My mind was going blank. My body numb.
“I’m going to take a drive. Look around the city. I don’t know. I want to do something,” Sean said. “You want to come with me?”
I knew he was directing his question at Ethan because as much as I wanted to go search for her, combing the streets would be a waste of time. But if it made my brother feel better, or even useful, I wouldn’t stop him.
“Yeah,” Ethan said. “We’ll check in.”
“Call us if you hear anything.” Sean gripped my shoulder and found my eyes. “We’re going to get her back.”
I gulped, trying to hide my emotions. No fecking luck. “Yeah, of course we will,” I said, willing my words to be true.
I went back into the room after my brothers left, and my gaze wandered to Anna’s parents. My future father-in-law, who officially hated me almost as much as I now hated myself, clutched his wife in a tight embrace.
His eyes swept to mine and thinned.
I’d never felt like such a failure in all my life.
I had to get Anna back.
And I’d lay everything on the line to do it.
Chapter Two
Anna
Eight Days Earlier
“It really is amazing.” And yet, a tremble in my hands had me clutching the second-floor railing even tighter as I observed the two-story wall of windows. The evening sun spilled into the room as the fiery ball began its descent.
The expansive living room down below was decorated more beautifully than I’d ever envisioned when Adam and I had sat down with the designer six months ago. A mix of country from my Southern roots with splashes of modernity to go with Adam’s style.
“Are you sure we’re not jinxing anything if we move in before we’re married, though?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Adam’s hands wrapped around my waist from behind, and my nervous energy began to dissipate. The man was an expert at calming me, but he could also ignite my desires from zero to sixty within the space of a heartbeat.
Jury was out on which I wanted at the moment. Maybe both.
“If you want to wait until after the wedding we can.”
Sandalwood and a hint of pine touched my nose as I shifted my face over my shoulder and inhaled his intoxicating scent.
His mouth brushed against mine.
“Kiss me like that again, and we’ll be making love instead of heading out.” I pivoted to fully face him and looped my arms around his neck.
“Promise?” His blue eyes glinted with the sunlight catching his irises. “Why don’t we skip the parties and stay in?”
“Mm.” I nipped his bottom lip and felt his cock harden against me. “As much as I’d love to feel you inside of me, we have to wait. Plus, I don’t want to suffer the wrath of my bridesmaids. This would be the second time I canceled the bachelorette party.”
“First time wasn’t your fault.” He shifted back a touch to find my eyes, and I could see a hint of worry there. Maybe his nerves were as tangled as mine.
“What does the bridal party have planned tonight, anyway?” He arched a brow.
“No idea. Your sister is like Fort Knox, and Becca—well, you’ve met her. She’s as tight-lipped as they come.” I squinted one eye and studied him. “But you already questioned them, didn’t you?” My fingers skated to the knot of his tie, and I adjusted it.
“Can you blame me, love?” His hands shifted to my ass, and he squeezed. “They wouldn’t tell me anything, but the idea of some guy stripping for you . . .” He dropped his words and shook his head. “Let’s just say I’m gonna have a bloody stroke thinking about you out in the city unprotected tonight.”
“And you’ll be with the guys. I’m sure your brothers and Les are up to a whole lot of no good.”
“Not if I can help it.” He pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “I have everything I need right here.” He lost his hold of me and stepped back to view my abdomen. “Well, almost everything.”
A baby. As soon as we tied the knot we’d begin trying.
“Let’s stay in. I don’t even want to know what kind of shenanigans Les and my brothers have planned for me. And as for you,” he said while grabbing my hand and pulling me tight against him, “I think we could jumpstart our plans. Make love in every room. I can come inside of you.”
“Mm. But making you wait until the wedding night is way too much fun.”
“For you, maybe. But my balls are about to fall off.” His forehead touched mine.
“It’s only been a week,” I said with a chuckle.
“That’s like four eternities.” He groaned and rotated his hips so his shaft pressed against me.
