at his face. She’d never seen him look like that before and his expression shook her.
“If you never hear another word I say, Bree, you hear this.” Steele framed her face with both hands and stared straight into her eyes. “Another man touches you and I’ll kill him. He won’t die easy, baby, but he’ll die.” His voice was pitched very low. Each word was annunciated clearly so there was no way to misunderstand what he said. “You think long and hard about that before you ever let another man put his hands on you.”
There was no way one sliver of doubt could creep in. He meant what he said. A frisson of fear crept down her spine because he wasn’t finished. He kept staring into her eyes, and it was more than intense. He was taking her somewhere terrifying. For the first time, she could see the killer in him.
“I know more ways to take a man apart than you can imagine. I kill easily, sweetheart, and not many can say that. Call me a psychopath, call me whatever the hell you want, but don’t you ever be stupid enough to allow another man to touch you if you don’t want that man dead. Are we clear?”
She couldn’t take a breath. There was no air. He had always had the ability to scare her. He was a big man and clearly dangerous. He was also MC. But not like this. He was different, and that difference wasn’t exciting or thrilling, it was just plain scary.
“Have I made myself clear, Breezy?” His voice had dropped another octave, dropped lower so he was nearly whispering, but that felt more compelling, more menacing than if he had yelled at her. “Because if I haven’t, we need to go over the rules again. Do you understand the rules?”
She nodded mutely. His thumbs slid over her cheeks, barely there, but she felt his touch winding through her body slowly, leaving behind a flutter of wings, a need that just wouldn’t leave her no matter how hard she tried to get over him. Even now, seeing this other side of him, the one that scared her to death, she still responded to his touch.
“We’re going to talk through every issue we have. You have to be willing to at least talk about things, Breezy. You can’t just shut the door on us. Whatever we had between us is stronger than ever. Now, we have Zane.”
Zane was the reason she didn’t want to take any chances, but she couldn’t say that to him. She was too afraid of him getting angry with her again. He’d never done that before—as in never. She didn’t know how to respond to him when he was like this, so she remained that frozen little mouse she hated, the one that went still when she was threatened.
Steele sighed and stepped back, giving her space, allowing her to breathe. Her mind was still shut down, and she didn’t move, but at least he couldn’t feel the tremors wracking her body.
“Would you take the platters of eggs and bacon into the dining room, please, Steele?” Blythe asked.
Her voice startled Breezy. She’d forgotten anyone else was in the kitchen with them. Steele, still looking at her, nodded. Blythe put the platters into his hands and waited until he was out of the room. The women gave a collective sigh.
“I had no idea Steele could get so intense,” Blythe said. “Are you all right, honey?”
Breezy shook her head. “I don’t know him at all. And he doesn’t know me, not the way I am, or at least the way I can be when he isn’t around. I’m not going back to him.” She lifted her chin and met Blythe’s eyes. “I’m not.”
“It’s clear,” Alena said, “that you’re in love with him. Why don’t you want him back?”
“I’ve had my fill of club life and coming in second. Being treated like trash. I’m not going back to that life or raising my son in it.”
“Steele would never treat you like trash,” Lana objected. “Nor would he put you second to the club.”
“Really? He did. I was so terrified when he told me to leave and told him so. It didn’t matter to him. He stayed with the club, with Czar, and told me he didn’t want anything to do with me. That I was nothing to him. As for club life, I walked in after one of the famous club parties. It looked and smelled the