Page 44 of Mob Knight

“Do you want me to check on you daily?”

“You don’t have to.”

“That doesn’t answer my question,cailín. Do you want me to?”

“It would be nice.”

“Are you trying to get a spanking, Joey? Or are you that uncomfortable expressing what you want?”

I shrug, suddenly nervous.

“Joey, what do youneed?”

You.

Desperate much?

But I can’t remain silent when he asks that. It’s the question and his tone.

“I need to know you’re sticking around, so the calls would make me feel more confident. I want them, sir.”

We seem to realize at the same moment we don’t even have each other’s phone number. Cormac reaches into his pocket and withdraws his phone just as I retrieve mine. We smile at one another, but he hesitates to offer his to me so I can enter my number. He doesn’t ask for mine, so he could do it.

As he watches me, I still haven’t figured out why Cormac grows shy sometimes. It’s as though he thinks I might notgive him my number despite what we’ve already talked about. Despite the fact he’s already fucked me. Despite the fact he’s had his fingers in my ass.

It’s funny to me—perhaps I shouldn’t say that because I’m not laughing. It’s perplexing to me that he’s such a confident man in most situations and so dominant during sex, yet he has these moments where he seems to withdraw, almost too shy to ask for what he wants.

He’s never talkative, even when he’s conversational. He expresses his thoughts, but he doesn’t chatter, and he isn’t into small talk. I pluck his phone from his hands and enter my number to text my phone. As soon as I do, I hand it back to him, and when mine pings, I respond to the text.

I save his number and wait to see what he has to say next. But since he’s so shy, I realize making plans to see each other again will fall to me. That’s one of the scariest propositions I’ve ever encountered.

What if he rejects me instead? I have no reason to believe that, just like I don’t think he has a reason to be shy. However, that’s where we’re at. I shoot my shot.

“Are you available again this week?”

He smiles even broader than when we both pulled our phones out at the same time.

“I’d like that. Right now, I’m available tomorrow night. Would you be interested in meeting up again?”

“Yes, I’m free tomorrow as well. We could always try my club.”

The moment I say those last two words, his entire expression changes. He shakes his head.

“If that’s really where you’re most comfortable, then we can. But there are members of that club I’d rather not run into, and I’m certain they’d prefer not to see me there, of all places.”

It only takes me a moment to deduce what he means. My eyebrows shoot up and my eyes widen.

“Do you mean there are members of other families who go there? Does P?—”

I catch myself before I say his entire name, but immediately Cormac’s eyes narrow and his expression changes. His jaw hardens.

“Yes. He does happen to be a member there. So is Javier.”

I should have known this would come up eventually. I’d hoped to make it through the entire night before it did.

“I’ve never seen either of them there, Cor. That’s why I almost asked if Pablo’s a member.”

“It’s a club now owned entirely by the bratva, and I’d rather not run into them, either. Explain it to me, Joey.”

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