I stepped back and out of his reach, and his arms swooped to his sides. My gaze journeyed south to his belt buckle as my tongue raced over my bottom lip.
Part of me wanted to break my own rules.
To strip.
To have my soon-to-be husband take me right then and there.
But as painful as the waiting would be, the anticipation would add more fireworks to our already crazy-amazing sex life.
“Woman.” A partial grunt left his lips as he reached for me and scooped me into his arms.
“Put me down,” I said, but hooked my hands around his neck as he carried me to our new master bedroom. “Don’t even think about it.”
He tossed me onto the four-poster bed, climbed on top of me, and pinned me beneath him. “We’ll wait,” he said as he lowered his mouth close to mine. “But it’s only fair I get to tease you since you’ve been killing me all week.”
“What? Walking around naked in my cowboy boots last night bothered you?” I bit my lip.
“Just a wee bit, yeah.” He kept his one hand near my shoulder on the bed, holding the brunt of his weight, and his other popped the buttons of my blouse open. He shoved my demi-bra down to free my breasts.
It was me groaning this time when he squeezed my flesh and lightly pinched my nipple. Heat pooled in my stomach and dipped lower, and I tightened my thighs, hoping to contain the desire flashing through me. I wanted to spread my legs and have him thrust inside of me like never before.
“Adam,” I said with a pout when his hand settled between my legs, and he began strumming his fingers there. “This feels so good, but . . . I’m not giving in.” My eyes squeezed closed as everything inside of me nearly burst.
I was already close to climaxing.
“Maybe this was a mistake. Now I’m more turned on than ever.” He dropped next to me and reached down to cover his erection. “Am I allowed to jerk off, at least?” He rolled to his side to face me, but his gaze dipped to my breasts still on display.
“Hm. I guess that doesn’t violate our no-sex-until-the-wedding deal.”
He stood and cracked his neck. “Then you know what I’ll be doing when I’m showering before I go out tonight.”
“Thinking about me while I’m thinking about you during my shower?” I hopped off the bed and fixed my blouse as he attempted to adjust his pants, fighting his arousal.
“Eight more days,” he said under his breath. “Eight more bloody days.”
I extended my palm to shake his hand. “So, we agree not to come back here until after we say I do?” When he clasped his hand with mine he yanked me to him and brought both his palms to my face.
“I love you so damn much.” Emotion caught in his throat as he spoke. “And next weekend you’re going to be my wife.” His blue eyes pinned me still. “My wife,” he whisper-said as if it were truly hitting him.
“You sure you don’t want to skip all the pomp and circumstance and say I do in front of a few people, and then just ride off on some horses into the sunset?”
I wasn’t totally kidding. I’d never been a big fan of being in the spotlight. It was probably why it took me forever to set the date and plan the wedding. The idea of having hundreds of eyes on me had my stomach doing somersaults.
Falling in the super-duper high heels my younger sister, Dana, had pressured me into bu
ying? Probably.
Bawl my eyes out during the vows and have my waterproof mascara fail to come through for me? More than likely.
But . . . I’d do anything for this man. Luxurious wedding and all.
“You deserve the world. You deserve everything.” He kissed me hard. “And I’m going to spend my life making sure you’re happy.”
“Mm. Well, goal achieved. I already am.”
Chapter Three
Anna
“Okay. I have to know. Who picked this place?” I surveyed the members of my bachelorette party, trying to figure out who’d choose such a ridiculously lavish nightclub.
Becca, my oldest sister—no way in hell.
My youngest sister, Dana—maybe.
My other sister Sheri—that’d be a hard no.
My best friend, Lana, from back home who spends more time with horses than people? Highly doubt it.
No way would Holly McGregor pick a club with electronic dance music pulsing so loud you could barely hear yourself think. Plus, I’d caught her on her work phone only every other minute since our night began. The woman couldn’t let loose.
“Kate?” I eyed my friend, and she coyly smiled and raised her hand.
