Chapter Eight
Conor
The roulette wheel slows, the little ball bouncing before finally settling into a slot. A collective hush falls over the table, broken only by the rhythmic clatter of chips being moved around.
"Twenty-two, black,” the dealer announces, placing a marker on the winning number before pushing a stack of chips toward me. "Congratulations on your win, sir.”
"Uh, thanks,” I say, distracted. It has been that way from the moment Arianna left my side. She’s been gone too long.
I glance in the direction she disappeared and try to push down the unease I get every time she’s far from me for more than a few seconds. There are cameras everywhere at this casino. It’s unlikely her stalker would make a move knowing that, but, I can’t shake the uncomfortable feeling in my gut.
Something is wrong. Fuck, I’m going after her even if it turns out to be nothing. She might’ve lost her way on the way back to our table.
I ignore the calls to take my winnings as I leave the roulette table to start looking for Arianna.
I question if she could have been waylaid or distracted by another game on her way back from the bathroom.
I wouldn’t put it past her. My stubborn little client is a curious one.
I visit every table in our area, walking to every red-dressed blonde-haired woman just to be sure, but none of them are Arianna.
My phone rings right as I’m considering going to another section to look for her. I consider ignoring it until I see who’s calling. I move to a quieter spot to take the call, keeping my eyes on the scene in front of me in case I missed Arianna.
“Fiona, I can’t really talk right now-”
“I found your girlfriend’s stalker.”
“Girlfriend? Arianna is a client.”
“Oh, don’t feed me that bullshit.” I can almost see her eyes roll. “I’ve seen the pictures from our stalker. You sent them to me, remember? I know what I saw in those pictures.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and shake my head. “Okay, fine. Why did you call?”
"Arianna’s stalker,” she repeats. "I’ve figured out who it is.
It’s a woman named Mia Stanapolis, and she’s some wannabe influencer with a long history of mental illness and violent behavior.
She was diagnosed with mild schizophrenia, and before you ask, no.
I did not hack into her medical reports. I found it under old posts.”
"I wasn’t going to ask that,” I say, impatient with a tad of panic. "What’s her relationship to Arianna?”
“According to one post she made a few months ago, they are soulmates,” she says. “They collaborated on a few projects a while back, but that’s it. Anyway, I traced her phone, and she’s currently in the same hotel casino as you guys, so please be careful.”
My blood chills at her words. "Fuck!” I growl, pushing back toward the crowd. "Arianna left for the bathroom a while ago and isn’t back. She might be in trouble. Find her, Fiona.”
"On it,” Fiona says, and I hear the fast clicking of her laptop in the background before her horrified voice breaks into the speaker, sending yet another chill through my body.
"Arianna and Mia are in the same place. Ground floor, the ladies’ bathroom in the left corner.
Hurry, Conor. This girl seems unhinged.”
I’m racing toward the bathrooms before she’s done talking.
I don’t bother knocking as I burst into the ladies room just as a deranged woman lunges at Arianna with a knife.
I grab Arianna’s hand and yank her away seconds before Mia’s knife slashes the air and catches my forearm.
Christ, it could have pierced Arianna’s chest if I’d been just a second later, but I don’t give myself time to think.
There’s a deranged woman in here trying to kill the love of my fucking life.
I push Arianna behind me as I move toward Mia, easily dodging the knife when she carelessly slashes at me.
I’m not new to this. She wouldn’t be the first person to try to carve a hole in my chest. Years of MMA training kick in as I grab her arms and restrain her, holding the arm with the knife so she can’t harm anyone, herself included.
"You son of a bitch, you ruined everything,” she yells, kicking and squirming in my arms. "This is all your fucking fault.”
Fuck, she’s waving the knife dangerously close to my face, but there’s little I can do without hurting her.
I’ve never hurt a woman before in my life, but it seems Arianna doesn’t have the same problem as she grabs a vase from the bathroom counter.
I watch with shock as she hits Mia’s hand with it, knocking the knife from her grip.
“I’ll go call security,” Arianna says, turning to the door, but she’s barely reached it before it bursts open and men in security uniforms storm in, claiming to have received a call about a possible attack in the bathroom.
