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“I like to think so seeing as I also cleared out that desk over there for you,” I murmured into her hair.
“Which one? There are several in here.”
“You liked the glass one.”
“Maybe I like this one.”
“You’re so fucking contrary. If you like this one, then we’ll get you this one.”
“I was only pulling your leg.”
“You can pull something else. My leg has to remain attached.”
“But your dick doesn’t?”
“Some things are worth the sacrifice.”
“You’re lucky I’m not a cannibal,” she spluttered around a laugh, but I could hear the easing of tension in her voice and that made me smile—job done. A couple minutes later, she whispered, “I need you to mean that, Conor.”
“Mean what? About my legs needing to remain attached?” I teased.
“No.” She shoved my other shoulder. “What you said about working on keeping things alive together.” She sucked in a breath. “I’m used to everyone leaving me, Conor, so to hear you say that is… I, just, I need you to mean it.”
“Some women are too much of everything,” I said slowly. “Too intelligent, too strong, too capable. Some men can’t deal with that. They think they need to compete. To be more intelligent, stronger, and more capable. But my self-esteem isn’t so miserly that I need to put you down to feel like a man.
“You’ve lived in the fakest places on this planet—Hollywood and the CIA—so it makes sense that you don’t understand what I am. Who I am.
"I’m an O’Donnelly, Star. We cherish our women. We protect them. We kill for them. We don’t compete with them because there’s no competition between us. We are on the same team, and you’ve just never experienced that before because for all the crap Da taught us, that was one lesson he rammed home more than any other.
“You are mine, Star.
“Whether you accept that or not, whether you run off tomorrow, whether you try to push me away, I’m not going anywhere. I’m by your side. We’re in this together and we always will be.
“And that means Kat is too. She’s mine as much as you are. We’ll keep her and the cats alive because we’re a team, and what did I tell you the other day?”
A soft laugh escaped her. “That teamwork makes the dream work?”
“Exactly.”
When I felt the tears against my throat, I stopped talking and just continued holding her.
It was a message I knew I’d have to reiterate over the years, but there was joy in that because we had many tomorrows ahead of us.
I closed my eyes again, content to just relax as she settled deeper into my embrace then when, only God knew how long later, she mumbled, “She can have the damn cats,” I just smiled to myself.
Kat owed me big time, and she didn’t even know it yet.
11
STAR
Once I’d told Katina she could have the kittens and had listened to her squeal with joy amid promises I knew she’d break about looking after the admittedly cute tiny beasts, I watched Conor as he worked.
Though I was busy with a massive to-do list of my own, I couldn’t help myself.
I’d already breached The Bird’s Nest LLC’s management firm and had uncovered the location of the AG’s brothel.
I was supposed to be hacking their security so that I could snoop around for blackmail material to feed to the press once Foundry and Smythe were missing. Conor, however, wasn’t helping matters.
