Page 11 of Honorable Sins

Already awake, he smiles down at me. "Good moring, a chiste is a stór."

"It is because you're here." I say stuff like that now and Mick loves it.

Who knew sociopath, stalker husbands could crave praise?

But only from me. Mick is completely indifferent to the approval of others. Even his own parents and siblings.

Chapter three

Like Father, Like Son

KARA

We're working together in our office when Mick brings up what he and Fitz talked about.

"I never liked Kenny Jr." A year older than Fitz, he's always been sneaky and mean spirited.

And the little menace found fertile ground in Fitz's brain because our son has memories from the time before either I or Mick realized he loved me. It's been a few years, but Fitz used to need frequent confirmation that Mick loves me as much as he loves our son.

Something shifted after we renewed our vows in a surprise love story wedding Mick gave me for our eighth anniversary. Fitz stopped asking his da if he would always protect me, no matter what and he stopped asking me if I would stay with his da no matter what.

"No comment about my brother cheating?" Mick asks, his brow raised in inquiry.

"I imagine you'll have plenty of words for your brother, but you're the only Fitzgerald I care about being faithful." I like my in-laws.

Chivon and Brigid are two of my dearest friends despite the miles between us, but Adam and his wife have never thawed toward Mick.

Maybe because they're so icy toward each other?

But my husband and I have more in common than we ever realized. When it comes down to it, the only Fitzgerald male who really matters to me is him.

Mick moves into my personal space and pushes his hands up under my top. "And you know I'll never cheat."

"Even if you didn't love me, you wouldn't screw another woman." But Mick's brand of obsessive love means he doesn't even see other women as sexual beings.

I'm it for him.

Just like he's it for me.

"Fitz is worried you'll be disappointed in him if he deals with Kenny Jr. the way he wants to."

With violence. I don't have to ask.

My son is a Shaughnessy, but he's also a Fitzgerald and Mick has been training him in hand-to-hand combat since before Fitz started school. I didn't realize at first what he was doing. I thought Mick was playing games with Fitz to entertain him.

He was playing games, but they were meant to train our son's reflexes and situational thinking skills.

Fitz has been officially training in the gym with his father since his seventh birthday. It was a year longer than I thought Mick would give me, but my husband proved that training to fight and how to think like a leader in the mob didn't have to change our son completely.

Fitz is more serious now, but he's still loving toward his family. And that means that someday, he can love his partner.

At least that's what I tell myself.

I don't ask why my son can't ignore the other boy. Not after my experience with Mick's ex six years ago.

Words can wound.

Especially when they land on the fertile ground of insecurity. I'd like to believe that Fitz's formative years wouldn't influence his certainty that his parents love each other now, but I know better.