“Guilty,” she said. “It was suggested to me by this hottie with a megawatt smile.”
Of course. “You spot him yet?”
She shook her head. “But tonight’s not about me, anyway.” She winked.
Kate and I had competed for an internship when I first came to Dublin—neither of us landing the role, but we’d stayed friends, and I was honored she’d flown in from New York for the party and the wedding. Especially for the second time.
“I tried to stop her from switching the location, but you know Kate,” Narisa said.
Narisa did, in fact, win the internship with McGregor Enterprises, making the official move from Thailand to Dublin, which worked out since she’d fallen in love with Rick, one of the other interns who’d won.
“Well, I guess I can handle this.” A wild nightclub bursting from the seams with drunken people wasn’t exactly my go-to for a Friday night. But at least there were no dildo-shaped balloon hats to wear.
Our matching bridal tees were the only sign we were partaking in the time-honored tradition of a bachelorette party. Of course, my breasts were spilling out of the top, thanks to Dana, who I was pretty sure got the sizes purposefully wrong when she’d ordered our tees.
“Yeah, this wouldn’t have been my first pick.” Holly looked up from her phone. “Considering the devil owns this place.” She averted her gaze to the second floor of the three-tiered club, and I followed her eyes to a man in an all-black suit with his forearms resting over the railing, his eyes pointed toward us.
He didn’t even bother looking away when I caught him staring. “He’s the owner?” A chill traveled down my spine, so I ripped my focus away from him.
“Yeah,” Holly answered and looked back at me. “Sebastian Renaud.”
“Is he a criminal?” Memories from my experiences with the Dublin crime boss, Donovan Hannigan, raced to mind. The last thing I needed was to be in some sketchy place. I wanted to make it to my wedding day alive after all.
“No, nothing illegal. Well, I don’t think. But he’s known for making deals. And frankly, I don’t like him. Half French. Half Irish. And a whole lot of douche.” Holly’s eyes went right back to her phone.
“Okay. No more phones!” Kate snatched her cell and held it above her head, and I was fairly certain Holly’s eyes were going to pop.
Kate was the only one ballsy enough to do such a thing.
Even though my relationship with Holly had grown leaps and bounds since my engagement with Adam, the woman was still fairly emotionally closed off. All work. No play.
“I’m trying to save our media business from a . . .” Holly’s words disappeared into the air. She stood and tried to snatch the phone from Kate, but Kate tossed it to Becca.
My poor sister had no interest in playing hot potato with a billionaire tigress, so she handed it back to Holly.
Standing with my hands on my hips—only one drink in me from the limo ride over—I squinted at Holly. Not the best idea since the room flashed with blinking lights, making it already hard to see. “What’s up? Something wrong?”
“Forget I said anything.” And yet, a hiss left her barely parted lips, and she returned her focus to her phone to type again.
“You sure you don’t want to talk about it?” I asked.
“No.” When she finished typing, she looked at me and frowned. “Shit. This is your night, and I suck at all of this. Sorry, love.”
“Which is why I had to step in and help plan.” Kate flashed her white teeth. “Thank God for me, or we’d have ended up at a bar with a bunch of uptight men in suits.”
I laughed. “Good point,” I said when noticing a server heading our way with a tray of champagne and Grey Goose.
“Let the party begin!” Kate rubbed her palms together and motioned for us to sit.
The server poured eight shots of vodka, and my stomach protested at the sight. But what the hell—it was my bachelorette party. And I was about to become Mrs. McGregor. It was time to celebrate.
We clinked our little glasses together, and I winced after swallowing the clear liquid.
My sister coughed, sputtering some of the vodka out of her mouth. I forgot Dana was only twenty. The drinking age in Ireland was different than in Kentucky, but I didn’t want her to spend all of tomorrow hugging the toilet.
“Easy,” I said as non-motherly as possible.
“The second will go down smoother.” Narisa winked at Dana and began pouring another round.
