by Henry, Jane
He nods, as I take the bar of soap out of his hands and lather up a washcloth. Facing him, I wash his strong, muscled shoulders, his back, and down lower to his arse and legs. He’s magnificent, a fucking god of a man, and even though I just came, I’m viscerally aware of how masculine and strong he is. I swallow hard.
“Some men are natural caretakers, Tiernan, and you’re one of them. Just like Keenan’s a natural leader, and Carson’s a natural computer whiz. We have our strengths, I think, and there’s no use trying to pretend we’re someone else.”
He chuckles, his eyes warming as I look up to him when I’ve finished washing him. He takes my chin between his fingers, holding my gaze while he brushes his lips to mine. When he releases me, he sighs. “You’re a smart girl, Aisling. And I’m glad you’re mine.”
The note of pride in his voice is unmistakable.
He kisses my forehead tenderly. “And I look forward to getting to know more of who you are. What makes you tick. I know you’re strong and resilient. You’re funny and smart, and loyal to your very core.”
Another kind of tingle works its way through me. I swallow hard. “Thanks for that.”
“No need to thank me,” he says with a shrug. “Just stating the facts as I see them, love.” He shuts off the water and leads me to the bedroom. “Tonight, we’ll catch up with Walsh and Keenan. We’ll find out where we’re at legally. Get into some comfortable clothes. It’ll be a long night.”
I nod. I don’t question what he says. I trust him. I think it may be the first time in my life I’ve ever fully, fully trusted another human being.
“Will do. I’m fucking famished.”
He chuckles and wraps a towel around me.
“The feeding and caring of Aisling,” he says on a grin. “We’ll have food sent up.”
I sigh in contentment. “Perfect.”
Chapter 20
Tiernan
She’s so lovely, all pink and rosy from the shower, her short black hair pinned up in a little clip-thing. I watch Aisling dress quietly, her mind elsewhere.
“What are you thinking about?” I ask her, tugging on a pair of faded trousers and a t-shirt.
She shrugs. “Well,” she says thoughtfully, worrying her lip before she continues. Her voice trails off. I look at her, wondering why she’s holding back as I tuck my wallet into my pocket.
“I don’t know if they’ll believe me.”
“Who, love?”
“Anyone. The girls I worked with before, at Vivian’s.” She clears her throat. “The Prime Minister.”
“I don’t give a crap what they think,” I begin, but she cuts me off, holding her palm up. I stop and let her continue.
“I know you don’t,” she says with a sigh. “But Tiernan, it matters. I don’t like that I’ve brought trouble to the McCarthy clan. It isn’t right.” She laughs mirthlessly. “You bring on enough trouble of your own.”
“Aye, we do,” I say, not sharing her humor, since I’m determined to keep this woman safe. “But that doesn’t mean anything.”
She rolls her eyes. “Tiernan—”
“No. I mean it. We rule Ballyhock, Aisling, whether you realize it or not. We’re more powerful than we let on. The schools, the church, the hospital and shops… they thrive because of us. That brings us clout you couldn’t know.”
She nods, but I can tell she isn’t convinced.
“Let’s eat.”
“Oh, God, I’m bloody starving,” she says, tucking her legs under her. “Something good and hearty.”
Minutes later, we’ve got large bowls of steaming hot stew, the good Irish soda bread our kitchen makes. She tucks in like a truck driver, and it makes me fucking proud.
It’s late by the time Keenan gets in touch. Aisling’s eyes are droopy, and I’m feeling damn near shattered myself, but we both perk up when my phone rings.
“You got time for a chat, brother?” he asks.
“Of course.”
“Meet us in the meeting room, then,” Keenan says.
I hang up the phone. Aisling’s eyes have gone wide, her face a bit paler than usual.
“Now, don’t get your knickers in a knot over this. I’ve told you, we’ve got it.”
She nods. “That’s not really what I’m worried about. I mean, I am… I want all of this put to rest. All of it. But I also… well, you told me you’ll claim me next. And I’m not sure what that will bring.”
