“Sure.” I sighed out loud in defeat before my eyes followed my sister who stood there looking at some of the art work on the walls. “Shit! Is this a Picasso?”
“Last time I checked,” I replied under my breath.
“You two go. I can have an orgasm just looking at all the art work your fiancé has.”
Torin and I weren’t engaged. I wondered if my sister had gone off her meds again and was about to ask Kieran when he led me into the dining room and we sat across from one another at the glass table.
“Listen, I noticed that Torin has been acting different since the end of January. He’s always on edge and I’m worried about him. I wanted to know if you could shed some light on his…behavior. His hot and cold personality can’t merely be the result of the meeting you two attended at Vogue Hotel and Casino?”
I glanced at Kieran who was a younger but even more drop dead gorgeous version of his older brother. He was better looking—no doubt about that—but Torin was sexier, and had that animal magnetism I wouldn’t give up for all the money in the world. I could see why women would fall easily at Kieran’s feet but he wasn’t his brother, and more than that, although I knew he was physically tough, I understood innately he wasn’t nearly as mentally tough as Torin. I couldn’t tell him the truth.
“Wanna bet? Plus, he’s under a lot of stress because this is his last year and his last shot at the Championship. It’s almost over, thank God. Then we can return back to normalcy, and he can retire,” I explained in a gentle voice. “However, as worried as I am about Tor, I want to know why you’re with my sister. You told me yourself: Tara was and is the girl for you so why are you playing around with her heart? Do you realize Sienna is mentally ill? She’s got manic depression and you don’t want to see her when she goes off her meds. She’s not good with rejection either. Whatever you two have together, sever your ties as quickly as possible and go back to the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with, Kieran.”
“It’s not that simple.” He paused and ran a hand through his blond hair. “Tara doesn’t want to be with me and she’s seeing someone…seriously now. I’m almost twenty-six, and I think right now is a great time to think about settling down—”
“—with Sienna? Are you fuckin’ crazy?” I almost shouted. “What part of ‘she has a mental illness’ doesn’t register with you? This town is full of beautiful women and you have to fall for my bipolar sister? I’m not buying it.”
Kieran shook his head, his blue eyes dark and stormy. “That’s both you and Tor’s problem. You’re so good about rubbing it in people’s face how much you have suffered, you forget that other people have had it hard too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean, Sienna has suffered as well. She feels really bad it was her illness that made you become an escort. It eats at her every day, and all she wants is someone to treat her normal, not like she’s going to fuckin’ break at any moment.”
I sat back in my chair and raised one of my eyebrows in a sarcastic manner. “That’s a bit hard when I’ve been dealing with her going on and off her meds for the past ten years.”
“I suffered too, you know. Torin might have gotten the brunt when he was older but after he hauled ass to America, we got it bad from our dad. He wasn’t a nice person, and a miserable son of a bitch to all of us. I know he sacrificed for our family, and I will always be grateful but he needs to understand he isn’t the only one who had it tough.”
“If he acts like he’s the only one who’s suffered, it isn’t on purpose.” I leaned forward and placed my elbows on the table. “He’s a decent human being, Kieran, and he just wants to take care of everyone. He sacrificed a lot for me and don’t ever think I will forget it or him. I just want to relieve some of his stress and I don’t want to be a burden. This year has been hard on all of us and we’ll get through it but I’m still not budging on dinner. I know you want to see him and by all means, stay and wait for him to come home. But don’t be too upset if he isn’t in the most talkative mood, okay?”
“What exactly did he sacrifice for you, Chiara?” Kieran’s blue eyes locked on mine and I just wanted the whole world to open up and swallow me whole. “I’m not being facetious but…did you see the photographs they threatened him with?”
“No…everything was all very cryptic.”
Shit! Now I regretted telling Kieran about that day because Torin sure as shit wouldn’t discuss it with me and I needed an outlet. I wasn’t like him. I couldn’t shut the world away and I saw so much of his brother, it came out during one of our discussions.
My sister didn’t know as much as he did—she knew I was no longer an escort—but I wished now I’d never told him anything. If I’d known he’d start dating my sister, I would have found a way to deal like I’d done with shit my whole life. It was just better to keep secrets to yourself because nothing stayed hidden once more than one person knew.
“So, how don’t you know he isn’t protecting his own ass?” Kieran questioned in a bitter voice. “I’m certainly not implying Tor doesn’t have feelings for you because I know he does but I don’t want you to think he’s a saint, Chiara. He’s got his demons just like you do. If you were a whore, at least you got paid for your services. Tor was a man-whore—same as me—and it’s only fitting he would fall in love with someone who was a professional.”
I glared at him only because he could be so crude. There was no finesse with him what-so-ever. He just said what was on his mind and I couldn’t deny the truth hurt. I was a fucking whore who’d slept with more than my fair share of men over the years but at least I’d never given it away. It was true my love didn’t cost a thing but for over nine years, my body had cost plenty.
“Thanks. You make a lady feel really special.” I murmured.
