Page 69 of King of Temptation

“A ring… as in an engagement ring?”

“Yes. Unless you’re happy with eloping, then we could just skip the whole engagement part and I’ll just buy you a wedding set.”

“You can’t… I can’t… We barely know each other!”

“Aw, don’t you want to be my cousin-in-law?” Aria asked with a practiced pout.

“I mean, sure, but Brody and I aren’t…”

“What part of ‘mine’ did you not understand, menace?”

Overwhelmed, she reached for her wine, gulping it down to give her a moment, just a moment to steady herself. “I think,” she managed to say when the glass was drained, “that we should continue this discussion at home. I mean, at your house. Where I happen to be temporarily staying.”

All around her, the O’Rourke family smirked and shrugged as if they were simply playing along with her delusions.

It was going to be a long fucking dinner.

Chapter 24

Brody

Dinner was turning out to be more enlightening than he’d expected.

Once she got over her nerves, Goldie had slid right into her place in the family, joking with Aria, putting the twins in their place with little more than a raised brow and a dry, witty response, arguing with Reagan about baseball—a shared interest that had surprised him and he made a mental note to take her to a game as soon as he could guarantee her safety.

Under other circumstances, it might have unnerved him how quickly she adapted to being an O’Rourke. But considering he had, as far as he was concerned, laid his claim, it was a relief to know there wouldn’t be an awkward transition phase.

“How’s the new bar going?” Murphy asked Killian as the soup course was swapped out for steaming bowls of shepherd’s pie.

The scowl on their cousin’s face was answer enough, and guilt pricked at Brody’s chest. As much as he supported Killian’s decision to go legit with their businesses, he wasn’t nearly as much help in the day-to-day runnings of said businesses as he was with the illegal side of things. An oversight he’d been meaning to correct for some time, but their other businesses always seemed to need his attention.

Or maybe that was just what he told himself because being a mobster was, in a lot of ways, easier than being an actual businessman.

“It’s not.” Openly brooding now, Killian sipped his whiskey. “Despite the remodel and some heavy investing in local advertising, we’re barely getting anyone in the door.”

“What’s your social media presence like?”

As one, every head in the room turned toward Goldie, and Brody instinctively returned his hand to the back of her neck, lending his silent support.

Killian frowned. “We hired someone but I haven’t had time to really give it more than a cursory glance.”

“Hmm.” Reaching into the pocket of her jeans, Goldie pulled out her phone and swiped open to an app. “What’s the bar called?”

“The Black Briar.”

Tapping at her screen, Goldie frowned slightly before turning the device toward Killian. “This one?”

“Yes.”

Goldie pulled the phone back toward her, the corners of her mouth dipping further down. “I’m not sure how much you’re paying this social media person, but it’s way too much.”

Every single person at the table tensed. It was generally accepted that Killian knew his shit when it came to their legal businesses, and nobody ever really questioned him.

But his cousin only cocked his head, eyeing Goldie with renewed curiosity. “Explain.”

“Well, for socials like this”—she waggled the phone at him—“you want a more unified look. You want people to see a graphic passing by and think ‘That’s for The Black Briar’. This is all over the place. There’s no cohesion. And⁠—”

Seemingly catching herself, Goldie shook her head. “Sorry, it’s not really my place to tell you how to run your business.”