CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Raina
W ith Ruby in my bed, I don’t want to disturb her by rummaging through my drawers and closets to pack up. I take the clothes she washed for me out of the laundry basket in the living room and shove them into a beat-up carry-on bag I keep in the hall closet.
That leaves me without a nice outfit to wear for Connor’s mother on Sunday.
Ugh.
Ready to leave, I come to a halt seeing Connor stand in front of my mother’s wall of smut. I clear my throat, and he spins toward me with an open book in his hand.
“This dedication says it’s for women who want to get fucked by a psychopath.”
I smile, feeling a lightness in my chest for the first time in hours. “If that’s what it says.”
He stalks toward me. “Do you want to be fucked by a psychopath?”
“I thought I was.” I smooth his chest and loosen the book from his grasp. “These authors know their stuff.”
Connor starts going through the others. “This one has four pages of trigger warnings. What the hell is CNC?”
I take that book from him, too. “Consensual Non-Consensual. Role-playing.”
He breezes through a few others, reading the backs of them. “She’s got four boyfriends in this one.” He looks adorably scandalized.
“Love is love, and they have a happy ending.”
“I’ll DNC you all you want. But I draw the line on adding a second dick to this relationship unless it’s a plastic one. ”
I chuckle into my hand. “CNC. And I’m barely holding on to the idea of one boyfriend.”
“That better fucking be me.” He looks ready to devour me.
“It is. And you proved the universal truth in all these books.” I skim my fingers over the spines. “That love is possible.”
Connor reads from another book’s description. “Are you sure these are about love? This one says he keeps her tied to his bed.”
I laugh again. “Some are just smut. But love comes around, and the characters have to fight for it.”
“The way I fought for you?”
“The way we have to fight for each other.” I slip under his jaw and let him hug me.
Connor scans the collection with a different appreciation. “Are these coming with you?”
“Coming with me, where?” I ignore the pun.
“When you move in with me.” He pulls my chin to face him like he’s checking to see if I twitch.
Inside I am.
“Um, no. Actually. I’m selling them.”
Connor brings my chin around to meet his eyes. “Why?”
“I need the money.” I see the collection through his eyes suddenly.
“You don’t need anything.” He hugs me. “You have me.”
“And do your brothers’ wives lounge around all day getting taken care of?” I challenge.
“No. But this situation is different.”
I’m too exhausted to argue. “I haven’t gotten back to the buyer because I’ve been a little distracted,” I say to push past the anxiety.
“Where did you sell them?” Connor crosses his arms, eyes narrowing.
I narrow mine right back. “Online marketplace.”
I doubt he has a social media account. He’s one step away from being a caveman.
LUGGING MY CARRY-ON bag, Connor walks me out of my building. Sharp pains pinch my chest from not knowing when I’ll be back.
Before we go home to his place, Connor takes a detour after making a few calls.
Heading toward SOHO, I ask, “Should your family be celebrating with a Sunday dinner if an important boss was killed?”
“It’s not a celebration. It’s a continuation of normalcy. No matter what, we’re never too busy for the wives, the kids, or our mother. And now girlfriends.” He shifts in his seat. “Although, you’re the first girlfriend. Ava and Lennox were already wives when we started doing this again.”
Ignoring that last part, I say, “Kids, huh?”
“My sister, Griffin, and Ewan, my oldest brother, have kids.” At a light, he turns to me. “My da never hid what he did. Never lied about who he was. Sure, he didn’t go into any court-admissible details. But no matter what, I never felt like he wasn’t our da first.”
My heart squeezes. “That’s really sweet, Connor. And you all worked for the O’Rourkes in Astoria before this?”
“You’ve got a lot of questions, Venom.” His hot and cold is something I’ll have to get used to until he fully trusts me.
Trust no one must be a universal mafia code.
“You can trust me, Connor. I did a lot of stupid things while on the bureau and maybe after, too.”
“Agreeing to kill me was a very stupid thing to do.”
“I didn’t know you,” I say with a playful shrug. “Didn’t know it was you until after I agreed.”
“And when you realized it was me, did you have a brain aneurysm and forget how good I fuck?”
Scoffing, I say, “That wouldn’t have stopped me.”
“You’re kidding yourself, Venom.”
Hmmm . Maybe I am. Here I am, on my target’s arm.
And in a few days, I’ll be meeting his mother.