Chapter Ten #2
He glanced around, but there was no one particularly close.
That didn’t stop him from hooking a hand under her chair and towing her over to his side, the move putting her half in his lap.
“What is it with people wanting to discuss state secrets while we’re in a room with fifty other fucking people. ”
“That’s the best time to discuss secrets,” she murmured.
To anyone looking on, they were a couple in love—or at least in lust—so entwined with each other that the rest of the room didn’t matter.
With Charlie’s citrus scent teasing him, it wasn’t a hard part to play.
He kissed her neck. “Romanov is many things—a fool isn’t one of them.
If I don’t fight and argue and bitch the same way I would in reality, he’ll know something is up.
Ultimately, it’s Keira’s choice, but until she makes it, we have to proceed accordingly.
” Until the deal with the Eldridges is done and she knows she has a choice at all.
“Makes sense.” She inhaled sharply as he nipped her shoulder.
“You going to tell me what the fuck was up with that game you were playing with Mae?”
“Now’s not the time.”
He growled, which only seemed to amuse the infuriating woman. She grinned at him. “But I’m more than willing to be persuaded.”
“Oh, bright eyes, I’ll persuade the fuck out of you.”
* * *
Charlie did her best to focus, but it was a lost cause.
All she could feel was Aiden’s attention heavy on her, the promise of persuasion in her future.
There was no mistaking what that meant—not when he’d spelled it out in the car earlier.
Sex. He’d made her beg, something she’d thought was impossible.
Charlie was hardly a virgin, but she liked her sex like she liked everything else since her life had gone down the shitter—without fuss.
Why bother with romance when the only thing both partners were after was a pair of mutually satisfying orgasms?
Not that she could call what had happened between them in his bed romantic.
“Charlie.”
She turned, her breath coming a little too short to be totally at ease.
Seeing how smug Aiden looked made her want to set him on his ass.
That was her problem, though. Not his. He’d been mostly consistent up to this point.
She was the one who was in danger of changing the rules.
Hard to take the high ground when I don’t have a ledge to stand on. “What?”
“It’s time.”
She looked around, a little panicked at the realization that the room had emptied while she was obsessing over the thought of having sex with Aiden.
You’re trained better than that, distracted to high hell or not.
She tried for a smile and failed miserably.
“Great.” All she wanted to do was get the hell away from here.
The night had left her feeling raw and exposed in a way that had nothing to do with the physical.
She’d thought she was prepared for everything that working with Aiden would entail.
She was wrong.
She brushed past him and headed for the doors they’d come in through.
She could feel him at her back, but Aiden didn’t say anything as they climbed into the waiting town car and then rode back to the O’Malley house.
She stared through the window, not feeling any more welcome than she had the first time.
This wasn’t her place. She’d be worse than a fool to believe otherwise, even for a second.
Aiden took her hand at the front door, the contact shocking her out of her funk.
It hadn’t skipped her notice that he barely touched her unless he was looking to prove a point or there were orgasms involved.
And he hadn’t come close to kissing her.
Not once. That’s very Pretty Woman of him.
The joke fell flat, even in her head. She knew better than to get caught up in this bullshit. She did.
But she still followed him into his room and shut the door behind her.
And her traitorous body was still primed and aching for him.
It didn’t seem to matter that she wasn’t even sure she liked Aiden—how could she when the only parts of him she knew were the ones he allowed her to see?
She wanted him despite that.
For now, that was enough.
“Take off your dress.”
She unzipped the side and let the heavy fabric fall to her feet. The only thing she wore beneath it was her panties, and she wasted no time sliding those off as well. Only then did she dare look at Aiden.
He’d taken a seat on the edge of the bed, and he watched her with an unreadable expression on his face. “How are you doing?”
“What?” She’d expected more games, or at least some kind of command. She hadn’t anticipated him asking her a frank question that she didn’t have an answer to.
“Tonight couldn’t have been easy for you.”
She stared at him. If she didn’t know better, she would think he was offering an olive branch and inviting her to talk with him. Maybe to share actual honest-to-God emotions.
But this was Aiden O’Malley, so she had to be misreading the situation.
Exhaustion rolled over her in a wave that had her eyeing the bed for purposes that had nothing to do with sex.
She could jump through his hoops tomorrow.
Tonight she was just done. “Aiden, we’ve been talking on and off all night.
If you’re going to fuck me, fuck me. If not, I’m going to bed.
” Charlie hadn’t anticipated how draining it would be to be constantly on guard and worrying about staying in character—or how twisted up she’d be about her fake fiancé in the process.
Should have run faster that first night.
Something crossed his face, something she couldn’t put into words. Aiden exhaled harshly and stood. “I haven’t been doing a good job with you.”
“Uh, what?” He’d switched tracks so fast, her head spun as she tried to take the mental jump with him. “What are you talking about?”
He walked to the phone on the dresser. “Did you manage to eat anything during that shit show of a party?”
Now she was really confused. “No…” She’d been too nervous—and even if she’d wanted to, there were so many people drifting up to talk to her, she wouldn’t have had a chance.
“It’s late, so there won’t be any fancy options, but I know for a fact that Mark makes a mean turkey club.”
Her stomach chose that moment to grumble, and she pressed her hand there, as if the contact could tell it to shut the hell up. As attractive as sleep sounded, her mouth watered at the thought of a sandwich. “I could eat.”
“Thought so.” He motioned toward the bathroom without looking up from where he was dialing. “Take a shower, bright eyes. By the time you’re done, there will be food. Then we’ll talk.”
More talking.
She didn’t know if she was disappointed or relieved, but she padded into the bathroom all the same.
A shower sounded like heaven, and so she wasn’t going to think too hard about the fact that they apparently weren’t going to have sex tonight.
