Tiernan: A Dark Irish Mafia Romance

by Henry, Jane

  “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.

  We’re almost back when she says in a soft voice, “Tiernan, I… they tempted me with drugs again, you know.”

  I grip the steering wheel so tight my knuckles whiten.

  “Did they?” I keep my voice modulated with effort.

  “Aye.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “Took the needle and almost fucking stuck her with it.”

  “Good girl,” I say warmly, tucking her hand into mine.

  “I like when you say that now.”

  “Do you?”

  “Aye.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Maybe because you’re not a man that minces words,” she says with a shrug. “Since you speak directly, I suspect that I know you mean it now.”

  “I’ll say it every night when you go to sleep. And in the morning, when you wake, until it becomes a part of who you are.”

  She leans her head on my shoulder, just as we pull up to the large, wrought-iron gates.

  “I’ll learn what you need from me, too, Tiernan. And I’ll make it my job to give you that.”

  I look at her pretty head on my shoulder, her hand tucked in mine.

  “You already have, love,” I say, leaning over to kiss her cheek while the gates open for us to enter. “You already have.”

  Chapter 19

  Aisling

  I’ve never had a home that felt nice to return to. Back when I was younger, I didn’t like where I lived. My mum was unhappy, and it showed. My father never measured up. He’d come home from working all day to sit on the sofa and drink.

  But now… God, but it feels good to be back here already. I wonder where Fiona is, what she’s up to. Lachlan’s coming home to her tonight. I wonder where Maeve is. Is she fluffing the pillows in the dining room, praising the staff for their excellent dinner, or reading a story to one of the grans? I wonder who’s home. Tully and Keenan are still at St. Albert’s, but I can count dozens of lights on in so many rooms. My heart is full.

  “’Tis a lovely home,” I say warmly. “Isn’t it?”

  “Oh, aye,” he says, sharing the sentiment. “A little of heaven on Earth.”

  He parks the car in the garage, and comes around to my side. He takes my hand, and leads me in in silence. We walk under the light of the moon. I breathe in the fragrant lilacs and exhale before we get to the set of stairs that bring us home.

  “Kiss me, Tiernan.”

  He gives me a teasing look. “Say please.”

  I smile. “Please?”

  He releases my hand, bends down, and frames my face between his hands. “You look lovely tonight,” he says. “I want to remember this night for as long as I live.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat, unable to speak. The first night I came here, I was a woman possessed. Angry at anyone and everything. I hated them all, but most of all myself. And it hasn’t been long enough for me to be healed. I’ve started the journey, though. I only have to continue to put one foot after another.

  We enter the mansion doors and there’s hustle and bustle all about us. One of the staff is dusting in the main entryway, another is on a ladder changing the lightbulbs, and Maeve is off near the entrance to do the hall that leads to the dining room. She rushes to us, her eyes wide, and reaches for my hands.

  “Oh, Aisling. Thank God you two are alright.” She leans in and kisses first one cheek, then the other. “I knew Keenan had gone in to help, but I knew things weren’t looking good, and Fiona was a wreck.”

  She releases me to give Tiernan a big hug, and I see Fiona standing shyly in the doorway. I walk to her, and she comes my way.

  “Didn’t want to intrude…” she begins, but I wrap her up in a big hug.

  “Don’t ever think that,” I say. “Ever.”

  She pulls back and smiles at me, taking in every detail. “Always told you you’d look brilliant with black hair.”

  I roll my eyes and run my hand through my hair. “I’m going back to my natural roots as soon as I possibly can.”

  She smacks my hand. “Don’t you even think of it. Honest to God, woman, you’re impossible.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Tiernan says with a chuckle. He’s got a smear of lipstick on his cheek from where Maeve kissed him, and his eyes are twinkling at me.

  “Jesus, Ais,” Fiona says in a low whisper. “Haven’t seen my brother that bloody relaxed in…” She pauses, thinks it over, then says with a chuckle, “Okay, so ever.”

