Chapter 50
Cormac
Imanage to somewhat block out that my wife is with the entire Bratva enforcement team because I’m still a professor with a class and finals.
Time folds in on itself as I focus on schoolwork, but I breathe in relief when the door to the apartment opens. I quickly save my work on the laptop and rise to my feet.
“Cormac!” Scarlett calls out to me.
My blood goes cold thinking there’s something wrong, and I quickly move for the door. But it forcibly swings open. Scarlett stands there. I expect her to be covered in blood. That she got caught in the crossfire or in a knife fight. My eyes scan her from head to foot.
No, she’s perfect. Not a single scratch, but her eyes are wild. And they tell me she’s hungry. She only wants one thing.
Me.
We spring toward each other, and as soon as she’s in my arms, I’m kissing her roughly.
“God, I’m on fire,” she says, tugging at my shirt. “The rush. The power.”
I nearly confess that I know what it’s like, but I keep my mouth shut. I’m not sure how many passes I have with this woman.
I shove away enough stuff on my desk to lay her out. I tug her jeans down and get on my knees to lick her dripping wet cunt.
Scarlett’s so worked up, she quickly comes in my mouth. I finish licking her, but there’s no end to how wet she gets for me.
“Turn around. One leg on the desk.” I unzip my pants and take out my steely hard cock as she turns around and presents her perfect ass to me. “I’m your husband, but I’m going to fuck you like you’re my dirty whore. Hold on.”
I slam into her, and it only takes a few minutes of roughly taking her from behind before I start to crash.
“Fuck, wife. You’re killing me.” I reach my orgasm in record time and come inside her.
She arches her back, and I press my chest against her. Gripping her chin from behind, I mutter, “I love you. I’m not letting you go. Ever.”
“Good. I want to be your real wife. And share your son with you.”
That nearly makes me break down.
I step back, letting my wet cock, pulsing like it ran a marathon, flop against my nutsack. Scarlett twists around, and we breathe heavily, staring into each other’s eyes.
“I take it the run went okay,” I say when I find my voice.
She nods. “Pierce has been handled. And Ana’s amazing.”
“You like her?” I ask.
“Very much.”
“You okay that she’s my ex?”
“I don’t see her like that.” She brushes hair from her face. “I don’t see you guys as a couple.”
“We were both struggling. We used each other.” I look down. “I’m not proud of that.”
“Hey, that’s the past,” she says, bringing my face back to hers. “We both weathered broken roads to land where we are. Yours was with Ana. Mine was with Pierce. If he didn’t cheat and hit me, I wouldn’t have left. Then I wouldn’t have been in that exact spot for you to run me over.”
“I did not run you over, you little exaggerator.” I laugh and kiss her.
But she’s right. I would have noticed her in my class, but as the daughter of my boss and a student, I would have fought off the attraction.
Who knows, I might have even turned back to some kind of substance to get through it. Scarlett soothes me now.
My thumb traces the edge of her jaw as her lashes flutter. She’s got an adrenalin high. From the Bratva run and from us. I feel it radiating off her skin.
“You’re drunk on power,” I tease. “I know the look.”
“Does it look good on me?”
“Perfect.”
“Listen,” I say, ready to bring up what I would have said first if she wasn’t dying for my cock.
“I spoke to Darragh after you and the underboss went on your shakedown.” I take a shallow breath.
“I told him I’m ready to share custody of my son.
I want J.P. to grow up knowing I’m his father, not his uncle. ”
Scarlett’s fingers wind through my hair. “What did he say?”
“That he and Ana want that, too.” I exhale. “But I don’t have a life like theirs. They have a nanny, housekeepers, guards, always someone around.”
“You have me,” Scarlett says. “I love you. I want to stay married, and I’m ready to pitch in wherever you need me to.”
This marriage was just supposed to give me credibility. To meet Bradley Ford’s university mandates, and to show him I’m not some reckless, single doc on the prowl without goals.
“I felt a connection with J.P.,” she whispers. “I can’t wait to get to know Sophie better, too.”
My heart stutters, violently.
“My dad was in med school when I was young,” she adds, voice strong. “He always made time for me. I can do that, too. I want to.”
She gives me that smile, the one that cracks every defense I’ve ever built.
“You’re sure?” I ask, apprehensive of her answer. “You’d be J.P.’s stepmother. His immediate family. And a part of my much larger family. Who you’ll meet eventually.”
I expect her to shudder, but one afternoon with the Bratva, she shrugs off the Irish Mob. She’ll think differently when she meets Lachlan.
“You know,” I breathe with the need to reminisce.
“There was this day…at Darragh’s house in Seattle.
We were under attack, and the house was surrounded by men with guns.
We locked ourselves in the safe room. Sophie, who’s severely allergic and can have an episode at any moment, didn’t have her EpiPen there.
I was ready to bolt into the gunfire just to get her one. ”
Scarlett’s lip trembles.
“But Ana…” I choke on the memory. “She put J.P. in my arms. Told me he needed me. He was only a week old. That moment, feeling his tiny heartbeat against my chest changed everything. Next, I was in an Irish prison camp cell, shaking and hallucinating, focusing on what I was doing it for. The right to hold my son again. J.P. got me through it.”
Scarlett presses her forehead to mine, tears sliding down and landing warm onto my skin. “I’m so proud of you,” she whispers. “You saved yourself. For him.”
“For us,” I say, voice low and rough.
This should just be a happy-ever-after moment. She knows every terrible thing about me.
Except one. And the words are already lodged in my throat.
Scarlett needs to know the final piece to me. The last sin to confess.
If what I did to Ana, how I didn’t want J.P. at first, isn’t enough to make this woman despise me, telling her I’m the Hot-Shot Killer the FBI is looking for is the final test.
It’s now or never.
“Scarlett…” I start carefully. “There’s one last thing you need to know.”
She lifts her head, eyes alert in an instant. “What’s wrong?”
I pull up my pants and help her get dressed before we deal with something this serious.
“Come with me.” I lead her out of the office and down the short hall to the closet I keep locked.
The last locked door between us.