One More Night

by KB Winters

  Shae’s arms tightened around me the second his breathing changed. “I hope you’re spending all that energy thinking about whether you wanted to sit on my cock or my face next.”

  “Neither,” I said. “I have to go.”

  “Where do you have to rush off to? You said you work from home?”

  “I do, but maybe you’ve forgotten that my brother is in the hospital and I want to find the creeps who almost killed him.” I tried really hard not to sound bitter because I didn’t blame him, not as much as I blamed myself.

  “I didn’t forget, Ivy.” There was something strange in his voice, a steeliness I hadn’t heard before in our short acquaintance. “In fact I’ve got a guy I trust with my life keeping an eye on Ian. Shamrock won’t leave the hospital until Ian does. He’s safe.”

  I sat up and tried to put some distance between us, feeling like it might be necessary soon. “Then what’s the big deal if I go see him? Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “No, Ivy. It’s just that it’s not safe for you to be out right now. The Milanos aren’t the most stable people around and right now my guess is that they’re losing their shit. I don’t want you caught up in that.”

  I knew bullshit when I smelled it. “What does that mean, Shae?”

  He sighed, obviously frustrated with my questions, but I was well past giving a damn. “It means that they’ve acted and we have retaliated. Recently.”

  “So you’ve pissed them off and now you’re worried that I’ll be a target?” Shae nodded, looking homicidal at the thought.

  “So what am I supposed to do, become a prisoner in my own home?”

  “No.”

  My shoulders fell in relief. “Oh good because—”

  “I want you to stay here.” He said it so quietly and so calmly, not even expecting a refusal that I almost laughed.

  “No. That isn’t a good idea.”

  I returned his steely glare. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

  He shook his head, like he was trying to negotiate with a toddler. “Not against two crazy Italian motherfuckers, Ivy. Just stay here for a few days. My security is better than yours and it would make me feel a lot better.”

  It pissed me off and still sounded like a special kind of hell.

  “I’ll be gone most of tonight if that helps. We can pick up some stuff from your place, grab some takeout and I’ll leave a couple of men here to keep you safe.”

  That didn’t sound as bad. “You trust me in your house without you here?”

  He shrugged but his smile was pure boyish mischief. “I’ve already told you my biggest secret Ivy, now I’m an open book. Read me, baby.”

  That was damn tempting but I shook my head with a laugh. “You’re a book I’m not quite ready for, Shae.”

  He had lust in his eyes, but I was over it for now, my mind consumed with Ian. I kissed him on the neck and pointed to the door.

  “Now go take care of business.”

  Shae left me in his big gorgeous house to ponder the crazy choices I made while my brother hovered between life and death in a hospital bed.

  Chapter Twenty

  Shae

  “How is he, Shamrock?” I was a man of my word and when it came to protecting Ivy and her brother, I took it seriously.

  “Fine,” the Rock said. I adjusted my Bluetooth to hear him better over the traffic noise. “A grumpy little fucker but the meds are working, his pain is being managed, and no one’s stopped by other than his little pissant friends.”

  That was exactly what I wanted to hear. I had no doubt Ivy would ask me about her brother when I got back home, that is if she didn’t try to sneak out and go see him on her own. My men had been instructed to watch her and make sure she didn’t get herself in any trouble. Knowing Ivy, though, as little as I did, I knew there was a good chance she might try because her agreement had come too easily. I could be damn persuasive when I needed to be, but I think she just wanted to get me off her case, and she knew I couldn’t watch her today.

  “Good, Rock. Let me know if anything changes.”

  “Will do, boss.”

  “Thanks.” I disconnected the call and pushed my blue Lambo through the congestion that sometimes made living in Rocket un-fucking-bearable. But I had plans to meet E-dawg and taking Virginia Street was the most direct path, even if it was the street most likely to make me lose my shit. Thankfully, I had memories of a night filled with Ivy to keep me distracted.

  By the time I pulled up to the rear of a future gaming room location—Eamon said we’d work out a plan for the Milanos in the parking lot—I was focused. And hard. There was only one cure.

  “I’m working,” Ivy snarled without a greeting when she answered the phone.

  “That just means I didn’t wear you out sufficiently.”

  She let out a husky laugh that did wicked things for the boner that refused to go away. “Good sex always energizes me, Shae, and I’ve already finished off one project and started on another. If your ego needs a little stroke.”

  I smiled at her playful words. She was one woman who didn’t spare my feelings, but she didn’t withhold compliments either. It was a troublesome combination.

  “Speaking of stroking, what are your hands doing right now?”

  “Oh they’re stroking, Shae. Hard and fast.” I heard the laughter she tried to hide and my smile grew wider. “Stroking the keyboard while I try to airbrush these cover images. Nothing all that sexy, I’m afraid.”

  “Tell me you’re at least working in nothing but those little black panties?”

  “You really are a special kind of freak, Shae.”

  It didn’t sound like a bad thing falling from her lips so I didn’t try to defend myself.

  “I wanted to wear those panties but someone ripped them off of me so I’m sitting here wearing no panties at all, Shae. None. At. All.”

  I groaned. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  “Isn’t that why you called, to see if I was wearing panties?”

