“I know about the business deal, Gael.”
He sighed. “Or we can do it here.”
“I know about the deal you made with my father. That warehouse in exchange for handing me back over. I’m not going to let that happen.”
He blinked. “What else do you think is going on right now?”
“I know exactly what’s going on. You intended on marrying me today so that when you handed me back over, you would be able to use me as a bargaining chip to get your hands on some of my inheritance. But, newsflash, I’m a woman. I don’t have one of those in my family. Only my brothers do.”
“I know that.”
I paused. “You know what?”
He sighed. “Who told you all of this, Colleen? That’s all I need to know.”
“What, so you can kill them and go along with your little plan?”
“Is that what you really think of me?”
No. “Do I have any other choice?”
He stepped toward me. “You always have a choice.”
I blinked. “Your mother offered to help me, you know.”
“That doesn’t shock me. She tried the same thing with Ciara. Offering her a chance at a new life in exchange for doing something. What did my mother want you to do for her?”
I paused. “She’s done this to other girls?”
I’m not special?
“What did she want from you, Colleen? This is my family you’re talking about. I won’t ask again.”
I swallowed hard. “She wanted me to get you to that dinner and to support her and Martin. In exchange, she said she’d help me acclimate into the family. Especially coming from an enemy family. Or help me leave, if that’s what I wanted.”
“Is that what you want?”
“I want a life that is mine. One that makes me happy. One that makes me smile. And what my father has planned for me? Well, that isn’t it.”
“If I tell you what’s really going on, will you tell me who told you these lies?”
“And how do I know you’re not lying to me?”
He sighed. “Look into my eyes and tell me if I’m lying to you. I know you’re good at that, having lived with your father for so many years.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay. Go.”
“I found a nice warehouse expanse for the business, but someone snatched it up at the last minute. They contacted Thoman—Declan’s assistant who’s helping me with all of this—and said the buyer wanted to arrange a meeting. I figured it was because the place was a piece of shit. Needs a lot of work but is in a great location. And when I went to the address given for the meeting, it was nothing but a dark alleyway.”
I swallowed hard. “Go on.”
“Your father was there. Just him. No one else, except our drivers. He offered me that deal—the warehouse, in exchange for you. But I didn’t take that deal, Colleen. I left. After roughing him up a bit.”
She blinked. “You’re being serious.”
“As a heart attack. Our day out in the country? When we were looking at land to build our house on? I was serious about that. Building our future together from the ground up. Now, tell me who the fuck implanted this story into your head and spooked you so badly. They’re the ones that need to answer. Not you.”
I drew in a broken breath. “Ronan and Liam.”
“Your brothers?”
I nodded. “They caught me coming out of the dress store and told me what was going on. At least, what they wanted me to think.”
I watched his face redden with fury as his back straightened.
“Thank you for being honest with me,” he said.
“What are you going to do to them.”
“That’s none of your concern.”
I reached for his arm. “They’re my family. It is my concern.”
“We’re your family now!”
His voice was so loud that the airport went quiet. I looked around, watching people give us looks as police officers stared in our direction. We were out in the open, and that wasn’t good. We had to get somewhere isolated if we were going to talk this out.
How quickly the tables can turn.
“Gael, we can’t stay here,” I said.
“That’s what I was trying to tell you. Let’s go get some food and—”
“No, I mean we can’t stay here. In Chicago.”
He paused. “Come again?”
I released him. “Come with me.”
“What?”
“Come with me to Texas. I don’t have a passport. I can’t go to Vienna. But I have an appointment on the other side to get a passport. A quick one. We can go to Mexico. Make a new life for ourselves. Build us a mansion on the water somewhere and live out the rest of our days without this bullshit.”
For a split second, I thought I saw him consider it. And much to my surprise, he nodded his head.
“We could do that. That’s an option,” he said.
“Do we really have any other option, though?”
I saw the cogs of his mind turning behind his eyes.
“Talk to me, Gael. This flight leaves in twenty minutes. They’re probably boarding now.”
“Give me two weeks.”
“What?”
He took my hands. “Give me two weeks to make the proper arrangements. It’s dangerous for us to flee like this without a plan. Give me two weeks, and we’ll book proper flights straight into Mexico. We can get your passport in motion before we even leave the airport today.”
I blinked. “Are you being serious?”
“Yes. I am. But I don’t want to leave Declan and Brody high and dry without a way to get started on operations. They’re still my family. And when we marry, they’ll be your family, too. We don’t want to leave them angry with us. We’ll need a safe place to stay when we’re there. Money we can have quick access to. That takes time to set up. Give me that time, and we’re out of here in fourteen days. Can you do that with me? Fourteen more days?”
I smiled. “You’re being serious.”
He nodded. “Yes, I am. We’ll have a beachside wedding. You, me, an officiant, and some random person off the side of the road in order to witness. You'll never want for anything ever again. Just give me time. That’s all I need.”
My heart felt full. “Okay. Fourteen days. That’s the deal.”
He pulled me close. “Deal.”
