She huffed. “You and Lena, I swear, like mother hens.”
My lips curved as I stared down at my fist where my cum was still sticky in my palm. I imagined making her lick it clean, then stopped thinking that because I’d get hard again and after I finished speaking with her, I had plans to be on the phone with Conor for a few hours. I reached for my pocket square and cleaned up the mess as quickly as I could.
“That’s because you’re surprisingly naughty where your training is concerned.” I had reports from the clinic sent to me, and though she was getting stronger, I knew she still found the exercises hard.
Another huff. “I’m trying.”
“That’s all I can ask,” I murmured, meaning it, but knowing that would induce her to work harder as well.
“I’ll try harder.”
I smiled, satisfied that I’d read her right. “Good girl.” Air gusted from my lungs as I made an admission that I knew would please her. “I miss you, Aoife.”
She was quiet a second, and I knew she was, indeed, surprised. “I miss you too, Finn.”
“I miss not waking up beside you. I miss your food—God,” I groaned, “I miss your bread. I want you in my kitchen all the time. Fuck the bakery, just bake for me.”
Her giggle made my heart soar. “You want all the bread, huh?”
I laughed. “Yeah. All of it.”
“Well, no can do. The minute I’m back on my feet and out of this stupid hotel, I’m getting that bakery ready.”
I could hear the determination in her voice and was pleased by it. This entire situation might have caused her to be depressed. I hadn’t abandoned her, but I certainly hadn’t been as supportive as I wanted to be. She was around women she didn’t know, had no access to her best friend or her father, and yet, she remained surprisingly cheerful.
Aoife was resilient in ways that made me appreciate her all the more.
She didn’t whine or complain, was one tough cookie and it made me realize that, for the first time in my life, I had someone at my back. I’d always had my brothers, Aidan, and Lena, but this was different. Aoife was uniquely mine.
“Aoife?”
She hummed. “Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?” she asked, sounding surprised. “I haven’t done anything.”
“For being you. For… knowing I’m doing this for us. Thank you for that.”
“I know you’d be here if you could, Finn,” she said after a few moments. “I’m not going to say that there aren’t some nights I want to bash your head in with a pillow, because there have been more than one of those—” I laughed as I conjured up a mental image of that. “—but I knew what I was getting into when I said, ‘I do’ and I don’t regret it. You make me happy, Finn. I’m not one hundred percent at the minute, I won’t lie, but our day is coming, isn’t it?”
Her honesty made my throat clutch, and it was really damn hard to get out, “It sure is, my angel. We’ll be home soon, and I’ll be wearing us both out again in bed.”
A sigh of delight slipped from her lips. “You promise?”
I smirked. “I can more than promise it, Aoife. It’s a damn guarantee.”
Putting the phone down ten minutes later sucked. It sucked hard. I wanted nothing more than to be in my office at home so I could just walk down the hall and get into bed with her.
But I couldn’t.
I had shit to do.
Slipping in my AirPods for extra privacy, I called Conor. When he grunted out a greeting, I asked, “How are we doing?”
“We’re close.”
“How close?” I demanded.
“Very fucking close,” he snarled. “Just wait a minute. I have two more lines of code to write.”
I rolled my eyes at his statement and heard the way his fingers were flying over his keyboard. “Why answer the fucking phone if you couldn’t talk?”
He grunted, and his fingers seemed to speed up all the more. Then, he gave one last tap and I could hear his damn grin as he stated, “Done.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
I snickered. “They’re going to be confused as fuck, aren’t they?”
“Sure are. Dumbfucks.” I heard him rub his hands together. “Now those assets are frozen, they’re going to have serious issues getting any product out of the country.”
“For how long?” I inquired.
“I’d say an extra two months.”
Rubbing my forehead, I murmured, “Is the boy dead now?”
“Yeah. Da finished him off.”
After nine weeks of torture, that was probably a blessing. See, my