Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Her back bowed, and her lips opened in a cry that he wanted to eat. Aiden heard the office door open, but he didn’t stop, finishing her off and cursing himself for having a goddamn plan that didn’t involve sinking into her. Not yet.
A throat cleared behind them, and he shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over her lap before turning to find Liam standing there. “Yes?”
“Teague and Callista are in the dining room with Moira.” He hesitated. “There was no mistaking the sounds coming out of this office as they walked past.”
That was the goal, but Aiden still glanced at Charlie to see if it bothered her. In the fifteen seconds it had taken Liam to deliver his report, she’d managed to fix her dress and stand. The only indication of what they’d just been doing was a flush to her cheeks and chest that hadn’t been there before, and her nipples pressing against her dress.
And his rock-hard cockstand.
“Good.” She passed back his jacket and adjusted her hair. “Then I suppose it’s time for me to meet the family.”
Liam’s gaze jumped between them, but he just nodded. Aiden would hear what he thought of this mess later, he had no doubt—but his man wouldn’t question him while they had an audience. “I’ll let them know you’re on the way.”
“Do that.” Aiden waited for the door to shut to turn and face Charlie. “Most of my siblings won’t believe us.”
She arched her eyebrows. He kind of hated that she’d put herself together so quickly, even if that was a valuable skill to have. “That’s to be expected, I’d think.”
“Yeah, well, my sister Carrigan is the sole exception.” He’d gone back and forth about inviting Carrigan to this dinner. Her husband, James Halloran, was still more enemy than ally, and she never went to any of these types of things without him. His presence could very well agitate the issue, and that wasn’t even taking into account that Carrigan could go for Charlie’s throat.
He ran a hand over his mouth. “She’s overprotective, even if we rarely see eye to eye these days.”
“She’s going to label me a gold digger and a whore, then.”
“My sister doesn’t slut-shame.” He didn’t know why he was defending her. If Carrigan had married Dmitri Romanov like their father had arranged in the first place, he’d be their ally instead of their enemy…
Aiden shuddered a little at the thought of Carrigan at Dmitri’s side. The wild and fiery part of her that came to life in James’s presence would have died as a result of that marriage.
But he doubted his sister’s vengeance for being forced in that relationship would have spared her own family. She would’ve helped Romanov take over the entire eastern seaboard inside of five years—Boston included.
“Bully for her.” Charlie gave a mirthless smile, drawing him back to the present. “I can handle it.”
“I know.” It was why he’d recruited Charlie in the first place.
That, and because of her father.
The same FBI agent his brother Teague had been supplying with information for years.
Aiden smothered his rage. Both at his brother and John Finch.
Keep it locked down.
He offered Charlie his arm. “Shall we?”
She nodded, no evidence of anything but calm confidence on her face. She would have made one hell of an undercover cop. She smiled. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter Four
Charlie braced herself, nearly overwhelmed when Aiden led her into a room with eight other people—three couples and two little girls. They were talking, though tension ran through the space like fault lines.
And the power.
Good God, the power.
She’d once read a book that described one of the characters as wearing a mantle of power. Back then, it had been impossible to wrap her head around. Now, standing in this room, she understood.
Liam had given her a brief rundown of the family tree while they were shopping today, so she could put names with faces without too much trouble. The blond woman sitting at the table was Callista Sheridan, newly appointed head of the Sheridan clan. Her husband, Teague, was Aiden’s middle brother, and the small child in his lap with a head full of curls was Teague and Callista’s daughter, Moira. Callista was pregnant again, far enough along to show. They should have looked like just another American family—and they did, until Charlie looked into the woman’s blue eyes.
If she thought I was a threat to her family, Callista Sheridan would kill me without a second thought and bury my body where it would never be found.
The thought left Charlie cold. Rationally, she’d compared Aiden to Romanov and she knew he wasn’t some good man who just happened to run one of the three crime families who ruled Boston. But now that she was standing in a room with both him and the other two-thirds of that power wheel, it was clear…Aiden was ruthless.