Page 66 of Forbidden Need

He didn’t mean. Actually mean… Her father noticed before her sibling. Holding her breath, she carried on, taking a seat next to her brother.

Lachlan leaned in. “This a good idea?”

The question wasn’t disapproving, just dubious. Progress. At least that’s how she chose to interpret it.

Taking her brother’s hand too, she held it on his knee. These men were the most important in her life. They gave her stability, certainty, and nothing could make her abandon either of them.

***

NUMB, WHEN LACHLAN leaned in to kiss her cheek, it hit her that it was over. Her grandfather was gone.

The moment her father and brother stood up, others waylaid them. Good. Her head wasn’t on straight and didn’t need benign conversation. Someone took her hands to pull her onto her feet.

Connel. He laid her hands flat on his chest, but she slid them apart to rest her face against the reassuring beat of his heart.

“Do you want us to stay and pay our respects?”

The line up. Was she supposed to shake hands and accept condolences again?

“Thank you. I can’t even… thank you for being here.”

“I’m always at your back, Cushla Machree,” he said, stroking her back until his hands closed around her jaw to tilt her head back. “You are our strength.”

She didn’t feel so strong. “If we line up, we have to do it next to my father and Lach. I don’t want people touching you,” she said, more guarded given all that had happened. “I don’t trust any of them.”

“And you think I trust them near you? I am the only man permitted to touch you. My hands will be the last your skin ever feels.”

Swallowing, his possessiveness blessed her. “Conn…” Sinking forward again, she closed her eyes, nestling herself close. “Am I embarrassing you?”

Cradling her skull, holding it tight, he kissed her crown. “Never.”

Using him as a leaning post, a support, was tempting. But what was her job?

“To support you,” she whispered. On a deep breath, she stepped back, straightening her spine, finding her starch. “I’m a McDade.”

“Keep these people safe,” Conn said to someone she couldn’t yet see. “All of them.”

Niall appeared beside them. “If that means cracking skulls?”

With half the city’s LEOs present to bear witness…

“Sacrifices have to be made,” Conn said and kissed her head again. “She doesn’t leave your side.”

Connel strode off with his lieutenant. Turning to watch their departure, she wasn’t even surprised to feel Strat there with her.

“How you doing, Scamp?”

“It’s over, you know.”

At the head of the nave, the McDades didn’t gather long. Conn’s slight head shift sent them shuffling out in front of him.

“The service?”

“I don’t know,” she said on a sigh. “Thank you for coming. Why didn’t you tell me Conn was bringing everyone?”

“I didn’t know. Got a text from Niall to congregate at the club. Bold move, the guy gets style points.”

A slight laugh slipped from her lips. “He does,” she said, looping her arm through Strat’s. Her brother and father were already shaking hands by the door. “No one wants to shake my hand.”

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