Page 55

Here?

Alone?

“Of course I’m good,” I roll my eyes. Everyone here has a role, mine is watching over two old men making sure they don’t die before we have the chance to kill them.

I’m moreexcited than I expected when the day finally comes to drive through the streets of East End, headed west. The air is sticky and humid when I arrive at the boundary line, baffled at the sight that greets me in the distance.

Three Dukes, seven of their DKS soldiers, and—I get out, whipping off my sunglasses to make sure I’m seeing this right—all three of Perilini and Bruin’s parents.

And they’reshaking Lex’s hand.

As I goggle at this, Verity crosses the parking lot, sauntering towards me with a grin. “Hi,” she says, which would be well and fine, except then she launches herself at me. A slender arm captures my neck, her pale cheeks already pinkening by the time she springs up on her tiptoes to assault me with a kiss.

Grunting, I catch her hips, surging into the warmth of her lips and tongue like a starving man. Maybethiswas that thing I’ve been scratching so desperately to find because suddenly, I’m spinning her, pushing her up against the driver’s side door, and taking my time memorizing the feel of her body, the new curves and swells, against mine.

When she dips back, her eyes widen, a smile blooming as she glances between us. “Wow, he’s doing somersaults in there. I think we woke him up.” She laughs, the sound airy and musical, and for a long moment, all I can do is follow her gaze to the roundness of her belly, stunned in more ways than one.

The last time I saw her, she was hard as stone, barely willing to offer me a graze of her fingertips. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bristle, that day in the DKS gym when she flinched away from my touch. It left me expecting more of the same distance. Herbelly is so much bigger now, this gigantic, inescapable obstacle between our bodies.

Whoa.

That’s, like, profound or something.

And now she’s lifting a Tupperware container, eyes glinting in satisfaction. “I brought a souvenir.”

I blink at it before snatching it out of her hands. “Your mom made me banana pudding?” Surprising, considering Mama B has had nothing but spite for me since the first day I met her.

It’s probably poisoned.

Eh.

I’d still eat it.

But Verity just snorts, shoving my shoulder. “This might come as a surprise to you, but I can actually follow a recipe myself.”

I jolt back. “Youmade it? For me?” Alarms sound in my head, my hackles immediately rising as I back away, giving her a suspicious once over.Too nice, my brain screams.Look out. “Do you want something?” I skeptically wonder. “Did something happen with Lex?”

A little bit of that breathless joy in her expression falls. “Of course not. I just…” Biting her lip, she looks away, her gaze fixed on a piece of broken glass on the asphalt. “I guess I missed you. A little.”

My eyebrows hike up. “You missedme?”

A small, put-upon groan expands her throat. “Oh my god, never mind.”

But before she can flee, I trap her against the car, not even trying to tamp down my smirk. “What did you miss?”

She pulls a face, but I don’t miss the way her eyes glaze over when I bend down, dragging my lips against the warm curve of her cheek. Swallowing, she fists a hand in my shirt. “Yourinsufferable ability to turn the smallest gesture into emotional blackmail?”

Humming, I argue, “Although I’m good at that, I don’t think that’s it.” I nose in below her ear, sucking a gentle bruise into the skin there. I barely realize I’m feeling her up until I register the heavy weight of her breast against my hand.

Her tits have gotten bigger, too.

Fuck me.

She shivers so hard that it vibrates against me. “Definitely your mouth.”

Before I can cajole her into elaborating—a list of bullet points would suffice—the sound of Lex’s footsteps breaks my concentration.

“You’re not fucking her against the car,” he mutters. And he’s a real jerk about it too, sounding all long-suffering like he hasn’t had almost a month alone with these blushing cheeks and full tits. “Her family is still watching.”