Saving 6 (Boys of Tommen #3)

by Chloe Walsh

“The quintessential lost boy.” Her lips grazed mine as she spoke. “Don’t worry, Peter Pan, I’ll be your Wendy.”

“Fuck my tongue, baby.”

“Yeah, because that would go down well.” Frowning, he added, “I’ve never done that before, you know? Skipped work or been late for a girl. You’re becoming a real bad habit, Molloy, and a bad influence, with it.”

“You did the right thing,” I assured her, body rigid, as I tried and failed to comfort her. “You absolutely did the right thing. If he puts his hands on you, and I’m not here, then you run, Shannon. You fucking run, ya hear me?”

“No, and thank fuck for that, because, contrary to how I act sometimes, I don’t want you to run,” he admitted gruffly, chest heaving. “I want time with you, Molloy. I do. I want to be all kinds of right for you. But I have walls and limits and boundaries, and the only way I can be with you, get close to you, is if you stay the fuck behind them!”

“That’s yer man, isn’t it? The lad from that fancy rugby academy,” Podge offered, inclining his head to where a tall, dark-haired lad about our age, was leaning against the bar, deep in conversation with the owner of Biddies. “What’s his name again?” “Johnny Kavanagh,” I filled in, recognizing him the minute he walked through the door earlier, with his army of wealthy pals in tow.

“I’d kill to be in your position, Joe.” Alec looked at me like I had grown an extra head. “To have your natural ability and pace. You don’t get how unbelievably talented you are, lad. Everyone on our team would gladly change places with you in a heartbeat.”

Alec’s cheeks turned bright red. “Her,” he whispered to Podge. “She’s my favorite.” Podge smirked. “Of course she is.”

Tall and blonde, with curves in all the right places, a nice big ass, and fabulous fucking double-d tits, I didn’t blame the lads at the other table for trying their luck. She had the face of an angel, and the tongue of a devil.

“Nice shirt.” “Nice legs.”

A deep shiver rolled through my body. She made me weak, this girl. It was insane, but I forgot about things when I was with her. Things like time, school, hurling, home. She even made me forget about him.

“You don’t get it, Molloy,” he growled as his lips claimed mine, hands moving straight to my hips, as he dragged my hips roughly against his. “I’m broken in the head. I don’t work right. I get hooked. I get so fucking addicted, and if we keep this up, I won’t let go. I won’t be able to.” If he intended to scare me, then he’d failed. His words had the opposite effect. “Good,” I breathed. “Because I don’t want you to.”

“Yeah, I know you were, Gibs, but those people are strangers, and what did we say about you talking to strangers?” “Don’t do it?” “Exactly.”

Their lack of faith in me only strengthened my determination to not fuck this up, whatever the hell this was.

Being with her made me want to keep a clear head, because I wanted to remember her. I wanted to be in the moment with her, and not just float through it. Because she was Molloy. My friend. Maybe even my best friend.

“That was his mistake,” I said, eyes glued to her fucking peachy her ass, barely concealed by her scrap of a skirt. “He thought that he could put her in a cage, and slap a label on top saying look, don’t touch.” I shook my head. “That girl is her own person, lad. Believe me. Nobody’s going to cage her.” “Except for you,” he chuckled. “No, lad,” I corrected, feeling my heart roar to life when she smiled across the room at me. “Especially not me.”

The only difference was that I didn’t have a prescription from a doctor for what I needed. And I needed it. Badly. On the other hand, there was Molloy. That was it. She was the only reason I had to not lose myself. Because I told her that I would try.

I exhaled a ragged breath before asking, “So, if I told you that I wanted us to have sex?” “Then I’d tell you that I have a condom in my wallet.” “And if I told you that I just wanted to sit on your lap and look at you?” “Then I’d tell you feel free to look.”

It was such a turn on that I almost regretted saying it. “I would never regret you, Joe,” I said, sitting up so that our chests were touching. “I couldn’t. Not ever. I care too much.” “I know.” His eyes burned with heat. “And I know that I’m not good with the words you need to hear from me.” “I know,” I whispered, understanding. “It’s okay.” “But don’t ever think that I don’t have feelings,” he said, and then pressed a kiss to my mouth. “Because the only time that I allow myself to feel anything is when I’m with you.”

Pulling back, I hissed, “And if you gave one single shred of a shit about me, then you would understand why you need to walk away from this car.” “Molloy.” “Right now, Joey,” I cried out angrily. “It’s not a matter of pride, here. It’s a matter of laying your cards on the table and proving that I matter to you just as much as you matter to me.”

Right now, my head was telling me that the target for my fury was the girl sitting beside me, which was a stark contrast to my heart. That was warning me to lower the proverbial gun and don’t shoot.

“You’re here for the same reason that I am, asshole,” she came right out with and then sucker punched me in the chest with the next statement. “Because you’re in love with the person staring back at you, the same way I am.” “I’m not in love with you,” I warned her, tone shaky now. “I’m not, Molloy. I don’t love you.” “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, Joey.” She had the nerve to roll her eyes and say, “You love me so much that it makes you sick.”

“You can either cum or you can kill me,” he warned, prying my thighs open. “You can’t do both.” “The first one,” I quickly replied, breathless. “I can do the second one later.” Joey chuckled. “That’s my girl.”

