by Jane Henry
“I know, lass, and for that I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to—”
I hold up my hand to stop her. “I do. I owe you an apology.”
She swallows, then nods. Accepting it.
We continue to eat in silence, until she asks another question.
“So… well… does that mean that you’re my boyfriend, then? Or at least pretending to be one?”
I roll my eyes. In the Irish mob, “boyfriend” is a foreign term. You’re either with a woman you claim… or you’re not.
“Sure,” I say with a sigh. “We’ll have to do something, won’t we?”
“Aye,” she says with a laugh. “We’ll have to do something.”
My phone rings. Keenan. She’s finished her breakfast, so I send her to the shower with a teasing smack to the rear. She squeals and giggles. I’m still smiling when I answer the phone.
“Keenan.”
“Found them, Lach.”
I run a hand through my hair. Bloody hell. I know he means the guard.
“Did you?”
“Aye. Tiernan called me.” He tells me how our Boston brothers were called in. They’re under no obligation to protect our family, but they come to our aid when we need them to.
“Were they hurt?”
I know they were. They had to have been.
I close my eyes and cringe when he describes the condition of their mutilated bodies. I instantly regret the plateful of bacon and eggs I just finished. As he tells me details, I walk to where Fiona is, because I need to see her, I need to tell myself one more time that she’s safe, that no one’s taken her.
“Be careful, Lach,” he says. “Check in with Tiernan. I want the two of you in contact until we find out what’s going on, understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I would tell you to come home, but—”
I shake my head. “Need to find out who did this first.” If we run, we may never know, and Tiernan could be in grave danger.
I hang up the phone with him and walk to the closed door that leads into the bathroom. I can hear her singing in there, soft and clear. I reach for the doorknob and find it unlocked.
I can see the outline of her body through the filmy glass door, naked and beautiful, and my earlier arousal flares with a vengeance. Her singing ceases, though the hot water still steams up the small room.
She opens the door a little sliver. Her soaked hair hangs in her eyes, and water drips down her face as she looks at me.
“What are you doing in here, sir?” she asks, and is it my imagination, or is her own voice affected with arousal? I don’t realize I’m walking over to her until I’m only a few feet away. “Do you… do you need to shower?”
I shake my head.
Her guard’s been killed.
She’s in danger.
Somehow, even the brutal reminders of who we are don’t school my thoughts. All I can imagine is taking her into my arms again, and this time, not letting her go.
“Lachlan?” she asks. “Are you okay?”
“Aye,” I say in a hoarse whisper. “But you need to finish up.”
She bites her lip. “Oh, I’m done. Was just enjoying the water a bit.” She turns to shut it off, not bothering to pull the door shut, so she gives me a full view of her full arse, still pink from her spanking.
I barely stifle a groan.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
“Spoke with Keenan, lass,” I tell her, not able to bring myself to tell her the full truth. “I don’t want you to leave my side.”
Then I realize she’s standing there, dripping wet. I take a towel off the shelf, open it, and jerk my chin at her.
“C’mere.”
She bites her lip again. I wonder if the light pink color on her cheeks is from the heat of the shower, or something else.
When she steps out, I wrap her in the towel and dry her off. I relish the feel of her in my arms. Of her letting me take care of her. I take my time, wiping off every drop of water, massaging the fluffy white towel over the slopes and valleys of her perfect skin. But the closer we are, the more I want her, and by the way her breathing’s hitched and her body trembles, I think she feels the same.
I need her to let me take care of her. Some men like to be with the independent sort of woman. But the men of the Clan have been raised to protect, care for, to lead. I’ve seen every one of the married men in the brotherhood take to the role of head of the house with ease, and it makes sense to me now. Her allowing me to care for her fulfills me.
Hell, it’s been a missing part of who I am.
When she’s dry, I wrap the towel around her, though her damp hair still drips all about us. I reach for a second towel and wrap it clumsily around her head. She giggles, and it’s so fucking adorable I lean in for a kiss. Just a brief one. I pull away much too soon, and she sighs when our lips part.
I take her by the hand and bring her into the room. All she has for clothes are the ones she wore the night before, but they’ll do.
“Lachlan,” she says softly, almost tentatively. She holds onto my shoulder while I help her into her clothes. “I can dress myself.”
“Of course you can,” I tell her. But I like this. It’s almost like a form of acceptable foreplay, the way she leans her hand on my shoulder to steady herself. The way the fabric slides up her naked, beautiful skin. The way she pants a little when my hands brush her breasts. I need this. It’s fucking wrong, but I need this.
“Tell me what Keenan said, please,” she says when she’s dressed.
I don’t respond at first. But she won’t take silence for an answer. She places her fingers under my chin and drags my gaze to hers, framing my face between her hands. Her eyes soften, and for some reason water a little.
“I’m not naïve to the ways of the Clan, Lachlan,” she says, in that voice of hers that sends a thrill down my spine. So pure. So beautiful. So honest. “I know who you are. I know who Nolan is. And I know that the jobs you do are dangerous and outside the law. I can handle the truth.”
She can. And if she’s to have anything to do with me, she bloody well will. Goddammit.