  “You’re not,” I groaned, just as Eamon knocked on my window. “Stay that way until I get home.”

  “If I do that, I’ll be all orgasmed out before you get here.”

  Yep, she was trying to kill me. It was payback for making her stay at my house. I was sure of it.

  “That’s a challenge I’m more than willing to accept, sweetheart. Eamon’s here, gotta go.” I disconnected the call and stepped out to greet my brother.

  “Wassup, E-money?” He leaned against the door of my car. “You look, sickeningly happy.”

  His goofy ass grin spread so wide I thought his face might crack open. “Layla’s pregnant. We were up late celebrating.”

  “A kid? Holy shit, congrats man!” Even though I shouldn’t be surprised that they were already getting started on the next generation of Connellys, I was. It seemed like such a big step and it felt too soon, but the look on Eamon’s face was pure joy. Absolute fucking bliss.

  I could feel my eyebrows quirk into a question. “We are happy about this, right?”

  “Fuck yeah we are!” he said and pulled me into a back slapping hug, which I accepted because it wasn’t everyday a guy found out he was going to be an uncle.

  “It seems soon, I know, and we’re not even fucking married yet which I need to fix ASAP.”

  “Every time I call you’re either about to fuck or you just finished fucking. It can’t be that much of a surprise, E-daddy.”

  “Have you seen my woman? Don’t answer that,” he said with a playful smile.

  “Yeah, she’s smokin’ hot, and you spend all of your free time balls deep inside of her. Now you have to marry her before Patrick finds out she’s pregnant.”

  Our dad might be a ruthless businessman and a cutthroat mobster, but he was also a good Catholic who believed in simple things like marriage before babies.

  “Yeah, maybe we should elope to Vegas or something.”

  “If you do that E, you might not
live long enough to become the next head of the Connelly Family.”

  Eamon laughed, but we both understood the truth of that sentiment. “I know, but a wedding right now, before the Milano shit is resolved feels like a recipe for disaster. And if something happened to Layla. . .”

  He shoved his hair back from his eyes when a gust of wind caught us, not bothering to finish the sentence. If something happened to Layla all bets would be off. Eamon would forget the mob code; he would forget everything we learned at the feet of Patrick Connelly if something happened to his woman.

  And I’d be right beside him.

  “Then we should probably handle these assholes quickly, yeah?”

  “Right. Now tell me about your woman.” His words came out sharp, clipped.

  I laughed. “Ivy isn’t my woman, and I don’t even know if I want her to be. Not that it matters, but I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m some Richie Rich asshole.”

  “So why are you protecting her?”

  I glared at my brother. “The same reason we went after Layla before you pulled your head out of your ass. Her brother is in trouble because of me.”

  “Her brother, not her.”

  “How do you think they found out about him? They followed me to her house and decided to go after him instead. Anyway, she’s agreed to stay at my house and let me keep her safe until all of this blows over.”

  Eamon frowned. He couldn’t hide his skepticism. “You sure you convinced her of all this? Staying at your place isn’t exactly a hardship.”

  I knew what he was getting at because we’d been dealing with gold diggers since before we knew what they were.

  “I’m sure. Trust me, when it comes to Ivy, my money is not the enticement you might think. She thinks I’m playing games. ‘Rich boy slumming it,’ she said.”

  Eamon laughed. “Damn, she’s got you all wrong.” He leaned over and slapped his knee with too much glee and burst out laughing again. “What did you do to give her that impression?”

  “Told her who my father was.”

  “And she’s still sleeping with you?”

  He damn near choked on the question.

  I shrugged. “What can I say, I’m irresistible. But as soon as her brother is out of the hospital, she’ll be gone.”

  “And you’re okay with that?”

  Eamon would be a damn good head of the family because even though he was a crazy fucker, he cared about everyone. Not just the family but the whole Connelly organization.

  “I don’t know. I mean, she’s just a girl. There are others. You know how I roll.”

  Eamon flashed the same smirk he gave me when he told me it would be all right before we jumped off a cliff into a manmade lake, the same damn smirk when he handed me my first condom, and the same smile he flashed before he handed me my first gun.

  “I do. And you’ll be fine. When you’re ready to talk, come find me.”

  “Because you’re an expert now?”

  “Damn straight. Falling for Layla was no picnic.” Eamon looked down at his phone and grinned. “Come on. I got an address on a brand new Milano game room.”

  “Hell, yeah! What are you thinking?”

  We had to come up with a quick plan that would do enough damage to let them know they couldn’t fuck with the Connelly’s without paying the price.

  “There’s no time to plan a robbery,” he said and nodded in the direction of a young freckle-faced kid who parked an older model Chevy Blazer across the lot. The dude gave an imperceptible nod in Eamon’s direction and walked off.

  “That’s our ride.”

  “You’ve been busy today.”

  “Nothing energizes a man more than finding out he’s going to be a daddy.”

  His smile spread, shining with pride and happiness. I was happy for Eamon, but I couldn’t deny I was a little jealous, too.

  “Anyway,” he said as he jumped behind the wheel and started the engine, “I was thinking a little arson might be in order.”

