Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 91064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
“They’re an anytime food, really.”
My voice is weird. And his is too, when he says, “okay.”
He sits down at the kitchen table, and I get to work. Rory’s kitchen is well stocked. He might be a perpetual bachelor, but he’s one who can cook.
Which comes in handy, it turns out, because I have no idea what I’m doing.
After splattering batter onto my face and burning the first two pancakes, he gets up to help me. And he makes it look so easy. His are golden brown and perfect.
Just like him.
“How’d you learn how to do that?” I ask.
“I moonlight as a pancake chef,” he teases.
But when we sit down at the table, he tells me the real reason.
“My mammy is a good cook. I liked to help her.”
There is reverence in his voice, and I wish I could say the same. My mother never cooked a day in her life.
We keep talking about pancakes, because it’s easy, and it keeps either of us from bringing up the elephant in the room. He tells me about some of the other things his mammy used to cook. Stews and traditional Irish breakfasts.
And then we’re both finished, and the awkward silence is back.
He’s getting ready to bolt again, but I can’t let him.
One of us just needs to suck it up and talk about this.
“I’m still under construction,” I blurt.
He gives me a look, and I try my best to explain.
“I think I know why you’ve been avoiding me.”
He tries to argue, but I don’t let him.
“You have every right not to trust me,” I say. “All I’ve ever done is lie to you. And I won’t deny that I set out to hurt you. That I wanted to make you pay for fucking up my plans.”
He crosses his arms and leans back in his chair, listening to me quietly as I ramble on.
“I’d like to say that I’m not that girl anymore. But we both know that would be another lie. I’m still a work in progress. But things are different now. I’m different. And I can’t think of anyone else on this earth that I’d want to be different with than you.”
He sighs and plows a hand through his hair, looking anywhere but at me.
I still haven’t sold him on it yet, but I never expected it to be easy.
“I have a lot of making up to do,” I say. “But all I’m asking for is a chance. To show you that I’m changing. I’m evolving. And that I can be more than just a pain in your ass.”
This makes him smile, but he tries to hide it with a cough.
“I like fucking shit up with you,” I tell him. “But I like this too. Sitting here at the table and being all domestic and shit. And laying in your bed with you at night. God, I would kill the old me for admitting this, but that’s like the best thing ever.”
“Scarlett…” his voice is hoarse, and I’m scared he’s going to tell me no, so I keep rambling on.
“And I’m not making any promises, but I held a baby today, and she didn’t even cry. So maybe I’m not all evil. I mean, Satan was once an angel too. So there had to be both good and bad in him. I think there’s good and bad in all of us…”
Rory gets up and moves around to my side of the table, effectively cutting off my tirade by yanking me up from the table and kissing me. Hard.
“Fuck,” he groans as he pulls my body all the way against his. “Ye’re the hottest little psychopath I’ve ever come across, baby doll. And even if ye were leading me straight to my downfall, I doubt I could say no to ye.”
“But do you want to?” I ask, and he grabs my ass and squeezes.
“No,” he grunts.
He kisses my throat, all the way up my jaw to my ear.
That’s when more word vomit spews from my lips.
“Marry me.”
His entire body goes ramrod straight as he pulls back to look at me like I genuinely am insane.
“I’m not asking for leaps and bounds, sweetheart,” he says. “Baby steps are fine.”
And it’s there in his eyes. He doesn’t believe I’m over what happened. That I know what I’m asking for. And despite what he says, he still doesn’t trust me.
But that’s okay.
Because I always get what I want.
And this is no exception.
I didn’t think there was ever anything I could want more than my revenge, but I was wrong.
This.
This right here is what I want.
I’m willing to put in the work to prove that I’m right about us. To show him that I’m more than just a partner in crime. That he can trust me, and that I’m going to be the best goddamn mafia wife he ever could have asked for.