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Chapter 14

Harlow

I’d just changed into my sleep shorts and tank when the sound of someone pounding loudly on my front door startled me. It was dark and almost bedtime, so I wasn’t expecting anyone, and if knocking could sound angry, whoever was there was pounding hard enough to cause the door to rattle. I padded barefoot to the front door, snatching my phone off the kitchen counter along the way in case I needed to call the police. For all I knew it could be a neighbor in trouble.

“Let me in, Harlow!” Liam shouted just as I put my eye to the peep hole.

He was clearly angry about something, but it didn’t occur to me not to open the door to him. I had barely stepped out of his way when he pushed into the room and slammed the door shut behind him. He didn’t stop there, and I found myself walking backwards from the dark, rigid expression on his face. My smile of welcome disappeared fast, and for the first time I felt a little afraid of Liam. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“You tell me. Got something you want to say?”

Hewasangry, breathing through his nose like a bull getting ready to charge, and it was apparently directed at me. Did I have something to tell him? I couldn’t think of anything. Certainly nothing that would make him this mad at me. I shook my head with worry, a little confused. “Um...no.” A breathlessoomphescaped me when my back hit the wall.

“Hugged anyone lately?” Liam continued in an accusing tone that I didn’t like.

I’d never seen him like this, not towards me anyway. Why would he ask me something like that? Suddenly a lightbulb went off in my head, and in a flash I knew what he was talking about. A flashback of the biker riding past the restaurant earlier that evening came to mind, and the way he’d turned his head to look directly at me. “Are you having me spied on?” A nervous laugh of disbelief escaped me.

“Why would I need to do that when I trust you?”

“Doyou trust me, Liam? Because it doesn’t seem like it since you’re here asking me these kinds of questions.”

He moved in close and boxed me in with his arms. Despite my apprehension, I couldn’t deny the inappropriate thrill that ran over me in response to his alpha-like move. What was wrong with me? I should be angry with him for treating me this way, not getting turned on by his actions.

“You know what it means to belong to a Desert Rebel?” he asked softly.Too softly,I thought. His gaze moved over my face and down my body in a lazy sweep that missed nothing before returning to capture my eyes.

I had a fairly good idea what it meant, especially after listening to some of the old ladies talk about how possessive and overprotective their men were. Plus, I’d experienced quite a few incidents of their caveman antics that had secretly thrilled me. What woman didn’t want her man to throw her over his shoulder and carry her off to their room to ravish her? If they even made it to the privacy of their room. I’d seen plenty of public sex, too.

Liam was waiting for an answer, and my first thought was that I didn’t belong to him yet, not fully anyway. “I’m still waiting to find out.”

He jerked back a little, as if surprised by my response.

His jaw hardened. “It means you’re mine, Harlow. Just like I’m yours. The last fucking thing I want to see is a picture of my woman in the arms of another man.”

My mouth fell open incredulously. “He took a picture? What a jerk!”

Liam’s reaction told me that this wasn’t exactly what he’d wanted to hear, and I realized that I needed to set him straight before things escalated. But as soon as my next words were out of my mouth, I knew I’d chosen the wrong way to go about it. “And you have a lot of nerve, after the months and months I had to watch you hanging on to your club women. Touching them! Kissing on them and letting them run their hands all over you! How do you think I felt?” I took a breath and tried to calm down when I realized that I’d gotten carried away. “And for your information—"

“That was different,” he snarled, cutting me off.

Different?I froze with disbelief. I couldn’t believe him. “Are you kidding me right now?” I felt more hurt than anger over his response. It was so flippant and indifferent, as if he didn’t care how much he’d hurt me or was completely oblivious to it. I’d been at the receiving end of his anger and hurtful actions for a year without knowing why.

People had different personas depending on the circumstances and who they were with, I knew that. The man holding me captive against the wall wasn’t the quiet, soft-spoken doctor that I’d been attracted to at the clinic. This man was one-hundred-percent Desert Rebels biker—hard, possessive, bossy, intimidating...very alpha. And jealous, apparently. I wanted to remain angry at him, put him in his place, yet a part of me liked this overbearing Liam. It was sexy as hell.

A smile broke through my annoyance. “You’re jealous.”

His face turned red at my observation, and before he could explode I added, “The man I was hugging was David—"

“Your fucking ex?” he scowled.