Thankfully, he climbs into bed without putting his clothes back on and lays his arm across the pillow, inviting me over. I go, cuddling up to his chest, happy to be in his arms and out of my shitty memories even if it’s only for tonight.
“I’m really glad you came over,” I tell him as I let my fingertips trail over his chest.
“What had you upset?” Wirth asks as he holds me against his body.
“Just the past…my brother. He reminds me of our father, and that’s not a good thing.”
Wirth’s big, muscular body goes still. He doesn’t even breathe before he asks, “Your brother?”
“Yeah,” I agree, and then my head lowers when he sighs heavily. “But enough about me. Tell me something about you.”
“Not much to tell,” he grumbles. “I grew up poor, started stealing cars before I could drive them. Now I run the shop.”
“Auto repair shop?” I ask.
“Not exactly,” he responds. “I can fix cars, but mostly I just take them apart and sell the pieces. Chop shops have more risks, but also more rewards than a regular repair business.”
“Oh, so you steal cars?”
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Wirth mutters. “The only victim is the insurance companies since they cover the loss.”
“What if someone can’t afford car insurance?” I lift my head to ask him.
“Trust me – the kind of nice, expensive cars we deal with – if they can afford a fifty-thousand-dollar car, then they have insurance or they stole it first,” he says, making me smile and shake my head before I lay it back down on his chest.
“And here I was thinking you were a good guy.”
“Never claimed to be good,” he says. “I just told you I would fix your car and not ask anything in return.”
“Yet here we are in my bed,” I point out.
“You called me, remember?” he chuckles. “And the first night, well, I just didn’t want you to go upstairs with that giant. He looked like he could rip you in half.”
“He’s not as big as you,” I tell him, letting my fingers reach down to wrap around his cock and enjoying the way my touch has him sucking in air.
“You’re trying to kill me, doll,” he grits out.
“I’m trying to make you feel good.”
Wirth’s fingers tighten in the back of my hair, lifting my face so he can lean down and kiss me. When he pulls away, he says, “You do that without touching me.”
Wirth
After an amazing night with Maeve and an even better morning when I made good on my promise to have her for breakfast, I make myself leave her warm, strawberry and vanilla scented bed, intending to do more surveillance in the area before heading home – this time at the only Irish pub in town.
All I know is that I was fucking relieved when Maeve mentioned her brother. That must have been the man I saw yesterday. I’m a dick for thinking the worst.
“I had fun,” I tell Maeve, leaning over to kiss her lips where she’s still tangled up in the sheets, even though the words don’t seem quite adequate enough.
“Me too,” she says with a smile. “We should do it again sometime.”
“Yeah, we should,” I agree. But in the light of day, and without a heavy dick, it’s a little easier for me to remember that I can’t completely trust Maeve just yet. I need to try and keep myself from falling for her even more until I know for certain that she didn’t have anything to do with the shooting at the Knights’ bar. I also want to make certain she isn’t fucking anyone else now that we’re…doing whatever it is we’re doing.
“Oh, and I’ve got my paint crew working on your car now. Hopefully it’ll be ready in a few more days.”
“That’s great. Thank you. I don’t have anywhere to go, so there’s no rush.”
“Good. I’ll call when I know more,” I tell her.
“Thanks, Wirth. Have a safe trip back,” she says sweetly.
“Thanks,” I reply before I finally force myself to walk away from her.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask if she’s going to see any other men, but I hold back. It’s a little too soon for that conversation. Even if I don’t want to think about her with another man, we’ve only had one night together. One and a half if you count our first time before shit went down at the bar. I have no right to be jealous of how she spends her time apart from me.
As soon as I’m on my bike with my full helmet on to cover my face, I take a trip to the Irish bar on the other side of town. Unfortunately, it becomes pretty obvious that there’s an exit for it off the highway heading back to Carolina Beach, right before the one where I found Maeve changing her tire. There are a ton of other businesses on the same strip, so that’s probably just a coincidence and I’m reading too much into it.
What’s not a coincidence, however, is when I spot the same black sedan that I’m almost certain was at her apartment last night. My blood pressure skyrockets at the sight. I don’t know who I’m more pissed at – Maeve or myself. I fucking knew a man was at her apartment and still I somehow ended up falling right back into bed with her. I’m not sure what would be worse — if it was a guy she was fucking or her brother with connections to the Irish who she would, of course, put before anyone else.
Either way, I’m so fucking pissed I can’t even see straight. I park a block away, hiding my bike between two big trucks to watch the place through my binoculars for a little bit while I seethe and try to figure out what to do.
When a group of guys come walking out of the
