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“I’m an excellent marksman and a terrible enemy. Go to sleep, sweetheart. Nothing can hurt you now that I’ve laid claim on you.”
“You’re going to be very wet for me, very often, and you’re going to love every fucking minute of it.”
“Callaghan, you dumb fuck.” Tate Blackthorn rubbed at his eyes tiredly, hooked to lie detector wires in the Ferrantes’ dungeon.
“No lies detected.”
It was that stupid kiss at the shooting range last week. It undid my goddamn existence.
My whole life derailed from that moment forward. My entire days were currently planned and arranged around kissing and dry-humping my wife like a bleeding teenager. We spent every night practicing in bed. She didn’t realize it, but she was making loud, porn-worthy sounds. I didn’t want to alert her, because she was self-conscious as it was about her lack of hearing, but it made for very awkward breakfasts with Imma.
“Psychopaths lie and pass polygraphs all the time,” I countered. “They will themselves to believe whatever comes out of their mouths.”
“She’s…” Brave. Smart. Resourceful. Talented. Witty. So nauseatingly beautiful I cannot wrench my goddamn eye from her face whenever we’re together.
“You know, Callaghan, I still can’t fucking stand your ass, but at least you’ve proven to be a better husband than you are a human.”
Fine. Fine. I did care. It was going to hurt. Not a fatal wound by any means, but… Let’s just say I wasn’t eager to get rid of her anymore.
somehow. You’re doing his head in, Lila.” She smiled. “Don’t be mad at him when he gets angry that those walls are tumbling down. The debris must be a bitch.”
“First of all, I’m not your friend. Second, Gealach means moon in Irish.” A joyless smirk found his lips. “Moon?”
“Mm. The first time I saw you, you were drowning in the night. I was in pain and in a terrible fucking mood. And you glowed. You shone so bright, I couldn’t look away.” His chest expanded with an inhale, and he frowned to himself. “You were my first dream, I think.”
“Technically, yes. But when I stopped and tipped my head up, I asked the moon for a reason to live. We have a history of bargaining, me and him.” He paused. “I think it gave me you.” The words settled beneath my skin. I felt the same. Existing was no longer enough. I wanted to live. And I wanted to live by his side. “Why did you tell me it means wiseass?” “Because you’re a wiseass.” “That’s rude.” “You still like me.” “What makes you say that?”
Our ankles tangled under the table. It was the briefest touch, and yet it held so much meaning for me. I stared at the man across the table and realized that I was falling in love with him. As with every fall, once you lost your balance, crashing was a matter of when, not if. “Yes.”
“Are you going to stand on guard?” Lila gave me an incredulous look. “I’m coming in with you.” Lila rose on her toes, putting her hand on my cheek. “Thank you for taking care of me.” She reached up and kissed my eye patch, and I hoped what I was feeling was a fatal heart attack and not fucking flutters. “From now on, I promise to take care of you, as well.”
“I would never hurt you like that.” I found my voice, opening my eye. “Even if I wanted to. Even if you begged me to. Even if you cheated on me. Even if you killed me.” And then, because it felt too raw, too real, I added, “Protecting you is a compulsion at this point. I’d stop the night from falling if darkness scares you, Lila.”
Her. Virginal, innocent, sweet to the point of toothache. Me. Murderer. Psychopath. Pervert.
“Because if…he…had one like yours, I don’t think I’d have survived.”
No, wanted to be careful with her. I’d won the most precious thing she had to give—her trust—and I wasn’t going to fuck it up.
I understood why my sister liked her. Lila made people around her feel seen. Probably because she’d been overlooked her entire life.
My wife was fucking with me.
I didn’t love her. But there was no denying we changed each other in ways that benefited both of us. I needed some of her tenderness. And she, in return, received a blank check to be who she truly was—a little fucked up, a tad violent, entirely a sexual woman who deserved to be satisfied often, and hard. With me, she could be a teenager. Messy. Emotional. Confused.
between us in half a step, lifting her face up to mine. “Tell me you’re jealous, and I promise I’ll never touch another woman again. It would be the first time I keep my word, but for you, I’ll do it.” My gaze dropped to her pouty, pink lips.
hooded eyes. “You make me jealous.” Her throat worked around a swallow. “You make me so sick with jealousy I can barely even stand it when you speak to other people. I’m jealous of the clothes you wear. Of the soap you use. Of the air you breathe. I hate so much that I like you. But the truth is…I do.”
her privacy. “Because you’re mine. Your moans. Your pleasure. Your words. No one else is allowed to hear them.”