I reach for her hand and lace her fingers through my own. “Aye, I know it. But you said you trust me, remember?”
“And I do, Tiernan. So so much.”
“Then just trust me with this. We’re going to work this out first. We’ll makes sure you’re safe and no one will come for you.”
“Or you.” Her eyes flash.
My lips twitch. “Or me.”
“I mean it, Tiernan, it’s bloody awful that someone could blame you for his death, when all you did was defend me.”
I roll my eyes. “You don’t think I’ve been accused of such things before? Honest to God, Ais, I’m fucking Irish mob.”
Her lips twitch. “Well, aye, that y'are, eh?”
I take her hand and lead her to the door. “Let’s go downstairs. We’ll talk about this later.”
It’ll help if she can talk to the other girls again as well. We head downstairs, and though I know we’ve much to do to make sure that the trouble that followed us is over, I’m confident that we’ll manage it. We aren’t alone. We’ve got the power, strength, and connections of the entire McCarthy clan behind us.
The downstairs is dimly lit. The babies have been tucked in for the night, and a certain peace settles in around us. There’s a light on in the kitchen, though it’s closed for the night, and the main receiving rooms are cast into darkness.
“It’s beautiful,” Aisling murmurs.
“What is, love?”
She sighs and nestles her head against my shoulder. “The peace in this home. Dozens of people in bed, the house clean and at rest. It’s a little bit like a dream?’
I love this about her, how much she adores the simplest things in life like this. I kiss her cheek.
“You’re beautiful. And this home will be much richer for having you in it, you know.”
She looks at me sheepishly. “You say the most romantic things when you’re not being all chest-beating-alpha male.”
I shrug. “I can say romantic things then, too.”
She giggles. “Oh, can you? Let’s hear them.”
I snap my fingers and in my deepest register, point to the floor. “Woman. Here. Now.”
She shivers. “Oooh. That’ll do.”
We join the others in the meeting room. Keenan sits at his desk, nodding soberly when we enter. Nolan and Cormac are here, but that’s it.
“No Lachlan?” Aisling whispers in my ear. I shake my head. Lachlan’s got a woman to take care of tonight, and the top three are McCarthy blood, direct heirs to the line of Seamus McCarthy. “We’ve a hierarchy,” I explain quietly. “These are the three most inner circle.” Keenan calls this group when we need the utmost in privacy. “And Fiona needs Lachlan tonight, doesn’t she?”
She nods.
“Y’alright, Aisling?” Keenan asks with concern, every bit the McCarthy patriarch with his brows drawn together. I swear his role as Chief has aged him.
She nods. “Oh, aye. I’m good. You?”
His eyes twinkle. “I’m very good, thanks, lass. And you, Tiernan? Y’alright?”
“Yes, sir.” I sit beside Nolan, and Aisling sits beside me.
Nolan fairly beams at me.
“You’ve done well, lad,” Nolan says with a smile. “Damn proud of you.”
“Goddamn right about that,” Cormac says with a nod, his brows drawn together in concern. “I’m sorry we didn’t know about the dangers at the school.”
Keenan blows out a breath. “It’s my fault. I’m the one that bloody sent them there, when they would’ve been safer staying right here.”
/>
Aisling shakes her head, “Now, there’s no point of playing that game, is there? Where everyone has regrets and the like. If we’re going to play that game, I could take the blame myself for even being responsible for this coming on McCarthy family territory?” She looks at me with a smile. “But Tiernan will have my arse if I go there again.”
“Bloody well will,” I say with a scowl.
Keenan smiles. “Aye, lass, it’s a fair point.”
“Better, then, for us to focus on where we are,” Aisling says. Christ, but I love this woman. She’s in the midst of some of the most powerful men in Ireland and yet she leads them in this. I can’t fucking wait to put a ring on her finger.
“Let’s hear the update, Keenan?”
He nods. “Aye. So what I can tell you so far is this. Had a meeting with Brady. Vivian and Clifford have been apprehended, of course, everything they’ve done.”
