“Is it abnormal to already worry for Westlyn’s safety?”
“You’ve accepted her as your future. I don’t think it’s abnormal at all. And as you come to know her, your drive to protect her is only going to grow.”
I was so angry when my father told me that I had to marry a Fellowship woman. I didn’t think it could ever feel like anything more than hatred and bitterness and resentment. My strong need to protect her is unexpected.
The uneasy feeling in my stomach is alleviated when I enter my bedroom and find Westlyn napping on the couch. Safe and sound. She’s lying on her side, knees bent with one arm under her head, her brown and golden hair spilling over the edge of the couch.
I go to her and crouch low so that our faces are almost level. Her skin is creamy and unblemished except for a small white scar on her chin. It’s the first time I’ve noticed it. Wonder what happened.
I can’t resist twirling a lock of her hair around my finger. So soft and silky. Exactly the kind of hair that should belong to a princess. My Mafia princess.
Her eyes open, and she blinks rapidly several times before smiling. Smiling as though she’s pleased to see me. Not pulling away out of fear or contempt. “You were gone a long time.”
“I’m sorry about that.” The disposal of those bodies took much longer than anticipated.
“Where did you go?”
“To tend to Order business.”
“Did that business involve meeting with The Fellowship council?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
I hear disappointment in her voice. I stand and remove my jacket and gun harness, placing both on the cocktail table. “Scoot back.” I lie on the couch beside Westlyn, my front touching hers, with my arm draped over her body. I press my forehead to hers and close my eyes. “Let’s just lie like this for a while and forget The Order, The Fellowship, and all the filthy things we’re forced to do even when we don’t want to.”
“Kieran?” Her voice is barely more than a whisper.
“Mmm… hmm?”
“Did something bad happen while you were gone?”
Westlyn has no idea that I’ve committed the worst of the worst. She doesn’t know that it reduces me to a broken mess. No one does, because I always retreat afterward. It’s what I do so that my weakness isn’t revealed. “Yes, doll. Something very bad happened, and I need to shut everything off for a little while.”
“Okay.”
That’s all she says, and she doesn’t know how grateful I am that she doesn’t press for more information. I’m not ready to have that talk.
I’ve taken four more lives today. I used to believe that killing would become easier. It hasn’t. These men, despite the numerous reasons they gave me for taking their lives… they had families. Parents, wives, children, grandchildren.
I don’t enjoy being an assassin, but it’s who I am. Killing is my contribution to my brotherhood; I protect my brothers. And I protect what is mine.
I pull Westlyn against me and hold her tightly. Her touch is consoling, comforting, even healing. I didn’t know that this solace was what I’ve been missing by not having a mate. I didn’t know that it was what I needed in my life. Somebody to lean upon. Somebody to support me when times are hard. Somebody to be here for me.
Maybe somebody to love.
Kieran Hendry isn’t unbreakable. He’s hurting. I feel his pain wrapped around me as tangibly as his arms, and only God knows why, but I want to comfort this man. I want to take away his torment.
I freely give him what he asks for. We lie facing one another on the couch, motionless with eyes closed, and silently let the world pass us by. Although he does frighten me, I don’t do it because I’m afraid not to. I do it because it’s what I want to give him.
He showed me his vulnerable side. And I feel certain that it’s a part of himself that he’s never shown to another woman. Brothers don’t do that.
He touches my cheek, and I open my eyes. “I killed four men today.”
Killing is part of our world. I know that brothers do it and often, but none of them have ever spoken to me about it. I’m not sure how I feel about hearing these things.
“They were forming a rebellion against us—my family and I.” He pauses a moment. “I heard the leader tell the group that they needed to kill you.”
Kill me? What the actual fuck?
I might wonder what I’d ever done to deserve a sentence like that, but I already know the answer: I’m a Breckenridge. Guilty by birth if nothing else.
“I was already going to kill them, but something snapped in me when I heard that fucker threaten your life.” Kieran cradles the side of my face and caresses my cheek with his thumb. “I’ll never hesitate to kill for you.”
I know it’s wrong. I shouldn’t like hearing him say that he’s willing to go to that extreme for me, but I do like it. I like it a lot.
His eyes are locked on mine when I lick my lips and lean forward to press them to his. Just the surface of lips on lips until we simultaneously open and our tongues find one another. I press my palms to his chest and circle his pecs through his shirt, feeling the firm muscle beneath my hands. So hard. So strong. So masculine.
I can’t believe how nervous I feel. The butterflies in my stomach are alive and fluttering out of control. Electrifying tingles are bouncing back and forth between my nipples and knees.
Our kiss is slow, seductive, and sultry until Kieran grabs the back of my head and pulls me closer, deepening our kiss. My body has a mind of its own, squirming against his. He rises to a sitting position and pulls me with him, lifting me to sit atop him, my legs straddling his body. I’ve never been wrapped around a man this way.
His hands move to my bum and his fingertips dig into my hips through my pants. He pulls my body against his and rocks. Hard. Dry humping me. I hold on tightly and move in counterpoint. It’s nothing but instinct. And there isn’t a single cell in my body that’s not on fire for him. “This is wrong,” I whisper.
“Doing it isn’t wrong when it’s with your intended.” Kieran gets up from the sofa and holds me around my waist, carrying me from the sitting area to his bed. “I am your intended.” He lowers my body to the bed and crawls over me, nestling between my thighs. “Let me claim you, Westlyn. I swear that I will make it so fucking good for you.”
This man has flipped a switch inside me. Ice-cold to red-hot. Polar opposites. The war between my body and mind is a crazy and unbelievable clash, and I don’t know which one is stronger.
Kieran Hendry is a stranger. How is it possible for me to want to give him my body? Hand over a piece of myself to him forever?
“I want to, but…”
He places a finger to my lips. “No buts.”
“I can’t do this until I’ve spoken to my family.”
Kieran tilts his head and sighs. “That’s not going t
o happen, doll.”
“You are a leader. You can make it happen if you want.”
“I’m not the leader. My father is, and he’s made his decision. There will be a marriage treaty between The Order and The Fellowship.”
“I’m not saying no. There can still be a treaty, but I want to speak with Thane and Sin before there’s no going back.”
“There’s already no going back. You’re mine, and I’m not asking for Thane and Sin’s permission to take you.”
“Forcing their hand this way doesn’t seem like a very good way to begin a treaty.”
“What do you think Thane and Sin would say if we asked them to hand you over to be my bride?”
The point Kieran is making is a legitimate one. Thane and Sin would never freely give me to them.
“You’re not answering because you know I’m right.”
“Why propose then? Why make a production of getting down on your knee and giving me your grandmother’s ring if I don’t have a choice?” I look at the diamond on my finger and wonder if he made up the whole thing about his grandmother. “Did this even belong to her?”
“Yes, it did. And I proposed in a traditional manner because I want this marriage to be real. I want you to marry me because you said yes. Not because I claimed you by force and you had no choice.”
“I met you last night, not even under half-decent circumstances, and you expect me to sleep with you less than twenty-four hours later so that we’ll be bound to one another until death do we part. That’s not how normal marriages begin.”
“We aren’t normal people. They don’t write romance novels about our way of life because there’s nothing romantic about it. But I’m trying my damnedest because I don’t want you to hate me. I want a chance at making this relationship be as normal and real as possible.”
I actually believe him. “I appreciate that you’re trying, but I need you to be sensitive to the fact that I’ve been stolen from my home and my people. I’m in a strange place with a man who told me he was going to beat and rape me but now expects me to happily give him my virginity. I need time.”