up from his phone and starts laughing. “Kill Pill.”
“Irish.” I sigh, giving up on him and watching the movie.
“So how come Vinnie got his favorite meal made but I didn’t get shit?” he asks after a few moments.
“What’s your favorite meal?” I ask him.
“Well that’s the thing. I have two. Are you going to make me both?”
This guy.
“No. Choose one,” I tell him, my mouth twitching.
“I can’t. It’s too hard.”
“That’s what she said,” I mutter under my breath, but he hears it and starts laughing at me.
“Fuck. And you’re a teacher. Wish I had a teacher like you when I was in school,” he says, rubbing the scar on his neck absently.
“You’re being awfully chatty for someone who claims to like silence,” I point out.
He grins. “You’re cute.” He pauses. “And you cook well. And you make my brother happy. And you have a nice—”
“Fine, I’ll make you your two meals. Just stop,” I interrupt, holding up my hand. “You think I’m great, I get it.”
“Fuck if I knew all I had to do was compliment a woman to get fed, I’d have been doing it for a long time.” He looks down at his stomach. “I’m kind of hungry right now, you know.”
I scoff. “I’m not cooking now, it’s ten p.m. and I’ll need to do a grocery run anyway.”
My phone beeps with a message from Rake.
I miss you so fucking much.
I smile to myself and type back.
Already, huh?
He replies instantly.
Always.
I smile wider and send:
As much as the sky is blue?
Irish groans and shakes his head. “If you start fuckin’ giggling like a schoolgirl next, I’m out.”
Rake replies.
More.
I grin and type back.
It doesn’t get much bluer than the sky.
Next, he sends me a picture of his hard cock, with the caption
It doesn’t get much harder than my dick. For you.
ruining the romantic moment but making me giggle.
Irish throws the remote, stands up, and leaves.
Which only makes me giggle harder.
* * *
“I can’t stop thinking about Talon,” Tia blurts out as she walks into my living room.
I look around for Irish.
“Don’t worry about him, he’s sitting out front smoking,” she says, sitting down next to me. “I know it’s stupid, but what do I do? Should I just fuck him out of my system? Yes, that’s exactly what I should do.”
“You know I kissed him, right?” I say, cringing. “I wouldn’t have, if I knew you’d end up liking him.”
She waves her hand in the air. “It was just a kiss, who cares. Not like you let him bend you over.”
I expel a deep sigh.
My friend.
“From what he says he’s not the settling-down type,” I tell her, thinking it over. “Are you going to think you’re the exception to the rule?”
She nods.
“Jesus, Tia. Think this over before you dive in,” I tell her. “I don’t know how this is going to go. If you just want sex, then it’s easy, but if you want any more . . . Yeah, I don’t know.”
“I don’t know either,” she admits, sinking back into my couch. “I should have gone with you to his birthday thing and tried to figure out why I’m so infatuated with the man. Knowing me, I’ll just want to sleep with him, then I’ll get over it.”
“Talon owes me a favor, you know,” I say, thinking back to the beer pong incident. “I could call it in for you.”
Tia smiles slowly and a little evilly. “You’d do that for me?”
“Of course,” I reply. “I don’t think Rake will be too happy knowing about it anyway, so I will happily use it for you.”
Tia taps her finger to her lips in thought.
Scheming.
Forever scheming.
“Okay, how about this?”
* * *
I wake to the sound of something smashing, followed by a sound I’ve never heard before in real life.
The sound of a gun being cocked. I try to remain still as the person holding the gun doesn’t make any further movements. I didn’t think they were going to shoot me, or they probably would have already. No, they obviously wanted to threaten me, or to use me against the club.
Who was in the house?
Wade?
Pill?
Fuck, when did I get so many enemies?
When my eyes focus, I’m truly surprised to see just who is pointing the gun to me.
What the actual fuck?
I hear noises in the other room. A slamming noise, like someone getting pushed up against the wall, and I hear Irish yell, his accent more pronounced than ever. Cara.
My heart in my throat, my mind races. Is she okay? Did someone have