Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
“Why?” Her eyes zinged victoriously. “Thought you said you didn’t love her.”
“I don’t,” I countered. “But I vowed to protect her. She’s my wife.”
“If you really want to protect her, strike an immunity deal wit—”
“Don’t finish that sentence.”
My sister huffed, realizing she wasn’t gonna win this one. “Anyway, what’d you come here for?”
“My wife, actually.” I turned my back to her, pretending to examine a painting on her wall to avoid her shit-eating smirk. I stuffed my hands into my pockets. “I need you to keep an eye on her while I’m in Vegas.”
“Of course,” she said diligently. “Unlike you, I don’t mind admitting I love Lila.”
“She’s going to have around-the-clock security,” I ignored her dig. “Plus, I hired Ransom Lockwood’s company to do patrols around the neighborhood, so all I need is for you to keep her company and take her to her OB-GYN appointment.”
“Gotcha.”
“I’ll see what I can do about Achilles.”
I turned around, scanning her face. She looked exhausted, but also tough as nails.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“But I mean it, Tierney. Don’t fuck with the feds. If you do, I won’t be able to save you. Not this time.”
A sad smile touched her lips. “I know.”
_______
My next stop was a sex shop.
I was only going to be gone for a couple days, but Lila needed to sleep, and she couldn’t do that without at least two orgasms.
I’d put her to bed every night for the past few months after pleasuring her with my tongue and cock. She was dependent on it. It was a habit we’d need to break at some point. But that point was going to come after I killed the Rasputins and found her rapist.
Besides, I’d met worse chores.
At the store, I purchased a suction vibrator and a wand massager. I steered clear of mammoth-sized dildos. The mere thought of something else inside her made my eye twitch. I could barely come to terms with the fact the baby was going to come out of her cunt.
The baby.
Now that we were a few weeks shy of his arrival, all sorts of thoughts crept into my head.
We did not think this arrangement through.
What if he were another race? Half Asian? Black? Pacific Islander? A dead giveaway I wasn’t the father? My entire suspect list was Caucasian, but there was a vast different between Italian Caucasian and Irish Caucasian.
What if she’d pour all her love and attention on the baby and forget about me?
Yes, I was jealous of an unborn baby.
No, I wasn’t above such notions.
I all but stomped my way back home, clutching the discreet sex shop bag in a chokehold. When I walked in, I spotted Imma in the kitchen, making pasta and singing out of tune in Italian.
“Imma,” I barked. “Take the evening off.”
She looked up from the boiling tomato sauce, startled. “Where would I go?”
“Do I look like a fucking tour guide?” I gestured to my face. “Have my driver take you to the movies. Or drive you up and down the street in circles. I don’t care.”
She gave me a disgruntled glare, but didn’t argue.
I found Lila in our bedroom, drawing. She looked up from her sketchbook when I entered. Set her pencil down and flipped the sketchbook over on her nightstand.
“When are you leaving?”
I could hear her disapproving tone through her hand gestures alone. The only other person I knew so thoroughly, so completely, was Tierney.
“About an hour. Plane’s engine is already running.”
I was keeping her brothers waiting, but I didn’t care. I found myself increasingly caring less and less about what happened outside my bed, and the woman inside it.
Pushing off the wall, I advanced toward her.
“What’s in the bag?”
“Something to hold you over until I come back.” I took a seat on the edge of the bed, seizing her chin and tilting her face up. “And I will come back, Lila. That’s a promise.”
She tore her gaze from mine, seized the bag, and rummaged through it. Lila wrenched the vibrator out, frowning and examining the box from all angles, like it contained ancient ruins.
“I won’t be here to help you fall asleep.” What the fuck was stuck in my throat, and why couldn’t I swallow it? “So I bought this to keep you company.”
By my wife’s expression, she was ready to hurl the vibrator at my head. I waited for her shock to subside, then asked, “Do you want me to show you how to use it?”
She didn’t say anything for a long while. Then, finally, she signed, “I’m an eighteen-year-old girl with access to the internet, Tiernan. I know how to use a vibrator. I’ve probably watched more porn than a millennial watched Friends in their lifetime.”
I gave her a blank stare. Then, incredibly, I started laughing.
And I mean really laughing. The kind of laughter that bubbled from the pit of your stomach and utilized every muscle in your body.