She palmed her breasts, pinching her nipples, so turned on she could barely stand it. “Tonight was your perfect fantasy, wasn’t it? To have me ready and wanting, soaked and aching for you.” He finally managed to drag his gaze up to her face, his expression making her moan. “I’ll tell you a secret. You could have shoved up my dress and bent me over one of those ridiculously decorated tables, and I would have let you fuck me right there in front of everyone.”
Something changed on his face, and the next thing she knew, she was on her back.
Charlie blinked. “That’s one way to go about it.”
Aiden gripped her neck with one hand, not restricting her breathing at all, but there was no mistake that it was a claim of dominance.Ownership.“You enjoy testing my patience, don’t you?” He used his other hand to hitch her leg higher, allowing him deeper inside her. “And what if I had done what you described, bright eyes? Would you have moaned so sweetly for me? Come harder than you ever have before?”
She pictured the scene and clenched tighter around him. “Maybe.”
“There’s no maybe about it.” He kissed her, quick and brutal. “There’s a club in Boston that I think you’d like. I’m going to take you there sometime. Soon.” He pulled almost all the way out of her and shoved in. “I think you’reharboring some exhibitionist tendencies. Would you like me to fuck you in front of a room full of strangers? Let them see how you get off on what I do to you—on knowing they can see every single inch of you. Every response…”
Charlie came, screaming, her orgasm a tidal wave she couldn’t avoid even if she’d wanted to. Aiden kept up his pace, prolonging her pleasure until it was almost pain. Only then did his strokes become more irregular, his curses music to her ears.
She stared at the ceiling, wondering where her life had taken a hard right turn. It was one thing to want revenge against Dmitri Romanov. One thing to want Aiden O’Malley in a way she had no business wanting someone who ran a mob family. It was entirely another to get off on the mere thought of him doing filthy things to her in a room full of people. She shivered.
He lifted his head. “My thoughts exactly.” Aiden slid to lie next to her.
As much as she wanted to let it go, she couldn’t just sit here and soak up the postcoital bliss. Charlie rolled on her side to face him. “That club you talked about…” She wasn’t sure what she was going to say. That she wanted to go? That she most definitely didnotwant to go?
He saved her from having to decide. Aiden gave her a downright rakish grin. “It doesn’t exist.”
Her jaw dropped. “You…I can’t…You…” Charlie smacked his shoulder. Then she smacked him again for good measure. “I can’t believe you. I…” At a complete loss for words, she did the only thing she could think of. She threw herself at him and kissed him for all she was worth.
Chapter Twelve
Aiden woke up early. He watched Charlie for a few minutes, marveling at how different she looked with her face relaxed in sleep, one arm flung over her head as she breathed evenly. It was almost enough to draw him back to bed to lose himself in her for a few more hours.
Last night had been a reprieve—a welcome one that he had every intention of revisiting—but now there was business to attend to.
He showered and dressed, and then headed downstairs to take care of any complications that had arisen overnight, before the rest of the household was up and about. Business had been quiet for the last year as they’d engaged in their cold war with Romanov. Aiden hadn’t wanted to pull the trigger on full-out war, and the Russian seemed just as hesitant for reasons unknown. In the meantime, the O’Malleys were pulling in as much from their legit businesses as they were from the darker side of things.
He reached the bottom of the stairs, and stopped short. Liam blocked his way. The man looked downright worried.
Cause for worry was a problem, but if there was immediate danger, they wouldn’t be standing there staring at each other. He waited, but Liam didn’t seem all that inclined to break the silence. Finally, Aiden sighed. “What’s going on?”
Liam cleared his throat. “You should go to your office. Immediately.”
That had been his intention, but now it seemed that was the last place he wanted to be. He gave himself a mental shake. Whatever was waiting for him there couldn’t be worse than he’d faced in the last few years. Still…“You’re very cryptic this morning.”
His man hesitated and then muttered, “Seamus is back.”
He froze.No.But there was nothing joking on Liam’s face. Which meant his father was, in fact, behind the office door, waiting for him. At six in the morning. “How long has he been here?”
“He got in last night.” Liam held up his hands and took a step back. “I was under command not to disturb you. He’s been in the office since he got here.”
“What time last night?”
“Around eleven.”
Which meant someone had called him about the party, and he’d left the house in Connecticut almost immediately to drive here. The only reason Seamus O’Malley would be back and snooping was because he expected to catch Aiden doing something he shouldn’t be doing.
Considering the plan he’d already put into motion, there was quite a bit for his father to find.
I don’t have to explain anything to him. He took himself out of the equation when he left and nevercame back.
The thought wasn’t comforting in the least. He shot a look at Liam. “Is my mother here?”
“Yes.”
