Page 16 of Lorcan

She jumped up when she realised I was standing there watching her like a fucking creep. The heavenly chuckle that came out of her when she realised it was just me. That heavenly woman’s laugh could easily heal the crack in my old heart, and it scared me a little.

There was something about her, something she was hiding that made her jumpy. I wanted desperately to find out why she was running, why she was scared so I could make it all better. The feeling was overwhelming me and I didn’t know why.

It wasn’t a feeling I was familiar with, not since Clementine.

The reminder of the woman I lost was hard enough, coupled with the threat looming and the fact I was going to have to let my brothers know what was coming was making me choke with anxiety.

“Sorry,” she said, standing up. “I was in my own world.”

“Do you do that often?”

She looked down at the place she was lying down on. “Lying down?”

“Looking up at the clouds.”

She frowned. “Do you?”

“Not since I was a child, no.”

“Maybe you need to do it again, then.”

I couldn’t help the smirk that inevitably appeared on my face. When she noticed it, I knew I was done for. She smiled back and laid back down on the deck. Feeling as if I needed to indulge her, I got down and laid next to her.

The smell of her shampoo wafting over me was intoxicating, and I had to curl my fist into a ball to stop myself from grabbing her hair and yanking her toward me. What was it about this woman that I couldn’t seem to control myself around?

“Why do you like looking up at the clouds?” I asked her, as I took in the wide sky above me. The blue sky had been hard to come by lately, but today was a remarkably beautiful day.

“Because there’s no drama up there,” she said. There was a wistful sadness to her voice, and that damn accent came back strong. She must fight to sound like she’s from anywhere but Cork. “Anything that is going on down here, doesn’t reach up there. There’s a beauty to how the clouds move, soundlessly, and smoothly. It’s calming and helps me to think.”

“What do you need to think about?” I asked her.

“I…well, I need to go,” she said. “It’s nothing against you or anything, Lorcan, you’ve been more than hospitable, and I have loved being here but I need to keep moving.”

I felt the smile fade from my lips. Even though I knew I needed to get her away from us, there was something deep inside that made me want to deny her that freedom. I needed to protect her somehow, by keeping her close.

“Will you return to Cork?”

Her eyes knitted together in confusion, and she opened and closed her mouth a few times, surprised. “How did you know I was from Cork?”

“You have a strong accent, love.”

“Oh.”

“You don’t want me to know you’re from Cork…why?”

“I don’t want anyone to know,” she said, sitting up and looking down at her fidgeting hands. “It’s embarrassing, okay?”

“That’s not embarrassment on your expression, love, that’s fear.”

She looked up at me, and I saw the unshed tears in her eyes. I sat up quickly, some primal side of me wanting to carry her inside and lock her away so nothing could hurt her creeping up on me.

“What do you have to fear in Cork?” I asked.

“My name isn’t Ava,” she said, even though I’d already known that, I didn’t rightly care what her name was if she wanted to change it. “It’s Bridget Moriarty.”

Realisation washed over me and immediately I felt as if she’d been unleashed on me for a reason. The Moriarty’s were the ones aiding Amity and Ronan. Was she a spy?

“Why are you telling me this?”

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