My lips quirked as I settled into the snug fit of his lap and the nook between him and the table. “You okay? I heard some of what you said.”
“He drives me crazy.” His gaze shifted to stare over the expanse of the city behind me. “No change there. I’ll be screaming into the void about this for fucking years. Don’t worry about it.”
“I do though.” I sighed and rested my head between his throat and shoulder, where it scented of bergamot and orange. Which meant he kinda smelled like my favorite Earl Grey, and that wasnota complaint. Knowing him, it was intentional too. “I always worry about you, Brennan. I love you.”
He managed to press another kiss to my forehead. “I love you too, Camille.”
“I’m here, you know?”
“I know, but for once, I get where Aidan’s coming from. It’s so fucking shit out there, Camille, and sparing you from that feels like my goddamn husbandly duty.” His shoulders slumped. “Like, it’s never been good, but somehow it’s getting worse. There’s no honor anymore?—”
“There never was!” I hooted. “Animal baiting is hardly new, love. Disgusting, yes, but not new. My father used to have a place he went to in Russia because the ones here tended to be raided. It’s horrific. That you and the rest of your brothers have standards makes you infinitely better than the men who ruled before you.”
“Don’t make out like we’re the good guys, babe,” he said dryly.
“Oh, I’m well aware of the many and varied ways you all do vile shit, but…” I hitched a shoulder. “…you have to understand. My father was an abusive asshole who tormented my mother into an early grave. He broke her systemically, until she was nothing more than something for him to toy with. Inessa doesn’t remember half the horrors he put our mother through.
“Your da loved Lena but his world still broke her.
“Just by giving a damn about your family, by having wives you love and who you shelter from your business, kids you protect and value as more than future heirs, means you’ll make a change.”
“You’re an idealist, and you’re painting us with halos we don’t deserve. But… thank you.”
I didn’t know how long we sat there. I just knew that his arms remained fixed around me for a long time.
For me, forever wouldn’t be enough.
I told him as much, and his laughter was as gruff as his earlier words, so I chided, “You’re doing something right.”
He sighed. “As long as you think so, baby. You’re the only one who matters.”
And I felt that in my soul.
SIX
“Who are we killing?”
I stacked the Magni-Focuser on top of my head so I could stare at him, ignoring the fact that only Beavis was by his side and the other Shih Tzu wasn’t?—
There.
I jumped as he sniffed my feet and tried to lick them.
“No one’s dying today. Unless it’s this damn dog. Why is Butthead so obsessed with my feet?!”
“You have pretty feet and my dogs have great taste,” Conor dismissed as he narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
“I don’t need a supervisor,” I grouched when he leaned on my desk to watch me work.
Then I proceeded to shriek once a tiny tongue went straight between my toes!
“Clearly, you do. You’re making a bomb and?—”
“I’m not making a bomb.”
“We agreed—you’re not allowed to kill people anymore.”
“I thought I just wasn’t allowed a gun.”
