Chapter 23
GAVAN
Fuck me, she looks stunning .
I mean, Eilish always looks good—too good, actually.
She’s got a thing for fashion, and she obviously puts a lot of thought and effort into what she wears and how she presents herself when she steps out of the house every day.
And I, being on the slightly OCD side of cleanliness and taking pride in how I present myself to the world—like that about her.
What can I say: I find meticulous attention to detail sexy.
But tonight, she’s… more . The woman sitting across the table from me in our private dining room at Il Piatto Buono isn’t the Eilish I’ve seen day in and day out in Dior office wear, or Chanel dresses on the street. Tonight, it’s up another notch.
She’s in an elegant black cocktail dress that wouldn’t look remotely out of place on a red carpet or at a royal function.
It’s not overtly “sexy”, and yet, she looks like sin in it—a knee-length, scooped back, sleeveless number that shows just enough cleavage to get me hungry, but not so much that I have to fire warning glares at the men around her.
I mean, I still do , though.
There’s a knock on the door.
“Enter,” I growl.
A waitress smiles as she steps in, showing me the label on the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Burgundy before she opens it and pours a splash. I swirl, sip, nod, and wait for her to fill both our glasses before leaving again.
Eilish’s brows shoot up as she glances at the bottle on the table.
“You have expensive tastes.”
“Guilty.”
She grins. I bite back mine.
There are a few reasons I’ve brought her here tonight. There’s the one big one, obviously. But there are some other things I need to clear up first that I’ve dug up in the last day.
And by “things” I really just mean one specific one.
“I have to ask you something.”
She takes a sip of her wine and nods. “Okay.”
“What the fuck is going on with you and Brooks McKinnley?”
Instantly, she stiffens and looks away. My jaw grinds. I’ve found out who the smug little shit was whose nose I most likely broke at the bar that night. Brooks McKinnley, son of Senator Harrison McKinnley.
I’ve also found out that the senator recently made overtures to the Kildare family about marrying Eilish off to Brooks.
Obviously, that isn’t fucking happening. But I want to know how that even gets considered in the first place.
“Well?”
“Well, what?” she spits. “Google him. What do you want from me?”
Well, this is going nicely.
“His father wants you two to marry.”
It’s not a question. She looks surprised for a second, then shrugs.
“And?”
“Why.”
She rolls her eyes. “ I don’t know. Money? Power? Senator McKinnley wouldn’t be the first politician my family had a business relationship with.”
“Yes, but why you .”
She frowns and looks at me curiously before smiling sarcastically. “I guess you didn’t dig quite deep enough when you were prying into my past.”
“Meaning what, exactly?”
Eilish rolls her eyes. “I’m sorry, is this really what you wanted to ask me about? Why you brought me out tonight? Because if I’d known the agenda for the evening, I’d have done something more fun, like slamming my head repeatedly against a brick wall.”
“We’re getting to the reason for tonight,” I growl. “But I need some things cleared up first.”
Like why Harrison is reaching out specifically to the Kildares. And, more importantly, why that little fuck Brooks had his goddamn hand on Eilish when I walked into the bar that night.
Why he looked way, way too cozy and familiar with her.
“Do you two have a history.”
I almost don’t want to hear the answer. Because it may force me to go out and level half the city on my way to finding Brooks so I can break him in two.
Eilish pales, her eyes getting a scared, haunted look in them that makes my hackles raise.
“I…” she looks down at her hands. “We used to go out. In high school.”
I see red .
“ Did you now ,” I snarl quietly. Eilish isn’t even looking at me. She’s still staring at her hands as they twist the white linen tablecloth in front of her, this faraway, cold look still in her eyes.
“It…” her throat bobs. “It wasn’t good.” Her eyes raise to mine. “If you’re asking what I think you’re asking, just know that I fucking hate Brooks McKinnley, end of story.”
“Did you two ever—”
“ No .”
Her voice is pure venom and her eyes lethal slits. “No. You already know, I was a virgin. You were there when that changed. Or don’t you remember?” she hisses sarcastically.
“Look,” I growl. “I’m only asking because—”
“Can we not talk about this?!” she blurts, standing abruptly. “Like, can we please talk about literally anything else?”
I go still. Then I nod.
“Of course.”
For now. But now there are SEVERAL pieces of information I will either drag out of you or beat out of him .
She turns, about to head for the door.
“Eilish.”
She whirls back, glaring at me. I raise a hand, crooking two fingers. Instantly, I can see the defiance making her eyes blaze like two flames. I can also see the heat in her cheeks, and the way her lip catches in her teeth.
“Come here.”
She stares at me coolly, her arms folded as she stands halfway between the table and the door, her hip cocked.
“Please. Come.”
I crook my fingers again. This time, she drifts over, still glaring at me. When she’s standing right next to me, I push my chair back and pat the tablecloth in front of me.
“Sit.”
She stares at me blankly. “What?”
“Sit.”
“Gavan, I’m not going to—”
“I’m not asking. Sit.”
Her lips purse. “We’re in a restaurant.”
“Yes. That I own. Sit.”
She stares at me. “I’m sorry, exactly how many restaurants do you own?”
“Several. Now sit .”
She swallows.
“ Please ,” I add. “I didn’t bring you here to talk about goddamn Brooks McKinnley.”