“Thank God we ate a ton of greasy food before we got here,” Becca said with a laugh. “At my bachelorette party we sipped Chardonnay. This is—”
“Perfect!” Kate interjected. “Now, cheers to the bride-to-be. May you be fruitful and prosper.” She swiped a hand through the air. “Or something like that.”
All eyes expectantly went to Holly to see if she’d say anything.
Holly smoothed a hand down her shirt as if to collect her thoughts first. “You turned my brother’s life around,” she said. “And I’ve never seen him so happy. Thank you. I can’t wait to have a sister.” Her words had my heart squeezing in my chest. “Sláinte.”
My cheeks hurt from smiling. “Sláinte,” I repeated before taking the next shot.
After one more shot and a flute of champagne, we found ourselves on the dance floor. The hard-hitting beat of the drums and bass from the music pulsed through me, and my skin tingled from the warmth of the alcohol.
I lost track of time or how many more drinks I’d had after that. The room hadn’t started to spin yet, so that was a plus.
“Getting water. Be back!” I yelled over the music so my group could hear and then moved through the crowd of women and men throwing their hands in the air like they were at a rave.
“What can I get you?” The bartender placed a napkin on the counter, and his green eyes glowed from the flashing lights reflecting off his irises.
“Just water. Thank you.”
His gaze dipped to the letters on my shirt. “Getting married, are ya?”
“A week from tomorrow,” I answered a little breathlessly and averted my eyes over my shoulder to the dance floor.
Kate was grinding up against some random guy, and not to my surprise, Holly was waving away a young Brad Pitt lookalike. It’d take a hell of a lot to win Holly over.
“On the house.”
I looked back at the bartender and found the bottle of water. “Thank you.”
“She needs something a wee bit stronger, don’t you think?” a man off to my left asked.
“I’m good. Thanks.” I started to leave, but his hand curved around my bicep.
“You sure, love?” His eyes thinned as he observed me. And maybe it was the alcohol, but the man reminded me a little of my ex. An asshole, at best. And this guy was the la
st thing I wanted to deal with on a night like this.
“You can take your hand off me now.” Adam had taught me self-defense, but I wasn’t itching to use my moves on the night of my party.
“How about a dance first?” His brows drew inward, and I wondered if the bartender would intervene, but when I glanced over at him he was busy helping someone else.
“How about you let me go, or I make you?” I plastered on a fake smile and cocked my head. The son of a bitch had less than five seconds to back down.
Gone was the meek and defenseless girl I’d been in Kentucky. I’d become a different woman since moving to Dublin. A stronger woman.
A real man, like Adam, always builds a woman up and never tears her down.
And I was so grateful for him.
“Don’t you want one last fling before you get hitched?” His lips depressed into a hard line, and an unsettling feeling curled into a tight ball in my stomach.
“Back the feck off, and get the hell out of my club.”
The man released his hold and hesitantly left, and I pivoted to find Sebastian Renaud. After what Holly had said about him, he was a man I had a feeling I didn’t want to be indebted to.
“Thanks. I was handling it, though.” I grabbed my water from the counter, almost forgetting why I’d come to the bar in the first place, and escaped back into the thick of the crowd, not interested in engaging in a conversation with the man. There was something haunting in his dark-brown eyes.
Holly pulled me off to the side of the dance floor and away from the DJ booth. “Hey, what did Renaud want with you? I was about to come kick his arse when I saw him talking to you.”
Maybe Holly was more like Adam than she realized?
“He was saving me from a jerk.”
Her mouth rounded in surprise. “Oh. Er, okay.” She turned, probably expecting me to follow her back, but at the feel of someone’s hand on my hip a moment later I remained frozen in place.
My head bowed.
Call me crazy, but the way I felt whenever Adam touched me was unmistakable.
“Hi, my love,” he said into my ear, his warm breath sending spine-tingling sensations down my body.
Dublin Nights Series Box Set: On the Edge & On the Line Page 31
