Page 128 of Merciless Desires

“I got it. Come here, Sophie.” She skips toward me, and the way she’s so trusting kills me. “Big bow or little one?”

“Hmmm. I don’t know.”

“The big ones look floppy, in my opinion.” I slide the ribbon under the neat ponytail and make a tight bow, thinking of how I used to do this for Katya. “And then all this pretty ribbon is hidden.” I turn her toward the shiny reflection of the sliding glass doors to the backyard. “See how the ends sit on your shoulders?”

“It’s so pretty. Olivia made them floppy.” Sophie looks down. “I’m going to miss her.”

My heart breaks for this little girl. First her mother and now her nanny.

“Okay, I have all the food packed up.” Darragh slings a boxy cooler bag across his broad shoulders.

“Bye, Ana.” Sophie singsongs as she opens the door to the garage. “Daddy, it’s raining.”

“It’s always raining, Soph.” Darragh fishes out an umbrella from a stand near the garage door.

“Can I bring my phone?” Sophie asks.

“No. That’s for emergencies at school.”

A seven-year-old has a phone? But with her allergy, it makes sense.

I hold the door open for Darragh. “Do you need me to do anything while you’re gone?”

“No.” He gives me a look. “Do I need to lock you in here?”

The idea of him tying me up sends waves of pleasure through me. “I have nowhere to go.”

“Good girl.” He looks horrified. “I mean…”

“I know what you mean.” God, I really do.

There’s a force between us we’re both struggling to deny.

What’s wrong with me? With us? Falling for Darragh, after what his brother put me through, makes me more reckless than Cormac, who flirted with my father’s dangerous brotherhood by keeping me a prisoner.

“Um… I saw a library behind the living room.”

“I just had it renovated,” Darragh says, looking frustrated. “I didn’t put the books away yet.”

“Oh.” I perk up at the idea I can do something that doesn’t include sitting on the hot Vegas asphalt begging for change. “I can put the books away.”

“I don’t want you lifting anything.”

I narrow my eyes. “Now you’re being ridiculous.”

“Daddy, we’re going to be late.” Sophie’s voice echoes from the garage.

“Fine, you can put some books away. Please, be here when I get home.”

I just smile. With the bar so low, I can bust into his bedroom, take a nap in his bed, rearrange all his drawers, and he’ll be relieved I didn’t leave.

When his silver Benz pulls away, and the garage door closes, I’m struck with feeling so alone, it cripples me for a moment. Getting past the emptiness, because I’m going to have to get used to it, I take my cold tea and head into the library.

Boxes are stacked on a long, handsome table in the center of the room under an iron and mesh hanging light. The smell of freshly carved wooden bookshelves strikes me with a memory of home…with Papa. In his library. But it’s his yelling and his cruelty that echo inside me.

Katya… What have I done by leaving her there? I have to believe if anything bad happened to her, Cormac would have known, since he and Darragh spoke occasionally. I heard Darragh had been back home to Astoria to see his mother. Cormac would have said something to me, even just to torment me.

Sweet Katya… She’s a college senior now. Hopefully she’ll get a position with a dance troupe and leave Astoria forever. Maybe find her mother.

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