And when his lips fell against mine to seal it, I was already dreaming of our future. Our house on the beach. The sun against our necks. The love we’d make to the sounds of the ocean and the cocktails we’d sip while sinking into our plush towels on the oceanfront. Excitement grew in my chest. Gael’s arms wrapped around me. Then, my ticket slipped from my fingertips.
Finding its death on the floor as he carried me through the crowd.
17
Gael
I felt her shaking. Even though we weren’t even touching, I felt her shaking. I peered over at her as my driver took us back to the brownstone. Here I was, in my marriage suit, and she sat there. As small as I’d ever seen her. Shivering, shaking, and wringing her hands in the outfit she had on this morning. I wanted to take her hand. Something stirred within me that I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
I felt a need to protect.
“Colleen?”
She jumped. “Yes? Sorry. Um, yes, sir?”
I shook my head. “Gael. Don’t—you don’t call me ‘sir.’”
Her eyes held my own. “Okay.”
“What do you need?”
She swallowed hard. “What?”
I placed my hand on her knee gently. “What do you need?”
She stayed silent for a long time before she turned her body toward me.
“Did you mean what you said in the airport?” she asked.
I blinked. “Of course.”
“About our future. And Mexico. And about getting out of here?”
“I’m already running down arrangements in my head. I have a meeting with Declan in the morning already to disc
uss the warehouse ventures. So, I’m going to be bringing up the rest of this to him tomorrow.”
She paused. “Even though we would’ve been on our honeymoon, technically?”
I sighed. “Well, I actually had plans for us to stay in that hotel suite for three or so nights to solidify this warehouse stuff before we left for our tropical honeymoon paradise. But things change. And I change quickly with them.”
Her eyes searched mine. “I’m begging you not to be lying to me.”
“I’m not.”
She placed her hand on mine. “If you are, Gael, then tell me. Please. I’ll do anything.”
I cupped her cheek with my free hand. “I’m not lying to you, Colleen. Your brothers are.”
She licked her lips. “The only thing my father understands is property. Money. Transactions. He’s always been a purely transactional person. You saw that in the deal he tried offering you.”
“I did, yes.”
“Then, let’s get married.”
I paused. “What?”
“Right now. Before anything else happens. Let’s get married, get that certificate in the courthouse system before the end of the day, and let’s hand over my ownership from my father to you.”
“I don’t want to just own you, Colleen. I want to—”
My heart leapt into my throat as her eyes widened.
“You want to what, Gael?”
I scooted closer to her. “You want to get married? Right now?”
“It’s the only way to really protect me from my father. Because if you own me through marriage, I can’t do anything you don’t ask of me.”
“Yes, you can. That isn’t how I want this to work.”
“It’s how it works for him. Through his eyes, if I’m married? I don’t make a move or do a damn thing without my husband’s consent. That removes the power he’s wielding with this warehouse. That removes the fear I’ve got with being back in his clutches. But it places my trust completely in you, Gael. Do you get that?”
I nodded. “And I won’t betray it. You're protected with me. You have my word.”
She sighed. “Then, let’s get to the courthouse.”
I banged on the roof. “Driver!”
The partition rolled down. “Yes, sir?”
I held her gaze. “Courthouse. Now. We have a wedding to finish.”
I pulled Colleen close to me and her head fell against my shoulder. Her sniffles broke my heart. And it killed me that she wouldn't be wearing the dress she picked out for herself. I stroked my fingers through her hair. I ripped off the rotting boutonniere pinned to my suit coat. I ignored the vibrating of my phone. I ignored the incessant phone calls. I ignored everything that came through on that fucking device as we pulled up to the courthouse together.
“We need a witness,” Colleen said.
“Sir?” my driver asked.
“Yes?”
“I believe I can be of assistance there.”
I nodded. “Come with us.”
With my driver and my scared soon-to-be wife in tow, we rushed back up to the magistrate’s office. I rattled off to the woman at the front desk what was going on, but I knew I wasn’t making any sense. We were cutting it close. It was already four thirty. The courthouse closed in thirty minutes and we needed this shit to happen. Now.
“Sir, I can’t understand you. Slow down. What is it you need?”
Colleen patted my chest. “We need to see someone who can wed us. A judge. An officiant. A reverend that might be sitting in the waiting room. We just need to take our vows and sign the paperwork.”
The woman shook her head. “I’m sorry. All of the judges are—”
“This is important, okay?” she asked. “This is the difference between my happiness for the rest of my life and my father controlling every move I make until the day I die. You see this man?”
Colleen pointed at me and my heart surged in my chest with pride.
“He’s given me the only ounce of happiness I’ve ever felt,” she said with tears in her eyes. “He’s given me hope. He’s given me a future. He’s given me something to smile about. Is he rough around the edges? Yes. Is he loud? He can be. Is he scary? To some. But he’s saved me from my father. And for that, I owe him everything. Including my love.”
I blinked. “Your what?”
She looked up at me. “I love you, Gael. I have for years. Will you marry me?”
My God, I love you, too. “I promise you, when this is done, our future begins in Mexico. A new life. A new future. A new lease on our happiness. You have my word.”
