Illicit Temptation (Astoria Royals #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Trace

I f you asked me in February what I thought of Shea’s family, her brothers, their wives, the kids, I’d have shrugged and said, I didn’t have an opinion of them.

A month later? With them all in Shea’s house for Jillian’s wedding shower, taking up the time I would have been fucking her on every inch of furniture someone else is sitting on... I hate them.

Between days at her storefront, client meetings, and endless trips to caterers, photographers, and fucking florists, I’m so hard by the time we get home each night, I worry I’m taking her a little too roughly.

But today is an example of what Shea does her for brothers.

“Please take the scowl off your face,” Shea whispers, breezing by me in the kitchen.

“I would if you were sitting on my face like you were this morning.”

She spins around, horror in her eyes. “Shhh. Are you insane?”

“You’re confusing me with Lachlan. He’s an inch taller.” I pin her to the counter. “And your servers got everything covered. Relax and enjoy the party or get your arse in that bathroom and blow me.”

Her eyes glaze over when I talk to her like that. “Are you that out of control that you can’t go a few hours without being inside me? How did you last three and a half years?”

“Those are two very different questions. I’ll take part two first. I thought about these lips that felt like velvet heaven around my cock every damn day.” I paw at her ass behind the counter so no one can see. “Second, if this snug cunt didn’t fit me so perfectly, I would be able to think of something else.”

Her brows furrow, and she brushes past me with that exhausted look from my constant craving for her. Usually, I brat tame her by shoving her to the floor and choking her with my cock.

It’s been a month and we’ve been going at it whenever we’re behind closed doors. Including in the bathroom at a party she hosted last week. Not my brightest moment, but when my dick is in the driver’s seat, it tends to take a few wrong turns.

Since that phone call a month ago, Archer hasn’t bothered her again. But snakes slither in high grass for a reason. Bulls are easy to catch and the reason people eat steak and not snakes.

I’m keeping my eyes open, regardless. When they’re not rolling in the back of my head from being inside this wicked woman.

Shea hasn’t even attempted to get rid of me. Or pushed me to take a vacation like she’s done to her other guards. All those nights and mornings in her bed, satisfying her, giving her every piece of attention she missed for eight years, spent on a man who I swear I want to murder, has her addicted to me as I am to her.

“Just a few more hours. You know my brothers always have some kind of crisis that will drag them all out of here.”

“Good, then I’m dragging you back to bed, princess.” I glance their way to ensure we are still alone. “Or should I say wife ?”

“We’re...” She swallows roughly. “We’re still getting that divorce, right?”

I almost want to laugh. Or maybe it’s a test. She gave me the best sex of my life for thirty days straight and thinks I’ll give her a divorce as a thank you .

Before I can answer, Riordan O’Rourke comes into the kitchen swinging a wee-one in a pink onesie in the crook of his arm as comfortable as I’ve seen him with a shotgun.

“Can I put Saoirse-Rose down for a nap, Shea-Lynne?” he asks and squints, checking out how close I’m standing to his sister. “Cillian and Matteo keep waking her up in the bassinet you brought down.”

Two little monsters dressed in identical flannels and toddler jeans are running around the living room, torturing a blonde girl of around ten, when they’re not rattling that little bassinet and hooting at the tiny infant. The volume is near deafening.

For a very brief minute, I don’t want kids. The revelation hits me like a blow. I never saw myself as a father and if I’m being honest, I want to knock up Shea because I’m sure she wants kids. And it’s a way to keep her as my wife. But fuck all, if it’s open for discussion...

I might tell her, she’s all I need in this life.

Shea ignores how I’ve stiffened with these thoughts in my head and smooths her skirt, reaching for the wee-one. “Of course, Rior. You don’t have to ask. I’ll take her.”

The sight of a baby in her arms rocks my heart and has me confused. Watching her drop a kiss on that little one’s forehead, and the smile that reaches her eyes, she’s so genuinely perfect right now, I’m having trouble breathing. If it’s what she wants, then I’ll give her ten.

Like the trained watchdog I am, I wait at the bottom of the stairs for Shea. The door opens and in walks Balor and Ella, his assistant. Who he’s fucking. Something tells me the O’Rourke men are terrible hypocrites when it comes to their sister. Maybe because they’re paying me, and they think it compromises how I protect her.

It only fuels me to be more vigilant. She’s not just a client. She’s mine .

Shea waltzes down her steps and greets her brother and Ella. I tune out the conversation until Shea makes some remark about me being up her grill. But she winks, and I glare at her to keep up the ruse. It’s fun that they think she hates me.

Shea and Balor are the closest of the O’Rourke siblings, despite the older brothers who work together. Cormac and Darragh were also close, being twins, but that fell apart spectacularly in the last year. Darragh showed his true O’Rourke stripes deep down when he stole Cormac’s pregnant girlfriend and married her, then claimed the kid as his own. Something about identical twins and DNA matching.

You have to appreciate those kind of balls.

Each of these O’Rourke men stole their wives from someone, but Darragh fucked over his identical twin. That tells you right there just how savage these O’Rourkes are.

With my eyes feasting on Shea’s ass, Lachlan’s massive girth fills my vision. I blink and meet his glare. A startled female cry from behind him tears his gaze away. It has me bolting, hand in my jacket, on edge.

But it’s just Jillian hugging Katya for her gift.

In the corner, Shea sits watching her new sisters with big diamond rings and swollen pregnant bellies. There’s a hint of something on her face. It’s not jealousy. She can have all these things. And her brothers have the contract ready for Nico Scava to sign.

Special ops training and working security for a cabinet minister molded me into an expert on facial expressions.

Without any of what her in-laws have, Shea simply looks like she’s...at peace.

Fuck, I hope I’ve had something to do with that.