I look at her in surprise. “I’m not, lass.”
She pouts a little, but I can tell she’s not really upset. Hell, I suspect she’s actually pleased.
“You and I need to have a talk, don’t we?” I say, as we all head down the vacant halls of the school toward the exit.
She sighs. “We do.”
“Do you know what I’m going to do to you when I have you alone?” Her cheeks flush as she looks about us, but we’re alone now.
“I can guess.”
“Say it, and I might go easier on you.”
I’m not really upset with the lass. She’s been through hell and back and doesn’t need me to put her through any more.
“You mentioned punishing my arse, once.”
A low hum of need buzzes low in my belly. “Aye. That would be a good start.”
I open the door, and gesture for her to get in the car. I’m not bothering with packing. Lachlan and the rest will get our things and bring them home tonight.
I want to get home.
“Start?” she says, sputtering. I bend over and buckle her belt.
“Aye,” I say. I kiss her cheek before I exit her side, and whisper in her ear. “You’re not in trouble, love. You’ve had a rough night of it. But when you go to bed tonight, I want you to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who owns you. Thoroughly.”
Her breathing shallows just before I shut the door and go to my side.
Tully and Lachlan come out of the school. Lachlan greets me with a chin lift. Tully’s got a pretty young teacher beside him.
“Tiernan?” I don’t know her name yet.
“Aye?”
“Will you… will you come back here again?” she asks. “After what’s happened, it feels… well, it feels safer here when some of the McCarthy Clan’s here.”
Tully puts an arm across her shoulders. “We can see to it, lass.”
I’ve never seen Tully with a woman other than at the club we frequent. Honest to God, it’s good to see.
“Aye,” I tell her with a sigh. “I’m sorry for what’s happened here tonight, but I’ll be glad when things are put to rights.”
She smiles. “Excellent. We’d like to see alumni here again, I know it.”
“’Twas a second home to me, I know. And it’d be good to be back.”
“I’m coming home tonight, too,” Lachlan says. I don’t need to ask him why. He’s got my sister waiting for him, holding a candle as it were. And even though Aisling and I need to make things right again, I know now what it feels like to go home to a woman who loves you.
The drive back home is quiet, until we both can’t seem to hold back anymore.
“I’m so sorry,” Aisling says. “I should’ve known better” she says at the very moment I say, “We need to talk.”
“You first.”
“No, you.”
I chuckle. “Alright then. Let’s piece together what happened after you left the room. You were going to Clifford to see what you could find, aye? Tempt him, as it were.”
She nods.
“And on the way… the phone rang?”
“Aye. And I-I heard who I thought was you, with another woman.”
“You thought it was me because you saw my number, so it never dawned on you to think it was anyone else.”
She sighs. “Aye.”
“Fair enough. And you were angry enough you smashed your phone?”
She shrugs. “Well, yes.”
I laugh again. “Well, then. That ought to teach me not to double-cross you, I reckon.”
She smiles shyly. “Well. I have a bit of a temper.”
I feel my brows rise. “You don’t say.”
She snorts. “You ought to talk, Tiernan. I’ve seen you lose your own temper a time or two.”
“Good thing we waited until now to show an interest in another, then, hmm? Would’ve fought fire with fire back when we were younger.”
“We definitely would have.” She grins, then lets out a sigh.
“Why the sigh, love?”
“Well. You know, I was interested in you, but it wasn’t you.”
“Explain that one to me?”
“Well I…” she clears her throat. “I was sort of interested in the Clan.”
“Is that right?”
She nods. “Oh, aye. I saw how happy Fiona was, and I… well, you know, I just had the idea that perhaps it would be nice to be…” her voice trails off. She bites her lip, a sign I now know to be bashfulness.
I squeeze her knee. “Let’s hear it, lass.”
“I thought it might be nice to be claimed by a man of the Clan. Not necessarily you, but… well, one of you.”
“Not me, eh? Who, then?” My temper’s rising again even as I smile at her.
“You, you twat.”
I laugh out loud and slap her knee.
“Hey! What’s that for?”
“For making me want to kick the arse of every fucking brother of the Clan for being even in your damn sight, that’s why.”
“Oh, makes perfect sense,” she says with a half-smile. She’s still upset. She won’t be better until we make this right.
“Do you know what being claimed by a man of the Clan means, lass?”
She nods, and speaks in a low voice. “I do, Tiernan. Fiona told me when Lachlan claimed her, and the other day when I spoke with Maeve and Caitlin, they told me as well.”
“Tell me in your own words.”
I want to hear her say it.
She swallows hard. “It means that you’re… owned,” she whispers. “It means that your needs are taken care of physically and financially, and in other ways as well. It means that you’re wed for life, that you live in the McCarthy family home or nearby.” She sighs. “It means that you belong to a family.”
I squeeze her hand. “Aye, love. But you know what it means to be claimed by me?”
“Oh, I… well, I think so.”
I smile. “Let’s hear it.”
“Well. You’re not much of a fan of back talk or anything like that.”
She’s had my hand across her arse enough times to know.
I nod. “I take my job as leader of the home seriously, like all men of the Clan do.”
“Aye, I know it,” she says. “I’m not a docile little lamb, though, and you know that.”
“Never said I want a docile little lamb.”
“Some men do!” she says, her eyes flashing.
I nod, trying not to show my amusement. “Ah, well, and some men prefer missionary sex as well, don’t they?”
She covers her mouth with her hand and giggles. Adorable.
“I’m not ‘some men,’ Aisling. And you’re not ‘some women.’ You are who you are, and I am who I am. And we’ll fight, but then we’ll kiss and make up like any couple.”
She smiles. “I… like that part.”
I chuckle. “And I like that part, too.”
We drive in silence home. She’s quiet, and I don’t have much to say either, but it’s a comfortable silence. I think about the days ahead. What we have yet to do. The danger we’ve escaped, and how grateful I am that she’s safe, and that she’s coming back with me.