“But I’m not a saint either,” he warned, when he was fully dressed and had the key turned in the ignition. He cast me a heated look and said, “Next time you beg me to fuck you, I won’t say no.”

“What have I gotten myself into?” “The best relationship of your life.”

Aoife was written in italic scribe across the left side of his chest.

"Oh my god," I screamed, eyes glued to the red inked heart on the right cheek of my ass with the name Joey in black ink inside it. "Your name is on my ass!"

“I told you that I’d meet you on your street,” he snapped, quickly snatching me up, and throwing me over his shoulder. “I don’t want you anywhere near this house, Molloy.”

“Yes, you are, ya big eejit,” I snapped, irritated now. “It’s been seven months. You’re my boyfriend, I’m your girlfriend, and we love each other a lot.”

I grinned. “As my boyfriend.” “Not your boyfriend,” he muttered, and then released a pained groan. “Oh my Jesus, I just realized something.” “What?” “My boss’s daughter is my girlfriend.” Laughing, I patted him on the shoulder. “That, she is.”

One minute, I was twelve years old, and locking eyes on her at the school gates, and the next, I was seventeen, standing in her house, about to tell her father that she was mine.

“First.” He eyed me carefully and asked, “Do you love my daughter?” Heart thumping violently in my chest, I felt myself nod. “Entirely.” And then I heard myself say, “For about five years now.” Well shit… “Second,” he said slowly. “Do you see a future with her?” “No,” I admitted, hating my words, but needing to give him the truth, because if anyone deserved my honesty it was this man. “I don’t see a future for us, but that’s not because I don’t want one with her. It’s because I don’t see a future for myself, period.”

“You forget that I’ve known you since you were a small boy of twelve,” he reminded me, as he steered us towards the back door. “I remember looking at this small scrap of a lad standing in the garage, down on his luck and with the weight of the world on his shoulders. That small boy asked me for a chance that day,” he added, voice thick with emotion. “I took a chance on that boy, and I’m glad that I did, because the man that small boy turned into is a man who I am damn proud of.”

“It’s okay, Dar,” I wheezed, leaning heavily over the toilet bowl, as a mixture of vomit and blood continued to heave from my black and blue stomach. “I’m okay.” “Joey,” Darren croaked out, as he knelt beside me and kept a steadying hand to my back. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here. I had training.” “It doesn’t matter,” I strangled out, as the pain of having my seven-year-old nose broken threatened to consume me. “I don’t care,” I continued to say over and over, hoping that if I said it enough times, it might come true.

“Dad hit Shannon,” Tadhg bit out. “So, I hit Dad.” He spat out another globber of bloodied snot. “Dad hits harder.”

Especially when. scarlet women got to kiss sexy bad boys like Joey Lynch.

The truth was that nothing about being with Joey was easy, and yet being with him felt so incredibly right. Like I was exactly where I supposed to be, with exactly who I was supposed to be with.

“Nice shirt.” “Nice legs.”

“Now.” Taking a firm stance in front of my boyfriend’s sister, I planted my hands on my hips, and arched a brow, “Which one of you thick fuckers has a death wish?”

“If you fight her, you fight me,” I warned, as unaffected by their bullshit as I was unwilling to back down. “So, are we fighting, or are you bitches keeping your hair for another day? I’m down either way.”

“Because I love your brother, and your brother loves you. Keeping you safe is important to him, which makes it important to me.” Smiling, I threw my arm over her skinny little shoulders and walked her into school. “And who knows? Maybe in time, you’ll be coaxed out of that pretty little shell, and we can be friends.”

was never getting away from that house, not while the kids were still there, which meant that in order to survive another day in hell, I found myself breaking promises and slipping back into old habits.

“Don’t hate me, Molloy,” Joey mumbled, falling into the passenger seat the minute I let him go to open the car door. “You’re all I have to wake up for in the morning.”

“Then why?“ Her voice cracked, and I watched as a tear trickled down her cheek. “Why do this? You’ve been doing so well. I know you have. I know you’re not perfect, okay. I know you smoke weed. I know you have your demons and your secrets, but you were trying. You weren’t getting all fucked up like this!”

need you. I need you, Joe. You can’t do this to yourself.”

“We could get out of here,” she sobbed against my neck. “You and me. We could just load up the car and leave this shithole town behind us. I would go with you, Joe. I would. I love you,” she continued to sob, peppering kisses down my neck. “I love you. I love you. I love you so fucking much, it makes me want to die.”

“I can’t leave them, Molloy,” I whispered, tightening my arms around her, when her body racked with sobs. I’m not my brother. “I have to stay.”

Problem was, I was too in love to take heed. Because I knew that beneath all of the pain and bullshit, there was someone worth saving in there. He was a good person who made terrible decisions. He wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. He was trying to survive in the only way he’d ever known how, by self-medicating.

He was going to break my heart, I knew it. I could see it coming from a mile away, and I still couldn’t seem to get my self-perseveration instincts to kick in and protect me from the inevitable.

No matter what, I would be right beside him, ready to pull him back to safety. Even if it meant that I lost myself in the process.