AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Drew’s friends and associates had started to give us a wide berth and I set my jaw. Fuck them. I knew they were all a bunch of flakes and cowards.
“Do you want any of these goddamn cupcakes?” I asked Torin irritably.
My brother reached his hand out and grabbed one of the vanilla cupcakes with blackberry cream. I suddenly felt ridiculous, like I was 6 years old and giving him a handful of dandelions he had to pretend to like.
But he took a thoughtful bite, his eyes on me.
When wasn’t he looking at me? I thought, turning away.
I should be moving about the crowd, gladhanding people, trying to get them to invest in the business, offer them a competitive return investment rate or whatever the hell Drew had said.
But I couldn’t make my feet move.
“These cupcakes are the best things I’ve ever eaten,” Torin said.
I couldn’t help flushing a bit with pleasure.
“Sorry, I know this is boring as shit,” I said.
Torin finished the cupcake and put his thumb in his mouth to get the last of the frosting. I couldn’t help watching him, feeling the strange buzz and heat build between us.
It was wrong.
I must be a sick fuck to watch the flick of his tongue over the frosting.
“It could never be boring with you,” Torin said.
I felt my breath catch in my throat.
No. no. nononononono.
Let me be in denial a little while longer. Don’t make me face what terrifies me.
That Torin Reilly will never let me go and I have to figure out what I’m going to do about it.
I felt like I couldn’t move or breathe as he looked down at me with those dark, midnight-blue eyes, and I felt an uneasy prickling, all over my skin, but just then I heard a thump at the window and it was Jerald, stumbling around drunkenly.
He held up his middle fingers at the bakery.
He looked like shit, his broken nose now bandaged in the center of his face.
“Yooooo fuck yoooooooouuuu,” he slurred. “Fuck you, you little cunt,” he said, pointing at me. “And your psycho freak brother, too.”
Drew and his friends had begun to mumble disapprovingly. Drew opened the door and called out warningly, “Get out of here now, Jerald, or I’ll call the police.”
Jerald flipped everybody off again for good measure, the vice-mayor tutting disapprovingly.
I turned to Torin, to make sure he wasn’t going to do anything.
But he was already gone.
Shit.
I moved to go outside, by Drew grabbed my arm. “Let me introduce you to a few friends,” he said, murmuring, “Boundaries, Laoise. If you want me to ask Torin to leave, just tell me.”
He pissed me off. Why the fuck should my brother leave? My straining ears heard what sounded like noises in the alleyway and my body screamed with anxiety to go out and check on Torin.
I just didn’t want him going back to prison.
