40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
On Friday morning, my feet tap nervously as I watch Eoghan read Daniel’s notes on his brief. My brother feigned being unimpressed. Took out a red pen and started crossing out sections and scribbling his chicken-scratch in the margins.
With that scrawl, my brother could be a doctor. I wish he were. Then he wouldn’t be standing in the way of my promotion.
But then, I wouldn’t be sitting here with Eoghan, witnessing male beauty in its rawest form.
Yesterday’s confrontation in front of my gynecologist’s office rattled me. No doubt, his hacker brother figured out why I was there. Eoghan is feral for me. Like he’s the one in heat.
I can’t resist him anymore and excitement hums through me to suggest he and I go for a drink. Which will lead to sex with him. Sex I need Johnny to witness.
The ungodly act.
My core tightens. Am I playing with fire?
“Your boss liked the case you cited.” Eoghan rubs his chin, the scratch on his face fading. “But he thinks it infers the Borgias are organized crime lords.”
“They are!”
“Who will kill a prosecutor.” Eoghan lifts his gorgeous blue eyes at me.
I shudder. “Won’t that look obvious? We have a case against them and they find bodies floating in Lake Meade?”
Eoghan leans back, the chair squeaking under his weight, fury in his eyes. “Don’t even fucking say that.”
“Maybe you can help me figure out a way to make them pay? Maybe refer the case to the gaming board.”
“They are the gaming board.”
“The SEC? The Borgias have holdings they can freeze. Make them come to the table.” I fidget with my skirt, not looking at him.
“I can’t do more with this without looking at the actual evidence you have against them.”
My throat tightens. “I don’t know if Daniel will go for that. It includes witness statements, and their identities need to be protected. I’ll have to figure out a way to convince him. Can we, um, discuss this further, maybe over a drink later tonight?”
A hush falls over the office. It’s the kind of eerie quiet that is louder than any explosion.
I look up, expecting Eoghan to be reading more of Daniel’s notes. Clearly, he didn’t hear me or he would have responded.
Only, his eyes are locked right on my face, so piercing, I grip the sides of the chair feeling he could knock me over. “A drink, later tonight?”
“Yeah. I have a dinner meeting with a colleague.” One I sold my soul to arrange.
“What colleague?”
“I’d rather not say. Confidential. But I can meet you after.”
“He gets dinner and I get…”
“Dessert?”
He wrinkles his nose.
Is he seriously turning down drinks that will lead to sex with me? Warm tears build behind my eyes. All of his asking for sex is just to get into my pants. He keeps saying I’m his. That has little meaning if he doesn’t want to go on a real date with me.
Good Lord. What the hell am I thinking?
Why should I care how his screwed-up mafia brain processes possession? I’ll get the help I need on the case and he’s leaving.
I doubt he’ll be back.
My eyebrows pinch together so tightly I might need Botox to unclench the muscles.
I stand up. “Well, I’ll let you get to the obvious better plans you have for tonight.”
“I didn’t say no.”
“You didn’t say yes.” When he says nothing else, I ask, “Did you break into my apartment and steal my vibrator batteries?”
“Yes. And I noticed you haven’t replaced them.” He lays an evil wink on me.
“I’m busy.” I narrow my eyes.
“Amazon delivers batteries. Though I’ll just steal them again.”
And my app delivers a man in a mask who satisfies me just the same.
Is it the same?
Is it better?
It’s different. Johnny is the stranger taking you, fulfilling all your dirty fantasies in the dark.
“Just how often have you broken in?” I jut my hip, glad we’re talking about this and I’m not crazy.
“No comment.”
Groaning, I dip my head back. “You like controlling everything, don’t you, Eoghan? And don’t think I haven’t noticed you’re ignoring my question.”
He looks up from his papers. “I don’t say yes often, but I know the word. You’re stingy with the yesses, too.”
“How did you get into my apartment?”
He leans in. “I made a key.”
“When? How?”
“That night I was there. You had a spare one on a hook. I took it and copied it.”
I’m torn between shock factors that he doesn’t hesitate to tell me the truth or that he steals from me in the first place.
But I go breathless realizing all those times I thought he was watching me, he was. I liked it. I’m as sick as him.
Heart pounding, I thrust my hand at him. “Give it to me, right now.”
“My cock?” He stands up and undoes his belt.
“The key, you maniac!”
“The copy? Or the copy I made of the copy?” He unravels his belt.
Oh shit.
“Never mind.” It occurs to me, he broke in to play a prank and not when I was asleep to…do something else to me.
Like one of my other fantasies.
To be woken up with sex. To be wanted so bad that a man doesn’t even have time to wake me up, tears off the covers, and enters me with animalistic fury.
“So, no to meeting up later.” I clear my throat. “Got it.”
“I’m flying home tomorrow,” he says with no emotion.
“Oh.” I cringe at hearing the whine in my voice. “Everything all right?”
“My sister Priscilla is in labor.”
Uncle Eoghan!
“That’s sweet how you want to be home for your brother.”
His eyebrow arches. “You remembered I said my sister is Shea-Lynne. And that the other sisters were my brothers’ wives.”
“Didn’t go to Harvard, but I still remember details.” Smiling, I tap my temple. “So, no to meeting up later?”
“No.”
I laugh to myself. This is an ego thing. Saying no keeps him in control. He’ll only fuck me if it’s his decision.
“Is there anything I can do to change your mind?”
“You can suck my cock. Wrap those thick, juicy lips around my shaft and swallow me down that sexy throat of yours until you gag and beg for more.”
His words send sparks of heat through me. I want nothing more than get on my knees and feel him in my mouth, feel his cum slide down my throat.
But that won’t get Johnny enraged if he can’t see it.
“Can’t.” I tap my mouth. “These lips are hungry for food. See ya.”
I sling my purse over my shoulder and sashay out the office, counting the steps until I reach the front door.
With every shuffle of my high heels, I wait to be mowed down and yanked back inside.
When the door clicks behind me, I sigh.
Idiot.
Me. Not him. I tried to play his game and lost.