Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107306 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107306 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
I bite back a sudden flare of anger…because of his landlord, I guess?
“I’ll give you the rent money,” I spit out, more annoyed by the second—but also not. Is he saying he wants to buy them for me? Wants to do something like that for me, for us? I didn’t think about that, or his money issues.
“How would that make sense,” he asks, “when I’m already trying to repay you? Plus, I need to be able to take care of myself. I’ve always taken care of myself, Cherry.”
But he didn’t have me before. I’ll take care of him now, always. Even when this ends.
“My mom told me last night that motherfucker raised it by two hundred. It doesn’t matter that it’s illegal. He knows we’re not turning him in, that we have nowhere else to go.”
“I’ll handle it.” I turn for the door, but Shai grabs me.
“What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean?”
I’m not sure if he even knows it happens, but his pupils flare. He wants this, wants that danger he’s been seeking since me. “Fuck no. I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t, and I’m doing it.”
I go for the door again, but Shai’s hold on me tightens. “Not without me. Let’s do it…together.”
My dick pulses, hardens at his words. I want to do this for him, yes, but I want to do it with him more. “Go back to work, pet. I’ll go get a change of clothes and your gun.”
He grins, then pulls me close, slamming his lips to mine. We kiss hard and hungry, devouring each other. I’ve never wanted to be consumed the way I do with him.
He gasps when he pulls away. My lips tingle, and he reaches up and touches his like they do too.
“Don’t lie to me. Don’t do it without me,” he says.
Tiernan and Cillian will be pissed. I’m supposed to run this shit by T, but I just nod. “I won’t.” I walk out, leaving him there, and eager to come back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Shai
Rory gets back an hour before I get off. He sits in a booth in the corner, eyes following my every move.
It should piss me off.
It should be uncomfortable.
It’s not normal the way he watches me, the way he’ll sit here for hours while I’m working, but who the fuck wants normal? I like it, like his eyes on me. Like how it makes me feel. Like being craved by him. It’s like he’s obsessed with me, and the fact that it doesn’t make me walk away says just as much about me as it does about him.
I finish my shift, and he walks with me to the bathroom. I grin when I think about the guy he left there earlier to make sure no one interrupted when he got me off. People do what Rory says. They’re afraid of him, and again, that does something to me, but not in the way it should.
I clean up and change, neither of us saying anything, him just watching me. We get to the car, and he points to the glove box. “Your gun is in there.”
“Thanks.” I pull it out, smile at the way it feels in my hand.
“Where am I going?”
I give Rory the address.
“You said he has a bodyguard. Think we should expect more people than just the two of them there?”
Shit. I didn’t even think about that. I’ve never done something like this before. What if I fuck it up? What if Rory gets hurt because of me? “I don’t think so…” The conversation with Ollie comes back to me, when he talked about reeling Rory in and not letting him do anything to get himself hurt. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”
“Why the fuck not? He’s taking advantage of you. He’s a piece of shit who needs to learn he can’t fuck with something that’s mine.”
My pulse nearly dies, then kicks back to life again, too hard, too fast. Something that’s his? He’s said that before, but it feels different in this moment.
“I know, but should we talk to Tiernan and Cillian about it? Or like…watch him first?”
He tosses a glance my way. “I’ll take care of you. I won’t let you get hurt.”
“I’m not worried about me. I can take care of myself.” But he’s the first person who has ever wanted to take care of me, the first person who has vowed to. The only one who would be doing this for me.
“I can bring you home first. I’ll go deal with it and then come back and—”
“No. Fuck no. You’re not doing this shit without me, Ror.” If he insists on taking care of me, I’m going to take care of him too. “I won’t let anything happen to you either.”
He grins in the dark car. “Aren’t you fucking sweet.”