Page 97 of Illicit Temptation

With no one around, I crowd her step and say, “You figured out how to lock me in my bedroom. If you didn’t want my cock inside you so much, you have means to prevent it.”

“Jerk.”

“Oh, that mouth,” I growl. “Don’t make me jerk off, princess.”

Laughing softly, Shea continues climbing and once inside, she strolls confidently to a captain’s chair. All the muscles in her face relax. She’s surrounded by me, Lachlan, Darragh, and Balor’s guard, Denton.

Last to arrive, Balor helps Ella on board, who despite going through a horrific attack a couple of weeks ago, acts chipper. Good for her. Not letting a monster dull her shine and charm. Balor looks absolutely in love with his wife. To think I was there that night when he met her. And watched it all unfold for months while I worked for him.

All while hiding a secret from him, that I had drunk-married his sister three years earlier.

I eye the empty captain’s chair next to Shea, sizzling in my gut. Ishouldbe sitting next to her in the front of the plane where the O’Rourkes take their seats. Standing frozen, I’m reminded of my current place in their world. Shea thinks because I’m a Quinlan I enjoy certain privileges and allowances.

It’s easy to ignore how our secret will land inO’Rourke World when not one of those testosterone-fueled brothers is near us in East Hampton. Trapped in a plane with them, I’m questioning every choice I’ve made regarding their princess.

In moments like this, it’s clear I’ve overstepped, even by keeping it a secret and not letting her divorce me. But I will be on the same level with them, and it will be even more of a reason to bless our marriage. Still, I fight my annoyance at having to sit away from my wife, several rows back with Denton.

“How is Katya feeling?” Balor asks Lachlan about his pregnant wife.

She looked painfully uncomfortable at the wedding, carrying the baby of a man as big as me. All while she’s a lithe, wee thing, barely five feet.

“Not good,” Lachlan growls, practically baring his teeth. “She’s going on bed rest the moment I get home.”

I process this news as I do all information. Nothing an O’Rourke does is inconsequential. They are six pieces on a chess board I watch carefully. Seven, once we pick up Cormac.

Lachlan’s wife going on bed rest means he’ll be preoccupied for the remainder of the pregnancy. Griffin hinted several times already during our Quinlan meetings, how the enforcer is a changed man. No less dangerous, but more so, because he’s got a wife to protect. He’s not on the streets eighteen hours a day anymore.

My eyes linger on Shea napping in her chair. Christ, she’s a lovely angel who I’ve corrupted and dirtied. Fear strikes my heart that if I’m shot down by her father, and Lachlan turns on me, I’ll be banned from ever seeing her again.

She’ll likely be shipped off to Vegas where she’ll be miserable. Living in a fucking cage that I might as well have built and thrown away the key.

My heart starts pounding so hard I grip my chest thinking I’m having a coronary. Thank fuck, there’s a doctor on board.

WITH EFFORT, I COMPELmyself to put everything out of my head and get lost, listening to the mystery thriller book on my phone.

We land in a private airport in Waterford several hours later, and while taxiing, Lachlan stands up.

“Two SUVs are waiting for us,” he says, giving orders because he’s in charge right now. “Darragh and I are going right to Dunbar.”

Shea clears her throat. “And me.”

“And that means me,” I say to reinforce my commitment to protect her.

“I’d prefer to drop you off at the house.” Lachlan tries to pull a fast one until the bitter end.

“Lachlan, I flew all this way to see my brother. And I’m going to see him,” my spitfire wife challenges.

“I’ve got Shea covered.” I stand up and open my jacket to show them my double gun holder and the two hand cannons tucked inside. “She’ll be safe.”

Lachlan cracks a rare approving smile that I wish I can take a photo of to show him later when he’s beating the piss out of me.

Balor, Ella, and Denton get into one SUV that drives off, heading toward the honeymoon he promised his wife. The rest of us pile into the other vehicle. Lachlan helps Shea in, and she scooches into the middle-row bench seat. Darragh climbs into the third row, and Lachlan sits next to him. That leaves the only open seat next to Shea.

With Lachlan O’Rourke right behind me.

I give Shea a look and she notices, smiling. I suspect she’s thinking all she has to do is whisper some untoward confession of how we’ve been messing around for the lasttwo months to get anything she wants from me. All without realizing she and her brothers will be wearing pieces of my brain.

Dunbar Valley Detention Center is privately run, as many prisons are these days. Built on a five-acre lot, the main holding center is roughly thirty-thousand square feet and four stories high. It’s surrounded by beds of tall cheerful yellow flowers in stark contrast to the many rows of braided barbwire fencing and four corner watch towers, manned by guards with long, sniper rifles.

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