Colin (The Doherty Mafia Book 3)

by Kasey Krane

  I rubbed a hand over my face, trying not to recall the police report I read on Tina.

  “I had nothing to do with her death. I was in love with that girl. She was the first person I opened myself to after what happened to my mother.”

  Marley sniffed deeply. She wasn’t crying anymore. I hated to see her cry.

  “I believe you, Colin. You don’t have to try and convince me anymore. I knew Aldo was lying to try and get me to work with him. He knew I was on the fence about helping him. He tried to turn me against you.”

  “And instead of asking me about the truth, you decided to leave.”

  “Would you have told me if I asked? You weren’t willing to tell me anything about your life.”

  I looked at her in disbelief. It was still so hard for me to wrap my brain around the idea that she was a police detective. That she had been duping me this whole time.

  How quickly had she realized who I was?

  I was the one who pursued her at the bar, right? Or was I just imagining that? It was all a drunken haze and I couldn’t remember.

  “I know it is me who you shouldn’t be able to trust, because I have been lying to you,” Marley said, interrupting my thoughts.

  Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.

  “Which is why I didn’t see the point in staying here. Our relationship, whatever it was, was built on lies and deceit. You were hiding your life from me, I was hiding my identity from you. We were doomed from the start.”

  She looked sad as she spoke, and I felt it in my ribs too. A physical pain like being punched. But I knew she was right.

  We were doomed.

  “I don’t think I can be with anyone, not after what happened to my mom and Tina. I can’t involve another woman in my life and set her up for a similar fate,” I said.

  Marley nodded.

  “Yeah, I don’t think I can be with anyone either.”

  “Is this because of your parents?” I asked.

  Maybe I should have let it go instead of demanding an explanation. Marley didn’t owe me an explanation. Wasn’t this what I wanted—for us to part ways amicably?

  She looked out of the window into the dark distance and sighed.

  “Yeah, I guess so. I don’t know. I’ve just never…had a good impression of men.”

  “Because your parents fought a lot,” I said. I knew what she was talking about. She had given me a pretty good idea of it already.

  “He used to hit her,” Marley confessed. She wasn’t looking at me but I could see the reflection of her face in the glass window. I watched as she pressed her eyes close like she was trying to shut the world out of her view. “He didn’t think I knew. He still played the good dad part when I was around. But I knew what was going on. It was why she resented him so much.”

  I wanted to hold her. I wanted her to know how angry that made me.

  Hurting women and children went against every moral code I believed in.

  “So your father was a pussy,” I growled.

  Marley turned to me. Her eyes were red. I wanted to pull her into my arms but I didn’t know if she wanted that too.

  “I just don’t understand why my mom stayed with him as long as she did. Maybe she thought she had to. Maybe she was doing it for me. I don’t know. All I know is I decided a long time ago that I wouldn’t put myself in that position again.”

  “You think every man is like your father?”

  Marley blinked rapidly.

  “Every man I work with is definitely like my father. The only thing they believe I’m good for is a piece of meat. To bring them their coffee. They don’t see me as a fellow detective. They don’t think I can contribute.”

  “So you tried to build this case against me to prove to them you are worth more than that.”

  I could see she was struggling to hold back her tears. This wasn’t what I wanted—I didn’t want to make her feel like shit. I just wanted her to know that I understood.

  “I know how stupid that sounds,” she said.

  “It’s stupid because you shouldn’t have to try that hard, you shouldn’t have to try at all. Anybody who bothers to get to know you will know what you’re worth,” I said.

  I surprised myself by even managing to express myself that way. It was how I felt, it was the truth.

  Marley hung her head, sniffing hard to pull back the tears.

  “I’ve made a complete fool of myself and got into trouble in the process. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “You thought you were doing your job.”

  “I don’t want to do it anymore,” she said.

  She stared at me, expecting me to say something.

  “You want to quit?” I asked.

  Marley knotted her fingers together nervously in her lap.

  “Yes. I’m quitting. I don’t want to do it anymore.”

  “You don’t want to be a detective?”

  “I don’t think I can. The lines between good and evil are all blurred to me now. I need some time off…everything, to be able to think clearly again.”

  “Is it because of me?” I asked.

  Finally, there was a trace of a smile on her face.

  “You had something to do with it, yeah.”

  “I’ve got all your lines of good and evil mixed up? You mean, I’m the evil one?”

  “That’s what I had been told, yeah. But I don’t see you as evil. I know you’re not evil.”

  “But you don’t know anything about me, Marley.”

  “I know enough to know what you’re capable of.”

  “So you’re switching sides?” I asked.

  There was a spark of hope in me again. A hope that maybe this could work. That maybe she might want to be with me again. As ridiculous as that sounded.

  An ex cop?

  How would I ever get my family to get behind this when they found out?

  No. It was never going to work.

  “I don’t want to be on any side. Not right now. I just want to do something with my life completely unrelated to the mafia.”

