Page 26 of Creatures in the Night

“Even if I wanted to tell it, now is hardly the time,” I pointed out.

That’s when he blew me out of the water by saying, “Well, unless you’re going to tell me how you ended up getting involved with the O’Briens, then I don’t see how we can continue to be friends.”

My head reared back, surprised and hurt, but this shit with Noah was bigger than Ethan’s bruised ego. Because I had a low opinion of men right now, I was convinced that this was about more than me just keeping secrets. After all, he’d always had hope for something more between us, and that was impossible now that I was married.

“I’m sorry that you feel that way,” I said, refusing to choose his ego over my parents’ pride. “I hope that we can still work together, but if not, then I’ll understand.” I took in another deep breath. “I’m also considering switching to nights, in case that makes a difference.”

Instead of letting Ethan get more hits in, I turned from him to get back to checking on my patients. In my line of work, I couldn’t afford to be distracted, and I was already struggling with my lack of sleep last night, so I didn’t need Ethan’s shit on top of that.

Even though I’d already known what was coming, and even though I hadn’t ever had any illusions about my marriage to Noah, I still hadn’t expected him to end up in someone else’s bed so soon after getting married. I’d honestly believed that he’d be decent enough to wait it out a while, but I’d slept alone last night, and now that I knew what he was capable of in bed, there was no way that Noah Murphy was sleeping alone at night. Granted, with silence following the sex that we’d had the other night, he could very well have been disappointed in what we’d done, so if that was the case, then I could see him finding himself a blonde to drown out the memory of his not-so-exciting wedding night.

It also sucked that I couldn’t distance myself emotionally from his infidelity like I’d thought that I’d be able to. Noah Murphy was my husband, and we had consummated our union, and I had no idea how to come back from that now.

Honestly, I had no idea what in the hell I was doing anymore.

Chapter 17

Noah~

I was tired as fuck, and still annoyed as hell. Ronan was still crying about his wife accusing him of having an affair, and after that bullshit with Walt and Isaiah goddamn Florez, we weren’t keen on bringing in anyone new. All it took was to trust one wrong person for the house of cards to come crashing down, and we hadn’t survived this long for that to happen now.

So, with Ronan crying, we had agreed to meet with him yesterday to vet other possible pilots to help with his routes, and that had taken us farther into the night than any of us would have liked. It’d also all been for nothing since we hadn’t liked any of them. While it was easy to threaten a man’s family, money did funny things to people, and it was always possible that a man’s greed might outweigh the love for his family. I’d seen it happen too many times to count.

At any rate, after not finding a suitable pilot for our needs, Declan and I had decided to stop outsourcing the positions since it was becoming more trouble than it was worth. We had enough money and smart enough soldiers to send to aviation school, and it wasn’t a bad idea to see which ones were interested in being more than just muscle for the family. After all, we already had Lochlan and Aran working for the family as talent, so why not have our fingers in more esteemed pies?

So, after everyone had gone their own way, Declan had kept me over to ask me how married life was going, and that had just pissed me off more. Never having slept next to a woman before, laying down with my wife had felt a bit surreal, especially after having just had sex with her. Though it could have been better for her, it’d been everything for me, and it’d been disappointing to not be able to tell her that. One night had changed so much for me, and I couldn’t even tell her because she would never believe me, nor would she even care if she did. I had fucked-up big time, and I was still working on how to make it right.

After that, I’d been on my way home, hoping to catch Shea before she’d gone to bed, but then Brody had called me to tell me how they had a problem at Lir with an Italian that they couldn’t know for sure wasn’t associated with the Sartoris. So, instead of bothering Declan with the mess, I had decided to handle it myself, needing to tell Declan only if I’d had to. Luckily, it’d been just some idiot looking for trouble, and once we’d found out that he wasn’t a Sartori, we’d done what we did best and had made an example of him to the other patrons of Lir.

Three hours later, it’d been close to midnight by the time that I’d gotten home, and Shea had looked too peaceful to awaken. Oh, I’d wanted to, but she hated me enough as it was without disturbing her much-needed sleep. So, instead of waking her up to take her again, I’d taken a shower, gone to my office, then had fallen asleep there after another couple of hours of making sure that my will and financial accounts were all updated to reflect my marital status. Right before falling asleep on the couch, it occurred to me that Shea needed to update her shit as well.

When I’d woken up only a few hours later, I’d been out of the house before Shea had gotten up for work because Declan had called me to tell me that we were meeting with Sartori and Kotov tomorrow, Morocco’s report on Klive finally completed. Excited to finally be getting somewhere, instead of waiting to have breakfast with Shea, I’d gone straight to Declan’s to get the details.

So, while I could have ambushed Shea at work to have lunch with her or just see her, I had decided against it because I really did have other shit to do, and I also wasn’t a pussy. There was no way that I should be missing my wife like this, especially when she’d rather see me dead than share a meal with me. It also didn’t help how Declan’s fucking words kept coming back to haunt me. He had warned me that I’d want her to be happy, and I had dismissed his advice because I’d been too arrogant to care at the time.

Well, I cared now.

Walking into the bedroom, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I just stepped inside the doorway as Shea came walking out of the adjoining en suite, and surprised danced across her face before she tightened her robe around her. Obviously, she hadn’t been expecting me, or else she would have made sure to get dressed inside the bathroom.

After taking in my appearance, she said, “Well, I guess I should be grateful that you bothered to take a shower first.”

Before coming home for the night, I’d been helping Cathal with some ‘interviews’ near the docks, and things had gotten bloody as Cathal, Kevin, and I had done our best to remind a few of our associates of the territory lines. So, assuming that Shea wouldn’t appreciate the blood, I’d taken a shower in one of the extra bathrooms before heading to our bedroom.

“Inna know da ye had a thing fer blood, lass,” I told her. “Next time, I’ll let ye wash it off fer me.”

Her brows furrowed a bit. “What?”

I cocked my head at her as I stepped further into the room. “Did ye already ferget what yer husband does fer a livin’?”

Shea’s face turned red, and that’s when the light bulb went off. Regardless of how our marriage had started out, it never occurred to me that she’d be thinking adultery before murder when it came to me missing in action. It should have, but it honestly hadn’t.

“In all actuality, it really is none of my business,” she muttered as she started making her way towards the dresser.

My hand snaked out to stop her, grabbing her around her arm. When she stubbornly looked up at me, I said, “Everything that I do is your business, Shea. As much as you’d like to deny it, you’re my wife. That makes you the most important person in my life, so everything that I do is more than your business.”

“A wife that you didn’t want or pick,” she reminded me. “So, I doubt that my status is as important as a real wife’s place beside her husband.”

I grabbed her chin with my fingers. “I might not have picked you, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve already proven that I want you.” Her dark eyes flared with resentment. “Or do ye need remindin’, lass?”

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