Page 60 of Her Filthy Reverse Harem Romance Collection

I step in and I let her take me in for a few seconds before I close the distance between us until we’re breathing each other’s air. A hint of jasmine and honey hits me as she flicks a fallen strand of hair from her eyes.

I dash away her worries. “We’re not interested in what Kane left behind. Marcus will find out he killed for nothing soon enough.”

That sends her back a couple of paces. “Are you saying he killed my father?”

Drake mirrors my movements and we both take her hands in ours and my memory trips back to the last time we held her this close. Only Grey had been with us then.

“That’s exactly what he’s saying, sweetheart.”

Drake’s words dissipate some of her anger. “I thought...”

“...that we had something to do with it,” I cut in.

She nods. “And that I was next, honestly. What happened to Grey. It was my fault.”

She turns to look at Drake and strokes a finger over the jagged scar running the length of his right cheek. Damn near took his eye out. “It’s all my fault. Had I not come to work at your club, being the daughter of him...just existing has put a lot of people in danger.”

Drake grunts. “And I thank whatever god is out there for you every day.” Drake, the fucking romantic poet, has her full attention and watching her take in the truth of my friend’s words has me questioning my entire life. Are we bringing her into the fold for her safety or because we’re bastards and want her all to ourselves?

Both?

“I told you on the ride over here, you were safe with me. With us.” Drake holds her hand over his heart.

I brush aside a few stubborn strands of her long hair. Everything about her is soft like a rose petal and chilled beneath my light touch.

When we don’t offer a deeper answer, she continues, the savagery of her tone slowly bleeding away to sadness.

“I’m sorry about Grey. You should have left me to just fade away. Forget about me. I don’t belong in this world. My father knew it. Maybe he was actually looking out for me in his own twisted way.” I hear frustration peeking through and rightly so.

She glances nervously between us.

Drake pulls her hand to his mouth and places a kiss on each knuckle.

“You’re here because this is where you belong. Don’t let that man’s twisted mind poison your sweet soul.”

Her cheeks flush and she slides the plumpness of her bottom lip between her teeth.

I look away. Last time she did that we nearly devoured her with our kisses. Grey would kill us if he could see us barely hanging on with her between us like this.

A look over her head at Drake and his darkened expression says he’s feeling the same plight I am, but we have a lot to go over before morning comes. Since hauling her off to bed isn’t the best foot forward, I settle for the second-best thing for now. I slip my suit jacket off and wrap it around her trembling shoulders, taking comfort my body heat is now warming her.

I’m not seeing things when I see her shoulders relax a fraction or when she buries her hands in the dark cloth and inhales my scent.

That one action makes my already hard cock twitch.

“Mo chroí,” I whisper before I can help myself. My heart.

I think back to my family when I was only a small child and what my Irish father would whisper to my mother in the old tongue before he headed out the door each morning to provide for his family. Growing up, we were near penniless and more often than not did without. After I looked on as my father died beaten down, overworked and still broke, I vowed to work for a better life. My two best friends followed, and now we sit at the top of the food chain of the underworld. A white-collar life with a criminal infrastructure. Crime pays. Don’t ever think it doesn’t.

All that doesn’t mean I don’t value the lessons my father taught me. My father understood love and family came above all else and no amount of time or money will change that. The legacy he instilled in his son early on in life will carry on long after I’ve left this world through the children we father with Katriona.

We are no saints, but we are not evil either and live by a set of rules. Human trafficking, drugs, and prostitution are all off-limits. Most think those are the only areas to make a handsome living, but they are wrong and have a limited imagination.

Unlike Katriona’s father. With him, anything was on the table. And now his right-hand man wants the Kane family business. Eventually his own ego was his downfall, and I plan on being the man behind the bullet that will send him into the afterlife to protect what’s mine. And I’ll make no apologies for it.

I reach out and tighten my jacket around her shoulders and take comfort when the fear in her eyes lessens as she leans into me.

In that instant, it all becomes crystal clear. She’s our queen and means more to us than the air filling our lungs. How is that even fucking possible? I’m a fucking criminal by any definition of the word and here I am ready to recite God damned lines of Shakespeare for a woman I’ve only kissed.

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