“ARE YOU—”
I kissed her, and she struggled until I pressed my body firmly up against hers. I wasn’t sure if she even realized, but she relaxed into me, her breasts brushing against my chest, her mouth opening more for me, but I pulled away. She stared up at me wide-eyed, somewhat dazed, and before she remembered she was pissed I spoke up.
“If this is about Klarissa—”
“It’s not about her!” She snapped.
And now I was confused. “What else if not her?”
“You really are slow.”
“Would you like to go back outside?” I couldn’t stop myself from saying.
“You—”
“Get on with it so I can sleep.” I fought out.
She just glared.
“Ivy.” I sighed, dropping my head. Lose the battle. “I’ll apologize, but I should know my mistake, dear.”
“You’re mocking me.”
“No. Just tired.” Tomorrow was back to war and I needed her to focus her rage elsewhere.
“It’s about me. I don’t have the time or the energy to be pissed for the sake of others. The most important person to me is me,” she declared, pulling her hands from my loosened grip and crossing them over her chest. I tried to ignore the fact that it made her breasts rise up, but they were hard not to notice.
“And what about you?”
Frowning, she muttered, “Never mind.”
KILL HER! I wanted to throw her out the damn window! What the fuck did she mean never mind? If it wasn’t important, what the bloody hell was all of this for?
Stepping back and away from her, I moved to sit at my desk, not sure if I should go to sleep when I had a maniac now sharing my room. She marched over to the bed, throwing her purse to the ground before stripping down completely. Grabbing the comforter, she flagged the broken shards onto my side of the bed before curling under. Just as my eyes were closing and I was relaxing into my chair, that was when the mad wench decided to find her voice.
“Would you kill me too?” she whispered.
“Not the wisest question right now.”
I expected her to flip out again, but instead she just lay there.
“If you didn’t need me for whatever plan you’re coming up with, you would have married Klarissa. However, you want too badly to win, so you’d rather stick to your plan and have her killed…so what about me? What happens when I’m not useful to your plan? What happens if you need some other woman for your support? Will I end up dying? I heard your uncle Neal…he killed his wife so—”
“Uncle Neal’s wife betrayed the family. She almost got the whole family killed from what I was told. He chose blood over her. She was in the wrong for making him make that choice,” I cut in before she actually did piss me off.
“Fine, but—”
“No buts. I married you. I chose you…I knew that meant till the day I die. I told Klarissa the first day she appeared in front of me that I was never going to marry her. That I would never love her. She dared to hope somehow I’d see the light and fall. However, I am a man of my word. Always have been.”
“A gangster with sophistication and morals.”
“If I knew you would keep repeating that I would have tried to make it catchier.” I yawned.
She snickered. “What is your word to me?”
She wasn’t serious.
Rising off the chair, I walked over to her side of the bed. She stared up at me and I down at her until I reached down and lifted her up, lying down on my back with her resting on top of my chest.
“When I put that ring on your finger I believe my exact words were: I bind my life to yours, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. It is a symbol of my eternal love, my everlasting friendship, and the promise of all my tomorrows. An outward reminder of our inner unity. I forsake all others, I chose you, until death do us part.”
She held her hand up for us both to look at. “It doesn’t count if there is a lie in it.”
“What lie?”
“When you say my eternal love and my everlasting friendship…when did you fall in love with me? And when did we become friends?”
Of all the women in the world… Sighing, I closed my eyes. “Ivy…no one is taking your spot at my side. I am not abandoning you, so for the love of God, shut up and let me sleep.”
IVY
He fell asleep just like that, with his arms wrapped around me.
“Who says you aren’t romantic?” I whispered softly.
Closing my eyes…and there was the familiar feeling in my chest. One that I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Rolling over in his arms, I stared up at him. He looked so gentle when he slept. With those long eyelashes and his hair, a slight mess. Like he had not a care in the world. Even though his heart was right under my hands. Putting my head on it, I closed my eyes. He didn’t realize how scary it was…knowing that your lifeline was attached to one person and that person had no reservations in getting rid of people he found no use for.
But I believed him.
Or at the very least I wanted to believe him.
There was no other option but doubt and that led to pain and I was tired of pain.
SIXTEEN
“They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.”
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
ETHAN
BEEP.
BEEP.
BEEP.
“Make it stop,” she whispered, but since she was on top of me her lip brushed against my skin with each word. That and the feeling of her naked body pressed on mine didn’t really help my cock, which grew harder every time she shifted.
BEEP.
“Ahh,” she whined and then pouted, lifting her head and resting her chin on my chest. “Your phone.”
“You’ve pinned me down,” I told her and then glanced at the other side of the bed where my phone was.
Sighing, she sat up, either forgetting she was naked or not caring, and sitting on my waist she stretched out, allowing me to watch her breasts rise up as she did. Brushing her messy hair behind her ears, she leaned over, and I knew then she was tempting me on purpose.
“Ahh.” She gasped when I bit her nipple. Licking and sucking, she jumped slightly when my hands gripped onto both of her breasts, squeezing them. “Oh…”
I didn’t stop, moving my mouth from one nipple to the other. Watching as they turned from pink to red, the more I bit and sucked, her moans filled my ears.
BEEP.
BEEP.
Releasing her breasts and removing my hands, I sat up, taking the phone from her hands.
“What is it?”
She sat on me in shock. Her blue eyes glanced down at her marked breasts, as if she wanted to make sure she hadn’t imagined it, then at me. Slowly, a wicked grin spread across her lips.
“Sir? Did you hear me?”
“I—”
She snatched the phone from me and spoke, “Thank you for calling Mr. Callahan. He’s currently on his honeymoon and will not be available…until he’s available. Please don’t bother him unless it’s an emergency. Thank you, bye.”