“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.