She trusted me with her body. With her secrets. With her heart. The first person who ever did. I wanted to earn it. To deserve it.
“You can do this. You escaped hell. You’re here now. And I will never let you go through it again.”
stuttering.” Lila giggled, reaching for her glass of sparkling water, and my chest filled with stupid, disgusting pride. Because I made her laugh. I made her orgasm and laugh. She better fucking like me, or else. “Mother Mary, I truly lost her.” Chiara clutched her giant diamond necklace. “Nothing in this…this hussy in front of me resembles the sweet child I put in this man’s hands only a few months ago.” “Call my wife a hussy one more time,” I challenged, continuing to eat my meal calmly, “and her pretty little pink dress will turn red.”
In love with his words and his thoughts and his warped sense of humor. With his violence and darkness that he wore like an impenetrable armor. An armor only I got to peek under. I was in love with his veiny hands, broad back, neck kisses, Latin tattoos, hugs from behind, and that one green eye with the golden flecks that missed nothing and rarely blinked. And I’d never been closer to losing him. To the Bratva. To our secret. To this baby in my womb.
“Dead people make great enemies. Live ones, not so much.”
death inside something to protect it. That something was Lila. She was tangled into my being, her messy, coarse vines gripping every fiber of my soul. She had the power to destroy me. And I would let her. I’d gladly burn for this woman just so she could feel the warmth of my flame. The more I tried to unlove her, the deeper she burrowed into my skin. I was done fighting. She was now a part of the fabric of my godforsaken soul.
And it was time she knew that.
“The limit is 600 mph,” Luca pointed out. “If the fucking sky police fines us,
I pushed a few nurses out of the lobby elevator to make room, both for myself and my psychotic meltdown. By the time the elevator pinged open, my knee was the size of a fucking basketball. I crawled the length of the corridor the rest of the way, bypassing Enzo and his little minions. He was standing outside her door, yelling in Italian into his phone and ignoring his slithering, bleeding brother-in-law.
“Darlin’.” I crouched down, pressing her hand to my lips. “This is the last time I’m leaving you for more than ten minutes. Whose stupid idea was that?”
I came to Lila first. And I would do it all over again if I had to. She smiled sadly at my silent admission. “I heard the baby will be fine.”
“Lila is your number one now, not me.”
“I’m tired of un-accidental car crashes. Of the smell of gunpowder and the taste of blood. Of striking alliances based on who can help me survive, not who I truly care for. Let me fight my way out of this world the way I see fit. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
Survive. I detested the word. It implied luck and a degree of victimhood. “You survived nothing, sweetheart; everything you faced, you fought and overcame. You’ll brave this storm, too.”
“Please,” she breathed out. “Trust that I’ll keep you, Lila, and my nephew safe. Because I always will. I love you all to death. Let me sacrifice the Ferrantes to save myself. That’s all I ask.” I squeezed her hand in mine.
I wanted to live. I found my purpose. The spectacular thing worth living with my past and nightmares. Her.
door. “I love you.” And for the first time in my life, I was crushed that I couldn’t hear. Because his words—these words—I wanted them in my ears, in my heart, in my veins.
“I love you with a force that could destroy planets and universes, Lila.” His face twisted in self-loathing. My expression must’ve given my glee away, because he sighed. “You shouldn’t bask in it, Gealach. You should be very, very afraid. I have no red lines when it comes to you. No logic. I will love this baby as my own, because anything born of you is bound to be perfection. He will be mine. And I would kill for him. Die for him.” The words rushed over my skin, heating it with pleasure even my orgasms couldn’t give me. Nourishing me back to life.
“But make no mistake,” Tiernan continued. “I will always love you more. Than him. Than me. Than this world. My love for you is not pretty, or flowery, or rom...
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“Darlin’, I barely even let you go to the restroom by yourself before we had sex.” He shook his head incredulously, leaning forward in his seat. “I want you next to me forever.”
“Even at your worst, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
checking for leaks. “I’m afraid you just cried your first tear, hubby.” “Impossible.” He scowled. “My cum is probably leaking from other holes in my body, seeing as I haven’t been in you for over thirty-five hours.” I barked out a delighted laugh, which I immediately regretted, seeing as my collarbone was shattered. Yes, someone tried to kill me a few hours ago, and yes, my rapist was somewhere out there, still threatening me. Maybe the two things were connected. But we had each other, for real now, and that felt more powerful than any obstacle thrown in our way. “Gealach.” Tiernan brought me
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“It’s you and me against the world.” He leaned to brush his lips over my forehead. “But I like our odds, darlin’.”
My real father was good and kind and caring and artistic, and Vello killed him.
