Chapter 8 Eian #2
I let that magnetic force pull me forward this time, because I think .
. . I think I need to test us both. I don’t stop until I can feel his breath on my skin, until the heat of his body transfers to my chest. I watch his face carefully.
He doesn’t react except for a hard swallow, but I see his pupils blow wide, and know I was right before.
He is attracted to me, even if he’s also afraid of me.
I doubt that’s something I can change soon, so I ignore it for now and raise my hand to the side of his neck, right where I can feel his pulse, which starts to quicken the longer my hand stays there.
“I’m never going to make you do something you don’t want to do, even if I have to stop you from doing something that you do want to do. Do you understand?” I speak softly. I don’t want to disturb the moment too much but this is too important to stay silent.
“I do,” he whispers.
I lean in slowly, never taking my eyes away from his, waiting for him to tell me to stop or to step away.
He does neither, but he also doesn’t pull me forward, doesn’t tilt his head up. I have to admire that he stands his ground, waiting for me to be the one to do this.
It is how I prefer things, and it has my dick hardening fast, so without wasting any more time, I close the space between us and cover his lips with mine. I give him two seconds again, to react, to do . . . anything, and he doesn’t disappoint.
His hands come up to my waist and he fists my vest in a tight grip and pulls me to him.
I push his lips open and invade his mouth with my tongue, taking everything I want.
I raise my other hand to the back of his head and plunder.
Nibbling at his lower lip, I pull a groan from him.
It makes me want him even closer, even if we’re already pressed together from knees to foreheads.
I know he can feel my hard dick against his hip, and when I shift my leg I feel his own erection.
I could slot my leg between his, give him the perfect place to rub himself up and down, but instead I pull my face away. Dazed and drunk on lust, he looks fucking magnificent.
Slowly, enjoying every little feel of his soft skin and hair, I pull my hands back, and he lets his hands fall to his sides. Only then do I take a step back.
“Do you do that with every person you want to trust you?” he asks, sounding almost drunk.
“I don’t ever want people to trust me.” I tell him the hard truth. “And I rarely deal with people I don’t already trust. So no, Colby. That wasn’t to create trust between us.”
“Then why?”
“For the usual reasons.” Simple and efficient, but my voice is still gravelly with need. “I’ll see you tomorrow so we can go get your research.”
I turn and walk out of his room before he can ask any more damn questions and I answer them without thinking about the consequences.
“This is a surprise,” Connor muses as I walk out of the shadows of the courtyard corridor and into the light.
I called him ten minutes ago when I was walking from the garage to here, so of course he’s not that surprised, but it’s been some time since I’ve shown up unannounced the way I used to do before my niece and nephew knew I existed.
“Something came up.”
His dark brown eyebrows shoot up then lower dramatically as his brown eyes narrow.
“Something I should worry about?”
“Not yet,” I tell him honestly, then decide what the hell, let’s go with full honesty. “I’ve got someone new staying at the house, so Nan won’t be able to come over for the next few . . . months,” I settle on. It’s at least going to take a few months, I think.
“Someone?” he asks with meaning.
“Yes, someone.” The lowering of my voice is enough to get him to back off. He only offers me a nod, so I walk past him and into the foyer. I should’ve fucking asked him where everyone is, and who’s here too.
I don’t really feel like bleaching my eyeballs, so I’m not going to go looking for Harrison in his and Tristan’s room, but I can go looking in Nan’s.
I walk deeper into the house. The back staircase is the fastest way to her floor, but I see light from a television coming through the half-open door of the family living room, so I stop there and open it wider.
“A full house.” I snicker at the way all three of them jump up. “Nice to know I still have my touch,” I say, keeping my good mood for as long as I can—I have no clue how Nan’s going to react to this, she loves our Saturday dinners.
“What are you doing here?” Harrison asks with a smile as he stands from his spot in the corner of the plush couch. Tristan pauses whatever they were watching and stands too.
I give Harry a hug, then pat Tristan on the shoulder before leaning down to kiss Nan’s cheek.
“I need to talk to Nan about tomorrow.”
“Is something wrong? Do you need to cancel, lad?” Her lovely Irish lilt brings back memories of how Da sounded, but I can’t bask in it this time. I think about asking to speak with her alone, but then again, I have no reason to keep this from Harry and Tristan, not really.
“I’m sorry to say I do, Nan.”
“We can go if—”
“No, no,” I interrupt Tristan and gesture for them to sit, and after they do, I take the spot next to Nan.
“There’s this man. He’s uh, staying with us.
” I pause to suck in a fortifying breath then look into her warm eyes and hope she’ll understand.
“He’s going to recognize you and know who you are—whose mother you are—as soon as he sees you.
