Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Cotter~

Iwas still fucking pissed as I rode the elevator to Aelix’s floor. It wasn’t often that I felt uncertain about things, but I still wasn’t a fan of that particular feeling. I wasn’t used to not knowing what to do or how to proceed, even when shit was hitting the fan. Nevertheless, despite my threats and less than gentlemanly behavior earlier, I still had no idea where Aelix stood on the idea of actually dating me.

When the elevator doors slid open, I made my way to Aelix’s front door, ready to give this all that I had. Jealousy was another emotion that I wasn’t fond of experiencing, and there was only one way to make that shit go away, and that was to put a fucking ring on that goddamn woman’s finger already.

Knocking on the door, a part of me wondered if she’d gone out with Kent just to spite me. In all actuality, I’d deserve it for the way that I’d shown up at her office earlier. Considering that I’d been the one to lay down the rules, I’d had no right to approach her the way that I’d had. I’d taken liberties that hadn’t belonged to me, and I wished that was enough to get my head on straight, but it wasn’t.

When Aelix opened the door, her sun-colored eyes were staring up at me warily, but she didn’t seem pissed, so I was taking that as a win. Granted, we’d never had a fight before, so I really had no idea what she was like when she was ready to rip someone a new one, but still.

“Since when do you knock?” she asked as she stepped back to let me inside.

“Since fighting made an appearance in our relationship,” I shot back.

“Which it shouldn’t,” she pointed out as she shut the door. “No drama, remember?”

I turned to face her. “Quit throwing my words back in my face,” I ordered. “I remember what I said clear enough, Aelix.”

“So, then what the hell is this, Cotter?” she finally asked. “Showing up at my office was so unacceptable that I don’t even have words for it.”

“Maybe,” I conceded. “However, I deserved better than a text.”

“Which is why I agreed to talk to you, despite your highhandedness,” she replied, doing her best to rein in her temper. “In all actuality, I should have called security to escort you out of my office.”

I shot her a look. “Seriously?”

That finally pissed her off. “Look, I get that you’re Cotter Moore and untouchable, but that still doesn’t give you the right to act like an unhinged asshole where I’m concerned.”

Ignoring that, I said, “If things were changing for you, then you should have said something.”

“They didn’t change for me until Kent asked me out,” she answered, repeating what she’d said in her office. “He asked me to dinner, and…and it sounded nice.”

“Then you should have called me and told me that!” I roared, finally losing it. “You should have given me the opportunity to decide where to go from there!”

“That’s not fair!” she yelled back. “I was just trying to honor our arrangement!”

“Bring up our arrangement one more time, and I swear to God, I’m going to fucking lose my goddamn mind, Aelix,” I hissed.

Her beautiful eyes widened. “I think you’ve already lost your mind,” she fired back. “Let’s also not forget that you’re overstepping, Cotter. I’m not your girlfriend. I was never your girlfriend. I did nothing wrong by accepting Kent’s invitation to dinner.”

She was right, and I hated it.

I eyed her. “Did you accept his invitation before or after I replied to your text?”

Aelix scowled. “What difference does that make?”

“I deserved the chance to respond to your breakup text before accepting his invitation,” I told her, reaching, but also not caring because I was desperate.

Her face softened. “Cotter-”

“Want to hear something crazy?” She let out a soft sigh before nodding. “Your favorite color is violet.” Her head reared back a bit in surprise. “You hate eating after six but make the sacrifice because your schedule is unpredictable. You’re a neat freak, and it’s because you’re so busy. If things aren’t lined up around you, then you get distracted, something that you can’t afford. Your favorite food is Mexican with Chinese as your second. You’ve got a wardrobe worth thousands, but if you could, you’d live in sweats and your Raiders sleep shirt that is practically threadbare. Your guilty pleasure is sexy lingerie, but you do your best to curb your spending there. Your favorite television station is the History Channel, but you watch Comedy Central when you’ve had a rough day.”

Aelix started shaking her head, her eyes wide. “How can you possibly know all that?”

“Because I pay attention to the things that matter to me, Aelix,” I answered honestly.

“How can you possibly know that I do my best not to spend my money on lingerie?” Those stunning eyes of hers regarded me carefully. “The other stuff, I’ll give you. However, how could you possibly know about my spending habits?”

“Because whenever I’ve been fortunate enough to stop by after you’ve been shopping, I’ve noticed the tags are always sale tags,” I explained. “Which is completely unnecessary.”

“Why?”

“Baby, you in lingerie is like viewing a miracle of nature,” I chuckled wickedly. “I’ll hand over my black card right now, so that you can clean out Vibes right the fuck now.”

“You’re bribing me with lingerie?” she deadpanned.

“No,” I corrected. “I’m just telling you that I have no problem with you spending my entire fortune on sexy lingerie, so long as I’m the only man that gets to see you in it.”

Aelix let out another sigh. “Cotter-”

I reached for her, cutting her off. “I deserve a chance, Aelix.”

“Do you even have time for a girlfriend?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“No,” I answered, never having lied to her before. “But I can make time.”

“Cotter-”

“I deserve a chance,” I repeated. “While you can probably expect a million cancelled dates in our future, going home to you each night should fix some of that.”

Her eyes immediately narrowed, but she didn’t push my hands away when I squeezed her hips. “That sounds a lot like you just moved us in together, Cotter.”

“That’s because I did,” I informed her. “We’ve been together long enough.”

“But we haven’t,” she argued. “That’s the entire point.”

“The way that I’ve handled these past two years doesn’t mean that I don’t deserve the chance to take you to dinner, Aelix,” I said, repeating my point since it was the only one that I had. “Complete transparency, remember?”

“So, what’s the story?” she asked. “Have we always been seeing each other?” I opened my mouth to reply, but she stopped me with a pointed look. “You’re Cotter Moore. People are going to be interested, even if it is none of their business.”

“Fine,” I conceded. “Then we’ve been dating for a couple of years already, but we chose to safeguard our privacy because people don’t know how to mind their own goddamn business.”

Aelix let out another deep breath. “Okay…okay,” she finally said. “We can do this, but on one condition.”

“What?”

“That we stick with our complete transparency rule,” she said. “The second that this doesn’t work for either of us anymore, we say something.”

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

“Aelix, I’m not going into this entertaining the possibility of us not working out,” I informed her. “While I have no problem with complete transparency, arguments, cancelled dates, or whatever else happens in relationships will not end up in a breakup for us.” Her face softened again. “We will make this work, no matter what, Aelix.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t work for me, Cotter,” she huffed. “No matter what doesn’t include cheating on my end. I’m not that forgiving of a human being.”

I peered down at her. “I’ll kill any man that dares to touch you, Aelix.” She arched a brow, looking unimpressed. “And if you were enough for me when we were just sleeping together, then you better believe that you’re more than enough now that we’re serious.” I reached up, tucking a rogue strand of dark hair behind her ear. “Baby, you can’t imagine how much I don’t want anyone but you.”

“So…we’re really doing this, huh?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we’re really doing this.”

Aelix’s arms slid up my chest, and when she anchored her hands around my neck, I felt like I could finally breathe again after that fucked-up text that she’d sent earlier. I had her back, only things were going to be better this time around. While I was certain to fuck this up from time to time, I always had Phin and Cutter to call in the event that I needed advice. After all, they fucked up all the damn time.

Seeing no need to go slow, I said, “We’re moving you in this weekend, then I’m buying a ring.”

The damn woman started choking.