  I grin. “Well, I’ll take that as a compliment, then?”

  “Oh, aye,” she says with a chuckle. “I’d say so.” She pauses and her brow knits together. “Is Lachlan back yet?”

  “He’s on his way.” I squeeze her hand in silence. The two of us have so much to discuss I barely know where to begin.

  “I hope it’s good to be home, Ais,” Fiona says. She looks to me, her eyes gone serious. “You are planning on staying, aren’t you? Now that things are better?”

  Oh, I’m planning on staying.

  “Of course she is,” Tiernan says, coming toward us with his hands in his pockets, the look on his face deadly serious. “Did you think I’d allow anything else?”

  Fiona rolls her eyes. “Of course not. She’s still my friend, so you’d better watch what you share with me, Tier.”

  His eyes dance and he gives a mischievous shrug. “No interest in telling you anything private,” he says. “But I’ll have an announcement soon. For now, we need to get to our room. There’s much that needs to happen, still. The biggest threat to our safety’s over, but we’re bloody shattered.”

  “Of course,” Maeve says, ushering us toward the stairs. “I had the staff give your flat a good once-over, and it should be spic and span. The others will bring your bags, I take it?”

  “Aye,” Tiernan says, stifling a yawn.

  We head upstairs, hand in hand, and with every step that I take, my heart beats a little faster. What does he have planned for me when we’re alone again?

  “Y’alright, love?” he asks when we make it just outside the door.

  “I’m good,” I say. “But I’m fucking exhausted. What a day it’s been.”

  He opens the door and ushers me in. “Has, hasn’t it? Tomorrow, we’ll have to meet with Brady, our detective, and the legal team. Keenan’s sorting out the details and you won’t be prosecuted, lass. But you’ll have to give statements, and we’ll have to be sure you’re prepared for those. Understand?”

  I nod. “Aye. I do.”

  I flop down in an overstuffed chair in the living room.

  “Ah ah,” he says. He points his finger, and his tone sharpens. “Bedroom.”

  I frown at him. “Might as well snap your fingers, eh?”

  His lips twitch. “Or crack my whip?”

  My heart thuds, and I bite my lip. “You’re just exaggerating, right?”

  He shakes his head, sobering. “Of course not. I’ve taken it easy on you, but I’ve got plenty in mind.” He mulls it over. “I’ve seen how easily you light up, lass. And I mean to set you on fire. In
fact, come over here, please.”

  He beckons to me, his stern eyes focused on me the entire time. I swallow hard.

  “Go in that room,” he says on a low command, his voice gone husky and affected with whatever plans he has in mind. “I want you stripped. Out of these clothes. Into the shower with you. I’ll join you momentarily.”

  I bite my lip and give him a curious look. He spins me around and gives me a smack to the arse. “Off with you, now.”

  I trot to the jacks and strip my clothes as he’s said. Good God, it feels delightful to take these things off me. I remember just days ago how he used the shower to ease me from my withdrawal, how good and cleansing it felt. This is no haphazard command now, then. He knows I need cleansing.

  I still have some residual withdrawal symptoms, and it’s frustrating. When Vivian handed me the syringe, a part of me wanted to give into temptation. Wanted to jab the needle in my vein and send myself into oblivion. But I didn’t. I’ve come too far with Tiernan’s help to go back now.

  The room is freshly cleaned and smells delightful. I close my eyes and inhale deeply. I’m reminded of white roses and clean linen.

  I turn the shower on, and instantly the room is filled with steam as well as the soothing rhythm of the steady stream of water. I look into the shower and see a fresh bottle of shampoo, a clean razor, and a bottles of body wash and lotion. With a deep sigh of contentment, I enter the shower.

  I turn the water to scalding and let it soothe me. Cleanse me. I lather my hair and inhale the invigorating scent. I breathe it out, turn around, and let the hot water wash over me.

  He was right. I needed this.

