by Penelope Sky
Something must have been going through Bosco’s mind because he stood up and followed his brother to the doorway. “Ronan.”
Ronan turned around and gave his brother a serious look.
Bosco sighed, like he was restraining himself from some source of anger. “I’m sorry for barking at you. Not sure what came over me.”
I raised an eyebrow, shocked Bosco actually apologized for something.
Ronan grinned then tapped him on the shoulder. “I know you’re working on it. And I know you can’t see straight when it comes to this woman, so I’ll cut you some slack. Besides, I was giving you shit.” He winked then walked out.
I turned my head to the desk, and that’s when I noticed the picture that was sitting there. It was a picture of Bosco and Ronan along with an older woman. Judging by the color of her hair and eyes, it must be their mother. With a beautiful smile and tears in her eyes, she looked happy surrounded by her two adult sons.
I immediately forgave Bosco for being an asshole because the picture made my heart soften. He had a heart underneath all that aggression. It was there, even if no one could see it. Then he’d apologized to his brother in front of me, which was another curveball.
Ronan left then Bosco moved to the couch across from me where his brother had been sitting. He massaged his knuckles like he’d just punched someone. He stared at his hands as he hunched forward, his jaw clenched.
“Is that your mother?”
He didn’t look at the picture. “Yes.”
“She was beautiful.”
“I know.” A hint of pride was in his voice, buried deep under his anger. “That was taken a year before she died.”
I stared at the picture again before I turned back to him, watching him stare at his hands. “What happened that day? A birthday? A holiday?” I couldn’t tell what time of year it was because it was a close-up, but she seemed emotional in the picture.
“Ronan and I bought her a new car for Christmas. She used to drive this beat-up piece of shit, so we got her her dream car. A brand-new Mercedes.” He finally lifted his gaze and looked at the picture, the emotion absent from his eyes. “I don’t think she cared that much about the car, just the fact that we got it for her.”
“It’s the thought that matters, not the gift.”
He nodded. “I still have it. It’s in the garage. Didn’t have the heart to sell it.”
He seemed so cold most of the time that I forgot he had a huge heart. He rarely showed it. If I hadn’t known about his mother, I might never have realized it. “I’m sorry she’s not here anymore. I can tell you miss her.”
“Every day.” There was a hint of shame in his voice. “She could have abandoned us too, just the way our father did. She never did. Life was hard, but that didn’t stop her from being happy. Even though money was always a problem, I never felt unloved. She was a remarkable woman, and the world is worse off without her.”
Listening to him brought tears to my eyes. I couldn’t imagine my life without my parents. They were the greatest parents in the world. There was never a time when I didn’t feel loved. “You love your brother too.”
He nodded. “We’ve had our problems.”
Since he was opening up to me, I pushed the envelope a little further. “What happened?”
He grabbed the glass of scotch in front of him and took a long drink, stalling as he considered what his answer would be. He licked his lips quickly, in a sexy way only he could pull off. With his elbows resting on his knees and his weight shifted forward, he looked at me. “Ronan didn’t do anything. I’m the one who fucked everything up.” He brought his hands together, both of his palms flat as he lined up his fingers. “When Mom died, I just shut down. Her death gnawed at me because there was so much regret. She told me she’d been feeling pain for a few months, but she brushed it off as nothing and never went to the doctor. Only when it got really bad did she see someone. By then, the cancer had spread, and there was nothing that could be done.” He shook his head. “I always wonder what if… What if she’d been seen sooner?”
My heart ached as I listened to this, listen to this strong man show his weakness.
“She and I were really close, so losing her just made me shut down. I turned cold to everyone—including my brother. We stopped spending time together, and I just…cut him out. The only time I saw him was at work, and I kept pulling away. He called me out on it a few weeks ago. I thought about it for a while and realized he was right. I’ve been so angry at the world because of what happened… But I need to get over it. It’s been five years. I shouldn’t be this bitter and this angry. My mother would be disappointed in me for letting it affect my relationship with Ronan. So I’ve been working on it, trying to talk to him, be less of an asshole…”
I watched him from my spot on the leather couch, my scotch untouched because all I cared about was him. We were hundreds of feet underground, so we were completely alone. No one could bother us down here. No one could hear his secrets.
“I’ve come to realize that it’s nearly impossible for me not to be an asshole.”
“That’s not true.” The words flew out of my mouth automatically.
He lifted his gaze to look at me. “It is.”
“You’re an asshole sometimes, yes. But not all the time. You can be a good man when you want to be. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
He held my gaze, his look still cold. “I just made you sign a contract, claiming my ownership.”
“You didn’t make me do anything, Bosco. I’m not a woman you can make do anything.” If I really wanted out of this, I could walk away. Bosco was a formidable man, but he wasn’t evil. Even though I’d signed the contract, I could still get out of it. But at least now he knew I wanted this relationship to end for good in two and a half months. This was a fling with an expiration date, and I wouldn’t change my mind.