“Still can’t bloody believe she did that,” Aisling mutters sorrowfully.
“Aye. I can’t either,” Keenan says. “I’ve got men that were in pretty deeply with her girls, and it’s a fucking shame.”
Aisling sighs. “Aye.”
Keenan frowns. “The problem is, you’re not off the hook, Ais.”
I feel my belly tighten, and I sit up straighter.
“What do you mean?”
“Brady has it on record now, that Aisling was acting in self-defense. We were able to run the reel at the school, and we’ve got Vivian admitting as much as well.”
“Aye,” Aisling says. “That was smart.”
Keenan blows out a breath. “But the Prime Minister isn’t buying it, and you know he’s powerful. The good news is, hardly anyone knew that the girl you brought to the school was the same girl who worked for Vivian, Tiernan. So they don’t know she’s here.”
“Doesn’t matter, though, does it, if the Prime Minister’s determined to take her down?”
Keenan shakes his head. “We have clout, boys, but you know he’s got connections as well.”
We do. Deep ones.
“So what do we do, then? Run?” I hate the fucking thought. I’ve never run from a threat in my life, and I don’t fucking want to start now.
Keenan nods thoughtfully. “So far we’ve managed to find the threat against us. Through Aisling’s tactics, we’ve removed any implication that a McCarthy was responsible for the death. But now we need to remove any threat against Aisling. I’m afraid even if the courts rule in her favor, and both Brady and Walsh are absolutely certain they can make that happen… well, it doesn’t eliminate the threat against her personally.”
“Jesus,” Nolan mutters. “All he’d have to do is hire a hitman, eh?”
“Aye.”
I hold her hand tighter, her fingers woven into mine, like the tapestry of my life. Right here, nearly all that matters is the people in this room and my siblings. My brothers of the Clan, and the woman I’ll make my wife.
“Got an idea,” Aisling says. Her eyes shine like beacons in the dark, and I swear to Christ it makes my dick hard. She’s so fucking brilliant.
Keenan nods, giving her permission to speak.
She swallows hard, holds my hand tighter, and states her plan. “We fake my death.”
Keenan’s brows shoot up. “Your death, Aisling?”
“Aye,” she says firmly. “My death.”
Bloody hell.
She’s determined. “It just might work, Keenan.”
Keenan nods. “You’re right. It likely would. But would anyone in Ballyhock recognize you?”
“Well, with these changes we’ve made, I hardly recognize myself,” she says with a laugh.
“And she wouldn’t be here on the premises often if she got a job at the school, would she?” I suggest.
Keenan looks from me to her. “Job at the school?”
Aisling’s eyes shine bright. “Oh, God, I’d love that.” She looks like she might cry. She jerks her chin at me. “Tiernan’d make a bloody good teacher himself.”
Nolan grins. “He fucking would.”
Cormac looks reluctant. “We need him here working for the Clan.”
Keenan shakes his head. “Of course we do. Working as a teacher at St. Albert’s wouldn’t eliminate him from Clan duties.”
I’m surprised, because I actually love that idea.
“Well, now, something we can talk about for sure,” I say. “Would give me direct contact with Aisling’s guard.”
“My guard?”
“We’d have to make sure you were safe.”
Nolan sits up. “There were a handful at the school who knew she had a different identity, but that’s fairly easily dealt with. She gets a new look altogether. New I.D. She becomes Tiernan’s, and no one can deny that’s who she is. ‘Tis the Prime Minister we need to appease after all.”
Aisling’s eyes shine. “Would anyone at the school turn me in, though?”
“We’ll run a thorough sweep, but it seems the headmaster had two boys he paid to snoop, as well as Vivian, and we’ve dismissed the boys from school.”
Aisling’s face falls. “Well that’s terrible. It isn’t their fault if they were coerced.”
Keenan clears his throat. “Aisling, that school serves as a grooming school for the McCarthy Clan. Anyone who shows anything but total allegiance to the Clan is not welcome.”