  I lather my body and rinse off, when I hear the door to the bathroom open and close. I still, waiting for him to come to me, and when he doesn’t, I peek out. He’s sitting on the toilet, watching me.

  “That’s creepy.”

  His lips twitch. “What?”

  “Sitting there like that, watching me touch myself.”

  His lips thin, and he immediately goes sober. “Were you touching yourself?”

  The latent threat in his tone makes my heartbeat quicken. I swallow hard and shrug.

  “Maybe I was. Maybe I wasn’t.”

  My taunting has the desired effect. He stands, and I suddenly remember how tall he is, dwarfing even the large bathroom with his massive frame. He reaches for the hem of his t-shirt and drags it over his head.

  “Were you?” he asks, whipping the t-shirt into the laundry hamper. His eyes are molten, his voice sharp. He reaches for the buckle on his belt. “Or weren’t you?”

  The belt doesn’t join his t-shirt like I expect. Instead, he slowly draws it from his waist, and folds it into a loop. I swallow hard.

  “I… don’t know what you mean…?”

  “That pussy belongs to me, Aisling,” he says warningly.

  “Oh, right,” I say with a forced laugh. “I was just cleaning myself.”

  His eyes narrow.

  I hold his gaze and drag my fingers to my pussy, already hot and swollen and wet for him. I drag a finger across my clit and gasp.

  “Oh God.” I close my eyes and finger myself again, my hips jerking from the sudden sensation and his nearness.

  “Turn around.”

  His voice bites like the cut of a cane.

  My eyes fly open, my hand frozen.

  Slowly, I obey.

  “Step out, and bend over, placing your hands on the tub.”

  It’s hot and steamy and slippery in here. I move slowly, so I don’t slip, obeying him.

  The cut of leather through the air comes without warning, and I’m on my toes with the first lash. I gasp but don’t speak, the words frozen on my lips. A second lash follows, then a third. Oh, Christ does it hurt, but my body trembles and quakes underneath the onslaught of lashes.

  “I want this fucking clear,” he says, his voice thick with emotion, raspy with intensity. “Your body belongs to me.”

  Thwap. Another strike of his belt.

  “I touch you.”

  Thwap.

  “I’m the one who makes you come. I’m the one your body obeys. I’m the one who commands your climaxes.”

  I close my eyes, heady with arousal and pain and need all jumbled together, an intoxicating concoction that’s making me sex-drunk before he’s even touched me.

  “Do you understand me?”

  I nod mutely, my body rising to meet the lashes of his belt. I hear the clink of metal on tile, then he’s there, his hands spanning my hips and his mouth at my neck. He drags his tongue down the back of my neck, and I shiver as he goes further, down the length of my spine with a groan. I’m trembling and needy, the scent of my arousal mingling with the clean, hot steam.

  I freeze when the heat of his mouth doesn’t stop at my back. He suckles my lower back, his fingers finding their way to my pussy, and just as he strokes me between my legs, I feel his tongue exploring the welts on my arse.

  “Tiernan!”

  I feel his body go rigid. “Who owns you?”

  “You,” I whisper.

  “Who makes the rules here?”

  I swallow. “You.”

  “Lean into this. Embrace it,” he says, while his thumb circles the tight ring of muscle. Oh, God, oh God.

  He rises, and I hear the zip and whir off his zipper, seconds before I feel his hot, throbbing cock at my arse.

  He slides his cock through my pussy, lubricating himself, then he glides the tip where he wants to penetrate.

  “Tiernan, I—oh, God, I don’t know if I’m ready for this.”

  “You are,” he says. Something cool and wet glides down my arse cheeks. They burn with the lashes of his belt, throbbing at his touch, as he glides his cock to my center.

  He isn’t.

  He isn’t.

  I’m no virgin anywhere but here. And for some reason… that knowledge frees me.

  He’s the only one who’s ever taken me like this. This is his. Something we share. I couldn’t do this with anyone I didn’t trust, but with Tiernan… I trust him with everything.

