Nine
Brennan
There weremany laws we could break, a lot of bureaucratic hoops we could jump over, but sometimes, there were some rules you just had to follow.
Wealthy or not, when it came down to a marriage certificate, one had to show up at the city clerk’s office, fill in an application, shove ID at a bored civil servant, and pay a fee.
Nothing in this life, after all, was free.
The thought was rammed home to me as Camille eyed the office with interest as I spoke with Forrest on the phone.
She was used to being dismissed which, in truth, made her perfect for the role of wife. I’d barely spoken to her since I’d given her a thousand dollars to persuade—i.e pay off—her guard into disappearing for a few hours, and she hadn’t complained.
Not once.
Not that she had any right to.
She believed she was coercing me into marriage.
She didn’t know that I’d come to the decision myself a month or so ago.
She didn’t know that the decision had been brewing in my mind ever since Eoghan had told me his sister-in-law was back in the picture, and rumors had been stirring about Abramovicz making arrangements at their local church...
I had my fingers in every pie, especially with the Vasovs where Mariska's promise weighed on me like I was carrying the burden of the world on my shoulders.
Now that I’d clapped eyes on her, things had changed. My decision had morphed from a duty born of honor into that of desire ever since I’d seen that she was Mariska in the flesh, but... more.
Everything about her was sent to tempt me, and like the bad Catholic boy I was, I didn’t avoid temptation.
I dove into it.
Headfirst.
Da might want to spend an eternity in heaven, but I was more than okay with hell.
Hot pokers up my ass might be uncomfortable after a while, but shit, a kink was a kink.
Still, it was ingrained in me to let her think I was doing her a favor. Everything came at a cost, remember? Well, in this instance, I wanted her gratitude.
Being grateful always made a person far more accommodating, and I wasn’t sure how I wanted her to accommodate me just yet, but I’d figure it out soon enough.
By Christ if that kiss didn’t make me even more eager to get the ball rolling…
A quick Google search had told me what we needed to do, but because I didn’t carry a fucking printer around my neck, I had to wait to fill in the application at the clerk’s office. I was annoyed at my lack of efficiency in not having the application printed out so that we were good to go, while also relieved because it didn’t show my hand.
Having a marriage license application wasn’t something most people carried around on the regular now, was it?
“Are you fucking listening to me?”
Not really.
I didn’t bother getting mad at Forrest, even though my father would have beaten the shit out of anyone on his crew who spoke to him like that. But my crew wasn’t like his. Wasn’t like any of my brothers’, either. Mine were almost as close to me as my siblings were, which was really saying fucking something.
He’d been droning on and on at me for a while now, but my thoughts were firmly on the memory of her tit against my palm. Her lip between my teeth… She’d been so pliant. So submissive. Until she’d started fighting back.
Fuck, I didn’t need to be getting a boner in this dump.
“I’m listening,” I retorted, even though I thought it wiser to busy myself by looking around the paneled walls that were covered in cork bulletin boards, which were pinned with neon flyers advertising some shit or other, rather than study her ass. That mouth. Those fucking tits.