“No, child, no.” She reached for her wineglass. Paused. Then, a tiny smirk made an appearance that she hid behind the crystal stemware. Innocent as ever, she murmured, “I think it’s called… a breeding kink?”
SIXTY-ONE
STAN
Playlist recommendation:
Kiss Me - Sixpence None The Richer
“What do you want?” Lucas muttered when he saw me on the intercom. “Aren’t I being forced to spend the next four hours with you at the hockey rink?”
“Figured we could duke it out here first. Cade and I had our…clash, but you and I haven’t. You deserve the chance to beat the fuck out of me for what happened to Kitty on my watch.AndI need to ask you something.”
“Smart move. You know I won’t bust up that ugly face of yours when Kitty’ll see the aftermath.” When I just snorted, he studied me through the screen. “Come up.”
I opened the door once he hit the buzzer and the doorman waved me through to the elevator.
Pushing my back into the mirrored wall, I didn’t even grimace as the cream Kitty had applied to my ink squelched as it brushed the glass.
Having her hands on me was never a punishment, but I wasn’t as stringent with aftercare as she was and I couldn’t wait for the fuckers to heal.
Once I reached Lucas’s apartment, for the second time in as many weeks, I braced myself for a fist to the face as soon as the elevator doors opened—if Cade had tried it, there was no reason Lucas wouldn’t too.
But he wasn’t there.
If anything, he loomed by his front door, a bottle of beer in both hands. One, he angled at me.
I studied the bottle, then his expression. “Did you piss in it?”
Lucas poured some beer into his mouth. “Don’t trust me?”
“No. You’re Kitty’s brother. She had to learn it from somewhere.”
He smirked. “I didn’t doctor the beer.”
“Good to know.” I took a sip and, had to admit, it tasted like it usually did. If a little weaker.
“So… you want to talk?”
“Yeah.”
He retreated into the apartment. “Kitty wouldn’t appreciate it if either of us showed up with black eyes or the signs of bruised ribs. I told Cade to leave you alone, but he’s a hotheaded jackass. He deserved that busted wrist for ignoring me. Again.”
“You’re less happy about me seeing your sister than he is,” I pointed out.
“You trying to rub salt in the wound?” He clambered onto a stool at the kitchen counter. “Look, I can think you two are a disaster waiting to happen, but I can also see that Kitty’s been happier since you showed up. And that’s saying something considering she’s spent the bulk of your relationship healing from a beating that’syourfault.”
“I’d do anything to take that back.” I shoved a hand through my hair. “I had no way of knowing that?—”
“How traitors work,” Lucas agreed. “I get it. Genuinely, I do. But… I don’t know. I wanted more for her than this life. Before Da died, I knew his plans and I hated them. The girls would have been no better off than Ma.
“Don’t get me wrong, she didn’t hate her life, but the girls deserve a choice.”
“Did you get a choice?”
“No,” he conceded, pulling deeply on his beer. “But that’s fine. I was raised like this, and to be honest, I’ve found a niche for myself in the organization that means I’m not some punk blowing hot air on the streets like my father. I’ve done better than he could have dreamed of.”
“He mustn’t have been too much of a moron. That building of yours must be worth a pretty penny.”