It takes a little explaining, and Arianna shows them the livestream from her channel before they call the police and take Mia away.
Arianna seems visibly shaken by what just happened, her fingers trembling as she grips the counter and stares down at the sink.
"She was going to kill me,” she says in a shaky breath.
“I saw it in her eyes, Conor. She was really going to kill me, and it’s all my fault.
I led her on. I made her think…” her voice breaks off, making my heart bleed for her.
I walk up behind Arianna and wrap my arms around her. "It’s not your fault, baby,” I whisper into her hair. “That woman is sick.”
“Sick?”
"Fiona found out that she has a long history of mental illness and was diagnosed with mild schizophrenia. Even a mild case can cause someone to experience psychosis and lose touch with reality.” I breathe in her scent, letting it ground me. "I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner, a rún.”
Christ, I almost lost her.
"I didn’t know,” Arianna says brokenly, making me tighten my hold on her. "Maybe I could have helped her instead of ignoring her as much as I did.”
"Don’t,” I rasp, pulling back and turning her around to face me. "She’ll get the attention she needs from professionals, and I will make sure she stays as far away from you as possible.”
Before Arianna can respond, her phone rings, pulling her attention away.
I push back when I see her twin sister’s name flash on the screen.
As much as I want to take her back in my arms and comfort her, I decide to give her privacy to speak with her sister.
After placing a kiss on her forehead, I step outside.
I call Roarke immediately to update him on what’s happened, but it seems Fiona got to him first. "I’m working on a restraining order,” he tells me when the call connects. "I plan on using Matteo Rossi’s influence to make sure Mia never bothers Arianna again.”
Everything I wanted to say, all the plans I had in my head on how to protect Arianna from ever running into Mia again, fades as one thing takes root.
"I almost lost her,” I say, dropping my head back against the wall.
"I was so focused on some stupid roulette game that I didn’t realize Arianna was leaving to confront her stalker.
” Just thinking about it is enough to send blood pounding in my ears. "I almost fucking lost her, Roarke.”
"We all have those moments,” he says after a long beat of silence. "I almost lost Elena, too. That night, I fell asleep and she slipped out of the room for some air while I slept. Then that bastard grabbed her. It gives you perspective, doesn’t it?”
"More than anything in the world,” I say, my head clearer and more certain of the future than it’s ever been.
"I’m going fully remote. I can still run investigations from anywhere in the world, but after what happened, I can’t imagine leaving Arianna’s side.
So I’m choosing to stay with her—wherever that takes us. ”
"Are you sure about this?”
I never wanted a desk job from the beginning.
I only took on more responsibility because Roarke was fighting overseas.
Now that he’s back in charge, it’s okay if I step back.
I made enough money fighting and working all those years at the firm, and now, as Roarke and Fiona did, I’ve finally found my passion.
And it’s staying by Arianna’s side.
“I’m sure,” I say into the call, earning a small gasp.
It takes me a second to realize the sound is not from my brother.
When I turn around, I see Arianna standing in the doorway, eyes wide with shock.
It’s clear from the look on her face that she’s heard everything I just told Roarke.
I quickly hang up the call and turn to Arianna. “How are you feeling?”
"Tired,” she says, her eyes dropping from mine, and then she’s moving lightning fast to my side. “You’re bleeding. Oh my God, Conor. You’re bleeding!”
I follow her horrified look to the red stain on my forearm. “It’s just a scratch.” The worried look on her face tugs at my heart. “You don’t have to worry about it. I’ve had worse before.”
“We’re getting it treated. Who knows where that nasty knife has been?
” she says with a shudder before gripping my arm, and I find myself dragged to the front desk.
We’re given a medical kit that we take back to our room.
Taking care of the scratch seems to take her mind off her stalker, so I let her fuss over me. “I think that should do it.”
“Now let me take care of you,” I say, turning her around to unzip her dress, slowly tugging down the zipper and trying not to touch the perfect curve of her back. After the day she’s had, she probably just needs a hot bath and some rest before we have to leave for LA tomorrow.
I prepare the bath for her, and when she asks me to join her, I can hardly resist the urge to be naked with Arianna, so we get into the large tub and settle in with her back to my chest. We sit in companionable silence for the first few minutes in the water before she finally breaks it. “Did you mean it?”
