Before I could ask, he twisted, stretched out an arm and grabbed something from his nightstand. He only had it in his hand for a second when he started to lounge back. But before he got into position, I froze, a chill running over my skin.

This was because “Tush” started playing from the Bose dock on his nightstand.

Fuck.

“Someone told you,” I guessed.

He shook his head.

ZZ Top rocked on as I stared at him.

Then, my throat closing on the words, I asked, “You were there?”

“Absolutely,” he answered. “You think I’d miss that?”

Oh shit.

Oh f**k.

Shit!

“I thought—” I started.

“Baby, you take your clothes off right now, you do it to this song, for me. My guess, those four posts’ll hold. If you break the bed, I don’t give a f**k.”

I just stared.

“You want me to start the song again?” he offered.

What was happening?

“I—” I began.

“Christ, you were so f**kin’ hot up there, I’m still hard.”

Oh my God!

He kept going.

“I’m gettin’ that my woman puts her mind to something, everyone better watch their ass. Because whatever she’s got a mind to do, she’s gonna kick its ass.”

Relief flooded through me, along with something else. Maybe a lot of something else’s. His words singing straight to my soul, I dashed to Ren’s side of the bed and launched myself, landing on Ren.

His arms closed around me instantly and he rolled us so I was on my back and he was on me.

He lifted his head and looked into my eyes.

“Don’t remember you dancin’ horizontally, honey,” he noted.

“That kind of dancing is just for you.”

I just caught his sexy, gorgeous smile before I closed my eyes because he kissed me.

After that, we had a whole load of horizontal fun through “Tush,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Legs” and then some.

And Ren only paused the fun to grab the remote and turn the music up.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Not a Towel Throwing Type of Girl

My ass on Ren’s counter, Ren leaning against the counter kitty corner from me, I looked up from my plate and saw my man’s eyes on me.

They were probing.

“What?” I asked.

“You good?” he asked back.

“Yeah,” I answered, confused. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You got in last night at three. I kept you up a f**kuva lot later. It’s not even seven, but you look fine and you got hardly any sleep.”

“You didn’t either,” I reminded him.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “And I’m draggin’.”

He didn’t look like he was dragging. He looked like Ren. Confident, even just standing there eating. And hot (of course).

“How do you do it?” he asked.

I shrugged and turned my attention to my eggs. “Live the rock star life, babe. Have for a while.” I forked up some eggs, chewed, swallowed, looked at him and grinned. “Sleep is overrated.”

He grinned back and took his plate to the sink. After I ate my final strawberry, he took mine and it joined his.

Then he got in position between my legs, arms around me, so I wrapped mine around him.

“What’s up for your day?” he queried.

“Go make coffee. Go over office furniture catalogues with Daisy. Try to make inroads with finding out what’s bugging Darius. Strip. Hit some tweaker houses with Hector and Tex to see if we can crack the case of the Highland burglaries. Come home to my man.” I tipped my head to the side. “You?”

“Power play day,” he stated strangely then asked, “Find out what’s bugging Darius?”

“Yeah. Something’s up with him. He’s got issues. I’m gonna sort them out,” I told him. “But what’s power play day?”

“Vito and I got into it yesterday.”

I felt my head jerk right before I fired questions at him. “What? Why? When? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You had your stripping debut last night. I figured you had shit on your mind so I’m tellin’ you now,” he replied.

“Okay,” I gave that to him because it was sweet. “Then what? And why?”

He sighed and got closer to me.

“He’s pushin’ for a decision, that decision namely bein’ me changin’ my mind. He knows what’s goin’ down with you and me and he’s scramblin’ to get me further in the fold before what I got with you turns me irrevocably. His problem is that he isn’t realizin’ that that turn has already been made. We had words. Dom’s tryin’ to keep things smooth and I’ll give it to him, he’s tryin’, and I respect that. But Vito doesn’t respect Dom much and is makin’ that clearer and clearer by the day. Dom isn’t liking that. He’s towed the line for some time and Vito’s not cuttin’ him any slack. It’s a faulty play. But Dom now has a family, and Sissy and him are lookin’ at tryin’ to grow that family so I’m gettin’ the sense Dom’s rethinking things, same as me. Way Vito’s acting, he’s turnin’ Dom, too.”

Wow.

Interesting.

“So what does power play mean?” I asked.

He started to run his hand up and down my back and I worried this was soothingly, telling me to brace, but I would find with what he said next it was just affectionately, something I liked a whole lot better.

“I was gonna just walk away. Still not happy about him showin’ up at your parents, and that was part Vito, part him makin’ a statement to me about who’s the boss of this family. With that and him pushin’, if he doesn’t back off and let that happen, I’ll make this hard on him and everybody.”

“How?”

“Because I’m clean. Not squeaky, but I’m clean,” he explained. “And because of that, should something happen to him or Dom, they needed the legitimate holdings to be clean with the understanding that someone would take care of families. What that means is, we got an LLC but it’s not a partnership. I’m the only name on it. So the cops or Feds couldn’t seize our assets if someone went down.”

Wow again.

That was freaking smart. Then again, so was my man.

Ren kept going.

“This also means my name is on everything. Everything we own as well as the office lease. We got no board to answer to. The only thing tying me to Vito’s authority is respect. He plays the wrong game, instead of lettin’ all that go and walkin’ away, I take it all with me. Or, in this case, kick his ass out.”