She turns her attention to me. “When are you coming home, Shai? You’re already gone so much for work, and I’m here all by myself. It’s not fair.”
Fair? Not fucking fair? What is she even talking about? “You can always get a job too,” I tell her.
“That’s not what I mean,” she replies.
Of course not.
Rory’s arm slides beneath me, wraps around me, his hand tangling in my messy hair.
“He’s going home with me alone,” Rory says with a finality even she doesn’t argue with.
“Fine. Just leave me alone again like you always do.” The door slams behind her, and I force myself not to get out of bed and attempt to fix it. Why do I always feel like I need to fix everything for her?
Rory rolls on top of me, grabs my arms, holding them against the mattress to pin me down. He looks wild andfrazzled, like he’s pissed, but maybe turned on too. “She is not your responsibility.”
But she is and always will be.
“I didn’t say I was going home with you.”
“You are.” He bites my bottom lip, a sharp, burning pain stinging where his teeth bit in, but all it does is make my dick throb, my morning wood changing into something else.
Still, I make myself say, “I might be your pet in some ways, but not all of them.”
“Are you telling me you’re not going home with me?” he asks, rolling his hips, his erection caressing mine.
Pleasure shoots up my spine, and I have to fight myself not to let my eyes roll back.
“That’s what I thought. You’re allowed to have a life too.”
“Her whole life has been me.”
He frowns. “Has it? She kept you, yes, but has her whole life been about you?”
I turn my head, not having it in me to answer that.
Rory surprises me by leaning down more slowly this time, his tongue swiping at the spot he’d bitten. “You’re bleeding.”
“Did you literally just lick my blood?” I ask, and he shrugs before rolling off me.
“Bring clothes for a few days.” His stomach growls. “Fuck, I’m hungry.”
“We can eat here.”
“No, I just want to go.”
“You don’t think Cillian will be pissed if we decide to…what? Have a sleepover?”
“I know Cillian will be pissed. Tiernan too, which is who we really need to worry about, but I’m doing it anyway.”
And that…does something to me, hits something inside me, finds little nooks and crannies I didn’t know were there. Rory is risking an argument with the people he loves most in the world because he wants to be around me. He woke up, and the first thought on his mind was about me, taking me home with him. No one has ever wanted me like that, no one has ever thought of me the way he does—even the shit with my mom. I can feel him biting back what he wants to say to her, because of me, and fuck, does it feel good to have someone crave me that way.
“You can trust me,” I tell him. “They can trust me.”
He grabs his underwear off the floor, watching me as he pulls them on. “Good. I don’t want to have to kill you.”
But he would. Another thing that should make me walk away, but I won’t. It doesn’t even make me want to. I respect that Rory would do whatever is necessary to keep his family safe.
“I wouldn’t make it easy on you,” I tease.
