what was it?”
“The teacher was new. Only called me goddamn Fionnabhair.”
I winced. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. I wanted to crawl under the desk. Not only couldn’t he say it, he made a joke about it. The shithouse. I mean, you know I hate my name, Aoife, but Christ. The dude totally deserved a slap.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t give him some attitude after class.”
She hissed. “I did. Bastard.”
Jennifer was the modern-day version of Fionnabhair, and she’d been calling herself that ever since Dougie MacIntyre had taken to calling her, ‘Flea in a bed’ in elementary school. To an American ear, there was a slight resemblance between the two. Not that I’d ever told Jenny that.
“Good. Hope you gave him a tongue lashing.”
“Well, no. He’d better be giving me one though. I made time for him in my busy schedule next Saturday.”
“You’re going to date him?” I squawked. “What was all that crap about being too tired for sex?”
“I made an exception. He has McDreamy hair, Aoife. I wasn’t about to pass that up.”
I chuckled. “You’re crazy.”
“Crazy good,” she purred. “Anyway, I’d better get going, sugar. I have so much crap to do before my shift. If I don’t call you in a few days, call me, yeah?”
My lips curved in a warm smile. “Thanks, Jen. You take care and get some rest when you can.”
“Will do, Mom.” She snorted then cut the call.
The last thing I wanted was to lay in bed for the rest of the day, but because I had no say in the matter, I reached for the headphones Finn bought me as a gift after I’d complained about how loud the kids were here, and picked up my kindle.
If I couldn’t get any of the shit done for my bakery, and if all I could do was lie here in this damn bed, then that’s what I’d do.
Quintessence here I come.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Finn
A breathy sigh escaped Aoife and it had me jolting at my desk.
I was in my office. Where I spent nearly ninety percent of my goddamn time as I worked to help broker a deal among the Russians, the Mexicans, and us.
The Mexicans didn’t trust the Russians, and the Russians would only move if we guaranteed the Mexican deal. Which left me having to scrape together the remainder of the twenty-five million dollars to cover the Russian’s first shipment of coke from the Mexicans.
I wasn’t concerned that the Mexicans would screw us over. We were friendly with them, and their new leader owed us a favor or ten, but the Russians wanted us to put our money in, and because we needed their men, we had no choice but to comply.
Pulling together that kind of money wasn’t exactly easy, but that was the way of gang wars now. They were fought in boardrooms more than on the streets. The latter kind of fighting was a show of brute force that was no long necessary, even if it did have an efficacy that couldn’t be denied.
I was dog tired, grouchy, and I missed my woman.
Speaking on the phone wasn’t enough, I realized. I wanted to be inside her, wanted to slide so deep into her we wouldn’t know where the other ended. Only then would I feel some semblance of peace.
I’d been using the bedroom attached to this office to sleep in, because there was no way in hell I was using the penthouse when she wasn’t there. Her scent was everywhere, lingering in the air like a ghost. Just the thought had unease slipping through me and I focused on our phone call.
“Aoife, what’s wrong?”
Another breathy sigh.
I tilted my head to the side. “Aoife,” I barked. Was she touching herself?
Goddammit, I’d made a monster.
Wanting to face plant into the desk because I seriously didn’t have the strength to deal with her making those sounds without wanting to bust through my zipper, instead I palmed my dick through my pants, squeezing slightly to reduce the ache.
“The doctor said no.” Goddamn her.
“I need you, Finn,” she whispered, and my heart began to pound. Deep, quaking thuds in my chest that left me shaken.
I grabbed my phone and slipped it off speaker as I pressed it to my ear. Spinning around in my desk seat so I was turned away from the door—no one would come in without knocking first, but I appreciated the idea of privacy—I gave in to temptation, “Aoife, I need you too.”
That little gasp? It about broke me.
Clenching my eyes closed, wishing I could resist her, I bit