Page 44 of Forbidden Need

In her shock, he was all the way at the other side of the bed before she processed the sentence. “You picked out my clothes?”

“That a problem?”

Only because it heated a quiver of need in the pussy he’d spent all night punishing. It rippled up through her, tightening the muscles that craved his occupation.

“Yes,” she said, her palms skimming up to her breasts. “It’s not fair to turn me on and leave me wanting.”

“Something you’ll have to get used to. Get back in bed.”

“Baby—”

“Making me repeat myself has consequences.” Though his grave tone was heavy, she smiled. “Back in bed, Macushla.” On a sigh, she lifted the sheet, but it was whipped away from her fingertips. “Without the sheet.”

“Without it? Why without it?”

Sliding a knee onto the bed, she walked on them to the middle and lay down.

“Because I had something installed when the furniture was rearranged.”

“What something?”

Retrieving his phone from his inside pocket, he nodded to the ceiling above where the bed had been. A small panel shifted and a black hemisphere descended. The red light at the lowest point clued her in.

“Oh my God! You’re obsessed with recording us,” she said, laughing, trying to grab for the sheet.

He snatched it away, flinging it to the floor behind himself. “This is live feed only. Accessible by me.” He raised his phone and used it to gesture at hers on the nightstand. “And you.”

That was a big show of trust. Loosening, she opened her arms on their bed. “I live to serve.”

“Aye, you do.” He tucked his phone into his pocket and planted a fist on the bed to bow and kiss her. “Make me regret leaving you here alone, Macushla.” His whispered words were all the encouragement her fingers needed to float toward her center. “For my eyes only.”

“All of me for all of you. My McDade.”

He kissed her once more, then was gone, departing their bed, but not the moment. Drawing the soles of her feet up the mattress, she took her sweet time stroking all of herself. He’d need time to access the image and she didn’t want him to miss a second.

He’d laid a challenge at her door, no way she’d disappoint.

NINETEEN

“YOU’RE TOO RELAXED,” Strat said just a minute into their drive.

As promised, he’d come to the door to pick her up. Only then did she find out Daly, Snuff, and Hock were waiting in the hall between the loft’s front door and elevator. How long had they been there?

“Too relaxed for what?” she asked, smoothing the dress Connel had picked out for her.

“For a woman on her way to a meet between her law enforcement family and mob boss boyfriend.”

“They’ve met before.”

“Yeah, like this? Everything out in the open? Last night doesn’t count. It was put on hiatus until this, until now. Anything you think you avoided then will happen now.”

“Everyone’s had time to calm down.”

“Or work themselves into a lather. I haven’t seen Ire today. You didn’t want to show together?”

“He had business.”

“That I guarantee didn’t include feeding orphans or rescuing puppies,” Strat said. “You know it’s possible he committed murder… today. It’s possible he’s on his way from a crime scene right now.”

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