Page 94 of King of Temptation

“Fuck.” Letting his head fall back against the couch, Murphy closed his eyes. “I just don’t know how we got here.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Goldie said, still in that calm, soothing tone. “What matters now is how you handle it. How you all handle it. You’re not alone, Murphy, and that’s what matters.”

The sound of the front door slamming had them all jumping, every head in the room whipping around to stare at the door of Killian’s office.

“Dad? Killian? Where is everybody?”

Nudging Aria from his lap, Killian rose to his feet. “Guess that’s our cue. Let’s go have a nice, no-stress family dinner.”

One by one, they filed out into the hall where Rowan waited. And if Brody hadn’t known exactly how furious Killian was, he sure as hell wouldn’t have been able to tell from the way he greeted their younger cousin, accepting his smarmy apology with all the grace of a seasoned diplomat.

“If Killian wasn’t the head of the Irish mafia, he could have made a hell of a living as an actor. Especially with those cheekbones.”

Sliding an arm around Goldie’s waist, Brody yanked her to him, dipping his head to nip at the side of her neck. “Next time I catch you ogling some other man’s cheekbones, I’m going to put you over my knee. And I won’t care who’s around to watch.”

Her breath hitched, and when he raised his head, he found her pupils blown and her cheeks bright pink. “Don’t make threats you won’t follow through on, O’Rourke.”

“My sweet little menace. You should know by now I don't make threats. I make promises.” Leaning in, he lowered his voice for only her to hear. “And Daddy always keeps his promises.”

Chapter 33

Goldie

To say dinner was tense was an understatement. Oddly enough, the only person who hadn’t seemed affected by the unease rippling beneath every interaction had been Rowan. Even the twins had seemed to pick up on something and she’d seen Tiernan having what had appeared to be a very intense, hushed conversation with Reagan at the end.

On a professional level, it was a dream come true. The entire experience had given her insights not only into how the mob worked, but how it felt to be in the middle of a scene like the one they’d just left. Nerves and excitement, which she’d expected, as well as anger. She caught a glimpse of it every time that muscle in Reagan’s jaw jumped when she looked over at Rowan. In the way Aria’s eyes had narrowed ever so slightly when Rowan outright lied to his father about where he’d disappeared to before dinner.

But what she hadn’t expected to pick up on so keenly was the sadness. The grief she could all but feel pulsing off everyone surrounding her. Murphy to her left, Brody to her right, and Killian at the head of the table. It was so palpable, she wondered how Rowan hadn’t picked up on it at all.

Other than he was a self-involved twat, which had become more and more clear to her during dinner. Like when he’d talked about his girlfriend Clara, who was at home with a bad bout of period cramps. Or as Rowan had called it “gross lady stuff” before rolling his eyes and smirking about how it couldn’t be that bad because women had been dealing with periods for thousands of years but he allowed her to beg off because he didn’t feel like listening to her whining all night long.

It was during that diatribe she’d had to lay a hand on Murphy’s thigh to try and keep him in his seat, because she could practically feel him vibrating with rage beside her. Whether she’d actually helped or not she wasn’t sure, but Rowan had gotten off lightly with his father telling him to “shut up about things he didn’t know a goddamn thing about” rather than murdering him right at the table, so she considered it a win.

Now, however, her mind was focused more on what lay ahead of her than the fraught dinner party they’d left behind. With every passing second, her looming punishment drew closer and her nerves were being raked raw. As evidenced by the leg she couldn’t stop bouncing no matter how hard she tried.

But then Brody reached over and placed a hand on her leg, and her heart skipped a literal beat. What was it about a man’s large hand on her bare thigh that made her lose all sense?

“Would it help your nerves to know what’s going to happen when we get home, baby?”

“I… I don’t know, actually. Maybe? I don’t know.” She was babbling, but she couldn’t seem to make herself stop. “Like, yes, knowing exactly what’s coming will remove the element of the unknown which is definitely making me nervous. But maybe knowing too much will make it worse. But I won’t actually know if it will make things worse or better until you tell me and then it’ll be too late. I can’t unknow something once I know it.”

Glancing over, she saw the corner of his lip twitch. Apparently her anxiety was highly amusing.

Bastard.

“Do you want me to decide for you?”

Like flipping a switch, everything inside her went still. Calm. “Yes. Yes, I want you to decide.”

“Okay, then.” The hand on her leg squeezed once, giving her a boost of courage she desperately needed. “When we get home, you will go to my office to wait for me. You will remove your underwear and leave them on top of my desk, folded neatly. Once your panties have been removed, you will bend over with your skirt up and your forearms braced on the desk. That is how I expect to find you, and if I find you any other way, I will double the count of your punishment. And considering you’re already up to eight with my belt, you do not want me to do that.”

No. No, she did not.

Swallowing hard, she forced herself to nod. “Okay. I can do that.”

Another gentle squeeze of her leg. “Good girl,” he said quietly, his praise wrapping around her like a warm blanket. “Before your spanking, I am going to plug your bottom with one of the larger plugs I own. It’s going to hurt, but you’ll appreciate it when it comes time to take Daddy’s cock in your naughty little hole.”

Need flared between her thighs and she just barely managed to hold back a whimper. This was exactly the kind of scene she’d written about so many times, but never actually experienced for herself. “I don’t… No one’s ever… What if I can’t?”