She crossed her legs and stared out the window. “You can suck my dick, William.”
Fuuuuuuck.She made furious look too hot for words. I was ready to blow off Montauk and drag her upstairs for angry sex, but we’d agreed upon a disappearance. We both needed a reprieve from who we were every day, and we weren’t going to get that in the middle of her city.
“I would, Shannon,” I said, “if you didn’t have it shoved up my ass at the moment.”
She leaned back, tapping her finger against her lips, a predatory smile breaking across her face. “Hmm. I’ve heard your sister enjoys ass play too. Like,reallyenjoys it.”
My groan vibrated through the car and Shannon covered her mouth as evil giggles spilled out. “You didn’t fucking go there.”
I shook my head and drew a deep breath. I could accept my little sister being married. I could tolerate the general concept of her having sex. I could not handle specific details about her sex life, and I was morally obligated to execute her husband if they were having anything other than bland, infrequent, missionary sex.
“Tell me you didn’t go there. You know why? Because if you fucking went there, I’ll have to scramble a wet team to dispose of your brother’s body when I’m finished with him. And that’s not on our agenda for today, peanut.”
“I could be bluffing,” she said. I spared her an impatient look while backing out of the parking space. “Could be. But you’ll have to give me my phone back.”
I didn’t respond until we were on the highway and well past the city limits. Everything seemed brighter out here, greener and less congested. I hated the closed-in feeling of urban areas, the wall-to-wall concrete, the noise. The beaches and wide-open spaces were for me.
“You can go a few hours without screwing around on your phone,” I said.
Shannon shifted, tucking her foot under her leg, and faced me. “Do you have any idea what I do?”
“Explain it to me,” I said. I met her glowering expression with a shrug.
She sighed and leaned against the center console. “My brothers—and Andy—handle the architecture. They draw the designs, they manage the builds, and they select the materials. They’re phenomenal at what they do but that’sallthey do. I handle the purchase and sale of all our investment properties, manage billing, accounting, and payroll, file taxes, titles, and permits, and keep the office running so my brothers can focus on their projects. I handle the legal shit, too. Plus,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear, “I’m the point person for everything external. That includes media, branding, and dealing with the local bullshit. The preservation societies, the city council, the planning boards, the neighborhood committees…and there’s never a moment when one of them isn’t going apeshit over something.”
“You’re a beast. I know.” I scratched my chin. “Can none of that rest for one weekend?”
“I buy and sell properties on the weekends, too,” she said. “And family businesses are—they’re about more than business. Running this operation is just as much about scheduling Sam’s medical appointments and getting Riley’s trousers dry cleaned as it is managing a revolving line of credit and making sure our contracts are water-tight.”
Shaking my head, I frowned at Shannon. “Fucking ridiculous.”
“Excuse me?”
Shannon’s indignant face was enough to make my jeans feel too tight. “You’re ready to claw my eyes out over dry cleaning? Do you tuck your brothers into bed, too? Maybe wipe their noses or read stories until they fall asleep?”
She held up a finger, her mouth still twisted in an angry pout. “That’s not what I was saying—”
“Do me a favor,” I said, “and don’t tell me you can’t take a weekend off because you need to fetch some goddamn dry cleaning. I’ve known for a long time that you’re too good for that. Your brothers are adult fucking men. They might even be smart guys, though I have my doubts. They’ll figure it out, and it annoys the shit out of me that they let you do all of that on top of everything else you just listed.”
“But they don’t have any—”
“Dry-cleaned pants. Yeah, you mentioned that,” I said. “The world won’t fall apart if you step away this weekend, peanut. It might teach them something about handling their own shit.”
“It’s charming that you think you can walk in and explain my life to me, but you knownothing,” she said. “Maybe I do too much, but there is one thing I will never stop doing, and that’s taking care of my family.”
Shannon turned her attention out the window. She didn’t speak again until we boarded the ferry in New London. The journey across Long Island Sound would last about an hour, and while I was interested in getting some ferry head, Shannon hopped out of the car, slamming the door behind her, before I pulled the parking brake.
I found her on a bench near the bow. It wasn’t hard to spot her. The wind caught her ponytail, and my eyes snapped to those flowing red strands. Big, dark sunglasses hid her eyes. Her feet were propped on the railing and her arms were folded over her chest. A smart man would have handed over the phone and walked away. Fuck, a smart man would have bailed last night and been surfing right now.
I sat down beside her without a word.
The ocean air wrapped around me like a loving embrace. Minutes passed with nothing more than the sound of wind and water, and that was enough for me. I leaned against Shannon, hungry for her warmth. I was kidding myself if I thought this was only about sex.
Shannon glanced in my direction and then jerked her chin toward the bridge. “Can you drive one of these? Is that one of your commando skills?”
“A ferryboat?” I scratched my chin and scanned the deck. This vessel was a hell of a lot smaller than the pirate-held oil tanker my team assaulted some years back. “If I had to, yeah.”
“That would probably be strange for you,” she said, the sarcasm heavy in her voice. “You probably aren’t used to handling something this size.”
