Page 47 of Heated Rivals
She was right. Heknewshe was right. But that didn’t kill the urge to drag her back into his arms and kiss her until she stopped telling him all the reasons they were shitty for each other. He opened the closet door and motioned for her to precede him. “After you.”
“You… God, you drive me so wild.” She grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed him, moving away before he could do anything about it. Right into the hallway where two of her brothers stood, shock written across boththeir faces.
Well, fuck.
Aiden grabbed her arm and the younger one grabbedhim, slamming him against the wall. “I’m going to fucking kill you.” James didn’t fight back, just let the little shit shake him.
“Cillian, no!”
Aiden gave Carrigan a shake, too, andthatset James’s temper off. He grabbed the kid and glared at the O’Malley heir. “You can be pissed at me all you want, but you hurt her and I’ll take your fucking hand off at the wrist.”
Aiden didn’t let her go, but he didn’t shake her again, either. “I think it’s time you left.”
Hell, James agreed with him. He caught Carrigan’s gaze.Unfinished business, lovely. She frowned, obviously worried her brother was going to take him out back and shoot him. “I think you’re right.” He shoved Cillian away and made a show of dusting off his shirt. “I’ll be seeing you around.” He turned and made it all of one step before Aiden’s voice stopped him.
“My sister might be ready to forget what you almost did to her, but I damn well haven’t. You fucking touch her again and it really will be war.”
* * *
Carrigan’s brothers dragged her back to the reception. Aiden stopped just inside the door, his grip on her arm tight enough to bruise. “You will go to the banquet table, sit your ass down, and smile like nothing’s wrong. You will give your planned toast. And then you will sit there like someone who isn’t a fucking traitor until it’s time to go home. After that, we’lldeal with this.”
She’d never feared her brother before, but she’d never seen him with another man’s murder in his eyes, or with that bone-deep disgust he turned on her. She’d fucked up, and they both knew it. Carrigan gave a jerky nod, and walked to the wedding party’s table on shaking legs. Teague sent her a questioning look, and she somehow managed to dredge up a smile for him. “The food looks great.”
The rest of the reception passed in a blur. