Page 34 of Sweet Vengeance (Sins of the Father #2)

Cillian

“We need more coke,” Tiernan tells me as the two of us finish taking inventory.

It’s been a few days since he called for me and Rory to head to Boston with him.

I’d come home with a busted lip after helping deal with some motherfuckers who came into our city and thought they could set up shop.

They were amateurs who didn’t know what they were doing, and it had felt like a waste of time.

“I’m surprised how slowly the molly is going this year.” I close the cabinet I’d been checking and lock it. I turn around and lean against it, watching Tiernan as he watches me.

“What’s up? Your boy upset about the other night?” he asks, clearly knowing I want to talk to him.

“He’s okay. He just worries. He’s not used to this shit, ya know?

He’s not like Dean was.” I pause before continuing, “Thank you for letting him stay. I know I gave you shit about Dean in the beginning. I didn’t trust him, and I didn’t want him here, so thanks for being chill about Ollie…

even after the threat is gone. I know you don’t have to let him stay here. ”

In a lot of ways, it’s not smart. Ollie hasn’t proven himself to Tiernan. Tiernan’s always more cautious with that kind of shit, measured and only taking calculated risks, but he was different with Dean, and now he’s the same with Ollie.

Tiernan crosses his arms, leaning against the desk. “Don’t I, though? He’s yours. You’re ours. That makes him ours too.”

That right there is one of the many reasons I would never walk away from Tiernan, from our family. People can say what they want about us, but there’s a loyalty here that runs through the core of who we are. “Thanks, T. Sorry I punched Dean so often when he first came around.”

He shrugs. “In your defense, he always hit you first.”

I chuckle. Dean is a loose cannon—much like Rory can be—but not always in the same ways. Rory can get lost in his own world. He does more drugs than the rest of us and doesn’t always know when to take a step back. “True.”

“Ollie is good with him…Rory. He’s a good fit for you because he understands Rory. I literally saw him scold Rory out of taking a line of coke the other day. Ollie distracted him with food and a self-defense session, but still. Rory knew what Ollie was doing and let him.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s fucking wild.” I run a hand through my hair, which immediately falls into place again.

“You’ve always been Rory’s tether. I think we would have lost him after his father died, but he won’t ever go where you aren’t. It makes sense that who you end up with will be another anchor for him too. If you knew Ollie couldn’t be that, he wouldn’t be yours.”

I don’t even want to think about living in a world where that’s not the case, so I don’t.

“You might have lost me when my mom died if it wasn’t for Rory too,” I admit. “And you.”

“It’s okay. I know who I am to you, and I know who he is to you. There’s no need to qualify anything. As far as Ollie goes, it won’t be easy. This doesn’t come naturally to him. He’s been talking to Ash, though, which helps. We have your back, cousin.”

Damned if emotion doesn’t clog in my throat. “I know you do.” I pause, try to sort through the thoughts that have been twisting around in my brain. “Am I doing wrong by him by keeping him? Is it better for him if I just let him go?” This lifestyle isn’t for the faint of heart, but…

“Could you? Let him go?”

“Not completely. If it came between hurting him and walking away, I would do the latter, but it wouldn’t change that he’s mine.”

“Exactly. Ollie is smart. He knows the risks, and he’s chosen.

He’s here. That tells you everything you need to know.

I don’t need to say this to you because I know the man you are, but I’m going to say it anyway.

Just be good to him. I think it would have been easier on my mom if my father had been better to her.

It was easier on Aunt Moira because your father was. That’s what matters.”

I nod. Tiernan has a bigger heart than most people will ever give him credit for. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Do you think I can have tomorrow? All day and night. I want him to have something fucking normal for once.” Ollie is making a lifetime of sacrifices for me. I need it to be worth it.

“I’ll make it happen.”

“Wow…I think you’ve been less of an asshole lately.”

“Fuck off and die,” Tiernan replies, and I laugh. A moment later, he joins in.

*

“Wake up, Kitten.” I dance my fingers down Ollie’s spine, watching goose bumps follow my touch. I’m not usually awake before him unless I have to be, like today. It wasn’t easy because I didn’t want to set an alarm and wake him up, so I barely let myself sleep all night.

He’s lying on his stomach, head resting on his arms, facing me. His eyes flutter before he gets a cute little confused look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

I hate that it’s the first thing he asks. “Nothing’s wrong. Today is our day. The house emptied out early, and I have everything planned. No phone calls today either. Tiernan won’t need me.”

My dancing fingertips move to his shoulder as a smile spreads across his face.

“You did that? For me?”

“I did that for us.”

He bites his bottom lip in a way that goes straight to my dick. It’s wild how much he turns me on, how different my attraction to him is compared to how it’s ever been with anyone else. Love is scary and powerful and the best fucking thing in the world.

Ollie scrambles to sit up, happiness making the brown of his eyes brighter than usual. His smile lands in my chest, gives me that fluttery feeling I only get from him.

“What are we doing first?”

“Breakfast. I cooked. But it’s probably getting cold, so we need to hurry.”

He leans forward, presses his lips to mine, then gets out of bed like his ass is on fire. A sexy ass it is too. He’s naked. I fucked him last night. I’ll never get tired of what it feels like to be inside him, to have him that way, to know he’s mine.

Ollie pulls on a pair of underwear and a T-shirt. I’m dressed since I’ve already been downstairs, making our food.

We head to the kitchen, where I have breakfast plated at the table—a cinnamon bagel because he loves them, and eggs and bacon.

“Holy shit.”

“Damn. Cursing already. You’re easy to impress,” I tease as we sit down.

“I curse.”

“So you’ve told me. I’m used to people whose every other word is fuck.

I like it when Naughty Ollie slips out or you feel something strongly enough to say a bad word, but I like that you’re more careful with your language too.

It’s…refreshing.” We’re the opposite of each other in so many ways, but somehow, we fit.

“Thank you, Cillian…for this…for you.”

Damn, there are no words for what that does to me. Makes me feel like more than anything else ever has. “Thank you for you too.”

We chat while we eat breakfast. He tries to get out of me what the plan is for the rest of the day, but I don’t tell him.

Once we’re done eating, I tell him not to move, clean off the table, and then go into the living room for our bags. When I return, he tries not to look excited, but I know he is. “We’re doing homework?”

“For a little while. School is important to you, and you’ve been helping me and Rory a lot. I want to make sure you’re focusing on you too. Plus, for a reason I still can’t understand, you enjoy this stuff.”

He laughs, but there’s emotion behind it, heart infused in the sound because this means a lot to him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

And then…then we do homework and study on our date day, which honestly wouldn’t be my first choice or even my tenth, but like I said, I know how important it is to him, and in some ways, it makes me want to make it more important to me as well.

We keep at it for a couple of hours, me watching the time too.

Ollie loses himself in his work, and most of the time, I lose myself in watching him—in the way his brows scrunch together when he reads, and the way his tongue often sneaks out to wet his lips.

How he smiles sometimes when he’s working, and I don’t think he realizes it.

He loves school so much, loves the law…and he loves me…

and I’m determined we will find a way to make that work.

I wait until it’s almost eleven before I tell him, “It’s time to shower. Are you good for a break?”

We pack up our school supplies, then head upstairs. I get the shower started while Ollie strips out of his clothes. I make it as far as my shirt before he’s on his knees, face in my groin, mouthing me through the fabric and breathing me in.

“My cock,” he says in this almost feral, frantic voice.

“Is my dirty boy feeling possessive? It is yours—yours to touch and suck and keep warm with your mouth or your hole, whichever you want.”

He pulls my underwear off and swallows down my dick, looking up at me, all eager eyes as he takes what he needs, takes what belongs to him.

It’s not long before I’m spilling my load down his pretty throat.

Some of my cum leaks from the corner of his mouth, and I use my thumb to push it inside, Ollie eagerly eating it up.

I jerk him off in the shower, let him shoot all over my cock and balls, and then I wash him and he washes me.

When we’re out, dressed, and ready to go, I say, “Wear good shoes and bring a hoodie. We’re going hiking.”

Ollie tenses, and when he looks at me, there’s no mistaking the emotion staring back at me. No mistaking the wide eyes and small smile, which grows slowly. “You’re taking me hiking?”

“Yes. Is that okay? I know that’s how your mom got hurt, but you said you like to go, right?

Like to go to feel close to her?” He nods, and I step closer, tilt his head up so he’s looking at me.

“It’s because you’re fucking brave, like I said.

I stopped playing piano when my mom died.

You didn’t stop doing what she loved.” And because of Ollie… maybe I can get the piano back too.

“You listen to everything I say, don’t you? Not just listen, but hear it.”

“I try to.” Because to me, that’s what love should be about.

“My father…he wasn’t good about a lot of things.

He’s not good to me, but he listened to her.

If she had a favorite food, he knew it. A favorite flower, he got it.

One time we were walking through the store, and there was a Care Bear display.

She mentioned how they were her favorite as a kid, and months later, he bought her one.

I’d forgotten she’d said it, but he hadn’t.

I didn’t get it, asked him why he got her a toy for kids, and he said because she liked them, because they brought her to a time when things were simpler, and when I found the person for me, the most important thing I could do was hear them.

That always stuck with me. God, I can’t believe I still think about that.

” How can the man who talked to me that way be the same one who has ignored me for years?

But then, I think about how I would feel if I lost Ollie, and maybe I would be just as broken as my father is.

“You love him…he’s your dad.”

“I hate that I love him. It would be easier if I hated him.” Sometimes I try to tell myself that I do, that I hate my dad, but deep down, I know I don’t.

“That’s not how you work. Your heart is too big.”

I’m not convinced, but I like that Ollie thinks it. “I don’t want to talk about him right now. Come on. Today is about us.”

Ollie and I grab hoodies, put on our shoes, I take his hand, and for the first time in my life, I take someone I care about on a date.