Page 132 of Ignite

“I can’t tell if you’re fucking with me. I’m going to need diagrams on how this mafia stuff works. Do I need a bodyguard? Is Declan your boss? Who is his boss? Do I have to work for you too?”

I slap my hand over her mouth before her questions spin me into a full-blown panic.

“I am your bodyguard. The rest doesn’t matter. I’m keeping you far away from that side of my life. I just need you to know it exists. That it’s part of me.”

“Okay, beastie. I trust you.” She grins and squeezes my biceps. “My protector.”

Damn right I am. And I always will be.

“So… want to spend tonight with me again? And then we can date once I’m home?”

I rub my nose against hers, needing her like air.

“Lily’s dropping Bertie back home this afternoon. Stay at mine?”

I can’t take her back to Decadence anyways. Not yet. That’s a whole other world I’m not ready to explain. In time…maybe.

I probably need to buy a house outside the chocolate factory. Somewhere that’s just mine. Just ours.

Maybe I’ll do that after the Chase is finished.

“Sounds perfect to me, trouble.”

Because as long as I’m with her, it doesn’t matter where we are. She’s home.

Chapter 44

CONAN

“Why so glum, brother?” Declan asks, already pouring me a whiskey.

I take it and knock it back in one gulp.

“I feel like shit,” I mutter, sinking into the chair opposite him.

“You get injured in the fight?”

I run a hand over my face. If anyone can understand, it’s my madly-in-love brother.

“No. I just had to lie to Hallie about the Chase. And I can’t see her all week.” I sigh, heavy and hollow.

Declan chews on his lip, reading me.

“You know we can’t call the games off now. It’s too late. But this can be the last year, you know…if you and her end up together. If that’s what you want.”

I snatch the bottle of Dad’s whiskey and take another swig straight from the neck. I know exactly what he and Mom would’ve said. Mom would’ve loved Hallie. She’s a good girl. Good for me.

“Yeah. That’s what I want. But if she ever finds out the truth about me—or this whole fucking thing—” I throw my arms up,gesturing to the goddamn sex club we own. “She’ll run for the hills. And that’s not the Chase I want.”

I drag my hands down my face, the dread sitting deep in my gut, gnawing. Declan’s right—we can’t afford to lose Enzo or our position in this world. We’ve bled too much for it.

“She might not,” Declan says quietly. “I saw how she was watching you fight, Con. You know what she did do, though? Something none of us have been able to do. Not even Mom…”

My head snaps up. “What did she do?”

Declan’s lips curl around his glass, a slow, knowing grin spreading across his face.

“She tamed the beast in you.”

---