Filthy Rich (The Five Points' Mob Collection, #2)

by Serena Akeroyd

But those strange triggers weren’t weird to Eoghan. If anything, he made them acceptable. He accepted me. And he didn’t make me feel dirty for it. He embraced those peculiarities, and took them into both of us, cr...

I was finding, quite surprisingly, that I was as possessive of him as he was of me.

As I stared at the mirror, looked into deep green eyes that were dazed from the morning I’d had, I whispered, “You’re a fool, Inessa.” I was. Because I was falling for him.

Falling, like someone with Stockholm syndrome, for the man who held my reins.

Who promised to retrieve my mother’s jewelry from my slutty stepmom, who threatened my father and who had grievously hurt him as a punishment for hurting me. The man who, even though I didn’t mean to destroy good food, patiently tried everything I made, even if it was vile. He didn’t even bitch at me or call me names. Just sighed when it was gross...

There was the way, at night, we started at opposite sides of the bed, yet somehow, by morning, I was always in the middle, and my feet were on his calves, and though I knew he liked his space, he didn’t jerk a...

No, he reached over, rubbed his hand down my side, tangled his fingers in my hair, and leaned down for a kiss before tugging me into the gym with him ...

“So, Eoghan doesn’t suck on his whores’ throats like a vampire. I guess I’m unique.” “You’re his wife. He’s bound to treat you differently.”

“The way to tie a man to you, girls, is to make him so drunk on you that he can’t see anyone else.”

“There’s a reason I kept Aidan Sr. tied to me for over forty years. They get offers all the time, but they don’t have to take them, do they?” “No,”

“Eoghan’s a loyal boy,” she continued, ignoring my shy response. “If you want more of him, just be loyal back. It’s not that complicated.”

“Mostly gone now,” she murmured, and I knew she was talking about my bruises. “I’ll make sure Aidan doesn’t mention them, but just so you know, my boy will never lay a hand on you.” “I-I know he won’t,” I whispered. “Good.”

“Of course, if he ever did, I’d chop off the hand that hit you.” Lena winked at me, like that was supposed to reassure me, and frickin’ weirdo that I was, it actually did.

This was a family. The Five Points was forged upon the familial links between father and sons, and between brothers. My world? Ties were forged in hatred and fear and spilled blood. There was no love, only control and power.

Here? While I didn’t doubt things could get nasty, because Eoghan had just blown off my father’s kneecaps, it had a different undertone. It felt wholesome.

“When we enter someone’s home, we always take our shoes off—and houseguests are offered a set of guest slippers, or if they’re frequent guests, they keep their own at the home in question.” Her hand slipped into mine. “Thank you.”

Eoghan snorted. “That’s why you wanted their shoe sizes?” Lena grinned. “I did wonder at that.” Aidan Sr. pinned me in a stare. “I get a pair too, then, hmm?” “Of course.”

His eyes twinkled. “I’ve never worn slippers in my life, Inessa, but for you, I will.” Heat bloomed in my cheeks. “Thank you.”

We all knew what was going down with Aidan, but it wouldn’t mean shit until he accepted what was happening too. That was Addiction 101, right?

Until addicts admitted they had a problem, there was no doing shit for them. Even if it hurt not to get involved—and Da? He didn’t do well with delicate situations. Whatever anyone could say about the man, he loved his kids with a ferocity that few could ever understand.

For all he was a psychotic nutcase, this was the other side of that c...

Trouble was, it wasn’t like Aidan was a regular junkie. We all knew to avoid drugs. That had been rammed into us by Da—I could still remember the drug d...

Still, Aidan wasn’t like that kind of junkie. He was in physical pain, and a man like my bro? A strong fucker who’d been raised with violence and knew what it was to piss blood several times a month because of a beating? Our tolerances were whacked.

“We all know we have a tendency of storing stuff at your place.” “Corpses. Not stuff.” “You’re the only one who doesn’t get freaked out by it.” My lips turned down at the sides. “While we’re on the subject. No more storing bodies at my place. Inessa is as understanding as any woman could be, but I draw the line at that. Anyway, Conor has the walk-in fridge—”

My lips twisted at the thought of the things my bro got down to in his spare time, shit he didn’t know I was aware of. But I had stuff on all my brothers. Not for blackmail purposes, well, not the devious kind. More of the leverage variety. Yeah, I knew that was splitting hairs, but you never knew when you might need a bit of push.

