beer?”
“That’d be good.”
She nodded, tagged his empty bottle and walked out of the room.
Now she was perplexed.
She was more perplexed when she came back, gave him his fresh bottle of beer to a mumbled “Thanks,” and resumed her place and her wine sipping.
He was still on the edge of his seat like he was about to get up and sprint out.
But he was sitting there, not giving her any vibes he wanted her to get the lead out, start a scene, take him to where he needed to be to feel safe.
Still, the awkwardness had settled back in. He didn’t want to be there and he wasn’t making it obvious but it was a feeling so entrenched in him, he couldn’t hide it.
She didn’t get it and she didn’t know what to do about it mostly because he also actually looked like he was into the episode.
However, when the credits rolled, he picked up the remote, stilled them and turned directly to her.
She opened her mouth, ready to slip right into it, get him where he needed to be.
But he beat her to it.
“We got a few things to chat about.”
She shut her mouth.
She opened it to say, “Okay.”
“Right,” he stated and stopped.
She waited.
It hurt to watch but it looked like it actually took effort for him to straighten and sit back in his seat and she didn’t think that effort was about the fact the striping she’d delivered that morning was surely still burning the flesh of his backside.
He twisted his torso to her.
“This morning, when I told you to get me your key…”
Oh boy.
He’d demanded her key himself.
It was way, way too early in what they had for a demand like that, be it in play but especially in life.
Even so, she’d been beside herself with glee he’d made it.
Now he was freaked about it.
“… you skipped down the stairs,” he finished.
Her head shook slightly in confusion.
That wasn’t what she expected to hear.
“Sorry?”
Finally, he rested back against the couch, laying his arm along the back, and for a moment, she was bedazzled simply because he was so very easy to look at, especially on her couch in a casual position she hadn’t ordered, turned to her.
“Evangeline, that upstairs room is an add-on to this house.”
Now she was more confused.
Why was he telling her this?
“Yes. I know.”
“And those stairs weren’t meant to be there. They were put in a space inadequate for them so the risers are too high and the steps are narrow.”
This was very true. When she’d bought the house, it took a long time to get used to those stairs.
“Yes,” she said slowly.
“And you skipped down them this morning.”
“I did?”
“You did.”
She probably did. She’d been so high on thinking she’d made huge strides with Branch that was something she’d do.
Idiot!
“Well, I—”
“Don’t do that again.”
She closed her mouth.
“It’s dangerous,” he declared. “You could fall and break your neck.”
Her heart thumped in a way it was a wonder it didn’t leap out of her chest, springing back, just like in a cartoon.
“I’ve been negotiating those stairs for three years, Branch,” she told him quietly.
“Don’t do it again, Evangeline.”
Still Evangeline.
Not Angie.
And right then, him clearly having thoughts all day of her falling down her steps, and worried about it enough to boss her around, she didn’t care.
Maybe she had made great strides with Branch in their short time together.
“Okay,” she agreed. “I won’t do it again. Or I’ll try to remember not to do it again.”
“Just don’t do it again.”
She fought a huge smile and said softly, “I won’t do it again, Branch.”
A mixture of things passed through his expression that were elusive, there and gone so quickly, she couldn’t say for certain she’d seen them.
But it looked like shock, disbelief, even puzzlement, like he thought she’d bear down and start an argument about something that might seem ridiculous, but in the end it was him looking out for her and it meant something to him, but it didn’t to her, so there was no reason to argue.
He got over it but did it making it clear the discussion wasn’t over.
“And you need to engage your alarm when you’re not in your house but mostly when you are. And lock the doors when you’re here. You didn’t lock it when you came in which is cool, because I’m here, but it is not cool if I’m not.”
“Well, I—”
“Just engage the alarm and lock the doors like I said, Evangeline.”
She was finally getting it.
And she needed to allay his concerns.
“What happened to me that you guessed this morning happened at the club. It didn’t—”
He interrupted her. “We’ll talk about that in a second.”
She shut her mouth again.
“Use your alarm,” he demanded. “And lock yourself in. Even if I’m here, it’s smart. Get in the habit. And you need motion sensor lights outside.”
At that, she shook her head.
“I don’t like them, Branch. They switch on when anything passes, even the critters or the wind—”
“They’re a deterrent to assholes who’re intent to do asshole things. Those assholes are gonna do those things no matter what. It sucks they might pick a neighbor to do them to if they get spooked by your lights or see you got an alarm. But at least it won’t be you who has to deal with assholes.”
“I still don’t like motion sens—”
“You don’t buy them, Evangeline, I will and I’ll install them. This isn’t a request.”
She blinked.
Right, there was something she hadn’t yet quite understood about Branch that had been staring her in the face, heck, slapping her across the face since the first second she’d laid eyes on him.
He was a submissive.
But he was an alpha-submissive.
Which might not be mutually exclusive to the kind of submissive he was and the kind of man he was, though she couldn’t know because she’d never paid attention to that kind of thing.
