Page 25 of Arrogant Bastard

She raises one eyebrow. “Wow. Paranoid much?”

“Don’t fuck with me, Faith.”

Her breath sharpens, and she pales a little. “I told you not to call me that.”

“What do you want me to call you? B?” I snarl the name.

“Call me whatever you want, but not…that.”

My gaze leaves her face, taking in her dark, dark hair, her beautiful but more sculpted face. Her stunning but less curvy body. A part of me concedes she doesn’t look like the woman I knew. The Widow was a softer version of the woman in front of me. Faith was an even softer version of the Widow.

Black Widow possesses a savvy wisdom I want to explore and an edge I want to test. The notion that I don’t have to pull my punches the way I did with Faith tweaks a part of my psyche I’ve blacked out for a long time.

But whoever she is, she still owes me answers. “There’s more. I’m waiting, baby.”

“There’s nothing between us! He’s…he’s been through some shit. Don’t ask me for specifics because I don’t know. Plus…”

“What?”

“He has a sketchy past. I’m sure Betty informed you.”

I nod. “His family is the last of the East Coast Irish mob. Father was involved in a war crimes investigation a while ago?”

“Yeah, but from what I can tell, Axel’s not part of that life anymore. He was in the army though, and not just the fun parts.”

“He told you this?”

“I looked into him a little bit before I decided to go into business with him. I may not be in the game anymore, but I can still do a basic search without leaving a trail. Anyway, there’s nothing between us because he’s involved, seriously involved, with someone else. So whatever you think you heard on the phone, it’s all in that crazy head of yours.”

I shrug. “Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

“What does that mean?”

“Betty’s almost done formulating a safe route for us to get from here to your Punishment Club with minimum detection.”

She frowns suspiciously at me. “A few hours ago you didn’t want me to leave, and now you’re champing at the bit to get me to work?”

I slip my hands into my pockets. Her legs have crept out from beneath the covers, and it’s all I can do not to reach out and caress them. It’s a huge strain to drag my gaze from her smooth calves. To stop myself from testing if the backs of her knees are still supersensitive. “You’re right. You’ve taken the day off but you can’t just not turn up after that. You’ve just told me you work for a guy who has mob and army connections. He may not have been curious before, but I know what I heard in his voice. He knows something’s up. I prefer to look him in the eye and see for myself whether he’s a threat or not. So once I have a few more contingencies in place, you’ll be good to return and properly hand in your notice. But we’ll need to move fast after that if—”

“What are you talking about? I’m not giving up my job.”

I stifle the urge to tackle this argument in a completely different way. My cock is certainly urging me in that direction. “I took care of the CCTV photo of you, but it was still out there for at least half a day. For all you know, Galveston has it too. You know what happened to the rest of our former team. How long do you think you can stay under the radar in a club with over six hundred members? Especially looking the way you do?”

She glares harder. “Looking the way I do?” she parrots.

My gaze travels over her body, the urge to taste killing me. “Yeah. Like fucking sex on legs.”

“That’s a seriously sexist comment.”

“Well, I’d rather be the sexist asshole who keeps you safe. Deal with it.”

With a growl of frustration, she throws the covers off and gets out of bed. “Do you even have a plan beyond tomorrow? Other than us being cooped up in here?”

The pressure in my groin intensifies, and my answer dries up in my throat at the sight of her bare legs and the flimsy panties hiding her pussy from me. My feet are moving toward her before my brain fully engages.

Her eyes widen, and she throws out her hands. “Killian, no!”

I stop in front of her, my breath not quite hitting home when I inhale. “Throw me a bone, baby. Do you have any fucking idea how hard it is for me to look at you like this and not touch you?” My voice is a rough growl that echoes in the space between us.

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