Black (Thor Book 1)
Page 21
“Paddy,” Sissy said indulgently. “You hooked up with women everywhere. Who was it this time?”
“What do I know? Someone called –”
“Aren’t you playing tonight?” I squealed loudly because Black and Ice had joined us.
“Yeah,” Black said and looked at me. “Are you okay?”
“She’s fine,” Ronnie hastily assured him and went on to share her assessment of my mental state with the crowd in front of her, “Just fine. More than fine. Excellent, in fact.” She turned toward Ice and hissed, “Aren’t you playing tonight?”
Ice’s brows went up, but he got that something was going on and shuffled his siblings toward the stage with a look over his shoulder which meant I had some explaining to do later.
“Cas,” Joke murmured into my ear and pulled me closer. “What’s going on?”
I looked up at him, and since it would come out eventually, I’d leave it to the very calm and smooth man to do damage control.
“Paddy fucked Black’s ex-wife Leeanne ten years ago. Although since they were still technically married, she was actually his wife at the time of the deed.” Jokes eyes widened, and my mouth kept blabbering, “So, yeah. I guess that makes them, um... bang brothers?”
We stared at each other for a second and Joke looked as stunned as I had been a few moments earlier.
“This is not good,” he rasped out.
“I know.”
I felt how his belly started to quiver.
“Bang brothers?”
“Focus,” I hissed. “If Black kills Paddy I’m going to have to bury the body.”
“He’s not gonna –”
“He might.”
Joke winced.
“We’ll deal with that later. I’ll tell Paddy to shut the hell up about it until we’ve left.”
“Good plan.”
“Jesus.”
“Uh-huh.” I stared at him, and added, “Shots?”
“Fuck, yeah,” he said emphatically.
I looked at Ronnie who was filling glasses already and a couple of shots later, we’d stopped laughing again, which was good because the band started playing.
Black was taking the lead, but both Ice and Sissy were singing too, and they did Springsteen’s Badlands.
They did it because it was my favorite and I watched the man I loved do a version that I hadn’t thought was possible.
No one could make that song better than the boss himself.
I knew this for a fact because I had listened to it millions of times, and it was Bruce Springsteen, and no one could do what he did.
No one.
Except they did.
Sissy did the sax solos on a harmonica, and Ice and Black played the guitars.
And Black’s voice shot through everyone in a way that had people dancing and cheering.
I saw Gee with tears on her cheeks and how Roddy had to steady her when their three grown-up children used their voices to share in perfect harmony that it wasn’t a sin to be glad to be alive.
Joke put an arm around me and handed me a handful of tissue paper, so I assumed I had tears on my cheeks too, but I didn’t care.
When they finished the song, Black put the guitar away and came straight to me.
“Babe, for fuck’s sake,” he murmured. “Stop crying, or I’ll stop singing.”
“You look so good up there, Einar,” I said. “If you’d gotten that record deal, we wouldn’t have met.”
“What?”
“I love you.”
“Love you too, baby, and it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“What?”
“I realized before that I don’t care about Leeanne and how our marriage was kind of shitty. I don’t care about losing out on a record deal that I might not have gotten anyway. All I care about is what I have now and what I have now is fucking good.”
Then his mouth was on mine, and his tongue slid inside. I kissed him back and didn’t mind that we were in the middle of a crowded bar because it felt as if we were all alone.
“You love me,” he murmured against my lips.
“Yeah.”
“You’re going to stay here in Rogan.”
I had planned to do just that and had sold my part of the duplex to Bill.
It turned out that his and Patty’s marriage had been shaky for quite a while, and when Patty conveniently forgot to tell anyone about the mad Sheriff being on the loose, Bill had exploded in a way that pushed buttons with Patty he shouldn’t have touched. Now they were splitting up, and Bill was going to live in the part of the house I’d been in all those years.
I had not shared this with Black, though, and didn’t like how he had highhandedly dictated my future whereabouts.
“I might go back to –”
“What did I tell you?” he said calmly.
“You could ask,” I murmured.
“Not gonna fucking ask. You might say no, so I won’t.”
“So, you just tell me that I will stay in Rogan?”
“Yup.”
“Do you really think this is romantic?”
“No. You’ll get romance some other time. Right now, you get to decide to stay in Rogan.”
I stared up into his eyes and decided that he would totally give me romance later, in the form of doing me from behind.
“Okay then,” I said.
I hadn’t realized that he’d worried but felt how he relaxed when I agreed and stepped in closer. He leaned down and brushed my mouth with his lips.
“Will you stay here with me?” he murmured against my mouth.
“See, that wasn’t so hard?”
“Cassandra.”
“Yes, Einar, I’ll stay.”
“Good. I love you, baby.”
“All you needed to say.”
Our eyes met, and we grinned at each other.
“So, you don’t care about Leeanne anymore?” I asked.
His brows went up high on his forehead.
“Babe, what the hell? No.”
“Good,” I murmured and glanced over at Sissy and Ice who stood with her friends. The gorgeous redheaded man named Day was leaning on the bar, apparently having some trouble breathing, and everyone else was laughing loudly. Everyone except Paddy who looked utterly aghast.
“Then you won’t mind that Paddy Callaghan slept with Leeanne ten years ago. While you technically still were married.”
Black stopped moving for a beat, but then he turned slowly.
Their eyes met, and Paddy winced.
Black inhaled deeply, threw his head back and started laughing.
“God,” he snorted when he’d calmed down. “No, babe. I don’t care. Got all I need right here.”
His arm tightened slightly, and he was so gorgeous when he grinned down at me that I couldn’t do anything but return the smile.
His black eyes were full of love, and I knew without a doubt that I had all I needed right there too.
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XOXO/Mia
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dear Reader
THEN
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
BETWEEN
Chapter Six
NOW
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter
Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
A reminder
Table of Contents