Page 95 of Little Nightmare

“Good.” He jumped from behind the wheel and walked over to my side of the car, jerked open the door, pulled me out, tossed me onto his shoulder and carried me into the house. I didn’t have time to appreciate the kitchen or the halls or the stairway until he carried me into a giant room that had windows overlooking a pond. “It’s so pre?—”

“Strip.” He dumped me on the bed. “I want to watch.”

Oh yes, I definitely chose the right path. I fumbled with my jeans and tossed my T-shirt into the corner, nothing about how I was stripping was sexy but I needed him, wanted him.

“I need to taste you.” He shrugged out of his suit. “And then we’ll have a normal family dinner. I’ll love on Lily we’ll make this a home but right now—” His jaw flexed. “I need you.”

“Yes.” I reached for him, grabbing the back of his neck and pulling him down on top of me.

He kicked off the last of his clothes and thrust into me in one fell swoop. Pinning me to the new bed, making me his.

Ace crushed his mouth to mine. “Missed you.”

I wrapped a possessive leg around him. “Keep me.”

With a moan his hips moved, the kiss deepened. “Done.”

EPILOGUE

TEMPEST

“This is weird.” I looked around the dinner table. “We have Russians over in that corner pounding vodka like water, we have Italians in the middle, the De Lange family is actually sitting with us, and now we have an underground syndicate boss feeding a small baby yogurt. What’s next? Aliens?”

Raven choked on her dinner roll. She looked happy, alive. Never did I think she’d be married to Ace of all people with one little girl and another one on the way or that she’d technically be an enemy to the five families for life while also playing both sides. “It’s not weird, it’s just…family.”

I pointed at Ace with my fork. “He’s scarier now.”

“He has a role to play.” She cleared her throat. “Just like us, plus it does make any time we’re alone explode into this tension like?—”

“Hellooooo, um, Louis, Lucian, L… what did we decide on again?” I joked trying to make things better even though the guy still loved Raven, loathed Ace and was basically abandoned by La Nebbia only to be forced back in to help protect the very family he wished he had.

Basically his life was now torture.

“None of the above.” He looked between us and then exchanged a frown with Ace. “Hey, um Tempest can I talk to you for a minute?”

“I gotta pee.” Raven jumped to her feet.

Louis took her chair and sat. His blond hair was a hot wavy mess. “So, there’s no way to sugar coat this.”

“Then don’t.”

“I’m going to be your new bodyguard.”

“Ah, maybe a bit of stevia would have helped.”

“You said not to. And I’m good at my job.”

“Does being good at your job mean not sleeping with me if the boss forbids it or sleeping with me if he asks you to? At what point do we have a meet cute and fall in love and do you or don’t you prefer the side closest to the door?”

“Look…” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not ideal for me either!”

“You don’t need to raise your voice.”

“It gets me out of the house,” he admitted. “Please, Tempest, I can’t?—”

“Fine.” My smile was fake. I didn’t want the guy that ignored me anywhere near me, he would see too much and I’d have to kill him if he figured out all my secrets. “On one condition.”

Maybe this would work out best for everyone?

---