Page 20 of Sins of Arrogance

And it’s work­ing. Fitz’s sobs turn to in­co­her­ent wails amidst a few rec­og­niz­able words de­mand­ing his da keep me safe.

Mick tries to pull him away from me to re­as­sure him, but Fitz’s lit­tle arms are like bar­na­cles. He’s not go­ing any­where.

“I will al­ways pro­tect you and your mam,” Mick vows again as he stands.

Then he leans down and slides his pow­er­ful fore­arms un­der my thighs and along my back, lift­ing both me and our son like our com­bined weight is noth­ing.

When I know for a fact, it’s more than av­er­age some­thing.

With­out a word to any­one else at the ta­ble, in­clud­ing his aw­ful ex-girl­friend, Mick takes long, con­fi­dent strides to­ward the house.

The move­ment stops Fitz mid-wail and he looks up. “You’re car­ry­ing me and mommy?”

His voice is still tear soaked, but at least he’s talk­ing and not wail­ing.

“Aye. I’m strong enough to carry yiz both and I’m strong enough to keep yiz both safe mo leanbh.”

“Strong enough to carry us up the stairs?” Fitz tests.

Mick nods. “Strong enough to carry you as long as I need to.”

By the time we reach our apart­ment, Mick is breath­ing a lit­tle heav­ier, but he’s not pant­ing. I don’t know about Fitz, but I’m im­pressed.

So are my ovaries, which are spark­ing like an un­grounded wire.

It’s al­most enough to make me for­get how tol­er­ant my hus­band was of Dier­dre’s fa­mil­iar­ity.

Al­most.

Chap­ter 6: Daddy’s Armed. Mommy’s Dan­ger­ous.

MICK

My strat­egy is work­ing faster than I ex­pected it to.

My usu­ally ret­i­cent wife has never once touched me in an even re­motely in­ti­mate way with other peo­ple around.

But in stak­ing her claim, she did the un­think­able. And I was more than happy to cap­i­tal­ize on her un­ex­pected be­hav­ior, keep­ing the back of her hand pressed against my hard cock through­out din­ner.

She didn’t once try to pull away af­ter the first time. Not un­til Fitz launched him­self at her.

My son’s dis­tress de­flated my erec­tion faster than an ice bath. If Fitz wasn’t so up­set, I’d ask Fiona to watch him so Kara and I could have some time alone.

But Dier­dre has Fitz riled up good and proper.

I set Fitz and Kara down on the sofa. “Look at me mo leanbh.”

Fitz obeys me in­stantly and I take that as a win.

I shrug out of my sum­mer weight suit jacket and in­di­cate the gun hol­ster un­der my left arm. Then I put my left foot on the cof­fee ta­ble and lift my pant leg so he can see the small pis­tol hol­stered there.

I switch feet and show the dou­ble knife hol­ster on ei­ther side of my an­kle on my right leg.

Af­ter that, I re­veal the hid­den knife in my belt buckle and the ra­zor wire that slides out of my leather belt. “I am al­ways pre­pared to keep you and your mam safe.”

“What if you aren’t with her? What if you’re work­ing and the bad guys come for her?”

“There is not an­other man alive bad­der, or scarier than me,” I prom­ise our son. “And when I’m not with yiz, I al­ways make sure at least six men are watch­ing over you.”