Page 81 of Black Heart

“Pregnant?”

* * *

“Oh,he’s not going to be happy about this,” he heard Shayne say as he walked down the hallway towards the bedroom.

“Well, the lass really didn’t leave us with much of a choice, now, did she?”

“She did make Quinn cry,” Shayne said, sounding thoughtful.

“I wasn’t crying!” a man snapped and if Tristan hadn’t been preparing himself for the worst, he probably would have laughed or, at the very least, cracked a smile. He sure as hell wasn’t smiling when he walked into his room and found his wife gagged, still wrapped up in a sheet, and now handcuffed to the bed.

“What the hell is going on?” Tristan demanded, shooting Shayne a glare as he stormed over to the bed.

“She beat me,” the tall man standing by the bed mumbled, shifting nervously as the other men in the room chuckled.

“I did warn the lads that she had a bit of a temper,” Shayne explained defensively as Tristan pulled out the gag, one of his clean socks rolled up into a ball.

“Pregnant? You got me pregnant?” Marty demanded as soon as the gag was freed, taking him by surprise.

“Er…” was all he could come up with under that murderous glare that she was sending him.

“Well said, lad,” Shayne said dryly as he reached over and released Marty from her cuffs.

“What the hell are ye doing, ye dumb bastard?” Quinn demanded as he quickly moved away from the bed. “The lass is feral!”

“Calm yerself. He’s the one that she wants to kill,” Shayne pointed out, reaching over to help Marty sit up, but one look from her had him quickly backing away from the bed as well.

“I’ll just let ye go ahead and handle this part, lad,” Shayne said, walking away like the coward that he was.

“Well?” Marty demanded as she sat up, oblivious to the fact that she was only wearing a sheet in a room full of men.

Thankfully, the sheet never slipped, but neither did the murderous glare she was sending him, unfortunately. Tristan opened his mouth to explain but just couldn’t find the right words. Marty, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be at a loss for words. She also didn’t seem to care that they weren’t alone.

“You ready to talk yet?” Marty demanded, somehow sounding more pissed than she looked, which was impressive because she looked ready to go for his balls.

“Marty, I-”

“You what? You’re ready to explain why you’re such an asshole? Or maybe you’re ready to explain why you feel the need to subscribe to over two hundred dollars’ worth of porn channels a month?” Marty snapped, earning a few chuckles from their audience and having him make a mental note to kick Shayne’s ass later. He opened his mouth to explain but Marty was far from done.

“Or maybe you want to explain how you were still a virgin at twenty-nine?” she demanded, taking him off guard and accomplishing the one thing that he’d never thought possible.

He felt his cheeks burn with mortification and-

“I’m embarrassed for him,” one of the men said in a loud whisper, earning several chuckles, and erasing any sliver of doubt that he’d ever had that these men were related to Shayne.

“Me too, lad,” another man said.

“Da’s probably rolling over in his grave from shame.”

“Aye, it’s a sad day for the men of our clan.”

“A sad day indeed.”

Just when he thought it was over, Tristan heard the all-too-familiar long-suffering sigh that had him rolling his eyes before the betraying bastard uttered a single syllable of bullshit.

“Now, you see what I’ve been dealing with, lads? It hasn’t been easy dealing with a twenty-nine-year-old virgin with a porn addiction.”

Tristan started to turn his head so that he could tell Shayne to go fuck off when the glare Marty was shooting him turned from murderous to something beyond words that actually frightened him and his poor balls enough for them to pull up tight and further out of her reach.

---