47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
We get into Eoghan’s elevator, and I recall what I saw in the mirror earlier, how disheveled and well fucked I looked. Hair bent, clothes creased, face reddened and tender from the friction of days-old scruff.
Eoghan wanted me to stay that way.
Must be a male ego thing.
But no one can see me if I get into my car from the underground garage.
“Hey…” I take a deep breath. “Can you bring my car around front?”
I slam on the button for the lobby.
Eoghan watches my hand then gives me a side eye.
“Bring your car around? Do I look like a chauffeur?” He cages me against the elevator panel. “One that fucks you until you scream?”
“I just…” I clear my throat. “I need air. The garage is so stuffy, and I have a sensitivity to the smell of gasoline.”
“Gasoline? These are million-dollar villas. There’s enough ventilation to…” He stops and scans my face. Stepping back with a smile, he says, “No problem.”
The whiplash turnaround concerns me. Perhaps he knows the door will open to the lobby, and I can scream if he was abducting me against my will.
“Thank you.”
We reach the lobby, and I start to breathe heavily to keep up with my ruse of needing air.
As I go to step out, Eoghan clasps my hand and lays a panty-melting look of possession on me. “Do not move.”
I nod.
He struts to the guard’s desk, and points to me before he disappears through a set of discreet doors.
The point was to get air. Playing dumb, I stroll to the front doors that lead to a circular driveway beyond a jet-black canvas portico.
“Miss,” one of the guards calls out to me.
I lift my phone to my ear and wave him off, smiling.
The night air hits me, and I glance around.
It’s still warm. My jacket hangs over my purse, so my wrinkled shirt and creased skirt are on display. My hair is a mangled mess from Eoghan pulling out all my pins, ruining the elaborate twisty bun I made this morning.
When I take a step, that pinch in my vagina is back. Hiding a smile, I don’t correct the little wobble that says: I am indeed well fucked.
But can Johnny see me?
A few cars sit parked in a side lot, but it’s too dark to see movement.
Headlights shine on me from the hill, and I freeze.
Crossing my arms, I keep a smile on my face. I can’t seem ungrateful. Eoghan is driving me home in my car, and I asked him to pick me up right here.
The Honda stops and my instinct to just step off the curb and get inside shatters.
I open the door for you.
Eoghan’s crucial warning hits me and I stand there.
Feeling like a spoiled dope.
He gets out, and after a confused look at me, he cuts a vicious glare back at the lobby.
Oh, no.
He paid a guard to keep me inside, and I blew him off. As Eoghan takes a few rough steps that way, I jump in front of him.
“No, don’t. He tried to stop me. I just wanted some damn air. You can’t control me like this.” I swat at his chest, the tight T-shirt hugging his pecs and six pack.
His eyes bore down on me. “When I tell someone to do something, I expect—”
I throw myself at him, stopping him with a hug. If Johnny is looking, he’s seeing something very real and not for show.
“Please. It’s okay. I’m okay. You live here. Or your brother does. One of them. I’ve already lost track. It’s safe here, right?”
“That’s not the issue.” He leans his ass on the passenger door.
I try another tactic, even if it’s a little on the evil side.
“I would never agree to be controlled like this, Eoghan. You keep saying I’m yours like you want something more from me.” I skate my fingers down to the waistband of his sweats. Gripping it, I finish, “This would never work, you acting crazy like this. I mean, where’s your respect? Shame on you. I went to law school the same as you. I work hard. I can’t have a man treat me like I’m glass. I won’t stand for it.”
Eoghan’s eyes flare as I speak and after my last words, he says, “Are you done?”
I scoff, “Yes. And—”
I don’t get another word out, his mouth crashes down on mine. He pins me to him, but instantly it feels different. I can’t explain why, the way he holds me, the angle of his body. He’s grinding that giant dick into me, but it doesn’t feel…harsh or possessive.
It feels like…love.
Good Lord, that can’t be.
I must be drained of all my senses. Playing this game. Getting railed by two men who exhaust me.
I give into the kiss because it’s nice.
And feels so real.
Shit, will giving him this kind of hope bite me in the ass?
Or will he bite me there first?
Shoot, I think I’d like that.
Eoghan breaks the kiss and presses his forehead against mine. “Message received. Get in the car. Please.”
I feel so languid and satisfied, I practically melt into the passenger seat.
After Eoghan gets in, we take off.
Holding my hand he says, “I respect you, sparkles. And this is who I am. But I’ll try to…bring it down a few notches.”
I believe him because he doesn’t say it with his usual cocky tone. The struggle in his voice convinces me.
“Thank you.” I smile, liking how this feels, like we’re getting somewhere, like maybe we’re really dating. “Thank you for doing this, driving me home since you have an early flight.”
“It’s my brother’s plane, it won’t leave without me.”