The corner of his mouth rose in a smile. “I’m a hard man who makes hard decisions every day. I never lose any sleep at night because of it. But I’ve been too hard on Ronan. I’ve treated him like one of the other men…like he doesn’t matter.”
“We all lose our way sometimes.”
He nodded. “I’m still lost. Now I’m trying to find my way back.” He was a transparent man, so secure in his masculinity that he didn’t care what he shared with me. His vulnerability didn’t take anything away from his strength. He would still walk through that casino with the power of a king, even if he wore his heart on his sleeve. He was a fascinating man, far more complex than I realized.
“Ronan loves you. I can tell just by watching the two of you together.”
“Yes…I’m very fortunate.”
“And he knows you love him too…because you just showed it.”
Bosco leaned back against the chair, his knees spread apart and his shoulders broad. With his elbow propped on the armrest, he rested his fingers over his lips, watching me closely. It seemed like his sensitive side had faded away, and now he was aggressive once more. “You’ll be on your family’s property for the wedding?”
“Yes. The wedding is at Carter’s, but I’ll be staying with my parents.”
“I won’t be able to have my men follow you there.”
I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. “Which is perfectly fine. There’s no safer place in the world than with my family.”
“Correction,” he said. “The safest place in the world is by my side.”
I didn’t deny that because it was probably true. “So, where are we, exactly?”
“Two hundred feet below ground.”
“That’s a little scary…what if the elevator shuts down?”
He shrugged. “I’ll let you know when that happens.”
“Why do you have it this way?”
“All my files and data are securely stored. If someone gets on that elevator other than Ronan and me, it’s supposed to crash down to the bottom.”
That was a gruesome death. “I’m
sure you’ve thought this through, but if someone really wanted to kill you, couldn’t they just wait until you went down here and then cut the wires in the elevator so you could never get out?”
He kept the same expression, so the suggestion must not have been surprising to him. “No one knows what’s at the bottom of the elevator—except Ronan. No one knows how deep it goes. My men only know what they need to know to do their jobs.”
“How do you keep them so loyal?” They behaved like dogs eager for a treat.
“They’re paid very handsomely. And it’s a relatively safe job, so they know they’ll go home to their families at the end of the day.”
“Safe?” I asked in surprise.
“I’ve been in charge for a decade now. There’ve been no issues. And everyone wants to play for the winning team, especially when I have fifty men working for me at any given time of the day. That’s a lot of support. If there were only a dozen, that would change the game.”
“So you basically have a whole army?”
He nodded. “Yes. That’s a good way to put it.”
I’d never asked him how old he was. He seemed to be my brother’s age, but judging by how grizzled he was, he might be a little older. “How old are you?”
“Seven years older than you.”
“So you know how old I am?”
“I know everything about you,” he said with a smirk. “Everything that’s public record, at least.”
“You’re thirty-two, then.”
“Yes. I’m probably old in your eyes.”
“No.” I liked older men. I always assumed I would settle down with a man around his age. My father always encouraged it, said a man needed to live more life than a woman to understand what he wanted. A man also needed to be older before he had children, because they never seemed to be ready for fatherhood. “How old is your brother?”
“Thirty.”
“You guys look so much alike.”
“I hope you don’t really find him more handsome.” He gave me a lopsided grin, telling me he was joking.
“No.” I smiled back. “You’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.” Once the humiliation hit me like a train, my smile disappeared and I regretted my choice of words. Dumb compliments like that were constantly rolling out of my mouth lately, and I felt stupid every single time. It was obvious he was obsessed with me, but it was becoming more obvious that I was obsessed with him.
His grin disappeared, and he gave me a serious expression, without a hint of gloating. He didn’t smirk in arrogance like he usually did. He took my comment seriously but not with victory. It was difficult to tell if it meant something to him or meant nothing at all. He leaned back against the couch then tapped his thigh, quietly commanding me to move to his lap.
Normally, I would have denied an invitation like that, but he looked so handsome in that moment, his hard jawline chiseled from stone and his shoulders broad. He had muscular thighs that were comfortable to sit on, and his enormous dick was outlined in the front of his slacks, making a bulge so defined, it left very little to the imagination.
I left the comfort of the leather couch and moved to his lap, straddling his narrow hips and letting my center rest against the base of his thick shaft. I leaned forward against his chest, feeling like I was propped against a concrete building. My dress popped up over my ass because it was too short to cover my rear at an angle like this.
He pulled me closer to him until our foreheads were pressed together. He didn’t kiss me, just sat there with me. His fingertips brushed against the soft skin of my cheek and neck, feeling my strands of curled tresses. Sometimes his eyes flicked down to my lips, staring at the red shade I had painted across my mouth. A hint of cigar smoke was on his breath, but I actually liked the smell, probably because it mixed with his cologne and soap. I could still feel how hard he was underneath me, but he didn’t pull down my panties to take me in his office.