But Branch bossed her around even when she was working him and she hadn’t even noticed it, likely because it was such an integral part of him.
And he was bossing her around out of a scene, in her family room, just in life. Not to mention, that spilling out all over the place in her bed that morning.
So he was just a straight-up, somewhat-in-your-face alpha.
She’d never had one of those. She’d only seen alphas at work as Doms.
And realizing it, experiencing it, she felt the area between her legs get tingly.
“Okay, handsome. I’ll go shopping.”
“Good,” he bit off and instantly adjusted, wincing very slightly, but she felt that wince tingle between her legs too.
That feeling was gone when he looked away only to look right back.
The determined expression on his handsome face had disappeared.
Now it was closed off.
“I got something to share and I’ll preface it by saying, I share it, you want me gone, I’ll just go. I’ll get it and it’ll suck because this is good. I’d like for it to last awhile.
But you gotta know who you’re fucking.”
Evangeline didn’t move and it wasn’t a surprise because, at his words, all of a sudden it felt like her insides were frozen solid.
When he didn’t go on, it took a good deal, but she forced out, “Okay, Branch. I’m listening.”
“I know what happened to you at the club because I was there,” he announced. “Aryas called me. I do jobs for him and that night after it happened, he called me. You didn’t see me because you were fucked up. But he called me and I was there. In that room. With you.”
The chill she felt became a deep freeze and she just stared at him.
“Shoulda told you this morning and I wanted to but I didn’t and I wish I could say I didn’t because I was looking after you. I’d freaked you and you didn’t need anything to freak you more. But I didn’t do it looking out for you. I did it because I like what we got and I was weak. I didn’t want to lose that. But I’ve been thinking about it today and the right thing is that you should know.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“I’m not done,” he shared curtly.
She stayed silent.
“That night Aryas called me and it wasn’t to get a lock on Kevin. He already had a lock on Kevin. It was to deal with Kevin. And I dealt with Kevin.”
Evangeline felt her breath go funny.
“It isn’t mine to give about Aryas’s business so I won’t give it,” he stated. “What I will say is, most the time Aryas has got a message to convey, it’s the kinda man he is and the rep he’s got that he’s good with delivering it. Sometimes, he wants to be certain that message isn’t forgotten. That’s not all the work I do for him or that I just do, but in a case like that, he calls me in.”
When he didn’t go on, feebly, she nodded.
So he went on.
“He called me in. And I conveyed his message. That being, beating the shit out of that asswipe and then destroying his goddamned life.”
“Oh my God,” she breathed.
He continued like she hadn’t said a word.
“It’s important you know with your relationship with Aryas that that wasn’t the message he wanted delivered. But so you understand completely what I’m saying to you, I’m gonna give you a little piece of me.”
Oh my God.
That time, she didn’t verbalize it.
But she felt the words thrum deep.
“I knew a woman and she was important to me. She fucked up, did somethin’ she knew was stupid, and she got her head caved in by some asshole who I don’t give a fuck what his issues were, acting on them, there’s no one with a decent soul on the planet who wouldn’t think he’d done wrong. Even if she liked to tie men up and spank their asses. So when I got a shot at Kevin after what he did to you, I took it further than Aryas required and there was motivation to that. What you gotta know is, I get there was motivation for that. No trigger had been tripped. I knew precisely what I was doing, why I was doing it, and I did it deliberately.”
When he paused, Evangeline just nodded, feeling a lot—utter sadness at the story he had to tell about the woman he knew—and a lot more about all the rest of it.
“But she wasn’t the only motivation I had,” he carried on. “I saw you, bloodied and fucked up and havin’ trouble breathing because he’d cracked so many ribs, little thing like you, in that room where trust is paramount and he broke it in one of the worst ways imaginable. But it was worse. You cared about the guy and he snapped on you, so my motivation was also you.”
Oh my God, she thought again.
“Okay, Branch,” she said quietly.
He kept speaking.
“And again, I didn’t lose control. You should know for more than one reason it wasn’t about losing control. You should know because you’ve been sleeping beside me and you gotta have the information you need to decide whether you wanna keep doing that, that the man you sleep beside is capable of what I’m capable of, doing it with a purpose and fully cognizant of what I was doing.”
He took in a breath and finished.
“Now, you got a decision to make but I’ll share a couple more things before you do that.”
Again she nodded.
Again he went on.
“One is to confirm what you know. Kevin is taken care of and he’s not a threat to you nor will he ever come into your life again. Two is that, like I don’t have an issue with who I am and how I am with what I like to get me off, in that kind of job, I do not have that first fuckin’ issue with what I did. There are things I’ve done that I regret in my life, but that’s not one of them. I don’t give that first fuck what might have been behind that man losing his shit and taking it out on you. You do not harm someone who doesn’t deserve to be harmed. You absolutely do not take your fists to a woman. And you categorically do not hurt someone who’s put their trust in you and has given you a place in their heart. I figure, if every motherfucker who took his fists to a woman or a child or anyone who loved them got his jaw broken and his life dismantled, that shit would stop. Since that doesn’t happen, it goes on. But I was in a position to make certain the man who harmed you learned a lesson. So I gave it to him. And I don’t regret it.”
