Page 4 of Her Michigan Mob Boss

Shock ricocheted through me. No man had ever threatened to spank me before. I started to ask who the hell he thought he was, but I was frozen. And I couldn’t deny the way his offhanded threat had affected me.

“Do you understand?” Ciaran repeated when I didn’t answer quickly enough.

I gulped loudly. “Yes, I understand.”

“Good.” He rose from his chair.

I expected him to walk away, but he didn’t. He muttered something under his breath that might have been a curse. Then he bent to kiss me. His lips were soft and warm as they brushed over mine with a tenderness that made my toes curl. He curved a hand around the back of my neck and held me in place as he deepened the kiss. His tongue pushed past my lips, and my breath hitched.

Just as I started to kiss him back, he pulled away, smiling at me with what I assumed was regret. “It was nice meeting you, Annie.”

This time, he walked off, leaving me with my heart in my throat and my panties in a bunch. I stared after him like a lovesick schoolgirl as he crossed the club to speak to the man he said would take me home. After a brief exchange, Ciaran disappeared through the exit. The temptation to follow him almost overwhelmed me, but a stronger desire to hold on to my dignity rooted me to the spot.

“Come on, Miss,” his employee said as he approached me. “There’s nothing for you here.”

Sadly, he was right. As he took my arm, his grip was firm enough to show he meant business, but not firm enough to hurt me. A heavy weight settled in my chest as we headed to the door. It was odd. I’d only just met Ciaran, but leaving I felt as if I’d lost something. Him walking away after that bone-melting kiss hurt more than it should have. Tears threatened to fall, but I blinked them back. The sooner I could fly home and put this trip behind me, the better.

ChapterTwo

Ciaran

Although I was used to navigating legal documents I couldn’t make sense of the information on the screen in front of me. I’d arrived at the office earlier than usual but so far had done nothing productive. As I stared at the laptop, I stifled a yawn.

Considering some of the dubious things I’d done in my life, I usually slept surprisingly soundly. Last night, I hadn’t. For hours, I’d tossed and turned, unable to find peace no matter what position I tried. I counted sheep, imagined myself walking slowly down a long flight of stairs, and did breathing exercises. I even played sounds of the ocean I found on a meditation app. None of it worked.

It wasn’t my conscience that bothered me. The men whose lives I’d taken to protect my family’s interests were not the ones that haunted me. It was Annie, the woman I met atLola’s. Every time I closed my eyes, my mind drifted back to her, and I had to fight the urge to go and claim her.

When I’d seen Annie on the security feed, walking intoLola’s, my curiosity was piqued. Not a lot of women came to the club, and none that looked as sweet, innocent and obviously out of place as she did. It was clear someone like her didn’t belong in that dump. According to the information I’d had my men dig up on her after she left, Miss Annabelle Calder was a twenty-three-year-old teacher at a tiny village school. Since her mother died, she’d lived alone in the house where she grew up. There was nothing remarkable about Annie’s life, but there was no denying the woman herself was something special.

In her flowery dress and cardigan, with that golden hair cascading over her shoulders, she looked like a princess who’d unwittingly wandered into the dragon’s lair. There were plenty of men inLola’slast night who’d have taken advantage of her. Thankfully, I got to her first.

It was purely a coincidence I was there.Lola’swasn’t somewhere I went unless necessary. It was one of several properties my father acquired before his untimely death and my first thought had been to sell it. I had no interest in owning a sleazy strip club, but my brother, Sean, persuaded me not to. It turned out the club was surprisingly valuable, not so much for the money it raked in, but because the clients often shared information with the dancers. They told them all sorts of things they should definitely have kept to themselves.

I had to drop intoLola’sto deal with a staff issue. Several employees had quit after a fight with the manager, a waste of fresh air called Ronnie. When I learned he’d been putting his slimy hands on the female bartenders, I fired him. Then, for good measure, I had my men teach him a lesson he wouldn’t soon forget, because shit like that could not go unpunished in my organization.

With nobody there to work the bar, one of my enforcers, Jojo Sullivan, had to step in to serve drinks. That was a disaster waiting to happen. He lacked the sunny demeanor required in the hospitality industry. Thankfully, he hadn’t had the chance to drive away too many customers before the regular staff agreed to return.

It was all a pain in my ass, but the silver lining was obvious. If I hadn’t had that headache to deal with, I wouldn’t have met Annie. Our conversation may have been short, but I enjoyed spending time with her and found myself inexplicably drawn to her. Annie was beautiful, for sure. She had delicate features and these enormous, beguiling blue eyes, but that wasn’t what drew me in. Her warmth and openness appealed to me.

While people who knew my reputation were rightfully wary of me, she was unguarded. She spoke to me like I was a regular guy and not the ruthless head of the Reilly family, whose ass everyone felt obligated to kiss.

The moment she said she was looking for that scumbag, Danny Mulhearn, my heart sunk. The name of that vile creature should never have touched her soft pink lips. Mulhearn rose from lowly street thug to become second-in-command of the Cleary family, our deadliest rivals. Even among the crime families who operated in Michigan, he was considered a nasty piece of work and he’d been orchestrating moves against my family for months now.

I hoped Annie would heed my warning to drop her search for Mulhearn. Just asking about him could have gotten her into trouble. His name rubbed people the wrong way. If, by chance, someone did point her in his direction, it wouldn’t have led to anything good. Unlike me, the lowlife had no problem with hurting women. If he thought there was a way to use a long-lost relative for his gain, he’d have shown no hesitation.

Speaking to Annie was great, but kissing her was a mistake. I shouldn’t have regretted tasting those perfect lips, but I did because it left me yearning for more. Sadly, I wouldn’t be able to indulge my desire to explore every inch of her beautiful body. She was leaving soon, and I couldn’t offer her a reason to stay. A girl like Annie deserved romance, the possibility of a committed relationship. To fuck her and cast her aside would have been criminal.

Several of my men, the older guys mainly, had been hassling me to pick a bride. They believed marriage would show I was serious about the future, stable in a way that my volatile, womanizing father wasn’t. He’d lost the respect of a lot of his men when he left my mother to raise my siblings and me alone. They didn’t want to see me following his destructive path.

I’d been giving serious thought to marriage for some time. Annie would suit me well, but there would be no benefit to a union with some random woman I’d just met. I needed a bride with the right connections if I was to expand the Reilly empire, so I didn’t know why I was even thinking about Annie in terms of marriage. We’d only talked for a few minutes, and I didn’t believe in love at first sight.

Did I?

“Hey, boss!”

I looked up as Max O’Byrne strolled into my office. Aside from my brothers, he was the person I trusted most in our fucked-up world. We’d been friends since middle school, so when I asked him to take Annie back to her hotel, I knew he would deliver her safely.

It was a relief when he reported back that she was staying in a five-star accommodation. I wanted her to be safe. The thought of her roaming about the city asking about a vicious criminal made me shudder. That’s why I’d asked Max to have someone watch over her until she got back on her plane.

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