I don’t need to ask her to clarify—we both know what she’s asking. “I meant every word of it, Arianna.”
“You can’t just leave your office job, can you?”
“I’m not quitting—just going remote. Fiona works from wherever she wants, and I can do the same with investigations. Besides, if you’re worried your sugar daddy will be too broke to spoil you, then you don’t have to be. I have money, my sweet sugar baby.”
"Conor,” she hisses, clearly not amused by my attempt to make a joke. "I’m serious.”
"As am I,” I say, nuzzling her hair. "This road trip is the best thing that’s ever happened in my life.
You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
I don’t believe I’ve ever been happier or freer than when I am with you.
Fighting felt familiar, so I made it home, and when I started working for my family, it felt like the right thing to do.
The honorable thing to do. But being with you…
I didn’t have to force myself to be happy or content.
It just comes naturally.” I close my eyes and nuzzle her hair, loving her scent.
"I love you, a rún mo chroí, and I cannot imagine spending a moment of my life without you. I will spend the rest of my life driving you from one adventure to another if that’s what you need. Forever your bodyguard!”
Arianna turns her head to look at me, her eyes swimming with tears.
"I love you, too,” she sniffs. "I didn’t want to.
Love means being tied to one place, right?
I was scared that you would ask me to quit traveling and stay in New York, but even more terrifying is the thought that I would have agreed to it. For you.”
“And it would make you miserable. How could I do that to you when I’ve seen how happy you get every time we visit a new place?
” The tears fall, so I use my thumb to wipe them off her cheeks.
“You love adventure and documenting it, not because you want to be a celebrity, but to help others discover new experiences in their own backyards. How can I not admire someone with a heart as pure as yours?”
"Stop,” she chokes out, more tears spilling out.
"It’s the truth. You’re beautiful, smart, stubborn, curious…”
The rest of the words are lost between us when her lips find mine in a soft kiss, one meant to affirm our promises to each other.
The kiss quickly turns heated, and I know I shouldn’t…
not when she’s so high on emotions. But then Arianna turns around, water splashing outside the tub as she settles on my lap.
“Want you,” she whimpers into the kiss, rocking her hips back and forth against my erection, causing even more water to slosh around us. “Make love to me, Conor. I love you. Make me yours.”
I’m a simple man, one who is hopelessly taken by this beautiful woman, lost in her gaze. Hypnotized like a fisherman at sea, following only the voice of a siren.
“I love you,” I rasp, finding her lips with mine and kissing her like a man seeking to lay claim even as I rub the crown of my cock against her entrance, groaning deep in my chest when I find her already soaked.
She moans into the kiss, back arching when I slide my aching cock into her tightness.
She cries out with need, her thighs trembling against mine as she begins to move, rocking slowly at first and letting me lead before she yanks control from my grip and starts riding me like a woman mad for pleasure—but I am no different.
"Yes, oh God, feels good, Conor,” she moans, rolling her hips faster and harder over my cock, our breaths mingling with every panted sigh. Every gasped pleasure. "Faster.”
I grip her waist tightly and thrust upward, making her cry out with pleasure. Water sloshes around us, spilling onto the floor as we continue moving. Every slide of my cock into her tightness is a taste of heaven. I can’t stop. Couldn’t even if I wanted to.
“Mine!” I growl possessively even as I feel the familiar tingle at the base of my spine. The threat of an orgasm that I can’t fucking control. “Come with me, baby. I need you to come for me.”
“Close,” she pants, crying out when I dip my hand between us and press down on her clit, shoving her over the edge into orgasm.
She comes with a sob, her pussy clenching tightly around me.
I follow, grunting as I fill her with my cum, making her mine.
Yet another sign that she’ll only ever belong to me.
My thrusts turn slow and gentle before she collapses against me, panting into my neck. I can’t help but smile. “What was that?” I chuckle.
“Vegas,” she whispers into my skin. “There’s just something about this city that drives people crazy.”
"Is that so?" I hum, running a soothing hand down her back. "What do you say we do something even crazier?"
“What?” she asks lazily, and I can tell she’s falling asleep. “What’s crazier than what happened tonight?”
“Let’s get married.”