FOUR
FOUR
EOGHAN
A WEEK LATER
She stretched when Charlie finally stopped pulling and decided to piss against the statue in the small park opposite our building, twisting her waist slightly as if her back were aching.
Half my focus on her, I checked our surroundings, squinting around the high-rises in search of sights glinting in the light.
“Want a massage when we get in?” I asked her quietly.
“A nice one or a torture one?”
I hid my smirk. “Deep tissue isn’t torture.”
“It is,” she grumbled.
“That’s the only way to get the kinks out.”
Her nose curled. “I’d prefer a nice one. With a happy ending?”
“You always get a happy ending,” I pointed out.
Her smile lit up her eyes. “I’m living the fairytale life, aren’t I?”
When I snorted out a laugh, she stepped away from Charlie’s public urinal and slipped her hand into mine.
“See any snipers?”
“No. You’re safe.”
Nessa hummed and said, “I always am when I’m with you.”
For some reason, her words rankled and had me thinking about this morning. About the nightmare that had woken me up.
I didn’t know where the words came from, but I blurted out, “You know if I was a danger to you, I’d leave, don’t you?”
She tensed. “What?”
Not letting me answer, she grabbed the lapels of my coat and tugged on them until I was no longer scanning the buildings but looking down at her again. “Say that with your eyes looking into mine.”
I didn’t bother blinking, just said, “I won’t be like my father, Inessa. I won’t be the albatross around your neck.”
Her brow puckered. “Who said you would be? You’re nothing like your father.”
“Why? Because I let you out of the house?” I mocked.
“You let me go to school, Eoghan. Even though, every time I left the penthouse, I know it killed you to let me go. You did it anyway.”
I glanced back at the skyscrapers, not just because I had to keep scanning the perimeter, but because I didn’t want her to read my expression.
But she still tugged on my lapels.
“Are you going to stop me from starting up my business?”
“No,” I ground out. “Ma worked though. You forget that.”