Page 27 of Possessive

I watched Mina as she listened to them banter back and forth. Her eyes were wide, but she seemed amused. What would it take to make her smile or laugh?

The answer to that was one reason I was willing to accept if she wanted to be with Gianni too. He could make her laugh and smile where I couldn't. Those were things that came easier to him than they did to me. I could buy her things, I could make her look the way I wanted, I could satisfy her in ways she hadn't begun to understand, but I wasn't the clown he and the twins were. I never would be. I didn't want to be. I wanted to give her everything I could offer, not the things I couldn't.

She looked back at me as she continued to nibble carefully on her bacon. From the look in her blue-green eyes, she knew exactly what was going on inside my head somehow. Or at least, on the surface and she wanted to dig down deeper.

I wanted her to do exactly that, but it would have to happen gradually. As long as I could remember, I'd had walls up higher than those around a prison yard. No one had gone past them. Few people wanted to. Fewer people were allowed to. I couldn't take the risk of letting them in, I didn't want to.

The only person I ever wanted to see the real me was her.

Had I been so guarded for so long I didn't know how to let her in either? That was going to be my battle. That and making sure she knew she belonged to me. Whatever it took, I wouldn't step aside from her. The only way anyone would take her from me was if I was dead. Or she was. If anyone tried to kill her, they'd be the ones to end up dead. Slowly and painfully.

"I heard you say something about the Sparrow," she said. She finished her bacon and licked the tips of her fingers in a way that had all three of us staring again.

Fuck. This woman and her tongue. My cock was throbbing so hard it almost hurt. I wanted to feel that warm, wet tongue circling my tip, teasing me.

I cleared my throat. "That's right, we were," I said. "The Sparrow was an assassin. Or maybe a shadow."

She frowned at that. "A shadow?"

It was Damon who responded. "No one knew anything about them. They accepted a job, got it done and took the money. People tried to hunt them down, but never found them."

"Isn't that the job of an assassin?" she asked.

"The Sparrow got into places no one else could," Gianni said. "Places no one should have been able to get into. No one knows how."

"Precisely," Damon said. "People have spent years trying to figure it out. Some speculate the Sparrow used some special technology, and some suggest they were a ghost. Some people even say there was more than one. That it was two people who worked together."

"What do you think?" She picked up her tea and took a sip. There was no groan of appreciation now, but she seemed to enjoy the taste.

Damon shrugged. "I think they were very fucking good at what they did."

"Damon is jealous of their skills," Gianni said.

"So are you," Damon said flatly.

"Fucking right I am," Gianni agreed. "I'm too tall to sneak around like that. And too outgoing." He flipped his short ponytail.

"You mean too loud," Damon said. "You'd be playing metal music so loud, everyone would hear you coming from a week away."

Mina shuddered at the mention of music, but took another sip before putting her cup back down. "I think I've had enough for now."

"You're doing well," I told her. "Good girl." I didn't miss the way her eyes widened at that. Or the way my dick throbbed a little harder.

Waiting might be more difficult than I thought.

CHAPTER 11

MINA

I looked up from the book I was reading, a romantic comedy about ice hockey players, to see Gianni step into the room.

His gaze swept over me, followed by a smile. "Morning, sweetheart. Guess what?"

"Asher would have responded to that with, 'You're mad and I'm not.'" I closed the book.

Gianni chuckled. "He might have been right there. But no, that wasn't what I was going to say. We have a lead on Kurt." He looked like a kid who was let loose in a chocolate shop.

I stood up so quickly the book slid off my lap and onto the floor. I shook off a wave of dizziness and leaned over to scoop up the book.

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