My brother Liam’s girlfriend. No, fiancée.”
She gives me a look and I shake my head and grin. “This is all complicated, and I’m doing a fucking shit job of explaining it.”
“Well, I’m listening.”
I pluck my glass off the table and take a swig. “So, back in the day, Jack Reilly ran the Saints.”
“The Saints?”
“The Dark Saints.”
“Your gang.”
I chuckle. “It’s not really like that. It’s not like we run around holding up banks or wearing the same color bandanas or shit like that. It’s more like a family. Jack ran things back in the day, and he took my brothers and me in and made sure we stayed out of foster care. He put us up with the Gallaghers, who had two kids - Damien and Nora. Damien brought us those groceries the other morning at my place.”
“I think I was tied to a chair?”
I grin, clinking my glass to hers.
“Anyway, this was their summer place. They weren’t rich, they didn’t have much, but this place was fuckin’ heaven back in the day.”
“Well, hey, cheers to being one of five.”
I grin and clink her raised glass. “Shit ain’t easy.”
“I’ll drink to that.”
She does and I watch her before I turn and start jamming old newspaper under the logs.
“Jack’s gone now, and his daughter Aela runs the Saints.”
“Go girl power.”
“Basically.”
“And her and your brother are engaged?”
“Yep.”
“There’s a joke here about sleeping with the boss, isn’t there.”
I smile and shake my head. “Trust that I’ve made all of them. Literally all of them.”
She grins as I light the fire, letting it get roaring. I move back and sit with my back against the sofa she’s camped out on.
“So, now what?”
“I’m figuring that out. But for now, we wait here while the Saints get shit under control back in Boston.”
“You’d rather be there, helping.”
Her voice drifts down over me from her perch on the couch behind and above me. And it’s not that she’s got one of those sultry sex-kitten voices or anything, there’s just something so fucking sweet and so damn innocent about her voice.
Something too naive, still.
Whatever it is, it makes me want to yank her off that couch onto my mouth and make her squeal before I fuck her right here on the floor.
I take a solid belt of my whiskey instead, calming that beast.
“And what makes you say that?”
“I can tell.”
I shrug. “Yeah, I would. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“I do better doing, if that makes sense.” I half turn to look up at her sitting on the couch with her legs tucked up underneath her.
“It does, actually.”
“But, boss’s orders. Aela wants me gone and laying low, so here we are.”
We drift to silence again, sitting there sipping our drinks as the daytime fire crackles in the fireplace. I glance back at her, watching her eyes flicker over the flames, and I can feel that beast roaring again inside.
And it’s not just that I want to ravage her and fuck her until she’s moaning my name and coming all over my cock. It’s that there’s something so fucking sweet about her that it calls out to me. There’s something so nakedly beautiful about her that makes me want to shelter her from the world.
But I blink that thought away. That’s not what this is. At all.
“What are you in grad school for?”
She turns, pulling her eyes away from the flames and back to me.
“Law, actually. Well, it’s this combined business and law program that spits you out after three years with an MBA and credentials to finish up with two years at a law school.”
I whistle. “Well, well, well.”
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah.”
“No, I’m impressed.”
“It becomes less impressive when I mention that I’m not exactly going to class much recently.”
“Shit happens.”
“Well, shit like this gets you kicked out of very prestigious programs.”
She sighs and finishes the rest of her whiskey in one tilt of her head. She blinks back the burn, clearing her throat and making a face before she glances back down at me.
“Holy shit, that’s…”
“Bad.”
She snorts a laugh as I grin.
“Yeah, age has not done much to Mike Gallagher’s shitty taste in booze.”
I knock the rest of mine back and pour in a fresh splash before topping hers off as well.
“Sláinte.”
She smiles back. “Sláinte. So, now what?”
“Bored with small talk and a fire already?”