Shannon

by Shara Azod

  “I think I will go invite them in,” Fionn stated, a malicious gleam in his eyes. It was kinda disturbing to see how eager Fionn was to get to this. Conall and Kieran seemed almost stoic, Shannon mad as hell, but Fionn? He was like a kid at Disneyland.

  Within seconds, Junior and four other cops entered, followed by Jean-Paul. Funny, Jean-Paul suddenly looked ill.

  “I think we might have a misunderstanding.” Junior smiled an oily kind of smile. It was the only thing he got to say before Fionn opened fire. One bullet to the head and that problem was over. Before he hit the ground, two more shots rang out. Again from Fionn’s gun. That left Jean-Paul and one other cop. Fionn looked like he might have let the last bastard live, but the dumbass just had to go and draw his weapon. Which left only Jean-Paul.

  “I have to take him back,” D’Andre told Shay softly. “But no one says he has to go back whole.”

  Yeah she knew that. And she’d actually had time to think about it despite how fast the situation had just gone down. “Fionn? May I have your gun?”

  His brother said nothing, just turned over the weapon without blinking an eye. Just as efficiently, Shay aimed and shot Jean-Paul dead in the crotch. Jean-Paul seemed stunned at what had just happened, then in agony. Unable even to scream, he cupped his now ruined groin as if trying to hold in the blood and intestines spilling from him as he crumpled to the floor.

  “I would rather have died than to ever be with you.” Her voice was a lot calmer than she’d thought it would be. But tears flowed freely. All this for what? Because some sick bastard had the hots for her?

  D’Andre lugged a howling Jean-Paul out of the house.

  “I’ll take care of the cleanup,” Conall offered quietly.

  “The bodies will be gone and the men were never here,” Kieran stated before making a quick call.

  “I think I am going to escort that poor dickless bastard and D’Andre back to Mattapan,” Fionn said cheerfully. “I want to make sure it’s done.”

  Shay didn’t have a chance to see anything else. Shannon picked her up and carried her up the stairs.

  “I should at least clean the floor.” Yeah, she didn’t really want to do that. She just wasn’t sure she could process this. Jean-Paul was suffering, soon to be dead. Junior was gone. Her brother was avenged. And she was left with…

  Oh God, she was left with Shannon.

  That was a hell of a thing. Up until now she’d been able to at least partially convince herself staying was a necessity. But what D’Andre said was true. She could’ve gone back. Jesse’s men would be loyal to her, and Lord knows she knew as much about the business as any of them—more than most, even. But she didn’t want to do that. She wanted to stay with the slightly insane Irishman who liked to bare-knuckle box, provided a home he actually called Home to disenfranchised kids of any race, and loved her like she was the sexiest, most precious woman on earth.

  And oh yeah, Shannon loved her. There was no doubt about it. Not once since she first walked into his office at Sugar Babies had she slept alone; not one day had been spent without him. He took her on business, allowed her to handle the non-physical things, told her stories about his childhood that made her want to cry, and she’d seen some shit so she wasn’t moved to tears easily.

  More than that, she knew he needed her love. He didn’t even known how much he craved a soft touch against his skin, but Shay knew. She saw it in those emerald eyes every time she touched him. It was just that, now there was no other thing left to hide behind, it left her vulnerable in a way she’d never been before. She wasn’t really sure what to do with all these…feelings.

  “Baby, look at me.”

  Shay immediately raised her eyes to meet his fierce gaze. God, he was beautiful in a terrifying, brutal kind of way. God, that was sexy.

  “It is over.” Using his thumb he brushed away a tear that had been hanging off her chin. Shit, she was crying. “I will never allow anything to threaten you, not ever.”

  “I know.” And she did. Shannon would always be there for her. She knew it in her soul. And that scared the shit out of her. No one should be this certain about another human being.

  “Let me show you?” Setting her down on the bed, he kneeled between her legs, looking so desperate it broke her heart to witness it. “I need you. I need to… Shit…” Scrubbing his hands over his face, he looked around the room before returning his gaze back to her. “I need to make sure you’re okay, that you’re safe. I know you are, but baby, I need to be inside you, to be a part of you.”

  She knew the feeling. “I need you too,” she swallowed her pride and admitted. Nothing good could come from denying it anyway.

  As soon as she said it, she was flat on her back, Shannon’s weight crushing her to the bed, his lips taking hers in a storm of pent-up emotion. It was so easy so be swept up in his storm. His fingers stole into her hair, pulling her head back, holding her mouth open for him. Their bodies pressed relentlessly against one another, their sexes meshing through their clothing as they ground against one another. Shay wanted the clothes gone; they only made the needy ache growing in her core worse.

  “There’s no way in hell I can be gentle,” Shannon growled, coming up for air. All the while he was tearing at her clothes.