“I speak the truth and if sex with you is as amazing as I think, I’m jealous as hell you didn’t go home with me that night—”
“Kieran, you’re in love with another woman. Nothing would have happened between us but sex you got off on and I would have still gone home alone and be alone now.”
“Not true. I could have given you that life. I know I should stay true to Tara because she’ll always be the one but it doesn’t mean I’m not a man. You would have been someone special…”
“Well, it’s all water under the bridge so let’s just allow bygones to be bygones. My sister is a grown woman who can take care of herself. Although I would like to monitor her, it’s not my job and she doesn’t have anyone special in her life at the moment so knock yourself out until you get bored.”
I stood from the table, walked out of the dining room, and up the stairs though I wanted to run.
Kieran certainly didn’t scare me but he was encroaching dangerous territory and I didn’t want to be part of the fallout that ensued. I was Torin’s property, signed over like a piece of furniture though I was in his home because I wanted to be here. He made no demands on me and that included in the bedroom. He was loving and passionate; although we both knew he had a huge burden hanging over his head that was my fault.
I lay in his bed and tried not to think too hard about it. It wouldn’t help anyone, and what was done was done. I had to believe it’s what he’d wanted to happen or else I would come undone, and that would be unacceptable at this point in our relationship.
A GENTLE HAND caressed my face and I opened my eyes to the vision of Torin.
“Hey, darlin’. How’s everything?”
“Good,” I replied cautiously as I stroked his hand on my face. “Kieran and Sienna are here. I just couldn’t deal with that situation right now and I came up here to lie down but I ended up falling asleep. Can I make you some dinner?”
He smiled, his blue eyes bright. “No need. We ordered takeout. I was able to talk to my brother and…Sienna…and you were able to rest. There is plenty left over and I ordered your favorite. We dined from The Cheesecake Factory tonight.”
I grinned before I sat up and kissed h
is lips quickly. “Thank you for thinking about me.”
His stare hardened a bit though he tried to hide it. “Why wouldn’t I think about you?”
I pulled my hair back from my shoulders and held it with my right hand. “I don’t know…maybe because I think I’m a burden to you. Perhaps I feel like it doesn’t matter how much money I saved and put away…you will always think of it as blood money. Maybe I wish you hadn’t found out I was a whore…no man wants that kind of woman to be his dream girl. You want almost-virgins and doe-eyed innocent women who have only had a bed partner or two.”
Torin laughed out loud. “Where did you get that from? A badly written romance novel that features really awful bondage? I want what I have, Chiara, and that’s you, baby. I don’t care how many men you’ve been with—most women lie about that anyway, even the so-called good girls. You please me in bed and out. Why would I desire anyone but you when you can’t be replaced?”
“I don’t know…my undesirable occupation? The fact that I’m the reason why you’re goin’ through all this shit with my gangster pimp and his mafia colleague maybe—”
“That’s not true.” Torin sighed and ran his rough hand down the side of my cheek to my chin. “Baby, what they showed me had nothing to do with you. They’re blackmailing me because I did a shitty thing many years ago and now it’s come back to bite me on the ass. They wouldn’t use you against me because they thought we only lusted after one another and they needed something that would frighten me into action.”
“What’s that?”
He laughed ruefully. “What do you think, princess? The loss of my freedom. Deportation. Prison for the foreseeable future—the works. I would be disgraced when they got through with me.”
“Christ…those greedy pricks would do anything for money. I didn’t know what they had on you in that envelope because you never showed it to me.” I dropped my hand and placed it in my lap. “Was that intentional?”
Torin glanced my way with a small smile playing on his seductively sexy lips. “Yes, it was. I love the way you look at me now and I would never want that to change…ever. I’m scared you’ll think I’m a monster along with a reformed man-whore if I tell you what was in that envelope.”
I pulled him onto the bed with me and he nimbly made sure his body weight didn’t crush me. I breathed in his scent; he’d had a shower and the masculine scented body wash along with the smell of Heineken on his breath was a dangerously alluring turn on. I knew he was buzzed though far from drunk; the better for me to take advantage of.
You’re a bad girl, Chiara.
Yeah, tell me something I didn’t know. There was a reason why I could heartlessly fuck men for almost a decade and keep my heart behind a wall no man had ever penetrated before the one who I laid in bed with at that moment.
“Why would I think you were a monster? What did you do? Murder your father?” I joked before I tongued his bottom lip.
He suddenly stilled, sat up and stared down at me with a completely unreadable look on his face. “What if I did?”
My heart thundered in my chest as I sat up with shaky limbs. “Do you really think I would judge you? I mean, after what I have done to get by, I don’t think I’m in any place to be self-righteous. You must have had your reasons. You said he beat the shit outta you, your mother and your siblings—”
“—he did but is there ever a reason for patricide? He still gave me life and I took his away. If I have any regrets in life, it’s that. Even if I did save my mother in the process, I destroyed her life too. I didn’t bother to take into consideration whether or not she was still in love with him. I just…snapped and began to throw punches…and I didn’t stop until he was no longer moving. His face was a bloody pulp of a mess and my knuckles had teeth marks from where I’d bashed him over and over again.”