“Well, that’s nice to know,” she mutters.
Goddammit. I’m fucking this up so bad.
“Well?” Eilish mutters as she slides her ass onto the table in front of me, demurely keeping her knees firmly together and her hands folded in her lap. “Why did you ask me here?”
“Because I have a counter-offer.”
“Of?”
“Marriage.”
You could hear a pin drop. Eilish stares at me, her eyes bulging out of her pretty face.
“I’m not asking for the reasons people usually ask,” I continue quietly.
My hands grip the table on either side of her knees as I sigh.
“There’s a complicated situation unfolding right now involving Svetlana—whom I fucking hate, if that wasn’t made clear before—and my inheritance from my adoptive father. ”
She swallows, nodding.
“The short version is, Vadim left her a decent chunk of change when he died. But she’s a bloodsucking cunt and fuck her, so I stole it from her.
I denied her the money, and assumed she’d go broke in no time.
Except now she’s hired one of the best law firms in the country that specializes in estate conflicts.
She also has proof that I basically broke the law to make sure she didn’t get a dime of that money. ”
“ Basically broke the law? Or—”
“That I absolutely broke the law,” I admit, shrugging.
“And she knows it. She was going to use that to come after my entire company until we settled on something else she wanted even more—something of Vadim’s she’d always coveted, that he’d left to me.
If I gave her that, she’d shut the fuck up and disappear forever. ”
Eilish arches a brow. “So have you given it to her?”
I shake my head. “I can’t.”
She frowns. “Why not?”
“Because you shattered it into pieces, Butterfingers.”
Her eyes go wide, her mouth falling open in horror, her face paling.
“ Oh my God— ” Her hand flies to her mouth. “Gavan, I am…I am so fucking —”
“It’s fine.”
She shakes her head. “No, it’s not.”
It’s going to be.
“So… What happens now?”
I clear my throat. “Now, she’s coming after everything, including some assets that involve associates of mine, and their money.” I take a deep breath as my eyes lock with hers. “So now , I need you to marry me, because it would erase any claim she has to what’s mine.”
She’s silent as she chews on her lip, looking into my eyes.
“When?” she says softly.
“Soon. The sooner the better, actually.” I shake my head, my hands sliding over her knees. “But you don’t have to answer right now.”
Eilish swallows, nodding.
“So that’s why you brought me here.”
“That’s part of why I brought you here.”
She smiles. God, she’s beautiful.
“Why else did you bring me here? To show off another glamorous, Michelin-starred restaurant of yours?”
“Am I that obvious?”
“Maybe.” She giggles. “Well, let me get back to my actual seat before they bring in this fancy dinner you want to wow me with.”
“Actually…” I reach under the table and push a button, locking the door to the private dining room and alerting the staff that we are to be left alone. “I was planning on starting with dessert.”
She frowns. “What do you— Gavan !”
Eilish gasps as I grab her knees and spread them wide apart. She tries to shut them, but I’m stronger, and when my hands slide up her smooth thighs, she whimpers.
“ What are you…oh my God… ”
She whines when my finger teases up her lips through her lace panties, her eyes rolling back in bliss. I slip my fingers under the lace, teasing up and down her bare, slick pussy before I peel her panties down her legs, slowly.
I let them dangle from her heels before I push between her legs and kiss and nibble my way up her thigh. Eilish squirms, and when I shove her back across the table in front of me, she gasps as glassware and cutlery crash and tumble to the floor.
“ Gavan—oh fuck …”
She’s propped up on her elbows, her face bright red and her breath coming fast as she watches me hover my mouth mere inches above her eager cunt. I lock eyes with her, making her wait for it as I drool on her pussy for a moment before slowly dipping my mouth to her.
“ Oh. My. Fuuccck… ”
She coos in pleasure helplessly as I lick her slowly and languidly, not hurrying. I take my time savoring the taste of her pretty pussy. I lap at every drop of her honey-sweetness. My tongue dances lightly around her clit, teasing her into a frenzy before I plunge it deep inside of her.
Eilish’s legs shake. Her chest rises and falls, never breaking eye contact as I slowly work my tongue and lips over her sweet little pussy, taking her higher and higher.
I don’t rush it. I don’t demand, which is a change for me. But I do utterly subjugate her pussy and claim it as mine. I have her dancing on a fucking tightrope, and I keep her there for damn near close to twenty minutes, until I’m legitimately worried I’m going to break something in her head.
But still, I keep the pace slow. I keep the tip of my tongue teasing around her clit. Until suddenly, with one precise, tiny flick, Eilish’s whole world comes crashing down.
She slams a hand over her mouth, biting down hard on heel of it as she wrenches and writhes. Her swollen, throbbing pussy explodes in spasms against my tongue, flooding my mouth with her orgasm as her thighs lock around my head.
Slowly and gently, I tease my lips up and down her thighs as she catches her breath. Then, with a smug grin, I stand between her legs.
“Well then,” I growl. “Should we tell them we’re ready for dinner—”
“ Don’t even think about it .”
The look in her eyes is downright feral as she grabs me by the belt with one hand and the tie with the other. My pants hit the floor as she yanks my mouth down to hers. And when my swollen cock sinks into her, the rest of the world disappears.
Yeah, dinner can fucking wait.