He’s in danger and has a daughter.” I try to think of how else to explain all of this without having to actually tell them any of the details, but I should’ve known I don’t need to do that with Nan.
“It’s a good thing you’re protecting them, my boy.” There’s disappointment in her eyes, but also understanding.
“We need him to help with a situation,” I hedge, but then . . . well, they should know. “Things are heating up.” I look at Harry then, knowing he’ll understand what that means.
“I’ll make sure there’s a chartered jet ready for Bran and Nan in case it’s necessary.” The details man, my cousin always comes through. He’s always prepared.
“I appreciate that.” I nod once, and I’m thinking this has all gone pretty well, but then I see Tris’s calculating expression. The way his head tilts to the side tells me he’s using that impressive brain of his to read between the lines.
Not the lines I thought, though.
“This man. How come he can help you with whatever’s happening?”
I blow out a breath and look to the side. I thought he’d focus on the “heating up” part of my announcement.
If that kiss is any indication, if Colby’s reactions to my world and the curveballs it throws us are anything to go by . . . then these three are going to meet him eventually, aren’t they?
What’s the point in stalling?
They can get used to the idea of Colby this way, and by the time he actually meets them and I tell him my biggest secret, they’ll be ready to be welcoming.
“He’s an investigative journalist—” They all gasp, appalled, at the same time. “Was an investigative journalist . . . was,” I stress so they’ll calm down.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Eian,” Harry grumbles, and Nan is so shocked she doesn’t even scold him.
“Are you trying to go to jail?” my cousin demands, and he sounds angrier than I’ve heard him in years.
Tristan wraps a hand around his bicep, and I’m not sure if it’s to calm him down or to support himself.
“Look.” I stand and begin to pace, because I’m not going to be able to get through this if I have to look at every little emotion that passes over their faces. “Colby’s smart, he—”
“Colby Major?” Tristan asks, voice closer to a screech than his normal controlled baritone.
“Yes, that’s him, and I know—”
“He’s the one who blew the whistle on that insurance pyramid scheme—what, a year and a half ago?” He directs the question at Harry who mumbles an agreement, but I just keep pacing because I can’t lose my shit at him for interrupting.
“He lost his job because he was investigating a human trafficking ring, and he told his boss he had evidence it wasn’t me so he was going to start looking into the Italians.
” I wait for more interruptions, but since they don’t come, I keep going.
“His whole life changed after that and he’s been working for me as a lookout for six months. ”
I really don’t have time to explain to Harry and Tristan how Duffy’s the one who found him and hired him, because that would only make sense if they knew Duffy, which they don’t.
“Then two weeks ago he got himself kidnapped, and we went and got him, but by then the Italians already knew he worked for us and had obviously seen his face, so I have to protect him now, and in exchange he’s gonna help me bring down this motherfucking ring.”
There’s a marked pause when I finish the story, but I can’t stop pacing until Tristan speaks.
“I’m just gonna come out and say it, okay?”
“Go ahead, my boy,” Nan murmurs, and that gets my attention because there’s humor in her tone.
“What is it?” I demand.
“This dude has to be some kind of special to have you this worked up,” Tristan says, eyes full of excitement.
“What are you talking about?” Deflect, deflect, deflect.
“Eian,” he starts in an overly patient tone that I bet he uses on toddlers.
“I’ve known you for almost five years and I’ve never seen you like this.
Even when you saw those pictures of Iris out at a club in Boston the same night that—what did you call him?
That stupid bitch-boy O’Connely was there.
You flew off the handle, yeah, but you weren’t pacing and twitchy. ”
“He’s right,” Harry says, tone low and clearly worried, but then his eyes and mouth open like something just dawned on him. “You like him, don’t you?”
I sputter for a second. “I don’t like him,” I protest.
“Would you prefer we call it having a crush on him?” Harry asks in that annoyingly teasing way he’s had ever since I can remember.
“Perhaps he’d prefer we say he fancies this Colby, which is a lovely and unique name.” Nan joins in, and the twinkle in her eyes goes even brighter when she says, “I can’t wait to meet him. Eventually.”
“I need to make sure he stays alive and out of trouble first.”
“And deal with the Italians in the meantime.” The worry is firmly back on Harry’s face, and I can’t say I blame him.
“I’ll do everything I can to keep an all-out war from breaking out,” I tell him, almost like a promise.
If the Di Leo bastard and the Venuti girl win their war, and then somehow find a way to deal with Ricci, I’ll technically have succeeded in ridding this city of the Cosa Nostra.
The five heads will all be gone and they’ll have no more power.
That can’t be harder than bringing down a human trafficking ring that’s backed by a “very powerful” person.
I’m not going to let Lucian Venuti continue with this bullshit. Whether he likes to admit it or not, this is my city, and I’m damn well going to protect it.