“Sounds like wedding vows to me!”
The booming voice behind us made Colleen jump. I wrapped my arms around her and turned to see a man in a black robe with a beaming smile on his face. He took one look at us before coming our way, and I heard the woman behind the desk shuffling around for papers.
“What’s your name?” the judge asked.
“Gael Callaghan,” I said.
“Do you take this woman to be your wife? To have and to hold, to cherish and to take care of, until death do you part?”
I nodded. “I do.”
“I’m Colleen, sir. Colleen Maguire.”
The judge blinked. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
I knew he recognized our names, and the smile on his face simply grew.
“Do you, Colleen Maguire, take this man to be your husband? To have and to hold, to cherish and to take care of, until death do you part?”
She nodded. “And beyond that, sir.”
The judge held out his arms. “Then, by the power vested in me by God and the state of Illinois, I pronounce you man and wife. Mr. Callaghan, you may kiss your bride.”
I growled. “Come here, Mrs. Callaghan.”
I pulled her in for a kiss that stole my own breath away. She wrapped me up tight and pulled me close, filling my mouth with her tongue. I pressed her against the woman’s desk. I heard my driver chuckling as pens uncapped and scribbled across paper. Nothing else mattered to me, though. Colleen was officially mine.
And I’d do anything to make sure she had whatever she wanted.
I barely remembered signing that damn marriage certificate. I did, however, remember Colleen giggling as she wrote down her official wedded name. Colleen Ailis Callaghan. The most beautiful name on the planet. The only thing I remembered about the car ride home was her straddling me. The way she kissed me. The way her body rolled against my own as my cock stood on end. We stumbled into the hotel room. I barely got us checked in before Colleen pulled me into the elevator. We rose up the metal encasement, all the way to the fourteenth floor. Where we tumbled into our suite and hardly got the door closed before clothes started coming off.
“I love you. I love you so much,” she whispered.
The words kept getting trapped in my throat. I wanted to say them so badly, but my throat wouldn't unlock. With our clothes on the floor and our bodies bared for one another, I pinned her against the wall. I let my lips fall to her beautiful porcelain skin. I lapped at her pulse point. I sucked marks against her shoulders. My hands slid down her body as I pinned her hips to the wall, her legs spreading naturally for me.
“Gael, yes,” she moaned.
And when I tasted her juices for the first time as a married couple, I spiraled out of control.
Her moans urged me on. The way she clung to my hair with her hands sent shivers down my spine. She raked her nails along my scalp and I thought I might come unhinged. I had no idea what the hell our room looked like. I didn’t know what amenities it had or what we might be able to get ourselves into. But I certainly didn’t give a shit. All I wanted was to explore Colleen’s body until she begged me to stop. All I wanted was to memorize every inch of her with my tongue.
All I wanted was to tell her how much she truly meant to me.
“Gael, yes. So close. Oh, fuck. Gael!”
I growled into her pussy as her leg slid over my shoulder. She bucked against me furiously, covering me in
her scented mark. I picked up her other leg and slid it over my shoulder. Hovering her up above the floor. And as I slowly stood, feeling power rushing through my muscles, she clung to me. Her moans, bigger than ever before.
“Holy fuck, Gael. Shit! Don’t drop me. Don’t drop me. Oh, fuck, don’t stop. Don’t stop. Don’t stop!”
I sucked her clit between my teeth and felt her spiral out of control. She sprayed me, making me chuckle as her wetness slid down my body. I kissed her swollen pussy lips. I pulled her away from the wall. And as she held tightly to my hair, I peered around her body enough to walk us into the bedroom.
Before we collapsed onto the mattress.
“You’re mine,” I growled.
“All yours,” she breathed.
“Every. Inch. Of. You. Is. Mine.”
I punctuated my words with kisses until her lips crashed against my own. I pinned her wrists above her head. I felt her body splayed out for me. Her legs, parting, as my cock fell between them. I lined myself up with her entrance. I hovered above her, my knees planted into the mattress.
“I love you so much,” she whispered.
And finally, my throat unlocked.
“I love you too, Colleen.”
I sank into her and the world went blank. Her nails raked down my back. Her juices poured down my balls. Her breathless moans filled my ear as I pounded into her, crashing our bed against the wall. Forcing our neighbors to bang against it. I didn’t care, though. They could call the cops. SWAT. The fucking FBI, for all I cared.
I wouldn’t stop until Colleen wanted me to.
“Holy shit!”
I growled. “Squeeze that cock. Own that cock.”
“Mine. You’re mine. Just like I’m yours.”
My eyes flew open. “All yours, Mrs. Callaghan.”
I lost count of how many times she came for me. How many times her beautiful pussy squeezed my cock as she fell over the edge. She looked perfect, orgasming for me. The way her eyes rolled back. The way her skin flushed. The way she clung to me. As if she never wanted to let me go. My heart soared with delight. I folded her every which way, and not once did she look away from my eyes. I felt more connected to her than my own fucking family, and I felt more of my walls coming down.
Gael: The Callaghan Mafia Book 3 Page 12
