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.
“Only students and parents or guardians admitted,” she says sheepishly to Lachlan. She flushes pink when she looks at his hand in mine, and even redder when Tiernan comes out of the coffee shop bearing a tray of cups.
“Everything alright, Aisling?” he asks. “Have you seen anything out of place at all?”
She shakes her head. “Well, no,” she says, flushing. “But I… well, I didn’t spend the night in my room.”
Tiernan’s eyes narrow. “That why I couldn’t find you?”
I stifle a groan. What the hell did she do?
“Didn’t know you were looking,” she says, her cheeks heating.
“Where were you?” he asks. “And I want the name of the people you both were with last night.”
“Well I…” her voice trails off. She looks abashed. “Spent the night with a date,” she finally says. “I can give you his name and number.”
“Call him,” Lachlan says.
“What?” Aisling looks at Lachlan like he just sprouted another head.
He keeps his gazed levelly fixed on hers. “Call him.”
Tiernan hands me my coffee cup, and Aisling fumbles with her phone. “Fine, then,” she mutters. With trembling fingers, she flips her hand over and looks at the number she’s got scrawled on the palm of her hand. I stifle a groan. She dials the number.
“Hello, there, I’m looking for Joe.” There’s a pause, and her brows draw together. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She hangs up the phone and looks to me, the first real look of concern shadowing her features. “It was a wrong number. I’m sure it was a mistake.”
Now my own heart begins to thump in my chest. Last night was just a harmless meeting of a few guys.
Wasn’t it?
Did we fly here from Ireland straight into a damn trap?
“Give Tiernan the address,” Lachlan says. “Tiernan, you go there while I keep guard when they go to orientation.”
“Aye,” Tiernan says. “And for Christ’s sake, Aisling, stay in your own damn dorm tonight.”
She opens her mouth to protest, but he’s already gone, stalking off the campus.
I look to Lachlan, but he only shakes his head and sighs. “Wish to God I could put you on a plane and take you home, but here we are. So off you go.”
Aisling walks beside me. “I don’t understand, Fiona.”
I shake my head. I don’t either.
“Parents or guardians only past this point,” a cheery-faced greeter at the door says.
“I’m her guardian,” Lachlan says, and for some reason, my belly clenches at that. I think his definition and the school’s definition of guardian are two very different things, but it’s no matter. We’re allowed into the auditorium.
Of course he looks all around the place, and brings us to where he thinks it’s safest, at the very back, where he can watch every entrance.
I do my best to act like I’m a normal college student, just a freshman here at orientation, and I’m not sitting next to a man who’s in the Irish mob, but it seems as if I’m almost play-acting. I don’t feel like I’m just a freshman. When the dean welcomes us, and the auditorium breaks into cheers and catcalls, I join in, but it’s half-hearted. When she gives us a stern lecture about not smoking or vaping in the dorms, and reminds us of all the time and money our parents put into our education and how we can’t disappoint them, it feels as if she’s talking down to me. Such childish things aren’t even on my radar.
Once again, I feel as if I don’t belong. I didn’t belong as a child under Sheena and Nolan’s roof. But I’m not an innocent, naïve freshman either. I’m sitting beside a man who told me he owns me not an hour before I set foot on this campus.
What does that even mean? Or more to the point… what does he mean by it?
I don’t know. God, I don’t know.
The orientation passes in a blur. I watch Aisling. She’s looking all about the place with the wide-eyed wonder that most of my peers are. Meanwhile, I’m wondering where I’ll sleep tonight. In the little twin bed in my dorm room with Aisling? Or… beside this full-grown man beside me who took me over his knee and made me come?
My cheeks flush at the memory.
“Earth to Fionaaaaa.” Aisling’s got her hands cupped over her mouth. “Did you hear a word I said?”
I shake my head. “Sorry. What was that?”
“I said, come with me to the party tonight? Welcome freshmen party.” She grins.
I look to Lachlan, whose lips are thinned. He gives me one barely noticeable shake of his head. That’ll be a no.
“Not tonight,” I tell her. “I don’t know how long Lachlan’s here, and we’re going to spend the night together.” I immediately flush at my words and stammer to correct them. “I mean… I mean, what I meant to say was, I’ll be with him tonight.”
Jesus, that’s no better. I close my eyes as Aisling squeals with laughter, then open again when I swear I hear Lachlan chuckle, too.
“Why don’t you try that again, lass,” he says.
I narrow my eyes at him and stick out my tongue. When Aisling’s got her back turned, he leans in and whispers in my ear, “Keep that tongue in your mouth, lass, or I’ll give you a better use for it, aye?”
“Likely story,” I say and I roll my eyes. As if.
“Challenging me, then, Fiona?” he whispers in my ear.
Of course I am. How could I not? “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, tossing my head as we leave the main hall to get our schedules before we take a lunch break. Our schedule says after lunch we’ll meet our guides for our trip around campus.
“You know damn well what I’m talking about,” he says. “And we can talk about this when we get back to the hotel.”
I don’t want to squander what I have here. I’ve worked hard for this scholarship, and my best friend’s here. But a part of me wants to turn to him, bury myself in his arms, and beg him to take me home. I don’t belong here. I don’t belong there, either, though. Where do I belong?