Page 162 of Vicious Hearts

And I love him.

“Red or white?”

“You know what, Gail,” I shrug as I step grinning into the kitchen. “I don’t even care. Surprise me.”

39

CILLIAN

“Fuckin’bed rest, man.” Castle shakes his head, a deep scowl on his face. “Total fucking bullshit. I’mfine.”

“Yeah?” I walk across the floor of the spacious bedroom Castle has in the Upper East Side brownstone and pluck a football off of a little gold trophy stand on one of his shelves. I toss it up and down in my hand nonchalantly as I turn to him. “Want to go play a little catch out back?”

Much as he might want to, of course he can’t. Castle’s under strict doctor’s orders to stay in bed because of a fractured rib and some torn muscles in his back from when he yanked Calliope out of the way of being crushed alongside Neve’s car. But that doesn’t stop him from glaring at me.

“No,” he mutters. “But only because that’s a fucking collectible. Put it down, by the way.”

“It’s a used football, Castle.”

“Yeah,usedby Emmitt Smith for the last few yards of his record-smashing eighteen-thousand, three-hundred-fifty-five career rush yards. Put itdown, please.”

“The fuck is a rush yard?”

He rolls his eyes. “We really need to get you into watching American football.”

“Yeah, we really don’t.”

He sighs. “Okay, fuck this. I’m getting up. I’ve got shit to—”

“Catch.”

Castle lunges to the side, reaching for the football I’ve just lobbed his way. He makes it, but the look of bitten-back pain on his face and the groan he makes are unmissable. And he knows it, too.

“Prick.”

I grin, lifting a shoulder. “Stay in bed. Get healed. Nice flowers, by the way.”

I nod at the tasteful bouquet of yellow roses sitting in a vase next to his bed.

“Thanks. Callie sent them.”

I arch a brow.

“For fuckingsaving her,” he sighs. “Chill.”

“Women do love a hero.”

He rolls his eyes. “Shut up. She’s like twenty.”

“Says the man who’s all of thirty-two.”

“Andin an arranged engagement with Luca fucking Carveli, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“I’m sorry, are you trying to convince me or yourself right now?”

“Cillian?” he growls. “Seriously. Drop it.”

I chuckle. “Pity they didn’t prescribe anything for that crankiness.”

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