  “I like the way you think.”

  Eamon handled the car with ease, blending into traffic like he was no different than the day-trippers, vacationers and hardcore gamblers that littered the town of Rocket.

  I gave him the side eye. “The warehouse district?”

  It was an area that was slowly coming back to life with plenty of work-live-lofts cropping up, but most of the area was still shitty, dilapidated warehouses.

  “Yep. Apparently they got a good deal on the old candy factory. Cheap bastards.” Eamon laughed. “Want to tell me why it’s not like that with you and Ivy?”

  “Nope.”

  The last thing I wanted to talk about with my happy in love brother, soon to be father, was the woman I couldn’t get off my mind.

  “I’m just saying,” he continued on as if I hadn’t said a damn thing. “You never give a damn about women or worry about what happens to them once you’re done with them. But Ivy gets to move into your man palace? Sounds like something to me.”

  “I know what it sounds like, but that’s not how it is.”

  He barked out a laugh and slammed on the brakes as a motorcycle came out of nowhere.

  “I thought the same thing about Layla. Hell, I figured I could just fuck her out of my system. Now she’s going to be my wife and the mother of my kid. The next generation of Connelly’s.”

  “As happy as I am for you, E-man, that shit ain’t happening to me. Someday I might change my mind about love and marriage and forever, but right now that’s about as far away to me as fuckin’ Mars. I’m focused on our business.”

  “So am I. Then again, I have always been a better multi-tasker than you, Shae.”

  “Bullshit. I’m damn good at multi-tasking, but right now I’m choosing not to.”

  “Now who’s full of shit?” Eamon laughed and slowed down, turning away from the congestion of the city and toward the streets lined with mostly bare industrial buildings. “All right. Let’s do this.”

  We both stepped from the car and headed around to the trunk to change into plain dark clothes that would help us blend in anywhere. “I’m thinking we set fire to all the exits.”

  “And kill everyone?” Eamon asked with an irritating scoff. “What? Are you stupid?”

  I shrugged. “Fuck, no, I ain’t stupid. Fuck you. It’s not ideal but it would send a clear fucking message. To the Milanos and to anyone thinking of doing business with them.”

  “No. It doesn’t feel right.”

  “Really? And what feels right? Being a couple of pussies?” I was annoyed because I wanted to fuck these douchebags up.

  “We don’t know who the fuck is in there. What if it’s a family ally or worse, family of someone Patrick likes or respects or what the fuck ever else criteria he uses to decide who’s safe and who isn’t?”

  “Shit. Just our luck there’s some woman in there who’s niece just had first communion or some shit like that. I get it.”

  Eamon threw his hands in the air like he was praying for patience, and I had to stifle a laugh because that was exactly how ridiculous our father’s whims could be.

  “Let’s try to keep you alive long enough to see your kid being born, yeah?”

  We shared a laugh while we re-folded our clothes and closed them up in vacuum sealed bags. “When the room fills up, we’ll get Rourke to run a few plates. Torch the cars that belong to the gangster motherfuckers and send a few of our cops to some of the more upstanding citizens, scare the fuck out of ’em?”

  Eamon grinned. “It’s not what I had in mind, but it’ll do. Look at you Shae, going soft in your old age.”

  “Fuck you. Fucker.” He laughed when I punched his shoulder. “We want those customers to come to us, not a funeral home.”

  “Fine. Let’s do it your way little brother.”

  I glared at him while I pulled my gloves on. “Then let’s just blow up the Milano cars.”

  He grinned. “That sounds like a damn good way to spend tomorrow.”

  Chapt
er Twenty-One

  Ivy

  In ordinary days, good sex got me focused on work, and after all the sex Shae and I’d had, my focus should be razor sharp. Somehow, after Shae left, I’d finished one project and I was half way finished with another. But it was a slog, despite what I’d said to Shae on the phone, despite our sexy banter. That was to keep him off my back. What was work to me today compared to Ian’s life? Or my own for that matter? What universe were we in if my brother had to have security outside his hospital room for fuck’s sake?

  I loved it when I was in the zone and plowing through work because it meant I could take on more projects and bring in more money. But not today, not with everything going on that could ruin our lives. But I was helpless at the moment, a prisoner in Shae’s beautiful house with nothing to do but put my nose to the grindstone and will my catastrophic thoughts away.

  It was not an easy decision to stay. I belonged at the hospital with Ian, or at least out finding his attackers. But Shae was persuasive. Not with his gorgeous cock, but his riff on what could happen if the Milanos found me out there on my own.

  After I’d agreed to this arrangement, Shae drove me back to my place to pick up my work laptop and a few other personal items.

  Though I’ve wondered, how come all of the panties I packed had disappeared.

  I didn’t mind, but I wasn’t exactly the type of girl who went around commando. It just wasn’t my style, but as long as I was confined to Shae’s high tech mansion, I could handle it. Mostly. I felt exposed. Naked. And a little too horny for my own comfort. Then again, that could just be the after effects of having Shae buried to the hilt.

  “I’m turning into some kind of sex fiend!” I moaned self-pityingly to the beautiful room where I’d set up my computer.