Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
I move my hands from his shoulders to his neck, digging my nails in. “What are you doing?” I gasp.
“What I’ve wanted to do since the day I walked into the Crust,” he moans.
“You think kissing me will make me want to leave?”
“I’m not thinking anything right now,” he growls, kissing me again.
I wrap my arms around him as he lifts me off my feet and places me on the counter. He presses his groin against mine, and something melts inside me. All the tension drains into the blistering warmth of what we’re doing. My hips move as if they have a mind of their own, like I’m chasing the end of a rainbow and pleasure is the pot of gold.
He gasps, slipping his hand to my back, under my shirt, pressing his palm against my bare skin where it simmers like it belongs.
“Stop,” I whisper. “What if somebody sees?”
He takes a shaky step back, his lips red, his eyes wild. “I’ll take you somewhere nobody will see…”
“No,” I say fiercely, going against my instincts, my desires. “You don’t get to turn my world upside down and then give me everything I’ve wanted for…”
“Tá tú chomh hálainn le réaltóg,” he says, his voice lilting. “That means you’re as beautiful as a star, Lucy. Because it’s true… you drew me here with your light. Admit it; you’ve wanted this since I walked in here half a year ago. Just like I have. But I fought it with every fiber of my being. I fought it because I knew you were better than me… you deserved better than me.”
I gasp when he pulls me away from the counter and cradles me in his arms, carrying me as though I weigh nothing. Holding me tight, he carries me into the backroom.
He pushes me against the wall. I wrap my arms around him, knowing I need to stop this, knowing I’m giving him the wrong idea. But I’ve thought about this countless times, imagined what it would feel like for him to push against me with lust swelling in his rock-hard body.
Between the kisses, I gasp, “Mo slánaitheoir.”
“I’m nobody’s savior,” he growls. “I’m just trying to do the right thing.”
“And the right thing is fucking me in the kitchen, is it?”
He slowly lowers me to my feet. My body tingles all over, my nipples feeling ultra-sensitive in my bra. My sex aches just as needy.
He takes a shaky step back. “I promised myself I wouldn’t do this. I’m not right for you.”
“More mixed signals…”
“Listen to me, Lucy. You need to lea—”
“Don’t tell me to leave,” I snap. “I’ve already told you. I made a promise to Mom. I won’t let them intimidate me.”
“You don’t know—”
I grab his shirt, standing on my tiptoes and getting in his face. “Don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m dealing with. I’ve been dealing with Shane since before you walked into the freaking Crust. Every single week, he’s been here, making threats, shaking me down. I know how bad the mob is. I saw how violent it can be. I saw how violent you are…”
“That should make you want to run as fast as you can,” he snarls. “I’m not telling you to leave forever, just until this is over.”
“I’m not abandoning the Crust. That’s the end of it.”
His lip twitches into a smirk. He frowns it off his face like he’s pissed at himself. “Are you always this stubborn?”
“My mom was the only family I had before she got sick. Dad was an abusive asshole. When he died, me and Mom considered it him doing us a favor. After that, we only had each other… Do you seriously think I’d break a promise I made to her? Nope, not happening. So why don’t you do whatever’s necessary to make sure I can run my business and stay safe?”
He shakes his head, moving away from me, looking at me with an icy cold glare. “I could make you leave, Lucy.”
“You could kidnap me, sure. But will you?”
“You saw what I’m capable of. Who I really am.”
“That’s not an answer to my question.”
He grits his teeth. “Fuck.”
Before I know it, he’s got his hands on me again. He grabs my hips and pulls me against him. His touch simmers through the fabric of my clothes. I’m hotter than I understand, and it makes it far too easy to lean in for another kiss. He leans away, stinging me. He looks like he’s in pain from the effort of resisting a kiss.
“If you’re staying in the States, I can’t do this.”
“Do what?”
“Us,” he whispers, trembling, as he takes a step away from me. “Lucky charm… you mess with my head. You made focusing on restaurants difficult enough, let alone a mafia war.”
I try not to let the rejection show, but it hurts. Maybe that’s why I get mean. “It’s not like I planned on getting with a violent psycho, anyway.”