  So I relax. I close my eyes. I get lost in the steam of the shower, to sensation as he penetrates my virgin arse.

  “Fuccckkk,” he says on a guttural groan, the first sign of him losing any control at all. I grin wickedly, pleased that he’s obviously enjoying himself. My skin throbs from the whipping, my pussy clenches, the sensation of being so full making me moan with pleasure.

  “Yes,” I groan. Jesus, fuck, it’s better than I thought. “Yessss.”

  Slowly, he thrusts his hips, his thick length penetrating me. I contract around him, nearly dizzy with arousal and need.

  “Now you touch yourself,” he whispers. “Only with my permission, Aisling.”

  I nod, my fingers finding my slick folds and quickly circling my clit, while he thrusts in and out.

  “Who owns this pussy?”

  “You,” I say in a throaty whisper as I stroke myself faster, my need heightening.

  “Who owns this arse?”

  “You,” I say, my voice choked on a sob of desperation and want. I’m so full. I’m so desperate for release. He’s taking me to new heights I’ve never been, and I fucking love it.

  “Who do you obey?”

  Gah, that word again, it makes me all warm and tingly because it’s him, and any reservation I once held about “obeying” him melts into need and want because he. wants. me, and there’s something freeing about letting him take care of me, letting him take control.

  A sharp slap to my thigh has me hissing out a breath and coming to my toes before I moan a low, hoarse, “Youuu, Tiernan. You.” My voice is choked as I whisper the truth I can’t hold back any longer. “Because I love you. Because I trust you.”

  His low, sexy growl fills the warm room, as hot as the steam that billows around us, as his thrusts increase, pushing me into the edge of oblivion. I clench around him as he holds me to him so tightly it hurts.

  “I love you,”
he says, as his hot seed spills inside me. It’s wicked and dirty but so fucking good as my muscles contract in pleasure. I’m enveloped in his scent, his heat, and his need as he claims me as his.

  My fingers drag down the length of the shower as he holds me, and I sigh deeply. My body tingles in pleasure as he slowly draws out, kissing my shoulder when I sigh from the loss of him.

  “Mother of God,” I groan, slumping against the tile. “That was fucking amazing.”

  He grins, a full-on grin that makes my heart do a somersault. He kisses my bare shoulder, takes me by the hand, and back into the hot stream of water.

  “It was. You’re fucking amazing.”

  “Jesus, we’re a mutual admiration society over here.”

  His eyes twinkle at me as he reaches for a bar of soap. “Got a problem with that?”

  I sigh. “No, sir, I do not.”

  “Jesus, woman,” he says, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “You’ll turn me on all over again with the ‘sir.’”

  I narrow my eyes playfully at him. “Don’t get ideas, you ogre.”

  His chuckle fills the small enclosure. “She goes from sir to ogre in the space of a feckin’ heartbeat.”

  I reach for him, unabashedly drawing him close to me because I want those lips on me again. I wrap my hands around the back of his neck, and his hands snake around my waist. His mouth claims mine, and my eyes flutter closed. I’ve never been so blissfully content in my life. I don’t even know how to process this deep, abiding sense of belonging, of being cherished. The knowledge that I’m precious to him.

  When we finally pull away, he says, spins me around in silence, and cleans me so gently, it’s hard to believe the man that just whipped me and fucked my arse is the same one lathering my body now.

  “There’s such a gentle side to you, Tiernan,” I say with a sigh, as the warm water washes away the bubbles.

  He shrugs a shoulder. “Not sure gentle’s the right word,” he says. “I mean, I honestly just enjoy taking care of you.” He tugs a lock of my hair teasingly. “And believe me, I know you don’t need me to, that you can take care of yourself. It isn’t that.”

  I nod. “No, I get it,” I say. “It’s just who you are. The oldest brother in charge of younger siblings much sooner than you ever should’ve been…” my voice trails off. “And I think everyone’s got a bit of wiring in them that makes them the way they are, you know?”