“You’re standing taller, brother,” Lachlan says. “You have plans you want to share with me?”
My eyes cut to his, and his lips twitch. I jab his arm and he dodges. “Dodge and weave,” he mutters. “Dodge and weave, you twat.”
“Tiernan?”
Keenan’s beside me with Aisling. “Take her home, brother.”
“Aye,” I say, my grip on her arm tight. “Gladly.”
Her gaze grows apprehensive, but she doesn’t move away from me. Still, her eyes are cast on the floor.
Malachy claps me on the back. “I’m sorry your homecoming was shite,” he says ruefully.
I can’t help but smile. “Holding you personally responsible.”
He winces and laughs. “Ouch. I’ll see to it the next time you come is better, aye?”
I laugh. “Aye.”
Keenan looks to Malachy. “I want you in my office tomorrow. We’ve clearly got some hiring to do, don’t we?”
“Oh, aye,” Malachy says. “Absolutely.”
I take Aisling’s hands.
“Remove the cuffs now?” she asks.
“Sorry, lass, I can’t do that.” Nor do I want to.
She frowns. “You like me tied up, don’t you?”
“Bloody well know it.”
“You’ve got a filthy mind, Tiernan Hurston.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“You don’t sound a bit remorseful.”
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.”