Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
“I always knew I had it in me,” I quip.
He smiles slightly. “If only you applied even half your abilities to your work, your locations would triple everyone else.”
“That sounds almost like a compliment.”
“It wasn’t.”
“How’s Mom doing?”
“You know her. Go ask her yourself.”
I wave a hand. “She always pretends like she’s completely fine and life is great, but I’m pretty sure she’s physically weaker than she’s ever been and she never got over Dad dying.”
“That about sums it up.” Declan frowns toward the door. “She won’t talk to me about it though. I was hoping you could get through.”
“I’ll try, but don’t expect much.”
“You’re her favorite, you know that?”
“Obviously. I’m everyone’s favorite.” Which isn’t true. Not remotely. Not Mom’s, not anyone’s, and that’s by design. “How’s Casey been? I haven’t seen her around.”
“She’s busy with the kids. But I’ll tell her you were asking after her.”
“Please do.” I take a long drink, already dreading getting to the point of this conversation.
But leave it to Declan to get right to business. “We need to talk about the Flanagan girl.”
“I figured that’s what you called me in for.”
“It’s been weeks, Finn.”
“Has it really?” I sip my drink and swirl it. “Hadn’t noticed.”
“Have you spoken to her yet?”
I frown slightly. The memory of sweat, gasps, and laughter. A girl floating on her back in the moonlight. “Not exactly.”
“I’m getting impatient.”
“What do you care? It’s going to happen. I agreed to marry her.” Despite how disgusting and unclean it makes me feel. “And you said I could approach her on my own schedule.”
“Yes, but your schedule has limits. Eamon Flanagan’s getting impatient.”
“Oh, I would hate to inconvenience that old snake.” I grip my whiskey glass tightly and have to lower my hand to keep Declan from noticing.
“We need to keep Eamon happy. His connections run deep and his sons are primed in key positions in all the major unions. Marrying you to his youngest daughter will cement our alliance for a generation or more.”
I smile blandly. It hurts my fucking face. “I know it’s important to you.”
“Good. Approach the girl. Meet her, do whatever you plan on doing, but do it fast. Eamon’s telling her tonight.”
I stiffen slightly. “You said he was holding off.”
“Holding off doesn’t mean skipping it entirely! Look, I get it, you don’t want to marry a girl you haven’t at least met first, but you have to work with me here.”
I finish off the whiskey. It burns on the way down like it always does. Even the expensive stuff can’t hide what it really is. Money never can.
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Good. Please do. This marriage is going to be difficult enough. Apparently, the girl is estranged from her family, which I didn’t know until recently.”
I plaster another bland smile on my face. Declan doesn’t even notice how hard I’m trying to pretend like I don’t know all this already. Like I haven’t been mercilessly stalking her since the second he told me about this arrangement. Like I don’t know absolutely everything about her, from her favorite meals to all her streaming subscriptions.
“Are you concerned Eamon can’t make good on his end?”
“No, I’m not. She’ll come around. Nobody can resist your charm.” He glares at me flatly. I know he wants to add, just don’t fuck this up, but to his credit, he keeps his mouth shut.
I place the empty glass on his desk and stand. “If that’s all, I’ll get going.”
“Meet the girl in the next few days. I want the wedding to happen within the month.”
I give him a mock salute and leave his office. I pause in the hallway and struggle to get myself back to equilibrium. Every time I’m in this place, it’s like I’m assaulted by memories. Most of them are fine. Some of them aren’t. There are too many ghosts in the old Whelan family home.
I drift out there, not happy that my game’s getting cut short. It was just starting to get interesting. I can’t get rid of the vision of Caroline floating naked in my pool, of her climbing out of the water dripping wet, of her sitting in my sauna glistening with sweat, of her mouth wrapped around my cock, of her coming like she was going to break to pieces. I didn’t hire her to fuck her in my goddamn pool. That was never part of the plan.
She was supposed to clean. That’s all, just fucking clean, and give me some time to observe her in a safe and controlled environment. Then she went and stripped in the fucking sauna that first time, and I swear to god, I’ve never been so hard in my life watching her through the cameras.
I stroked my dick and came over and over multiple nights in a row. It took all my willpower to stay away from her.