She nods slowly. “I see,” she finally says. “Fair enough, then.” She chews her lip and then nods. “Okay, then. We fake my death. How?”
I hold her hand tighter as we make our plans.
* * *
She sleeps like a baby beside me that night, the day before we enact our plan. I hold her to me and dream of the plan we hatched. Car accident. A pronouncement that she’s found dead on arrival. Carson’s wife, clan cousin Megan, works at the hospital and has a friend who will aid us for a sum. We hold a funeral, we fake her death. Aisling has very few friends and family left who will mourn her passing.
And she’s got a new family here with us.
I expect she’ll be troubled by the plan, but she hasn’t looked this relaxed since she came here. I wonder why. I finally fall asleep myself.
The next morning, I wake with her between my legs, her mouth working wonders on my cock.
“Christ, woman,” I say, my words slurred from sleep. “What magic are you doing?”
“Giving you an early morning blow job,” she says with a wicked grin. “Any objection, sir?”
I groan as her tongue laps down the veined length.
“Just relax, Tiernan. You’ve earned this.”
“How?” I ask, my voice barely more than a groan.
She grins around my cock. “By being so bloody sexy.”
I reach for her hair and weave my fingers through it, tugging it just enough to elicit that little squeal and moan that vibrates straight through me. She cups my bollox and laps at the tip before she takes me fully in and sucks me hard.
“Jesus,” I groan. “Christtt…”
She moans, closes her eyes, and immerses fully in this, until I’m ready to come.
Her eyes meet mine in challenge, as I drag my cock out of her mouth. It feels so fucking good, but today I want to feel her wrapped around me. I want her pussy hugging my cock when I claim her.
“On your knees,” I groan. “Fucking now.”
She scrambles to get on her knees, and I give her arse a sharp slap before I drag my cock through her slick folds.
“Finger yourself,” I say, as I line my cock up at her entrance. “Fucking do it.”
She reaches for her pussy and strokes her clit, her back arching at the sudden pressure just as I impale her with my cock. She moans and grinds against me as I slam into her. I don’t hold back, but give her the full force of my hard cock. She doesn’t quake, but braces for every sharp thrust.
“Oh God,” she groans. “Tiernan, I’m going to come.”
“Ask me.”
“Please?”
Thrust.
Slap.
My handprint blooms against her pale white skin.
“Pleasseeee,” she moans.
I thrust again.
“Beg me. Tell me why you deserve it.”
She grips the bedclothes so tightly her knuckles whiten, and she pants as I thrust in and out of her.
“Because I love you!” her voice pitches off into a moan. “Because you love me.”
I brush her hair off her shoulder and kiss the sensitive skin.
“Good answer, Aisling. Come for me.”
She screams in release, spasms overtaking her as my own pleasure rips through me with the force of a tornado. Fuck, she’s so tight, so hot, so wet, gripping my cock as my come marks her. I close my eyes to the power of my climax as her own pleasure overtakes her until we’re panting and spent. My heart melts at the look of pure bliss on her beautiful face.
I pull out with reluctance, but we have to go.
“Soon,” I whisper in her ear. “We’ll do this again soon, and I’ll take you to places you’ve never been. I love you, Aisling.”
She sighs. “And I love you.”
“When our next job is done, I’ll have my way with you, until you’re boneless and fucking giddy.”
She rolls over and tangles herself in the sheets, drawing them up to her chin.
“Good,” she says. “I’m ready.”
“Are you? Ready for what?”
“Everything.”
Christ, I love how bold and fearless she can be. I don’t quite know why she’s embraced the idea of faking her death so well, but I’m glad she has.
The day passes in a blur while we make our plan. I send her to our room with the girls, and they make their plans.
Tonight we’ll fake her death.
We’ll have a funeral, a proper burial.
The world will know that Aisling is gone.
I’ll claim her. Put my ring on her finger. And her life as she knew it will be over. Her new life will begin.
Chapter 21