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When he moves onto the other nipple, I’m panting, and a thick fog of desire has settled over me. I can barely see straight, and I can’t think of anything except for Carter. And his hands and his hot and capable mouth.
Slowly, Carter kisses a path down to my center and pauses to glance up at me. His eyes are full of hunger and impatience as he pries my legs open and settles between my legs. My hands grab a fistful of the sheets on either side of me, and I arch my back. Carter uses one hand to stroke the inside of my thighs, and the other moves up to push my breasts together.
“We’re going to work up quite the appetite by the time we’re done.”
I throw my head back and moan his name when Carter’s tongue darts out and connects with my center.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Carter
I pour myself a generous amount of whiskey and lift the glass up to my lips. “Aren’t you supposed to be in town on business?”
Daniel steps out of the shadows of the hallway with one hand shoved into the pocket of his pants. “I do, but I can attend to multiple things at once.”
I take a long sip of my drink and study my uncle. “How are you going to manage all of this if you take over?”
Daniel doesn’t stop walking until he’s standing opposite the kitchen counter. “I’ll figure it out.”
I set the glass down with a little more force than necessary, causing some of the liquid to slosh over. “That’s not a good enough answer if you want to be the head of the Blackthorne family.”
If I’m going to be handing over the keys to the empire, I need to know my uncle can handle it. And while a part of me desperately wants to believe he’s the solution to my problems, I know better than to put all of my eggs in one basket.
Not where the Blackthorne empire is concerned.
“I don’t have the answer you want, Carter,” Daniel replies in an even voice. His eyes dart over to the bottle, and he pauses. “Let’s face it, nothing I tell you is going to be enough.”
I take another sip of my drink, and it burns a path down my throat. “What’s your fucking point?”
“You already know what you have to do,” Daniel says, his eyes flashing with emotion. “Especially with another Donahue on your case. Do you really want another target on your back with everything going on?”
I grip the glass a little too tightly. “Explain.”
“You want to go home to Isabella and your daughter every night,” Daniel points out, pausing to step into the kitchen. He rummages through a few cupboards before pulling out an empty glass. Then, he sets it down on the counter and pours himself a drink. “I understand that, but you and I both know that isn’t going to be possible right now.”
“Make your point faster,” I warn. “You might be Anita’s brother, but I’m not a fucking saint.”
And he is trying my patience.
“What happens the next time there’s a war? Or the next time someone tries to infiltrate the inner sanctum? You can’t keep sending Isabella away, and you’re going to end up missing out on a lot if you keep disappearing.”
“You’re going to have one less pretty tooth in that mouth of yours if you don’t get to the point faster,” I snap, my heart racing unevenly inside of my chest. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.”
Or anything I haven’t spent the past few weeks worrying about.
But going around in circles isn’t going to help anyone, least of all me.
I didn’t spend weeks searching for answers at the bottom of a bottle and getting into all sorts of fights to end up right back where I started. And I didn’t condemn myself to weeks without Isabella, only for my uncle and I to end up having the same conversation.
I know he’s right, but I’m still having a hard time imagining myself stepping away. Especially when I don’t know Daniel as well as I’d like.
Daniel knocks back his drink and pours himself another one. “What’s different this time is that you’re here. You’re back with Isabella, and the fact that you’re having a baby is becoming a reality. It’s not something you can run away from anymore.”
I have Daniel by the scruff of his neck before the words finish leaving his lips. “What did you just say?”
Daniel shoves me away and spares me an annoyed look. “You can’t keep lashing out like this, Carter. It was fine before when your position as head of the family wasn’t being questioned, but things have changed.”
I scowl. “Who have you been talking to? Have you been rallying my own family against me?”