Ten years ago, for example, Aidan had somehow managed to get his hands on Yankees’ tickets for their winning World Series game in ‘09. I might have used some of my hoard on him—like how I’d seen him kissing Larry Duke when he was seventeen.

Aidan was as straight as they came, but in a Catholic household? Experimentation wasn’t exactly permitted. Fuck, I thought Da would prefer for Aidan to hav...

“She suits me.” The three words might have been a declaration of love for the way my brothers—Aidan included—responded. All of them, Finn too, and hell, he was more of a brother than a friend, gaped at me.

I scowled at them. “What?” “She suits you?” Brennan mocked. “She does.” My shoulders bunched around my ears. “She kind of slotted in well.”

I wouldn’t say she had my prick in a vise, but for the moment at any rate, she had it in her fist, and I was more than happy for it to be there. “Another one bites the dust,” Conor commented in a lilting voice that had me shooting him a look. I didn’t argue though. What was the point in arguing the truth?

Because there, in plain sight, a gunfight was going down right on the border between Little Yemen and the Bronx.

Pedestrians were screaming as they took shelter, ducking behind cars, and using their hands to cover their faces and heads like that would save them as they screwed themselves up into tiny balls. But nothing could save you from the spray of an AK-47.

“Sweet fuck, your father’s a madman,” Eoghan growled, even as he managed to turn us away from the battle royale in the center of a busy street. I couldn’t argue with him, not whe...

Options. Suddenly I had them, and it was heady stuff. Not as good as my orgasm earlier, but definitely fucking awesome.

Gilded cages were pretty, they were comfortable and elegant, but freedom? That was priceless.

I was a hard man, but fuck, everything about her got to me.

I copped a feel of her ass, grinned when she shivered against me, her hips rocking like she appreciated the touch—my kinky little mouse—then

“I could fuck you here. Now. While they’re outside, waiting on us to come out.” She froze, but she didn’t slap my chest, or shove me away again. If anything, I felt the taut wire that linked us together pull even tighter.

Unable to stop myself, I reached between her thighs from behind, slipping through her legs, and let my fingers caress her pussy. Sopping. Wet. “Fuck,” I grunted gutturally. I’d been teasing, testing, but now I really wanted to fuck.

“You’d do that?” “If it got you hot,” I replied instantly, and I saw that it did. I saw that it got her so fucking hot that it was a wonder she didn’t goddamn melt.

“You like that, huh?” She shivered. “M-Maybe.” “Eoghan!” The warning was clear, and I gritted my teeth before I called out, “Five minutes, Ma!” She grumbled beside my door, “It had better be.”

“You want to be caught, baby? You like that?” She licked her lips, and the motion had her tongue touching my thumb. “It’s wrong,” she whispered. “Nothing’s wrong between us,” I countered instantly. “You want it, I want to give it to you. Any way you need it.”

“I want to be caught.” “But you want me to keep you safe,” I countered. “I know you will.”

That confirmed my suspicions. She was too good, too modest to want to be seen that way. But the idea of it? Got her locked and loaded—and ...

I thought about the terrace outside, a space I rarely used, thought about the fantasy she’d admitted to me, and I thought about her humping the desk in front of that fucker Maxim… Could she get more perfect for me? I was a fucking exhibitionist too. Sex...

“I’ll always keep you safe.” “I know you will,”

“But I’m going to test your boundaries. You good with that?” Her bottom lip quivered, making me wish I hadn’t moved my hand. “Will it feel good?” “It’ll feel fucking epic.” She gulped. “Then I’m good with that.”

“Later, I’m going to make you scream.” “Is that a promise?” I grinned. “You know it.”

“And they say Da is the tyrant.” Her eyes twinkled. “Behind every strong man, there’s a stronger woman,” was all she said, but I let out a laugh, because what the fuck that said about her, I didn’t even want to know.

Eoghan: Conor. Security lights out in my office. Two hours. Two seconds later, he got a reply. Conor: Dirty fucker. Lights out engaged.