Page 19 of Shamrock Kisses

I raise an eyebrow, feeling the pull of her challenge. “Is degradation your thing?”

She swats my arm, whispering, “Patch! Are you … are you naughty?”

I smirk, running my fingers along my lips as I think about how far I can push this. “Am I polar plunging alone?”

She doesn’t answer right away, her eyes searching mine. The playful atmosphere between us shifts. The tension between us isn’t just about teasing anymore. Our attraction to each other is undeniable.

“Maybe,” she finally says.

“I’m serious, though. Let me make it up to you. Dinner. No interruptions.”

She tilts her head, her smile returning. “I’ll consider this offer after you run into the lake.”

“Do I get to keep my clothes on?”

She bites her lip, checking me out. “What do you think?”

“I think there are a lot of security cameras here … so can I keep my boxers on?”

“Mmm … I’ll allow it.”

“Are you joining me?”

“Mmm,” she teases, snuggling into my chest. “Undecided.”

I grab her jaw, staring deeply into her blue eyes. “Do you want me to beg you to join?”

14

Patrick is a nerd in the streets and fucking nasty in the sheets, right?! Like casually using the word degradation. Vanilla people don’t throw that word around.How much more am I going to taunt him?Am I going to run into the freezing cold lake with him? Am I going to fuck him? Too many questions are swirling in my mind.Patrick Nowak.

“I think you’re into being punished,” I whisper.

He bites his lip. “However you want it to go, kitten.”

Kitten?!My jaw drops, and I let out a laugh, trying to process the shift. “Kitten?” I repeat, still reeling. “You’ve been holding onto that one, haven’t you?”

He chuckles. Patrick’s confidence catches me off guard, and I like it. The way he’s shifted from that nervous, adorable guy to someone more sure of himself—it’s messing with my head. Swinging my leg over to straddle him, I want to remind him that I’m in control. But he smirks, and now I’m second-guessing myself.

“Let’s rewind,” I say, placing a kiss on his lips. “I think you need to tell me about how you were almost a felon.”

His hands land on my hips. “That’s what you want to talk about right now?”

“It’s that, or we go down to the lake and you can strip for me.”

“You’re demanding … but I like it.”

I raise an eyebrow, leaning in closer. “I like a few things about you too.”

We kiss again, this time softer, sweeter. The kind of kiss that is distracting me from this playful back and forth.

“Okay … the casino hack …” He pauses, brushing my hair behind my shoulder. “It started off as a joke, honestly. But the deeper we got, the more we realized how bad their security was. It was like falling down a rabbit hole. One minute we’re laughing, the next … we’re in way too deep.”

I lean in, wanting to know everything. “And then?”

“Then we caused chaos. They lost millions, and we almost lost our freedom.”

“I can only imagine how scary that was … a prank almost turning into jail time.”

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