Page 51 of Forced Vows

She stares at me like my words aren't registering. "A car?"

"To take you home."

"To take me home," she repeats and shakes her head as if to clear it. "To take me back," she says more firmly. "I can get my own car."

"If you want to, but this service is bonded and guarantees discretion." I show her the car service on my phone.

It's a national company well known in my circles, but that doesn't mean she'll trust them. No doubt, she'd rather go with some stranger driving a rideshare.

But her face clears and she nods. "Okay. Let me get dressed and I'll be out of your hair."

It's only after she leaves and I go to take the shower she refused that I notice the red streaks of dried blood at the base of my cock.

I run back into the bedroom and yank the duvet away from the bed.

The streaks on the bottom sheet are unmistakable. More blood.

She could have been in her period, but I inhaled her feminine arousal like I was huffing a popper and there was no telltale scent of copper. She wasn't bleeding when she got here.

My goddess of love was a damned virgin.

And she didn't say a word.

Chapter 18: RÓISE

"Okay, you sure you've got this, Fi?"

Fiona waves her hand around the media room like a game show presenter. "I've got three of my favorite movies queued on the big screen for an all-night binge watch with enough snacks and drinks to keep me until next week. What's not to love?"

"You're right." A night all to herself in the media room, watching whatever she wants is her jam.

It's kind of mine too, when I'm not doing my best to ace all my college classes. I don't remember the last time I binge watched my favorite show, much less a bunch of movies.

I'd be jelly if I wasn't going into the City to watch Drunk Shakespeare.

"What happens if someone comes looking for us?" Kara asks, looking around the media room like a bodyguard is going to jump out from the shadows.

But our security teams respect our privacy. We don't even have to have someone in the hall outside the room when we're home.

Uncle Brogan has plenty of security, both bodies and technology to keep the mansion safe from intruders.

"The only security that might do that are gone for the day." We all know I'm talking about Allessio and Zoey, who are assigned to be with me whenever I leave the house.

Since I had no official plans to leave the house tonight, they left before dinner.

"No one will question that you're not in here with me," Fi answers her sister. "No one ever checks on us when we're having a movie night."

That's the main reason we're pretty sure we can get away with this. Because no one does check on us when we do our movie nights. Unless you count Kara's husband and tonight, he's in Queens with Uncle Brogan at a mob meeting.

So, tonight Kara and me? We're meeting my friends from college and going out to celebrate my 21st. Which technically isn't for another week but who's going to tell?

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Kara says her eyes alight with excitement. "I have never snuck out of the house before. Not even when I was younger."

"You talk like you're an old woman and you're only four years older than me, three as of next week."

"And then it will be four again in October," she responds with the familiar argument. "I guess that's what comes from getting married when you're eighteen."

Kara doesn't sound bitter, just pragmatic.

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