He grabbed both of my hips and squeezed them. “I’m madly, deeply, blindly obsessed with you. When our time together ends, it’s gonna be hard for me to let you go. I will because I made you a promise. But trust me, it’s gonna be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
When I woke up the next morning, my back was against the couch, and Bosco was pressed against my chest. I’d been wrapped in his suit jacket and his collared shirt so I would stay warm through the night. My dress was somewhere on the floor, and my heels were nowhere to be seen. Bosco was completely naked, unaffected by the cold. His arm was wrapped around my body, and he’d offered his shoulder as a pillow for me to use.
My eyes opened slowly, expecting to see spots of sunshine enter through the windows. The lighting was exactly the same because we were deep underground. Only the lights on the ceiling cast any illumination. There was no way to figure out what time it was.
I hoped I could still make it to work on time.
Bosco stirred when I did. He was usually up at least thirty minutes before I was, without the need for an alarm. I hoped that meant he was awake at his usual hour, and we both hadn’t slept in.
He peeled away my clothing and kissed my shoulder before he kissed me on the mouth. “Morning, Beautiful.”
I grabbed his right wrist and looked at the time, grateful it was only six in the morning. “We didn’t oversleep, thankfully.”
“I don’t know how to oversleep.” He pulled more of the clothing away so he could kiss the area between my tits and trail his mouth down my sternum. He moved his lips over my rib cage, kissing me until he reached my belly button. “And why would I want to sleep when I have you beside me?” He positioned my back against the couch before he hiked my leg over his shoulder. He folded my body underneath him so he could thrust his cock inside me. I was still full from the come he’d dumped inside me the night before, so he must be sliding through it at that very moment.
Morning sex was the best because everything felt so good right when I woke up. It was so much easier to get off, especially when he pounded into me right away. At night, I liked to make it last a long time, but first thing in the morning, we both had things to do so it was usually quick.
But amazing.
He fucked me good and hard, driving me into an orgasm instantly. I clawed at his back as my pussy clenched him tightly, moaning into his neck even though I could be as loud as I wanted down here.
He came the second I was finished, like he could have released any moment once he was inside me. He filled my pussy with a groan, adding more to the pile he’d made the night before. “Perfect pussy.” He stayed inside me until his cock softened before he slowly pulled out, dripping come in between my inner thighs.
He pulled on his boxers, slacks, and socks before he got his shoes on and tied the laces.
“What do you think is going on up there?”
“The casino will be closed. A new security team will be waiting by the elevators.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t check on you.”
“They know to come only when I call.”
I stripped off his clothes and put mine back on. “But what if I tried to kill you?”
He scoffed, like that was impossible. “I’d like to see you try. It would probably make me want you more.” He buttoned up his shirt then pulled his tie through the collar.
I slipped on my heels then walked into the bathroom to see my makeup in the mirror. I looked like a nightmare. My mascara was smeared to the point it looked like those black marks American football players wiped under their eyes. My lipstick was all over the place too, reaching past my mouth and up my cheek. “I look terrible.” I quickly washed my face in the sink, preferring no makeup to this clownish look. I walked back into the room.
Bosco got off the phone and shoved it into his pocket. “You’re the kind of woman that looks beautiful with or without makeup. So even when it’s not perfect, you still are.” He gave me that handsome smile, just a hint of a true grin. He put himself back together like he hadn’t spent the night sleeping on
a couch. The only indication he’d been fucking me all night was his messed-up hair. When he was on top of me, I liked to fist it pretty hard, feel those short strands between my fingertips.
“You always know the right thing to say.”
“Yes.” He grabbed my hips and gave me a soft kiss on the mouth. “The truth.”
Vanessa came into the shop around lunchtime, her belly a little bigger than before. “Hey, I feel like we haven’t talked in forever.”
The last two weeks had flown by quickly. I’d packed up my things and moved in with Bosco without looking back. We’d been sleeping and fucking around the clock, sharing dinner and breakfast if we were at the penthouse at the same time. “I know. How’s the baby?”
She rolled her eyes. “The baby is fine. The question is, how are you? What happened with Bosco?”
Bosco told me to lie about our relationship, and I’d agreed to it. We could enjoy our final three months together without having to worry about any interference. But the idea of lying to Vanessa made me sick to my stomach. She was my best friend, and it didn’t feel right to make up a story. But since that was what we’d agreed on, I stuck to the plan. “I ended things. He took it hard in the beginning, but he let me go.”
“Really?” she asked in surprise. “Wow, maybe the guy wasn’t that bad, after all.”
It was getting harder for me to remember that he was a bad guy, not a good one. “Yeah…there are definitely worse men out there.”
“Well, problem solved. You wanna get lunch?”
“Sure.” I locked up the shop, and we went to our favorite cafe. We ordered our food then sat at a table near the window. Vanessa would normally order a coffee at lunchtime, but since she was pregnant, one of her favorite things had been taken away. But she certainly made up for it by eating more calories.
“How’s Griffin?” I asked.
“It’s taken some time for him to get used to a slower career. He says it can be boring at times. Not much action going on.”