  So she returned the favor, almost frantic to get rid of anything between them. And just as soon as they were gone, his fingers were probing between her labia, using her own juices to lubricate his way, his mouth seizing her nipple in a sharp, biting suckle.

  Fuck, that hurt! But damn did it feel so fucking good! Her hips rocked with his fingers. How was it possible for a man to unerringly find her g-spot each and every time?

  Needing to drive him just as crazy as he was driving her, she pushed at his shoulders, knocking him backwards so that he lay on his back. With a growl of her own, she took a quick bite on his chest, then moved down to where his heavy sex bobbed angrily in the air, pearls of pre-cum glistening the very tip. There was no way she could take it all in her mouth, but she was damn sure going to try.

  Smiling at the hiss that escaped his lips as soon as her tongue touched his heated flesh, she swirled it around and around before suddenly sinking her mouth as far as it would go down his shaft.

  “Fuck, baby, no I can’t—I can’t take that.”

  And as soon as she had his cock in her mouth, it was gone, and she was on her back, looking up at a man that was teetering on the edge of his control. It was odd how his hunger fueled hers, making her pussy weep in earnest.

  Her thighs parted immediately, accommodating the width of his body. Shannon immediately drove his throbbing length deep inside her in one stroke, burying himself to the hilt. Shay’s back arched completely off the chaise, offering him full access. Without pausing he drove deep and hard, riding her as if this might be the last time they’d ever come together. And Shay thrust back up just as hard, swiveling her hips from underneath him, needing every inch, every stroke. Nothing else mattered but this, his possession. Under his touch she was alive, more than she’d ever been.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he groaned, but not slowing, not easing his slamming hips.

  It was intoxicating, being taken so brutally, like he wanted to really become a piece of her. Like a man possessed he slammed inside her, over and over again, causing her mind to blank to everything but him, making her moan with abandon at the way she gripped him, hugged him. Sweat dripped from both of their bodies, the rich aroma of unbridled lust heavy in the air. Shay breathed it in, savored every sensation. The fingernails she scraped down his back only spurred him on.

  “Shay, baby, I’m not going to hold on,” Shannon rasped, holding her tight against him.

  “Don’t,” she encouraged. “Please, Shannon, I need you, need this.”

  “FUCK!” Shannon roared, slamming into her one last time with force that knocked her breath away.

  She felt him convulsing inside her, felt his hot sperm flooding deep inside her. It was too much; Shay screame
d her own release, her arms locked around him, holding on for dear life. Just as soon as one wave crashed over her, another began, leaving her panting, unable to suck in enough air. She was never going to stop, it seemed, until finally the whole world turned to black.

  Epilogue

  The brothers lined up—Conall, Fionn, Kieran, Shannon. It had taken a few months, but once they located the old man it was a simple case of hunting him down. In the end, the bastard never left South Boston. All the wrongs perpetrated against them came down to that moment.

  Paddy gazed up at them, defiance and hate clear in his bright green eyes. Gone was his crew—there was no one left to protect him. The layers he’d built over the years as a shield disintegrated. Dead men were the only testament left to their da’s crumbling empire. A warning that the O’Shea brothers now controlled the area. It was time for a new era.

  Their father straightened, squaring his shoulders. His coat hung off a gaunt frame. The once large man was a mere shell of himself. Slowly, each brother raised his arm. Their guns varied from a thirty-eight to a 9-millimeter to a couple three-eighties. Paddy met the gaze of each man, his sons. A wistful smile lifted the corners of Paddy’s mouth. He raised his arms out from his body. They pulled the triggers, riddling his body with bullets.

  Falling back and to the ground, their father lay dying as they continued to rain down fury on a man who had done everything in his power to destroy them.

  It was done. The devil had his pound of flesh.

  ***

  “We don’t have to get married,” Shay insisted, a touch of panic in her voice. “I mean, people live together all the time. You can just do you, and I have the boys at Home keeping me busy…”

  It was cute the way marriage frightened Shay. Shannon always thought it was the guy scared of taking that final step. Of course, him being Irish, there would only be this one marriage for them. He would sell his soul to keep his woman happy and satisfied.

  But with Shay he never had to. Now the specter of his father was gone, she could move freely between their home and Home, where she taught the boys and ran the school with iron-clad efficiency. Even Eamon was slightly terrified of her.

  Fuck, this woman made him the happiest son of a bitch alive.

  “We don’t have to, but we are,” he responded, tackling her to the couch. “And you will be Shay O’Shea, my dear. That I promise you.”

  Shay scrunched up her nose at that. “Shay O’Shea? Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?”

  Yeah, he did. Just couldn’t be moved to care. “It sounds perfect to me. Therefore that’s what it’s going to be.”