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I smiled as I reached down and smoothed his damp hair back from his face. “No. It just seemed like the most rebellious and out-of-character thing I could do when I moved here.”

“Nice.” He chuckled, sliding his loose fist up and down as he kissed the tip of my cock. “Wonder if I could make you come just by playing with it.”

“Pr-probably,” I breathed, lifting my hips to chase his pumping fist.

“Bet it’ll take a while, though.” He smirked up at me, the tip of his long tongue briefly darting out to flick my piercing. “Ready?”

I nodded quickly, knowing that this was going to be the sweetest torture.

And I was going to love every second of it.

Chapter Forty-One

Lady Potato vs. Cannoli

Vince

The week passed too quickly.

On Monday, I had my meeting with Freddie and a couple of his closest associates. He told me that his mimi—their ‘Grand-mère Lézard’—had already given them the go-ahead. Now it was just a case of gathering enough forces and paying off the right people ahead of Friday.

I stayed at Crossbody’s again that night, because he still seemed a little fragile and… well, even though I was mostly confident that the plan would work, there was still a part of me that was terrified I only had a limited amount of time left with him.

On Tuesday morning, we went into Goliaths to speak to Holt and tell him what Crossbody’s mother had threatened to do. He went extremely pale but tried to hide the worst of his reaction, because Crossbody kept apologising and was hunched over with guilt while I gripped his hand.

“This is… It’s fine,” Holt said faintly, using his notebook to fan his face. “Everything’s above board, so there’s nothing she can… Larkin?” he called, a little shrilly.

I heard chair wheels roll over the floor before the fae’s pink-haired head peered around the doorframe.

“Yeah, boss?”

“Will you please go out and get me some ice cream? And rum?” Holt asked in a strangled voice. “And Taylor.”

“Um, sure.” He stood and kicked his chair back toward his desk. It sounded like it knocked something over on its way. “What was the first thing again?”

“Ice cream!” Holt wailed dramatically, producing a handkerchief to dab his forehead. “And rum. And Taylor. I need a hug.”

Larkin hesitated, then walked into the office with his arms outstretched.

“Not from you!”

“Cold, boss.” Larkin pouted and turned to walk back out, but froze when he saw my hand twined with Crossbody’s. “Holy fuckballs, are you two boning?”

Crossbody flushed, eyes darting uncertainly to me.

“Yes,” I said calmly, lifting our joined hands to kiss his knuckles.

“What? Seriously?” Larkin stared at us. “So was that stuff during court, like… foreplay or something?”

Holt temporarily forgot about his panic to eye us with intrigue, clearly wondering the same thing.

“No,” I said steadily, even though, thinking about it… it kind of had been, in a way. “We hadn’t fucked then. Pretty soon after, though.”

Actually, it had been that very night. When Crossbody sucked my dick by the treadmill.

“Vince,” he muttered, a flush creeping up his neck. I grinned at him.

“Wow.” Larkin was still staring at us, almost in awe. “That’s kinda hot.”