A private jet. Damn… That’s one way to get inducted into the mile high club. What a life it must be to have anything at the tip of your fingers.
“When is your sister supposed to give birth?”
“I don’t know.” He rolls his eyes. “But the whole bleedin’ family will be there.”
“When you told me she was having her baby, it sounded like that meant something to you.”
“It does. Family is everything.” He clears his throat. “Are you and Daniel close?”
“No, not at all.” I shake my head.
His forehead creases. “What are you doing for the upcoming holidays?”
“Mom lives up in Reno. There’s a great ski spot a few hours north of there.”
“You ski?”
“Sure do. You?”
“Nope.”
I laugh. “You’re more of the indoor type?”
“Having to bury two dead bodies in the ice-cold Upstate New York woods…” He swears something in Gaelic under his breath. “I can’t fucking believe I just said that to you.”
“I can’t fucking believe I don’t care.” I cover his hand on the gear shift with mine.
“Not your jurisdiction?”
“That and I only prosecute something I can prove.” I narrow my eyes, watching him drive. “Were they bad people?”
“Bad to my family.” He shifts in a seat that is too small for his hulking girth. “It was vengeance for my brother, Balor.”
It’s shocking how he just opens up to me. “What happened?”
He exhales. “Like you said, it’s late.”
And there’s no statute of limitation on murder and confessing to a prosecutor is admissible.
Not that I would ever turn him in. Cormac was a thug on the streets of Las Vegas. We didn’t pick on him. People filed police reports against him. We had to act after he was arrested.
“You said your family treasures its women,” I whisper.
“We do.”
“You’re tough, brutal men.” I speak from my experience with the Cosa Nostra here. Men who engage in human trafficking and send women to the hospital. “And no one’s ever hurt a woman?”
Eoghan thinks about that, and in a guttural tone, says, “Yeah. Cormac. And the reason he’s being punished. You dismissed his case but my family dispensed their own justice.” Eoghan’s words settle under my skin with a rare sense of comfort.
The stress lines that bracket his mouth about what might be happening to his brother, his blood, is not a look I care for on him. So I change the subject.
“Are you looking forward to seeing your brothers and the new baby?”
Eoghan smiles, and it warms my heart. “I am. I’d still like you to come with me.”
It’s as if he believes we’re either in some kind of relationship or there’s a happy ever after for us once he satisfies Daniel’s request. Cormac may be out of the country, but it won’t take much to figure out where he is and demand extradition. Eoghan must know this, or he would have told Daniel to go fuck himself.
“Can’t, counselor. I have court on Monday with a last-minute witness to depose.” And a man to fuck.
I hope.
Wait…
Do I hope? Do I want that?
God, I’m confused.
“I’ll go through the Borgia evidence and see what we can share with you,” I say.
“You’ll be working all weekend?” He glances at me with pinched brows.
“Woe is me.”
“In the office?”
I nod. “Problem with that?”
“Will you wear those tight skirts?” He practically growls.
“So you’ll have a peaceful weekend, enjoy your brothers, snuggle a new baby, and take in that newborn smell, I will wear boring pants and a long, boxy jacket.”
A smile quirks his mouth. “I’d rather be snuggling you and inhaling the smell of your cunt after I fucked it.”
He just banged me to the point I can barely walk, but when he talks like that, I want to wrap my legs around his waist and beg for more.
Eoghan parks the Honda in my space in the outdoor lot. I don’t have a fancy garage like his building. He gets out, and with my keys in his hands, he walks toward my lobby. “Come on.”
“You have to fly out early.”
“I’m getting you settled then I’ll leave.”
The clock is rounding midnight, and he also has no way to get back. But we’re a few blocks from the strip. He can hail a cab.
There’s no point arguing with him. He’s mafia, he’s alpha, he’s possessive, and he’s a Harvard lawyer.
I can’t win, and I’m too exhausted and worn out to try.
We ride my elevator. While I’m ready to collapse, Eoghan looks sharp and alive.
At my door, I say around a yawn, “Good night. Thanks for the memorable evening, oh, and the food.” I smile and hold up the bag of leftovers from my car.
“Just the food, sparkles?”
“The amazing sex speaks for itself.”
“By how you moaned and begged for it?”
“Aye,” I tease him. “Have a safe flight.”
I know if I invite him in, he’ll accept and make me mindless all night. My heart pinches at how I want that. But I worry he won’t go to New York, where he’s needed.
I trust Eoghan, but I can’t say I trust his family not to retaliate against me.
“Good night, sparkles. Tonight was fun. Be a good girl while I’m gone. Don’t make me use my belt on you when I get back.” He lays a gentle kiss on my lips.
There is something wrong with me because if I thought I wanted to be bad before, the idea of being spanked with a belt over Eoghan’s knee is exactly what I’m going to masturbate to all weekend.