Page 13 of Creatures in the Night

Noah leaned in closer to me. “Then why in the fuck was he touching you?”

“Because we’ve been friends for five years,” I snapped. “We’re familiar with each other.”

“Then unfamiliarize yourself with him,” he snapped back. “If I ever see or hear of him touching you again, I’ll put him down like a rabid dog, Shea.” His hand tightened around my throat. “Do not test me on this, lass.”

I started shaking my head in denial. “You…you can’t do that.”

“Really?” he taunted. “Then why don’t you tell me all the things that I can’t do, baby.”

“You can’t just-”

“You tell him, or I will,” he snarled. “I don’t care either way, but I guarantee that your friend will appreciate it more if you’re the one being honest with him versus me proving a point, Shea.”

“They’re just affectionate gestures,” I argued. “He doesn’t mean anything by them.”

“Ask me if I give a fuck,” he shot back.

Suddenly feeling the weight of this shit on me, I said, “I’m tired, Mr. Murphy. I’d like to go home.”

With his incredible-colored gaze still on me, he loosened his fingers, but instead of releasing me, his hand slid down the front of my chest, and my face burned with humiliation as there wasn’t enough to block the path that he was making. My bra was functional, so it positioned my B-cups perfectly, no cleavage anywhere. It also sucked that I’d never had an issue with confidence before today, but Noah’s blatant observation of all that I was lacking had left its mark, even if it was a small one. Though I shouldn’t care what he thought of me, it was kind of hard not to since he was going to be my husband soon.

I swallowed hard when he leaned in, his breath warm on my ear. “Call me Noah, and I’ll let you go,” he ordered, his hand stopping on my left hip.

I didn’t want to call him by his first name.

I didn’t want it to sound like we were friends.

He was second-in-command of the O’Briens, and I needed to remember that.

Nonetheless, I couldn’t see a way out of this. So, I let out a shaky breath before saying, “I’d like to go home, Noah.”

“See, lass,” he drawled out. “Tha wanna so hard, was it?”

After a few more torturous seconds, Noah finally stepped back, giving me some room to breathe, and for a brief moment, it crossed my mind to run. My parents and I could leave the country, and with us already being on the east coast, we could easily lose ourselves in Europe somewhere. People willingly disappeared all the time, so why couldn’t we?

However, before I could give the idea some real merit, Noah was saying, “Pack what you need on Thursday because we’ll be getting married on Friday.”

I could feel my eyes nearly pop out of my head. “What?”

“I’ll have The O’Brien inform your parents of where and when the ceremony will take place,” he went on like he hadn’t just thrown me for a loop. “I’d also like to point out that I have enough money and connections to hunt you down to the ends of the earth if you decide to run, lass.” My back straightened at that guiltily. “If you run, I will find you. I will find you, and the repercussions will be ones that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes,” I bit out, fuming.

“I also suggest that you have that conversation with your friend before the wedding,” he said. “Once you have my ring on your finger, you’ll be my wife, and I’ll be less tolerable where my wife is concerned. Understood?”

“Perfectly,” I snapped before turning from him to get the hell out of here.

Chapter 9

Noah~

I wasn’t happy, and I wasn’t bothering to hide that fact, either. For the past two days, images of Shea and her co-worker kept invading my mind, and I couldn’t make sense of it. I shouldn’t care this much, especially considering that she really was a stranger to me, but that logic hadn’t helped in any way. Honestly, I couldn’t recall a time when I’d ever given a woman much thought after putting my clothes back on, and I didn’t appreciate the feeling. Apart from the women in my family, I couldn’t remember ever caring about one enough to keep me up at night, but that’s what’d been happening the past couple of nights, and I really didn’t fucking like it.

After watching Shea drive out of the Donza’s parking lot the other day, I had immediately called Declan to let him know that we’d be getting married on Friday at my parents’ house. Though their house wasn’t as big as Declan’s parents’ house, it was still big enough to entertain the only people that would be there. While Aunt Nessa had been upset about not being invited, she’d gotten over it when she’d heard that no one was being invited to the nuptials. I wasn’t sure what Declan had told her to calm her hurt feelings, but whatever he’d said, I owed him. I loved my aunt, but she was a lot, and that wasn’t anything that anyone at this wedding needed.

So, once the time, date, and place had been announced, it’d been made clear that the only people in attendance would be the priest, my parents, Shea’s parents, Declan, my two brothers, Niall, Craig, and Donal. Since Niall was my personal guard, he needed to meet Shea and know what she looked like as to not accidentally shoot her if he saw her lurking around me. Craig and Donal had been invited to meet her as well, because I was going to need to put a guard on her, and it couldn’t be just anyone. It had to be someone that Shea felt a comfortable connection with, or else life would be hell for both her and her guard, considering that a guard was not an option.

At any rate, I was in a sour mood, and since I’d never been one to conceal what I was feeling for the sake of politeness, everyone here felt the tension, but I didn’t care. Nothing was going to stop me from marrying Shea, and it wasn’t like anyone here believed that this was a wedding born of love anyway.

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