Page 107 of Stolen Rival
I give him a wry smile. What my husband doesn’t know is that, over the last few weeks, Rosanna has been taking me to secret dance lessons so that I could wow him one day with my nimble feet. I just didn’t expect today would be that day.
I’m no expert. It’ll take more than a few lessons with a professional to get me anywhere near ballroom ready, but I think I can hold my own.
I grab Patrick’s tie and lead him to the makeshift dance floor in the middle of the dining room. “Try to keep up, Twinkle Toes.”
He rolls his eyes. “It’s okay to be shite at something, you know? There’s no harm in just saying, ‘Patrick, I can’t dance.’?”
I shove his arm, but he draws me against his firm body and starts to lead. It takes him all of a few seconds to realize I’m not trampling all over his feet like I did the first time we danced.
“Were you faking it before? Is this another hustling situation like with the poker games?” He raises a questioning brow. “Are you just that good at faking?” There’s an undercurrent of disbelief to his voice that makes me giggle.
“No, you gobshite. I’m only a good bluffer at poker. I really was crap at dancing, still am, but I got some lessons to wow you with my dancing prowess.”
He gives an approving nod. “Consider me wowed.” His lips twitch at the corners.
“Hey now, I’m not doing too badly for only having a fortnight’s worth of lessons.”
He drops a kiss on my forehead before pulling me closer to him, swaying to the music. I pull back. “Patrick?”
He looks down at me, a flicker of worry sweeping across his handsome features.
“Thank you for my party. I love it. I could have stabbed you when you said your flight was delayed. And I almost rugby tackled Rosanna at the door, but I can’t think of a better way to spend my twenty-first.”
He smiles, brushing his lips across my cheek. “You deserve the world, Sorcha. You only need to decide what that looks like, then go out and take it.”
He spins me out away from his body, before tugging me back so fast it’s like he can’t stand for space to be between us for more than a split second.
“I’ve actually started to think about that.”
He tips his head to the side. “Oh?”
“I’d like to start by selling my parents’ house.”
He slow blinks, processing what I’ve said. “You would?”
I nod. “It’s part of my past; a part I think I’m ready to leave behind. I didn’t think I’d be able to let it go, but I don’t see a future where I can go back there either.”
He braces me against his chest, dotting kisses in my hair. “Take some time. There’s no need to make a decision right now. It’s all still fresh,mo mhuirnín. But if that’s what you decide, then we’llmake it happen.”
“I’d also like to talk to you about, uh…” I clear my throat, but there’s still a wad of self-doubt stuck in there. “Maybe me being of some use to the business.” As much as I’m enjoying being a lady of leisure, I’ve come to realize that my father, my whole family in fact, underestimated and underutilized me. I can be of use, even just sometimes, to Patrick’s criminal empire, and more than that, I want to be. Maybe I even need to be to help me find a purpose in life other than living under the shadow of a mafia boss, pastorpresent.
He doesn’t look surprised or recoil in horror. In fact, he nods. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about that as well. With everything going on, it’s been hard to carve out time.”
He’s not wrong. The transition to boss went a little bumpier in parts than expected, and between the house, moving Cathal, and Patrick’s recovery, we’ve had a busy run of things.
“I want to talk to you about taking over some of the parts of the business your da had a hand in. You’re familiar with the people, you know his business better than I do, even if he kept you at arm’s length. Despite a number of threats and a couple of months, we just can’t seem to get the supply chain back to where it was… before.”
He looks me dead in the eye. “Or, perhaps you were thinking something along the lines of setting up a charitable foundation for other children like Cathal?”
My stomach free falls. “What?” I blink, thinking it might make my ears work better. “I was going to ask for a little responsibility, maybe give the occasional tip about Da’s business, or talk to some of his old soldiers to help.”
He drops his forehead to mine. “You really need to stop diminishing your capacity in this world, Sorcha. You’ve alreadybecome my counterbalance, cleaning up the messes that I make.”
He’s not wrong there. The builders almost quit halfway through the panic room project because Patrick lost his shit with them. I smoothed it over, threw a little money at the problem, and had Maeve bake them some of her amazing chocolate cake to literally sweeten the deal.
“You’re a smart and capable woman; you could fit into any number of roles in our organization. Logistics and operations, accounts and laundering, a whole rake of public facing enterprises… The sky is the limit.” He kisses my cheek. “You just tell me what you want to do with your time, and we’ll make it happen.”
My jaw hangs open; he tucks it closed with his knuckle. “Did you expect an argument?”
