I want to ask him if everything’s alright, but I’ll wait for him to tell me. I look to the bedside table, where he’s placed a glass of water for me. With a small smile, I sip it. Beside it lays a brand new phone. I lift it and turn it on, to find that it’s been synced to my old account. I have seven unread messages.
Aisling: GIRL what happened? Are you alright? You can’t keep me in the dark anymore!!!!!
I sigh. She’s right, of course. I can’t.
Megan: So good to have you home. Will you be joining us for breakfast? I glance at the clock. 11:22. Ah, that would be a no. Seems Megan figured that out, for the next message reads, Guess not. Lunch, then?
I message her back. Hi! Maybe for lunch. I’ll have to see what Lachlan’s plans are.
Oh, God, but it feels so damn good to say that.
Tiernan: Got in last night at midnight. Staying in the Clan Mansion until further notice. Keenan pulled us all out of Boston.
Jesus God, I’m grateful he’s okay.
Maeve: My sweet girl, I hear you’re home. Welcome home. And I hear Lachlan’s claimed you. Funny how my boys are making such a big deal of it. I’ve known since he met you this day would come.
What are they planning? What does she mean, ‘making such a big deal of it?’ Oh, Lord.
Now I do have questions for him. But first, I have to answer these messages.
Maeve!! I’m so glad to be home. Leaving Ballyhock wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. How are you feeling???
She responds right away. I understand, sweetheart. One wants to spread her wings, but you’re so loved here. Stay with us, we’ll give you room to fly. :) I’m feeling much better, thanks!
A knock comes at the door, and Lachlan, still on the phone, wearing nothing but pajama bottoms, answers the door. He gestures impatiently for Sebastian to come in, then returns to his phone call.
Sebastian comes straight to me. I tug the sheet nearly up to my eyeballs, since I’m stark naked under here.
“I’m fine,” I tell him. “No need to check me again.”
But he brushes me off, and still takes my temperature and blood pressure.
“Sebastian?”
“Aye.”
“What happened to Maeve?”
His face goes sober. “Don’t know yet, but Keenan’s launched an investigation, though.”
I really need to talk to Lachlan. I swear, the women of the Clan are being targeted.
“Is everyone else alright, Sebastian? Aileen and Caitlin… Megan?”
“Aye,” he says, giving me a curious look.
A few minutes later, Lachlan enters and has a brief, hurried conversation with Sebastian, who assures him I’m fine. Lachlan tries to brush him off, but I insist he get checked as well.
“If you’re insisting I do, you will, too!”
He rolls his eyes heavenward and mutters something about “feisty woman with a mouth on her.” Sebastian checks him, and finally takes his leave.
“What is it?” I ask after the doctor’s gone. “Can you tell me?”
He works his jaw. “Not yet,” he says. “Not yet, lass.” He crawls into bed next to me and kisses my bare shoulder. “Do you mean to tell me you were just inspected by the Clan doctor, stark naked?”
I give him a coy look. “Oh, aye,” I say with a shrug. “Does that bother you?”
Before I know it, I’m pinned onto the bed and he’s kissing me while he holds me down.
“Thought I could only claim you once, didn’t you?”
Chapter 20
Lachlan
She melts beneath me, this time so eager for me it’s all I can do to contain myself as I kiss her, hold her, and finally when we’re both panting and she’s practically begging to have me in her. I hold her wrists between my fingers.
“You’re mine,” I breathe, as I slide my swollen cock into her hot, tight body. “You’re mine, Fiona.”
“Of course I am,” she says, grinning and panting, her mouth parting when I thrust in her again. “I have been since the day we met.”
She closes her eyes and her mouth parts, her body arches into mine.
“You couldn’t claim me, then, Lachlan,” she whispers, gently shoving against me as I rock my hips, swallowed fully in her. “But it was then that I gave you my heart.” She gasps, and I kiss her cheek. I love listening to her heartfelt confessions while we make sweet love. “I knew then...somehow, I knew. There would never be another man for me.”
“I love you,” I whisper in her ear, with another hard thrust. “I love you.” I kiss the apple of her cheek and she begins to climax, my own ecstasy rolling through me. “You were worth waiting for.”
She falls asleep, but I lie awake beside her in the aftermath of our lovemaking. She’s curled up next to me, her head on my chest.
There’s much on my mind, not the least of which is the prisoner we’ve captured, held in the interrogation room on the bottom floor of the mansion.
It was a bomb, Keenan said. Carson saw someone running after the bomb went off. Nolan and Cormac have him in custody.
But even as I hold her, I know, someone responsible for hurting her is in the very walls of this fortress.
She wakes with a start and sits in bed with her eyes wide.
“I know,” she says, turning to look at me as if surprised.
I give her a quizzical look, still half asleep myself, and raise up on one elbow. “What are you talking about, lass?”
Her hands flail in the air as she tries to explain, always talking with her hands when excited. “I know, my God, I know now.” She throws off the covers and paces the room. “The guard, Lach. It was the guard. You all thought the guard was attacked by the men in Boston, didn’t you?” She mutters to herself, shaking her head. “You all trusted the guard. I mean, of course you would, Keenan vets all of them, doesn’t he?”
I sit up and draw in a deep breath.
“Fiona. Slow down, lass. You’re not making any sense.”
She nods, still talking to herself. “The day of my birthday,” she begins. “Tiernan was here. He was pretending to be the guard at the gate, wasn’t he?”
I nod. “Aye.”
“He had on his uniform, I saw it. Just the standard guard uniform, Lachlan. And there was a crest on the sleeve, I figured you guys had new uniforms or something. Didn’t even think twice. And it was the same crest Matt had in Boston.”
I furrow my brow. “Matt?”
She nods excitedly. “Yes, Matt. The same name of the guy I hung out with my first night in Boston. Remember I told you, he asked me all sorts of questions about my home and where I came from? He wanted to be sure he had my identity.”
I listen warily.
“Think, Lachlan. Did you find the bodies of my guard? Did you?”
I think back to what Keenan said. “Mutilated beyond recognition.” I pick up my phone and dial Keenan.
He answers on the first ring, sounding tired and weary.
“Keenan, when you found the guard that was supposed to be with Fiona — did you identify their bodies?”
“No.”
“How did you know it was them, then?”