Page 40 of Free to Judge
I realize my mistake and poor choice of words immediately. Kalie may be furious with them, but she won’t tolerate an outsider’s slight. Her cheeks bloom a deeper red than even her run caused while her blue eyes crystallize in defiance. “Like hell.”
“I’m just trying to…,” I go to explain, but the hissing sound she makes causes my balls to draw up between my legs sharply. “Right. Let me rephrase.”
“Be very careful about the next words out of your mouth,” she warns.
“Got it.” Judging from the way my nut sack is hiding behind my dick, I’ll never forget the lesson. Not going to lie, as much as she’s caused something inside me to sit up and take notice, I’m more than a little scared she’ll shred me apart like she did her family. I lift my hands in supplication.I should have thought about whose daughter she is and chosen my words more carefully.
The banked fury in her eyes explodes like a star going supernova. I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”
She taps her toe on the ground. “Declan, what do you want from me?”
“To talk to you.”
“About?”
“What you overheard today.”
“What about it?”
“I need you to keep it to yourself. Don’t say anything. Not to anyone.”
Her expression twists in disbelief before it turns mocking. “Well, damn. Here I was going to call my cousin who works for StellaNova and let him know all about my new bestie, Lawyer Dec and his fake ass clients, right after we went shopping for the next charity ball together and I get a lollipop to suck on.”
My jaw tenses. “I’m being serious.”
All humor evaporates. “So am I. It’s none of your business whether I scream at my family…”
“Please don’t. You don’t know if the wrong ears might be listening.” I hope my words of caution come off as a plea for protection for me but they’re really for her.
God, if something happens to her…I can’t fathom the thought.
My concern must show on my face because she frowns. “Tell me why,” she whispers. She moves so close until our noses almost touch. It forces me to inhale her scent of sweat and expensive perfume. The two smells mixed remind me of sex—a cocktail that stirs raw images of intense, uninhibited passion. Mind blowing, middle of the night release. Something I haven’t had in so long, I can’t remember what it feels like to slide into a woman’s warm slickness.
Only, I don’t just want it with anyone. I want it with her.
My body reacts, defiant and debased, and I silently pray she doesn’t catch sight of my arousal.
I deliberately run through the catalog of crimes the Tiberis and Byrnes have admitted to with me as their defense attorney. Then, I feel it.
Her hand clasping mine.
It’s an innocuous touch, yet once her skin brushes against mine, all I feel is the electric leap of her touch.
She gasps softly. Involuntarily, I cant my body forward ready to capture her lips beneath my own. My brain switches off as my mind forgets about why I’m even there as my imagination forms the lucid thought of Kalie sprawled in my bed, her hair fanned out like a dark, shimmering fan. A groan of conflicting desire escapes me.
“Declan? Declan? Declan!”
Her voice adds to my fantasy. “Yes?”
That’s when the sharp burst of pain transmits through my foot. “Ow! Shit! What the hell was that?”
“I called your name four times! If we were being shot at, what good would you have been?”
Like a bucket of ice water, her words drag me from my sexual haze like nothing else possibly could. I don’t blame her for snapping and finally resorting to something physical to get my attention—even though my dick wishes it was something more hands-on and my foot is cursing me for being a stupid fool.
“Your family—especially your father—they’re my only lifeline, Kalie. I don’t have a team backing me on this op, just them.There’s nothing standing in between when I confront the Irish or the Italians except my brain and the knowledge that if something goes wrong, they know who I am and what I was doing.” I raise my hand when she starts to argue. “I need the anonymity they maintain for me to operate in the field, to bring down the rest of these organizations.”
Her breath shudders out. In the dim light, I recognize a glimmer of agony dulling the brightness of her eyes—a pain that twists something deep inside me. Something I thought long dead after Tanya disappeared. “I figured that out on my own, Declan. Still, don’t tell me my family can or cannot be trusted. You don’t get to decide that.”