I hold her wrists, her hands still framing my face, and nod. “Aye, Fiona. I’ll give you the truth as often as I can.” I swallow hard. “Your guard was killed last night. We don’t know how or why or who’s responsible.”
She nods, taking this truth as simply as if I just told her we were having chicken for supper. “Is Tiernan okay?”
I nod. “He is, but he’s in danger, of course.”
She nods. “But they didn’t touch me. They didn’t come anywhere near me.”
I shake my head. “They didn’t touch you, no. Whether or not they came near you is another story.” My blood heats at the very thought, and I quickly do a mental tally of the weapons I have with me. “No one will hurt you, Fiona. Never. I won’t allow it.”
“I know it,” she says, with complete confidence. “I’ve known that for a very long time.” She smiles.
“You’re safe with me,” I whisper. “If I could wrap you up in a fucking bubble, I would.”
She leans her forehead to mine. Her breath is sweet and warm, and I close my eyes as if she’s basking me in her wholesome and goodness. Hell, maybe she is.
“And this is why you can’t deny it anymore, Lachlan.”
My voice is tremulous. “Aye. But Jesus, Fiona, you’re so young.”
She slides herself onto my lap and places her head on my shoulder. “Bollox,” she says with a flinty note in her voice. “I’m not as young as you think, Lachlan. People like us… we age sooner than the rest, you know. How old were you when you were inducted into the Clan?”
I pause before answering, almost reluctant to give her ammunition in this argument. “Eighteen.” The youngest inductee into the Clan since its founding.
“And why did Keenan induct you so young?”
“I was ready.”
She sighs. “And you think I’m not?”
I rock her on my lap, my heart swelling at the nearness of her. Her scent, her breath, her sweet voice, and the way her heart thumps against my chest.
“Ready?”
“Aye.”
“For what?” I ask.
“You bloody well know what.”
I grin at that and pinch her little bottom. “Feisty thing, y’are.”
“Aye. As if a man like you could handle someone docile. You’d never have a reason to beat your chest or my arse, as it were.”
Fucking hell, I love this woman. I won’t entertain the thought of really dominating her, of really having my way with her. But there are other reasons that hold me back.
“Fiona, you’ve lost so much. So much has been robbed from you that never should have been. And hell, woman, I won’t be the reason you lose even more.”
“Lachlan, that’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said.” She lifts her head off my shoulder and glares at me. “Why on earth would being with you make me lose anything?”
I smile sadly at her. “The very question shows how innocent you are.”
She scowls, and I tap my finger to her lips. “Now, lass, we’ll have none of that,” I begin, when my phone rings and I look at the screen. I stifle a groan.
Nolan.
“Nolan?” she looks at the screen and gives me a teasing smirk. “Better answer that.”
I narrow my eyes on her and slide her off my lap, but she sits right beside me and places her hand on my thigh. My cock twitches, and she grins.
“You’ll end right up over my lap before the damn day’s through,” I mutter, picking up the phone. “Hello?”
“Lachlan. Y’alright?”
“I’m good. I’m here with Fiona.”
He breathes out a sigh of relief. “Thank fucking God.”
“She’s fine, Nolan.”
“Course she is,” he says confidently. “She’s with you. Keenan tells me you took the private jet.” His confidence stirs guilt in me, but I shove it away.
“Aye. Couldn’t stand the thought of anyone hurting her.”
“Of course not.” I wonder if I imagine the sudden hardness in his tone.
“Have you spoken to Sheena yet?”
“She’s right beside me. Can you put your phone on speaker then?”
“Aye.”
I swipe it onto speaker. “We’re here. I had her check into a hotel room. Didn’t want her being tracked back to campus.”
“Fiona?” Sheena’s voice is stricken.
“I’m right here, and I’m fine,” she says. “Literally just spent the evening with Aisling, then came to this hotel room. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, you guys. I want you to think for a minute, it’s possible that I’m not the target and that my bodyguards did something foolish.”
“Unlikely,” Nolan says. “And you may not be a target in the classic sense of the word, but you’re the first woman of the McCarthy clan to leave the home in ages. Seems it could be a warning to us.”
She rolls her eyes, and I wag a finger at her. She’d better not go mitigating the very real danger here.
She sticks her tongue out at me. I lift my palm up in the air and make a swishing motion. Little brat.
“I want you home,” Sheena says. “You’re much safer here with us.”
Fiona gives me a look and doesn’t respond, but her eyes plead with me.
“She’ll come home eventually, Sheena. But whether or not she does so now is up to her, isn’t it?”
Nolan clears his throat and there’s a bit of a heated, whispered conversation between the two of them.
“Easy for you to say,” Sheena says. “That’s my wee sister you’re with, Lachlan. In a hotel room, no less. Don’t tell me for a minute that I’m that naïve that I don’t know exactly—”
“Enough.”
Nolan takes the phone off speaker. Fiona eyes me warily and bites her lip. I sigh.
“Lachlan. Nolan here. We trust that you’ll take care of her, Lach. In every sense of the word.”
“Of course,” I tell him, feeling a second pang of guilt hit my chest at the memory of her strewn over my lap, climaxing on my fingers. I swallow hard. “You know you can depend on me.”