  She looked away, a little startled. This was the first time she used that word around me. All our cards were on the table now. There was nowhere to hide. She admitted she knew I belonged to the mafia, and I wasn’t going to correct her.

  “Good for you,” I said.

  She looked at me again, her chest heaving.

  “I…I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she mumbled.

  “But you want to do it far away from here. I gotcha.”

  “I just…” She was lost for words and I turned the key in the ignition.

  “Should we go back to the apartment? For the night? I can take you to the train station or airport in the morning if you want to leave. Whenever you want to leave. I’m just not letting you hitchhike. I’ll drive you to Vegas myself if that’s what it takes.”

  Marley licked her lips and nodded.

  “You don’t have to drive me. I’ll take a plane. Yes, let’s go back to your apartment now.”

  We were back on the road and there was more silence between us again.

  I wanted to know what was on her mind.

  I wished I could tell her exactly what I felt. How freaked I was when I thought something happened to her.

  I wished I had the words to tell her exactly what I felt for her, but that was too risky.

  That could hurt us both.

  Twenty-Nine

  Marley

  We made it through the door of his loft before he turned to me and pulled me into his arms.

  I thought he was going to strip my clothes off right then but he didn’t. Instead, he proceeded to kiss me.

  It was a slow deep kiss. His tongue slid into my mouth, deep down where he could taste every corner and inch of me. I gave into him, wrapping my arms around his neck and swaying with the rhythm of the kiss.

  His fingers were in my hair, pulling my ponytail loose that I tied. My hair swished down around my shoulders, he dug his fingers into the
back of my neck, then down until he grabbed my ass.

  He pulled me into him. I could feel the hardness of his cock. Did he know my pussy was wet?

  He smacked his mouth away from me and left a wet trail down my neck.

  “I want to own every part of you, Marley. Every inch of you,” he groaned as he started unbuttoning my jeans.

  I wanted to ask him what that meant. How could he own me if he was letting me go?

  He said he couldn’t be in a relationship…let alone a marriage.

  I panicked and told him I couldn’t be in one either.

  All the reasons I gave him were the truth. It was why I could never be with anyone. Not before him.

  Colin was the first man who made me doubt my staunch beliefs. He made me feel like I’d been stupid to paint every man with the same brush of my father’s.

  He peeled off my jeans and I undid his shirt. I sank my face into the center of his bare chest, breathing in the husky masculine scent of him. I never wanted to forget what this felt like. To be in his arms.

  He put his hand down my panties, stroking my clit wildly as he cupped and squeezed my ass with his other hand.

  I wanted to hold his cock. I wanted to make him feel good too.

  “I want…” I tried to get the words out, but he stopped me.

  “I don’t care what you want to do to me,” he said. His voice was so hard it shut me up.

  He swept me off the floor, making me gasp in surprise. Then he carried me to the kitchen table and plonked me down on the edge. First, he pulled off my panties, then he grabbed my knees and parted my legs before kneeling down in front of me.

  “Oh my God!” I managed to exclaim just as his mouth met my wet swollen pussy.

  His tongue was like magic, lapping, sucking, kissing, stroking. He thrust two fingers in simultaneously. Very quickly, he picked up a rhythm and I shook with the waves of pleasure that hit my body.

  He was going to make me come in minutes.

  I was so close to telling him how I felt.

  I came. Shaking all over. My toes were curled and I was about to squeal—I love you!

  But I didn’t.

  Somehow, I managed to do one less stupid thing that day.

  I knew it wasn’t something Colin wanted to hear. We were done.

  This was a goodbye fuck.

  Just as I was done coming, he stood up and pulled me down further until I was barely dangling off the edge of the table.

  He unzipped and took his cock out.

  He pushed himself into me, deep down. He wasn’t going to take it slow. He wanted me to remember him like this. The way he owned me tonight. The way he had saved me tonight.

  I knew now that Aldo Baron wouldn’t be able to touch me if he tried. Colin Doherty may not have been in love with me, but he cared enough to not let that asshole touch a hair on my head.

  He fucked me even harder than he did with his fingers. He groaned over me, placing his hands flat on the table on either side of me as he drilled his cock deep inside me.

  The table shook so hard I thought it was going to break. Maybe it would have if he kept fucking me like that for a few minutes longer.

  I was about to come again. Colin’s face hardened and his eyes turned dark when he came inside me. I bit down on my lip, thrusting myself upwards to him and welcoming his seed in me.

  We had unprotected sex so often in the last week…and until now, I hadn’t thought about the risk of getting pregnant by him. What if that happened?

  Colin’s handsome face loomed over me while he finished up. This orgasm was softer for me. My head was filled with fantasies of having a baby with him.

  Would he even want that? Would he want to know?

  But the idea of forever having a piece of him with me made me happy.

  I had never pictured myself as a mother before, but now I did. That was what Colin made me feel.

