Page 57 of Ruthless Dream
If Cain is getting nervous that I’m getting cozy with the Akatovs, then he has only himself to blame. He never fucking wanted me in his life, so I’ve had to go and build my own. If he can’t stand the idea that I’m going to take every advantage I can think of, then he’ll just have to get used to it.
“I don’t know what his deal is.” I rub my tired eyes. “It’s none of his concern.”
“She’s a fucking Akatov!” There’s a slam of the door, and it sounds like groceries are being dropped onto the kitchen table.
“All right.”
Nora’s never cared much about my girlfriends. I got a strong lecture about no teen pregnancies, but her irritation crackles down the line.
She’s honestly making Boris’s treatment of me last night seem tame.
“All right?” Nora laughs, the edges hard. “All right?”
“All right.” She can’t see it, but I shrug. “Jesus, what the fuck did he say that’s got you riled up so badly?”
“Ciaran, don’t fucking bullshit me.”
“Bullshit—”
“An Akatov.”
“Oh, right, sorry, I’m not meant to pull one of those, am I? Too stupid. Too poor.”
“Yes.”
My mouth snaps shut. Nora’s voice has dropped to a bleak octave that I’ve only experienced a few times in my life. It’s the point blank we are not bullshitting anymore tone. The one that comes out when Ian and I have seriously fucked up.
“Ciaran, you are kind and funny, and I love you to bits like my own son.”
I lean my elbows on my knees, my head bowed as I listen.
“I am not saying you couldn’t charm the pants off this girl. If she’d look at you in the first place.”
Silence rings down the line.
“Ciaran, I have never cared about your love life so long as you are happy and healthy. Perhaps you think I’m some middle aged, old dried up woman. But I’ve played this game. I have seen the boogeyman in the shadows. All of them. If you did something to this girl. . .”
Different moments of Adeline pop into my head. When I found her in the alleyway, I drove her back here in the SUV. My cock tearing into her pussy. The awkward, tired conversation this morning when we got coffee.
“I didn’t.”
Nora doesn’t believe me. “Ciaran, this girl, Adeline. She is not some game. I raised you in a world where we didn’t pretend bad things don’t happen. But I also raised you to be a better man than someone who dates a woman for personal gain.”
“That’s not. . .”
“Did your uncle put you up to this?”
My teeth set. She and Cormac are cordial, but if it weren’t for my existence, they’d never for a second pretend to get along.
“Uncle Cormac’s got nothing to do with this.”
“To do with what?” she presses.
“Can a man not go on a fucking date these days.”
“Ciaran, you have to be careful.” There’s a brittleness to the words. “She is an Akatov.”
“I know. . .”
