Page 85 of Dirty Eoin

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“Take a seat, Molly.”

She closes my office door and walks into the room. I know she won’t take a chair willingly. We’re alone. She’ll attempt to sit on my lap like she always does. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t mind, but if Jaine were to walk in and find her there, there would be hell to pay.

To avoid any compromising situations, I stand and move towards the window. The view is magnificent. The best the building has to offer. It affords me the very best sight over my extensive kingdom.

I turn around. Having removed all temptation, Molly’s now seated exactly where Jaine was earlier.

I can’t help but compare the two.

Molly’s also professionally dressed, but aside from that, it’s a complete contrast. Jaine’s blonde hair and green eyes on a too-slim figure and Molly’s black hair and pale blue eyes on a body that’s slim but curved in all the right places.

I know which one I want. Then again, haven’t I always?

She looks up at me and smiles. She’s not right for me. Far from it. She also has several attributes that make her wrong for the role of Ma Duster.

But she saved my life. She was there for me when it mattered. She sank a bullet into the skull of the Colombian scum who was pressing a gun to my head and was about to pull the trigger.

And that changed everything.

Still. Family comes first. It has to. Finian is family. That makes Jaine family. I’m telling myself that’s all this is with Jaine. That I’m simply doing the right thing. But I know I’m lying. It’s more. Way more. How much more I don’t know, but I want to find out. I need to find out.

I will find out.

And if the only way I can do that is by letting Molly go, then that is what I’ll do. If I don’t and thisthingwith Jaine develops further, then Molly stands to get hurt a whole lot more further down the line. It’s best to nip it in the bud now for everyone’s sake.

I know she won’t take it lying down. She had her sights firmly set on being my wife and the next Ma Duster.

“I can’t marry you, Molly.”

She stares at me, her eyes unblinking, and then she laughs exaggeratedly. “Very funny, Eoin.”

I keep my expression impassive. “I’m being serious. I can’t extract myself from the marriage with Jaine. Protection of young Finian has to take priority over everything else.”

“I know he’s your son. But maybe we could adopt him. Make him our son. Give him brothers and sisters. I know you want a large family. I want that too, I…”

I interject. “He’s not my son. He’s Padraig’s son.”

A frown mars her forehead. “What are you saying?”

“What I’m saying is that Jaine and Paddy reconnected before he was entered into the arranged marriage with Sophia. Fin is the result of that reconnection. But with the current unrest within the Sicilian mafia, more specifically between the organization and the Ruoccos, it’s not safe to reveal his true parentage at this time.”

She frowns. “But why couldn’t Jaine just continue to pretend that he was Ace’s child?”

“The O’Connell birthmark.”

She nods. “And why couldn’t someone else have married her? Aidan or one of the other cousins.”

“They weren’t living in New York at the time. It was around then that I first met her as you already know.”

“So you were chosen as the scapegoat.”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Then why can’t we just continue as we are? That we’re together and your relationship with her is fake.”

She stands and walks slowly towards me. It’s her walk of seduction. I’ve been the recipient of it more times than I can count. I watch as she sashays her slim hips invitingly while licking her lips. Sadly, for her, neither has the desired effect on me now.

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