  Woman enough.

  He pulled himself out of me. We were both out of breath. I could barely think straight, let alone pull myself upright on the table.

  I just lay there, staring at him as he put on his clothes again.

  He said he would drive me to the airport the next morning, and then what?

  Would I ever see him again?

  Those damn tears threatened to pop up again.

  Did I really love him that much that I couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing him again?

  I almost got away. He should have let me go. I didn’t know how I would get through the rest of the night with him without falling apart.

  “I’d love a drink if you have one,” I squeaked.

  Colin looked at the fridge, like he was considering getting me a beer, but he didn’t.

  “I think we should talk first. I don’t want to drink before we do that. I don’t want you to make any bad decisions,” he replied.

  He made it sound so serious. My heart raced as he sat down across from me at the kitchen table. He made us both cups of coffee first.

  “What do you want to talk about? The annulment?” I asked.

  I was jumpy. I just wanted to get done with the conversation. I didn’t want to drag out the details of how we were going to end things.

  “Sure, we can talk about that, if that’s what you want,” he said.

  I watched as he weaved his fingers together. I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What we did back there,” he said with a grin. “I would like to keep doing that.”

  I had to put down my cup of coffee. My hand was shaking and I didn’t want him to see.

  “You want us to keep sleeping together?”

  “If that’s what you want too,” he said.

  “But I live in Las Vegas.”

  “And I live in New York.”

  “Yes, exactly,” I said.

  Colin cleared his throat and it seemed like he had something more important to say.

  “I guess what I’m trying to say…but not saying very well is…”

  “Colin…”

  We both kept interrupting each other. But then he lunged towards me and grabbed my hands.

  “I’m in love with you.”

  It was him. He said it first. And it felt like the air left my lungs. I couldn’t believe those words came from him.

  “What…” I murmured.

  Colin yanked my hands towards him, almost pulling me off the chair.

  “Listen to me Marley Price. I may have married you on a drunken whim, but I woke up the next morning and didn’t want you to leave. Do you get what I’m saying to you?”

  I nodded. My face was ashen white, I couldn’t think straight. There was so much I wanted to say to him too but he wouldn’t let me interrupt.

  “I thought I just needed to get rid of you, but then you decided to come here with me. And then we…we have been living together for a week, and I didn’t think I would feel this way about a woman. You’ve done something to me. This is all your fuckin’ fault!”

  I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me.

  He let go of my wrists and I slipped back in my chair. I stared at him without words. He had struck me into silence.

  “And now if you leave in the morning, I feel like I’ll lose my freakin’ mind. I don’t know how or why. I can’t let you go. But I will. If that’s what you really want. I understand why you wouldn’t want to live this life. I won’t force you.”

  Finally, I was able to do something. I was able to shake my head.

  “I don’t want to live any other life,” I said.

  Thirty

  Colin

  She said she didn’t want to leave. I couldn’t believe my ears. I thought we were done.

  I thought it was over between us.

  What girl in her right mind, especially a smart and beautiful girl like her, would want to stay with me?

  Marley stood up and came towards me. She slipped into my lap and wrapped her arms around me.

  “I’m in love with you too,
Colin Doherty,” she said with a smile.

  She brought her face close to mine, our lips almost grazed. Her delicate breath fell on my face and I wanted to engulf her. I would never let her go. I would give my life if I had to—to keep her safe.

  “Do you know the kind of life you’ll lead if you stay with me?”

  Her smile grew wider.

  “I think I know exactly the life I’ll lead. I’ll spend it with you. I’ll wake up next to you. You’ll spend all your nights next to me. I wouldn’t want anything else.”

  “You can have anything you want, Marley. You’re my wife.”

  She kissed my lips tenderly. I lost myself again.

  “I didn’t think you wanted to be with anyone,” she said.

  “I didn’t think I could. But I want to be with you. I want to try.”

  “You’re afraid of losing me. The way you lost your mother and your girlfriend.”

  She peered into my eyes. She was my weakness and I didn’t want her to see that. But she probably knew it already. She had to have known the kind of hold she had on me.

  We had only known each other a week and I was already asking her to…to stay married to me.

  “And you realize I’m not your father?” I asked.

  Marley nodded.

  “You’re nothing like him,” she replied tenderly and brushed the backs of her fingers on my cheek.

  I kissed her chin, then her mouth, then the tip of her nose.

  “So no annulment?” I asked.

  “I want to give this marriage thing a shot with you. Is that crazy? We have known each other for a week. The wedding was a sham.”

  “Does it matter?”

  I already knew I was going to give her a real wedding. Any damn wedding she wanted—as long as she was willing to stay with me. I didn’t even want her to get off my lap.

  Marley leaned in closer, kissing my earlobe and then framing my face with both her hands.

  “No, it doesn’t matter. All I know is that we made the best decision of our life that night, and I don’t even remember making it,” she said with a laugh.