Page 8 of His Temptation

Siobhan’s fingers flexed at her sides, her body coiled tight like a spring. “If you’re here to take me to MI5, you’re wasting your time.”

Daragh’s lips curved slightly. “Not MI5.”

She didn’t relax. Not an inch.

“Then why?”

He let a beat of silence stretch between them, watching her, measuring.

“Because I’m the only thing standing between you and the men hunting you,” he said finally. “And if you don’t come with me now, I won’t be the only one who finds you next time.”

Her breath hitched, just barely. For the first time, he saw something flicker in her expression. Not fear—but something just as dangerous.

Doubt.

Daragh took another step closer, watching as her gaze flicked to the exit behind him. Calculating. Assessing.

Good. He wanted her to understand exactly what was at stake.

“Your choice, kitten,” he said softly. Dangerously. “Come with me now…” His gaze dropped briefly, deliberately, to where her pulse hammered in her throat. “…or roll the dice on who gets to you first.”

CHAPTER 3

SIOBHAN

Daragh Fucking O’Neill—The Devil of Galway’s chief fixer, enforcer and left hand—had her pinned against the cold metal of the storage unit wall. His grip was firm, immovable, and entirely too confident. He thought he had her.

He was wrong. She wasn’t going down without a fight. Her muscles burned with the need to shift and run.

The instincts buried deep in her bones screamed at her to shed her human skin, to let her panther take over and tear through him like the threat he was. But shifting in the middle of a city—inside a storage facility with no cover—would do nothing but expose her secret and give him, and the rest of them, even more power over her.

So she did the next best thing—the thing a man like him would expect. She feigned surrender and acceptance of the inevitable. She let her body go lax, just enough to make him think she was weak and giving up.

Daragh’s gaze flickered, studying her reaction, but his grip loosened just slightly. It was all she needed.

Siobhan moved, snatching her duffle bag from the floor. She swung the thing in a brutal arc—twisting her entire body forpower—and straight into the side of his head. The impact sent a dull thud echoing through the storage facility’s yard. Not enough to knock him out completely, but enough to stagger him… enough for her to run.

Siobhan bolted. She barely registered the sharp curse he let out as she sprinted toward the storage unit’s back entrance. The emergency release bar shoved open with a screech of rusted metal, and she flew into the night, her heart hammering against her ribs.

The vehicle she had tucked away was just beyond the next row of units, hidden beneath a cover of dust and neglect—even though she had religiously started the motor with a remote control every month and let it run for thirty minutes. She tore the tarp free, tossing it aside, and yanked open the driver’s door.

She had seconds. Maybe less. She lunged inside, slamming the door shut behind her. She barely had time to sit herself upright before she heard the heavy thud of boots on the pavement.

Daragh. He was already moving, almost there.

Siobhan barely had time to lock the doors before the handle jerked violently. She hit the ignition switch—nothing. She cursed and slammed her palm against the dash, urging the engine to turn over faster.

Daragh’s growl of frustration carried through the glass. “Don’t do it, kitten.”

The engine roared to life. Siobhan’s fingers clenched around the gearshift. “Too late.”

She slammed the accelerator. Daragh barely twisted away in time, dodging the side mirror by inches as the tires screeched against the pavement.

Siobhan didn’t look back. She gunned it toward the warehouse’s security gate; her pulse was a wild, unsteady thing in her throat.

She needed distance. Needed to disappear before Daragh caught up.

The old metal gate loomed ahead standing slightly ajar even though the bars rusted from years of neglect. If she could just get through, she had a chance. Then she saw them. Two black SUVs parked just beyond the gate.

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