Page 25 of Illicit Temptation

My throat tightens. “In addition to my protection?”

Lachlan studies me, those cold gray eyes make lesser men cry. Any other bodyguard asking for details might get a bullet in his head as an answer. But I’m not just a bodyguard. I’m a Quinlan.

After a moment while his brain processes if he can truly trust me, Lachlan says with no emotion, “Shea-Lynne is to be married this summer to a man Crest won’t dare cross.”

The words fall on my head like a piano. As much as I’m utterly crushed, I shouldn’t be surprised. Only that they didn’t marry her off sooner. Then again, Fergus O’Rourke had five ruthless sons working for him when he was king. If the O’Rourkes wanted something, they had enough power to take it. Didn’t need to marry off Shea.

That means the Crest threat is even more terrifying than Lachlan is telling me. So much so that he doesn’t think his family can adequately protect her.

“To who, sir?” That is a reasonable thing for a bodyguard to ask, all while I’m burning up with fury.

Lachlan’s assessment reaches an unbearable level of palpable tension. Exhaling, he says, “Nico Scava. The Cosa Nostra don in Las Vegas.”

Vegas. Where she and I were married. Is it possible a Cosa Nostra boss didn’t investigate his intended bride? Maybe he’d never think she was already married.

“May I ask why? I’ve spent...time with her. I don’t think she’ll see this coming.” I want to say, if you think she doesn’t want a bodyguard forced on her, how in the world do they think she’ll react to a husband?

“That whole incident with Crest sparked this. Finding out she’d been seeing him behind our backs and how it put her in danger woke us the fuck up. Enough is enough. She doesn’t need less protection, she needs more. And a fleet of bodyguards isn’t enough.” He looks up at me. “Nooffense.”

“None taken.” Because once Griffin gives the signal, I will belong to Quinlan Empire as their enforcer. Like the brutal man in front of me, Iwilltake care of my wife.

She’s not marrying anyone else.

“Shea will be safer as a mafia boss’s wife,” Lachlan says, his voice gruff.

And not an enforcer’s.Ouch.

“When do you plan to tell her?” I ask, every detail stabbing my heart like a knife. My head is spinning, ready to fall off, but I keep it together.

“When the time is right.” He locks eyes with me. “She’ll be called into Astoria and told by Kieran. Her king.”

Thanks for the heads-up.

I nod and stand when he stands. With a trustful gaze, he shakes my hand. “I’ll sleep better at night knowing she’s being guarded by a Quinlan until she moves to Vegas.”

I both love and hate that, because I don’t intend to let Shea sleep soundly at night. I intend to fuck her and convince her to stay my wife. I’m up against an invisible marriage deal clock and need to show the O’Rourkes that I am worthy of marrying her.

For reinforcement, while I’m her bodyguard this time around, I’ll make sure she’s pregnant with my child.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Shea

“Your old friend is back,” Larke says to me with a playful nudge.

“Who?” I look up from the meeting table in my office, where we’re working on the seating chart for Eoghan and Jillian’s wedding reception.

My heart soars into my throat, seeing Trace Quinlan approaching the plate-glass front door of my East Hampton storefront.

Other event planners meet clients in their homes. That’s too much of a risk for me, seeing my brothers are mob bosses. Balor has my office wired up with cameras and microphones as well as cameras planted on light posts a few blocks in each direction. Overkill and overprotective, but I wasn’t in a position to say no.

My phone beeps with a text:

Soren: Ms. O’Rourke. I’ve been recalled to Astoria. I waited for my replacement. He should be there. Warm Regards.

Wow, he didn’t even come in to say goodbye to my face. I close my eyes and dread what Lachlan will do to him since I requested he be removed from my detail. All the guards technically report to Lachlan.

That damn deal I made withthe devilis coming back to bite me. I’d hoped he’d forgotten I agreed to take Trace because he’s got so much on his mind with a pregnant wife.

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