Page 69 of Carnal Wagers

“And if I am?”

It was my turn to smile because I knew I had him exactly where I wanted him.

“Then say it clearly,” I whispered, my lips brushing the edges of his ear, “or take me home.”

Chapter 20

I took her again in my bed, slowly this time, and I savored every second. Her skin was warm and inviting. Her body tucked in against mine was soothing and full of life, and my feelings of gloom and doom lifted, if only a little.

I kept my eyes wide open as she slept. Her head lay on my chest, her dark hair tickled my chin, and her fingers lightly pressed against my abdomen. Her tangy floral perfume filled the room as her even breaths fanned my skin. She was the first woman at my place since Sarah died, and she livened it, even in her sleep.

My phone vibrated with long and purposeful hums. I canceled the call, needing to extend these fleeting feelings of peace and hope as long as possible. I shouldn’t have slept with her, but I didn’t have it in me to regret this break from monotony. In the morning, she’d leave, and this ended. Until then, my inner darkness hovered beyond reach.

Again, the phone buzzed with a new call, and I silenced it.

I stared at the ceiling and let myself relax. My thoughts blanked. Slowly, the cold void seeped into the cracks in my mental armor and flooded me from head to toe. Everything turned bleak and trivial.

Until she stirred and sighed against me, her smooth skin rubbing mine. It broke the pull of suffocating numbness…for now.

The phone rang a third time. I growled under my breath. Something had better be on fire.

“Finally,” Liam barked in my ear as I slipped out of bed.

I didn’t take my eyes off her. What was it about her that kept me so captivated?

“Killy, you there?”

“I’m waiting for you to tell me why you’re calling at three a.m,” I grumbled.

“They found another body. It’s another one of LK’s.”

“Fuck.” I pulled on my pants and slipped on a shirt. “Yours or Brody’s?”

“The fact you never think it’s yours means you really need to get laid more.”

I glanced down at the woman in my bed. Alice. Another potential casualty, but not yet. This only counted as one time together. It was the one caveat we found in LK’s rules. During the same continuous date, we could fuck all night, and the tally stayed at one.

“No grunt? No ‘no’? You still there?”

“I am.”

“Well, Cranwell wants us at the scene.” He listed an address. “You coming?”

“You know I am. Meet you in thirty.”

“That’s a little slow.”

“Not in the mood for your teasing.”

“When are you ever?”

I grunted and hung up. I had been in the mood five minutes ago, before he reminded me exactly why tonight was a one-and-done. I couldn’t give her any more than I already had, and it filled me with regret, something I rarely felt.

I kissed her forehead, then finished dressing and left behind the first person to thrill me in almost a decade.

“Been a while, Cranwell.” I shook the FBI investigator’s hand as he led us into a small four-story apartment complex on a street in Southie.

“Not long enough, O’Leary. If you boys could just keep it in your pants—”