He stopped talking and Evangeline just sat there.
Well, she didn’t just sit there.
She sat there with words racing through her brain.
You skipped down them this morning … Don’t do that again.
Just engage the alarm and lock the doors like I said, Evangeline.
You don’t buy them, Evangeline, I will and I’ll install them. This isn’t a request.
You cared about the guy and he snapped on you, so my motivation was also you.
But I was in a position to make certain the man who harmed you learned a lesson. So I gave it to him. And I don’t regret it.
And …
I’ll get it and it’ll suck because this is good. I’d like for it to last a while. But you gotta know who you’re fucking.
“You need to make the choice right for you, Evangeline,” Branch cut into her thoughts and she focused on him. “You want me to go, I’ll go. You want time, I’ll go and you got my number. If you can handle who I am and what you now know and want us to keep going, you call me and I’ll come back. But you can’t, like I said, it’ll suck, but I’ll get it and I’ll honor whatever decision you think is right.”
“I’m uncertain,” she said quietly, “that the domestic violence shelters should change their mission statement to ‘Healing through breaking his jaw and dismantling his life.’” She paused and concluded, “But they should.”
The remoteness left his face and she watched the stiffness in his body that she hadn’t noticed before begin to slightly relax.
So she instantly set her wineglass aside and rolled up to her hands and knees in the couch.
She crawled the short distance to him, coming up and sitting back on her calves when she got close and then lifting a hand to curl it at the side of his neck as she brought her face near to his.
Stroking his jaw with her thumb, she whispered, “Thank you for that honesty, Branch.”
He stared into her eyes and said nothing.
So she did.
“Without a lot of time to think on it, having known Kevin, and you’re right, caring about him, I have to admit I hope he found the strength to work through whatever was troubling him to make him do what he did. But even so, I’ll share I also don’t care what it says about me that I don’t have to think too long to understand that I’m totally okay with the lesson you taught him because I did care about him and he had every opportunity to share with me what was troubling him and he didn’t. He hurt me. If I was a different person he could have changed the course of my life in irrevocable ways that would have been tragic. And actions deserve consequences. Maybe, if I could choose, his consequences might not have been that extreme. But I wasn’t the only one he hurt, whose trust he broke, who was affected by his actions, so I’m not the only one who gets to say
what his consequences were.”
She adjusted her hand to bring it to his jaw so she could rub her finger along his lower lip and she felt her belly melt when she saw his eyes react to her touch.
But she didn’t bring his attention to it.
She kept talking.
“I think it’s also important for you to know that I suspect that wasn’t easy to share but, honey, I’m so glad you did because until I sat there listening to you, I hadn’t worked all this out in my head. His issues that he made mine were still shaping who I was becoming, how I was living my life and who I thought I was. You’ve just made me realize I need to let that go. It was him. Everyone said it but it really was just him and I had nothing to do with it so I also have to thank you for leading me to that because it feels flipping awesome to finally let that go.”
“Angie,” he whispered.
She had it back.
And she rejoiced.
But she didn’t let it show except to share, “I like what we have too, Branch, and I don’t want it to end so please don’t walk out the door. Because, although I promised to rock your world tonight, I’ve since decided I’m going to take my time doing that so I’m just going to sway it a little bit and let you enjoy the anticipation until I’m ready to roll.”
That got her his beautiful eye flash, much closer to the surface, and she really, really wanted to reward that by kissing him.
But he might not want that so that was no reward.
She’d have to give him the reward he’d want.
She lifted her other hand to his jaw, murmuring, “Thank you again, baby.”
“You’re thanking me for beating the shit out of your ex-boyfriend.”
She shook her head slightly.
“I’m thanking you for not keeping from me the fact you did. I’m thanking you for, perhaps unintentionally, but it still happened, making me look at what happened from a different perspective. One that was meaningful. A way to look at it that I needed. I’m thanking you for being honest and letting me know who I have in my bed so I can make the decision if I wish him to remain there, something I can imagine you have some sense is important to me.”
She stroked his cheekbones with both hands and kept speaking.
“If you think in future I’ll have issues about the fact you’ve got no regrets for carrying out the kind of lesson you taught Kevin, that you’re that man, then please, don’t worry, Branch. In our short time together, you’ve shown me the kind of man you are in many ways, nothing hidden. You did what you did. You had reason. You shared with me those reasons. And though I might not completely agree with it, you have no regrets and it’s not my place to give you any because I also don’t completely disagree with it. I’ve only known you three days and I’m aware there’s a lot of you I’ll never get. But I like what I have, maybe especially what you gave me tonight, and I’m not just talking about the enchiladas, which were superb. So I’m good, handsome.”