Page 55 of Illicit Temptation

The music softens, signaling dinner will be starting soon. Kieran will notice if I’m upset. He seated me next to him with Lachlan on the other side. Their sheltering of me is an invisible cage. A glass box with a couple of holes for air.

Trace will sit at a table nearby with his cousins. Griffin, who works for Lachlan, Shane who works for Balor, and Connor, who works for Riordan.

With something pinching my heel, I make my way into the lobby to adjust a strap on my shoe in the lounge. Other guests are being seated for dinner, and the crowd has thinned out.

A couple crosses in front of me, hurrying to get to their tables.

After they pass, in my direct line of sight is...

Archer Crest.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Trace

Isee it happening before anyone else. And damn, I have to stop it. I cross the room and shove Shea behind me, catching the hand of Archer before he pulls her into a stairwell.

“Get your hands off me, you low-born psycho,” Archer sneers.

“Low born?” I chuckle menacingly. “Doesn’t matter who or what I am, you’re not getting anywhere near my client.”

“Shea, please.” The man I beat up in August sounds ready to grovel. “I need to speak to you.”

“Step back or I’ll give you a shiner to matchthatsuit, too.”

“Oh,youwere the masked man who attacked me at my store?” The lying bastard looks around snapping his fingers. “Care to confess that under oath to one of the judges here?”

Shea rests her head against my back, her breathing ragged. “Oh God, oh God.”

I wisely believe a man like this has the power to implicate me. My power lies in the ability to scare the fuck out of him.

“Stay away from my client, mate,” I ground out. “Those security videos are still on my phone and her deadly brothers who will pound you to dust are in that ballroom.”

Archer is out of his element here in Astoria, and looking around, I don’t see his brothers, which means either they’re not in his corner in his brutal pursuit of a mob princess, or he hasn’t told them what he’s been up to. Namely, cheating on his wife.

“One text and five O’Rourkes will be right here. Do you want to face them?”

Archer grunts and stalks down a back corridor. I doubt he even stepped foot in the ballroom or Lachlan would have shot him on site.

“I still feel so stupid.” Shea leans into my chest when I turn toward her.

“I doubt people respect a man who cheats on his wife and lied to his girlfriend.” I brush her cheek. “And if it ever comes up, I suggestthat’syour story.”

“It just wasn’t meant to be, was it? Like...us,” she says, low and controlled.

I go still. “Us?”

“We’re not meant to me, are we?” She sniffs.

“I...”

“Then I think about how complicated the world is, and we ended up in Las Vegas at the exact same time.”

My heart leaps in my chest. “That and I never lied to you, love. I never strung you along. I never cheated on you.”

“I still can’t believe that. I mean, I believe you,” she snorts and looks up at me. Her green eyes have that glassy shine like emeralds.

My princess interrupted.

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