I moved closer to Torin and embraced him as he began to sob. “I have to live with that, Chiara. Every. Fucking. Day. How screwed up am I? How can I question any decision you made in your life when I haven’t exactly led an exemplary one myself? Nothing they could have threatened me with is as bad as I feel about myself. Know that, darlin’.”
Although I wasn’t exactly known for showing my own emotions, I cried along with him like a fucking kid. For my lost adulthood and the miserable life I’d lived. It shouldn’t have taken a man to make me change but he’d come at the right time before I’d transformed into a shell of my former self. Completely unrecognizable and empty. Someone not worthy of love and not capable of returning it either.
It was a pretty pathetic situation and such a stupid cliché. Hell, I could have been my own damned idiotic soap opera.
“I don’t think you’re a monster. You’re no darker than I am and we both need one another. Somehow we provide light for each other, and that’s a good thing, isn’t it? I love you, Tor.”
“Chiara, I have loved you since the moment you stepped into my bedroom and my bed over five months ago. You’re so perfect and there isn’t a damn thing about you I’d change. Your past makes you who you are: headstrong, stubborn as hell and a beautiful person inside and out.”
We faced one another and I clutched his face with both hands. “Promise me something…no matter what happens in the coming weeks, you won’t put your life in danger, or us at risk. I know it would eat at you to allow those bastards to win but would it really be so bad? Is it worth what they could do to you if you don’t follow through?”
“I don’t know. It’s hard for me to just give in and let someone else control my actions. I can’t just throw a fight because they want me to. I get in that ring to win and I don’t think about anything but my opponent. You know how hard it would be to concede unless I couldn’t go on? I’m nothing without you, baby, but I can’t give in either—does that make sense?”
“Perfect sense,” I whispered as I leaned against him.
He pressed me to him and devoured my lips in a hungry, passionate kiss I surrendered to without reservation.
Chapter Thirteen
Torin
TORIN RELAXED LEISURELY with an arm secured around Chiara’s waist.
He’d won his fight and secured his place in the Championship quarterfinals. It was also Chiara’s birthday and although he didn’t want to go to the after party held at Vogue Hotel and Casino, he had little choice.
She looked gorgeous with her dark hair up in a chignon, her face covered in the bare minimum of makeup, glossy lips and a gorgeous black cocktail dress he’d bought her from Chanel for this special occasion.
Kieran was there with Sienna, and he did his best to try not to think of her as “the crazy one.” She had a diagnosed illness, a mental disease and there was nothing funny or tragic about her illness. She seemed vivacious and in a party mood though she stuck to Perrier and avoided all alcohol.
Unfortunately, Karl, Raymond and Angelo Abandonato were there too.
They were guarding their golden boy carefully and he would have to put up with it even though they drove him and his coach, Neil, crazy. The gym had undergone renovations and special equipment had been placed inside specifically for him just so he could train and be at his optimal best. The ironic part about the whole scenario was the men he was fighting were a joke. His draw was so ridiculously easy, many fighters, commentators and conspiracy theorists insisted the whole Championship was rigged. However they couldn’t complain too much since UFC’s fighting world champion, Victor Rodriguez, didn’t exactly have a draw that was too pressing for him either.
Chiara held a fluted champagne glass and leaned over towards him. “Are you okay, honey? You’ve been pretty quiet all night.”
“I’m fine, babe. Just a little sore but nothing your lovin’ touch won’t fix later on.” Torin winked and smiled at her delighted face before he kissed her softly on the lips.
“I hope I’m not disturbing you but we need to talk before you leave,” Karl announced over his shoulder.
He turned toward the tall, brooding German and scowled. “Yes,
of course but I hope it can wait a few minutes. I have something I need to do first.”
“Of course.” Karl smiled though it never reached his cold blue-green eyes. “Twenty minutes okay?”
“That’s perfect.” He stood, and grabbed Chiara by the waist before they walked out onto the large patio. They were in one of the penthouse suites, which showcased pure luxury and had wraparound patios accessed through double glass doors.
“It’s so beautiful out and the sky is so clear. It’s been a wonderful day, Tor. Thank you for everything and allowing me to have a twenty-eighth birthday I could have never dreamed was possible at the beginning of this year. Everything has been lovely and I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”
Torin stared at her for what seemed like a lifetime before he leaned over and kissed her lips softly. She cleared her gloss from his mouth as he pulled away.
“I’ve wanted to do this all month but I also realized I should wait until your birthday came around because it would make it all the more special.” He looked into her amber eyes, which appeared dark yet enchanting in the dim light. “I don’t think I could have survived any of this without you and I want you to know you will always be special to me, no matter what. Will you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Torin Evoy Duffy, the third?”
Chiara stepped back and dropped his hands like he’d burnt her. “Is this some kind of joke? Why would you want to marry me?”
“Why do people usually get married? I love you and I want my ring on your finger. I want you to be my wife, my life companion, the woman I grow old with, and I want to spend whatever time I have here with you. Only you. There won’t be any others because I don’t and have never desired a woman as much as I love and cherish you.”
She appeared frightened and pale but at least she’d relaxed her body stance. “You seriously want to marry me?”
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