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“No.”
“Fair play.”
Something else by my design. Knowledge was power – a different type of power than my father wielded and instilled in me.
“As a child, my father hated anything related to education. We were home-schooled. He made sure we could read and count, but apart from that, I had no formal education.”
She blinked at me, shocked.
“He caught me reading a story once and beat the shite out of me. He told me reading and books were for pussies and weak men. But I liked to defy him in small ways. So, I started collecting books and reading them late at night. I realised you could get books that taught you things, not just stories.”
“Oh, Sean.” She cupped my cheek, and I leaned into the touch.
I wanted to tell her everything I’d never said because my walls were so high. Being the boss meant zero vulnerability. My brutality was carefully concealed inside a jovial package. But she peeled back those layers and deserved more than the mask.
“Just when I thought there couldn’t be any more reasons to fall in love with you.”
I stilled. “You love me?”
“I might? Is that too soon?” she asked me, her eyes full of uncertainty.
I was gone for this woman.
“No.” I pulled her close. “I’m already in love with you. It’s not even a strong enough word for my obsession with you. You stole my soul. You took it for your own, and now it walks around outside my body. Now I’m vulnerable because if anyone took you, there’s no length I wouldn’t go to, no limit to what I would do, nothing I wouldn’t steal, and no one I wouldn’t kill to get you back. I would burn this fucking city to the ground.”
27
The intensity of his gaze made my pulse race. Had anyone ever looked at me like that? My mamá loved me, and she was the most beautiful person to me, but the way Sean treated me, the lonely runaway girl inside me was gone for him. Even the hardened, cynical part of me was swooning. My body lit up as soon as we were in the same room. Our chemistry was off the charts and not something I’d ever experienced before him.
“I’ve got something else to show you.”
He grabbed my hand and led me up a spiral staircase to the mezzanine. A single stack of books extended along the space, and behind them, the wall had a round window looking out over the garden and the field behind it. A bench seat with a thick cushion was at the bottom of the curved glass.
“This is my place. No one is allowed up here, not even Loch. I don’t come up here much, but if I do, it’s to think.”
I gazed up at this paradox of a man with all his layers.
“Thank you for showing me.”
“Oh, I’m planning on doing more than showing you. It’s time to christen this place. Strip.” His husky command left me reeling for a minute, and he smirked at me. “You know how to do that.”
“Are you stripping too?” I shot back.
I was rediscovering my sass under his care.
“You’ll have to do that. I’m an invalid, you know.” He gestured to his arm with a wicked grin.
“Okay.” I walked forward and started unbuttoning his shirt.
The heat roared through me as I exposed more of his golden skin. My fingers traced the faded tattoo over his pec. He watched me in his fervent way, his chest rising and falling beneath my palms as I slid the shirt off his shoulder, careful not to catch his dressing. The ridges of his abs were smooth under my fingertips as I trailed them down his front to his belt. He shivered, and I preened at drawing that reaction from him.
“You’re killing me, a chuisle,” he growled as I palmed the enormous bulge in the front of his suit trousers. “I said strip, not tease.”
“But stripping is a tease. That’s the appeal. The fantasy of what you can’t have.”
“Oh, but I can have it.” He grabbed the back of my neck and smashed his lips down on mine. My hands flew to his face as I melted against him. He broke the kiss, pulling back.
“Clothes. Off. Now.” His eyes glittered.
