$C:\Users\Ellie\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\HF2SM0XP\ballet-shoes-hot-pink-clipart[1].jpg$ Chapter 2 $C:\Users\Ellie\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\HF2SM0XP\ballet-shoes-hot-pink-clipart[1].jpg$

hy ome days, you just never know what you’re walking into. I don’t know when it happened but it did. I just didn’t realize we’d hit that point in our relationship. I think this as I take the key and put it in the lock. It’s a lock that isn’t my own. It’s a key that’s only mine because it was recently given to me. It’s a trust I haven’t had with anyone prior to this man. Let me amend that statement. I’ve had it just not with anyone outside of my family or Max. My brothers have a key to my house, but Maxie has the codes to my alarms for both my home and the office I have.

I keep referring to it as an office but it’s not. It’s a studio. Z’s Studio for the Arts has officially opened. Trev and I opened it together. Max is a silent funder. My father is one of the others. I don’t know if Trevor knows that part. My father shocked me when he stopped by my house and handed me a check. That I never would’ve expected from him.

I say this because my parents have made it more than abundantly clear how they feel about Trevor. His biggest fans they are not. I love them because they are the reason I exist but some things happen whether they are on board with it or not. My life is my own. When I was coming up, I never would’ve believed the man I fell for, the one whom I want to start a life with looks like him.

As I continue to walk through the house, I’d entered from the back and this massive home has a hell of a lot of rooms along with hella square footage. The back entrance has one of those

“I know this man did not have me come across town to his place and his ass isn’t even here. I’m going to kill him dead if that’s what he did.” I mumble and grumble as I make my way through Trevor’s home.

I’ve been here a couple times. Each time makes me wonder how it’s possible that the man who lives in such opulent decadence is the same almost fully tattooed man from the wrong side of the tracks who just so happened to knock me up. Even that is a contradiction to the splendor I feel when I’m in his space.

It’s the perfect place for a family of four or five. It’s a bit much for a single man who was sworn to bachelor-hood. That’s what I’ve been told a few times over. He didn’t want to be the one tied down to anyone. I now know why. Life can’t be easy when you are tied to one of the world’s most infamous criminals. It also doesn’t help when that same person tries to undermine all of your relationships to the point of threatening them with impending death.

My skin is tougher than most and I don’t scare that easily. My life and the future of my family depends upon it. Besides, the man is worth it. Not that I’d openly admit that to him. I have to keep him on his toes somehow.

“Trev, I’m going to scream bloody murder in a second if you don’t show your face. I’ve got a biliion things I could be doing right now.”

I walk into the main living room of this four-bedroom, five bathroom house of his and the lights suddenly turn on. That’s weird. That wasn’t a feature the last time I was here. The lighting is dimmer than normal. Suddenly music begins to fill the space. I recognize the song. It’s one of my new favorites by Tank. It’s an instant mood changer for me.

“I hope that smile remains and I become one of those things you ‘do’ tonight,” Trev says as he appears in barely nothing at all.

My mouth nearly drops open at the sight of him and all of those sexy muscles I haven’t seen in forever. I haven’t felt sexy in forever. I have no such issue right now. The rush of hormones that moves through me has my skin flushing. My center heats and my palms begin to sweat. Discreetly, I try to wipe my palms on my skirt.