Fiona’s eyes are flashing. “As much as I appreciate your concern, I’ll have you two know that I’m an adult now.”
Nolan sighs.
“You let me come to America, Nolan,” she pleads. “You can’t trust me with your very own Clan brother?”
She’s hit him where it hurts. Well played. Any comment to the contrary makes it look like he doesn’t trust either me or her.
“Right, then,” he finally says. “But know this, Fiona. You don’t become eighteen and magically become independent and fully in charge of your own life. Doesn’t work that way, lass. You’ve got a family that loves you and that comes with its own set of issues, I know. Hell, don’t I know it. You’re talking to the third in line to the McCarthy family throne. I grew up with three men who might as well have been my father.”
Nolan’s older brothers Keenan and Cormac are much older than he is, heavy-handed Clan rulers and leaders.
“Aye,” Fiona says.
“And you know when I was younger, I took to drink. It took years for me to show myself responsible.”
Fiona laughs. “Ah, so that’s why you took on a ready-made family, isn’t it?”
He laughs. “Not quite, but my point is, lass, the more family you have that cares for you, the more you have to answer to. Remember that. We sent you to America with a guard in tow for a reason. Now you’ve got the very best guard there is. Don’t squander any of this.”
“I won’t,” she says firmly. “Promise you, Nolan.”
“Right, then. You two be in touch. Let us know if you hear anything at all.”
“We’ll do that,” I tell him. “I’m in touch with Keenan as well. Will let you know as soon as I hear anything at all.”
I hang up the phone and give her a sidelong glance.
“You’ll keep me on my toes, won’t you?”
“Fucking plan on it.”
I toss the phone on the bed and reach for her, drawing her onto my lap. “That mouth of yours needs schooling.”
“Does it, then?” she says, wriggling on my lap. “I can think of other things to do with it.”
“Is sex all you think about?” I say in a scolding tone, but I’m already envisioning her on her knees with her mouth on my cock.
Bloody fucking hell.
“Not all,” she says. “But I am a red-blooded woman, aren’t I?”
She leans into me and I kiss the hollow in her neck. Her head drops back and she moans. “Red-blooded,” I say and kiss her again. “Red-haired…” I kiss her collarbone and breathe her in. “And red-arsed if you keep up the cheek.” I sink my teeth into her fair skin and she bucks and squeals on my lap.
“Oh my God.”
I chuckle and push her to standing. “You’re supposed to be on campus when?”
“Orientation in an hour.” She waggles her eyebrows at me. “Plenty of time to …”
“Case the campus? Absolutely. Let’s go.”
“Negative fun,” she says, shaking her head, but like a good girl she takes my hand and walks with me.
“And what exactly am I supposed to say you are if people ask?”
“I suppose your bodyguard is a little out of the ordinary.”
“A little.”
“Just tell them I own you.”
“Oh, that’s much better,” she says, probably aiming for sarcasm, but she can’t hide the flush of her cheeks or the way her breath catches.
Chapter 9
Fiona
“Tell them I own you.”
I wish he did. Bloody hell, I wish he did.
We’re getting there.
He came for me, and that right now is what matters.
He came for me.
My mind teems with so many details of the past few hours I don’t even know where to begin. I
’d love a good chat with Aisling or Megan, but I’m not sure how that would work.
“Lachlan’s here. He slept next to me in bed last night, but he barely touched me. Until… he did. Bloody hell, until he did.
But I can’t let my mind get focused on a schoolgirl crush or the hopes that have risen in my chest like the bold roots of early spring flowers, pushing through the cold, hardened earth and turning their faces heavenward. Nor will I denigrate myself to begs or pleas, for a crumb of his attention. I haven’t overcome everything in my life to be second fiddle to damn near anyone or anything.
My guard was attacked and killed. I don’t know the workings of the Clan, but I know enough that I’m in danger. I know enough that my brother and Lachlan are, too. And I won’t squander our safety by making reckless decisions. So, I keep my head on straight. I hold his hand, and we go to campus.
I don’t miss the way he tucks me by his side, easily choreographing our steps so that he’s on the outside of me facing the street and I’m on the inside. I don’t miss the way his sharp, trained eyes take in every damn detail, from the uniformed men who sit at the front desk to the men on the street having a smoke outside the hotel door. He notices everything.
I also don’t miss the harness he has strapped around his waist nor the weapons he carries.
“They won’t notice those?” I ask quietly, out of the side of my mouth. Campus security’s everywhere we look when we arrive.
He shakes his head. “You let me worry about that.”
It isn’t until we get to the building where I’m to go for orientation, and a security guard sees Lachlan, that I realize he has more connections than I gave him credit. The guard’s eyes widen, and he nods and gives him a wide berth, like Lachlan’s royalty or something.
Lachlan jerks his chin at him, that weird way guys greet each other. “What’s the story, mate?” he asks in his easy way.
“Mr. McCarthy.”
They know who he is. And when Tiernan joins at the coffee shop on campus, I notice all the guards’ eyes on us. Maybe it’s their ink, or maybe they have history here, I don’t know.
Aisling joins us on the front lawn before the large auditorium.