Stepping beneath the stinging spray made her gasp a little, but she welcomed the shock to her system.
She gritted her teeth and scrubbed herself down, washing her hair until it was no longer stiff from the liberal amount of hair spray needed to tame it.
And then she just stood there, her head ducked beneath the running water, letting it course over her until she felt a little more in control.
It took far longer than she would have liked.
She finally shut off the faucet when it became apparent that peace wasn’t in the cards for her.
She was too aware of Aiden in the next room over, and the rest of the night hanging over their heads.
Talking was all well and good, but she was all talked out.
Sex was even better, but she was exhausted.
Right now, she was just one big mess.
Charlie hadn’t had the foresight to bring in a change of clothes, so she walked out of the bathroom as naked as she walked in. It’s not like Aiden hasn’t seen every inch of me.
He held up a shirt and then tossed it to her. “Wear this. I can’t focus with you sitting there looking so downright fuckable.”
“Sounds like a personal problem.” But she pulled on the shirt, belatedly realizing it was far too big to belong to her, so long it hit the tops of her thighs.
She frowned down at it. “I’m wearing your shirt.
” It didn’t look like anything she’d seen Aiden in to date.
It was a normal T-shirt with faded writing across the chest. “Boston University?”
“Even mob families go to college, Charlie.” He gave a mirthless smile. “Business major.”
It made sense. If the O’Malleys were anything like the Romanovs, they had a carefully balanced array of businesses—a good portion of which were on the up-and-up.
It was possible to delegate some of that, but the more the boss handed off, the higher the chance of someone sneaking in and undercutting him because he didn’t understand the business side of things.
She looked at Aiden with new eyes, feeling a little like a layer had been peeled back. “Nice.”
“It was a huge pain in the ass, but necessary. Most of us have college degrees of one sort or another.” He sighed. “Not Keira, though. She dropped out of art school two years ago, and she doesn’t seem interested in going back.”
“You’re…really worried about her.” She moved to sit on the edge of the bed, taking in the tray with sandwiches sitting beside him. “She’s a good kid.”
“You were right before. She’s lost and hurting.
” He pushed one of the sandwiches toward her.
“And I’m partly to blame for that, for a number of reasons.
It’s been a rough couple of years for our family, and I was so focused on getting us through it without more losses that I didn’t realize she was slipping away until it was almost too late.
Now she won’t talk to me even when I try to reach out. ”
“And your other sisters?” The ones who had left the family behind in pursuit of…
Well, Charlie couldn’t say for sure what they were in pursuit of.
She still didn’t know the full story behind Sloan, and Carrigan seemed to fit in just fine with the mob life, even if she’d chosen a rival family over her own.
Aiden stared at something she couldn’t see. “I’ve kept things under control, and kept our business prospects from suffering too much during this time of uncertainty.”
It sounded a whole lot like a rehearsed speech—or someone else’s words coming out of his mouth.
He seemed to realize the same thing. He shook his head. “But, yeah, I’ve mishandled all three of my sisters. Repeatedly. The problem with putting the family first is that the individuals sometimes get lost in the shuffle.”
“I’m new to the scene, so I might not be reading things right, but it sure looks like you have a powerhouse of alliances going on in Boston.
” Carrigan linked them to the Hallorans, even if there was tension there.
Teague had married Callista Sheridan, which finished off the trifecta.
Charlie might not support the illegal aspects of their lives, but she didn’t see how any of that was a bad thing.
“Yes and no. If Romanov wasn’t a threat, it would be true that the family is as powerful as it’s ever been, and a good portion of that is because of the events of the last few years.” He didn’t look particularly happy about it.
“I sense a ‘but’ coming.”
Aiden gave a tight smile. “But even if business is flourishing, the personal relationships have suffered. I’m sure you noticed the tension.”
“I did. I also noticed that all of your siblings jumped to your defense when they thought you were marrying a gold digger.” She shrugged, even though she still hated that aspect of their lie.
“Yes, I suppose they did.” His smile softened a little. “Families are complicated. We all grew up knowing what was expected of us, but some of us were more at peace with it than others.”
Strangely enough, she understood. Being raised in a family full of cops meant that everyone expected her to follow in their footsteps.
But that was where the similarities ended.
She’d wanted to be a cop, wanted it more than anything else in the world.
She’d run cross-country and lifted weights in high school almost religiously because she wanted to be at the top of her game when she went into the police academy.
All with her dad’s approval. There had never been another path available, because that was the only one she wanted.
She wasn’t sure what her dad would have done if she’d dreamed of running off and joining the ballet or becoming a doctor, but she couldn’t really picture him taking any other field of work as seriously as he took law enforcement.
She studied him. Aiden O’Malley had layers upon layers. Even now, when it seemed like he was being perfectly honest, she wasn’t 100 percent sure this wasn’t another of his masks. He had so many.
That didn’t stop her from asking, “And were you at peace with it?”
“Mostly.” He shrugged. “It never occurred to me to want something different. Even if it had…Teague is occupied with the Sheridans, and Carrigan with the Hallorans. Sloan is gone with Jude MacNamara, and I’d never force her back to Boston.
Devlin is dead. Cillian has a brilliant head for numbers but no interest in leading.
He probably could do it if something happened to me, but I’d never ask him to pay that price just because I didn’t feel like taking the responsibility. No, bright eyes, there’s no one else.”
This isn’t a mask. I’m sure of it.
She was equally sure that he hadn’t meant to reveal so much of himself—and would instantly backtrack if she commented on it.
Charlie picked up half of her sandwich. “Thank you for the food.” She had a lot to think about.
Too much. Every time she thought she had his number down, he went and threw her a curveball.
Who is the real Aiden O’Malley?