Hell, as soon as Nasa laid out his plan, the entire club jumped on board with suggestions on how to further confuse anyone who may or may not be out there with aggressive enthusiasm.
Top asked about her intentions, and she felt today was the day to declare them.
They were fifty miles from Dallas when Dillon reached over and put her hand on Nasa's shoulder. He immediately looked over at her, sunlight reflecting off his Aviators.
Butterflies swarmed inside her stomach, ones of excitement, and the one shiver of anxiety she had was squashed when Nasa took one hand off the wheel and palmed her thigh.
She smiled at him, and he smiled back, glancing up at the rearview mirror, out the dash, and back to her.
“What? Need a pit stop?”
Dillon shook her head, smoothing her palm over the leather of his cut and up to the back of his neck. A few long tendrils of silvery hair had escaped his short ponytail, and she spent a few silent moments twirling them around and around her fingers.
I was just thinking about what to do with my house. I’m not feeling good about putting it into the pool of foundation safe houses since the Leviathans know where the place is, and I’d feel guilty if I sold it and something bad happened to the new owners. Once we get back home, maybe you’d have a solution?”
His hand tightened on her thigh, and she heard the slow, measured breath he took before speaking. “Home. You gonna stay with me, Dillon?”
“I am.”
His voice was rough and rich when he told her, “Good girl.”
As a strong, independent woman, it should have pissed her off to be called someone's good girl. A good girl was what people called their dogs or small children, but the way he said it ensured the last thing on Dillon's mind were dogs or little kids. He’d used that same voice last night to make her moan, groan, cry, beg, and scream in ecstasy.
Dillon definitely wasn’t thinking about kids or dogs right now.
One month ago, if someone told her she'd be falling in love with a man and moving away from everything she'd built in the last few years, she'd have laughed her ass off as she power-walked away from whoever was delusional enough to suggest it.
“You want anything done different in the basement, say the word.”
Dillon shook her head and looked at the road ahead. “I love everything about it, just the way it is.”
Nasa's thumb moved up and down on the skin of her thigh, and for a few miles, he drove in comfortable silence, a smile on his face.
“I'm gonna tell you something. Something I've been sitting on since you went to see Collette that last time, and all I want you to do is listen.”
The gravity in his voice made her stomach churn with uncertainty now, but he was still smiling, so it couldn't be terrible news. Nasa took his eyes off the road to look over at her one more time.
“I'm listening avidly,” she told him.
“While I was sitting in the waiting room during your appointment, I was thinking about how pissed off it made me, knowing Top kept butting into your business, and I was pissed at Collette for utilizing what she knows about your past to manipulate your future.
“I was pissed Tobias was still making you flinch and grind your teeth every time you so much as heard his voice.
"Pissed you were struggling through all the shit that came up after the first round of therapy, and how all of it was fuckin' with where you and I were heading.
“I decided if you'd come out of your appointment the way you did the last time—upset, confused, scared—I was prepared to take steps.
"If you were struggling like you had before, overwhelmed with everyone else's voice inside your head, drowning out your own thoughts or influencing you to do shit you weren't ready for, I was planning to haul your ass out of there to my secondary safe house immediately, and fuck everyone else because you deserved some peace. A place to feel safe.”
Dillon felt her eyes welling with tears to hear the vehemence in his voice, a tide of emotion rising up to choke her. He always said the right things to let her know he’d been paying attention to her.
“Almost nine years I've been with Perdition. I consider each and every man there my brothers, and Top's the father I wish I'd had growing up.
"They're my family. So, it meant something big for me to sit there and tell myself they could all get fucked if they were part of the reason you still looked around corners before coming into a room, expecting someone to come at you.
“It's never crossed my mind you're incapable of holding your own. I don't think of you as a damsel in distress, and I don't buy into Collette's theory that you imprinted on me like some damn duck the day I came for you in Dallas. You're strong. Sometimes a little too strong, but I wouldn't have you any other way.
“If leaving Perdition, getting away from all the noise of other people sticking their nose in your business, and being with me was the recipe for you to feel one hundred percent safe? I had plans to get my ass in a new kitchen.
“Things worked out fine, and you came out better than you went in despite my doubts, so I didn't need to, but I would have, and you gave me time to think more about my reaction by asking for a massage.
"What you said to me before we went upstairs, coming out of the bathroom the way you did, what you said to me once we were in there...”
Dillon watched him hungrily lick his lips as he shifted in the driver's seat, giving her leg a firm squeeze after blowing out
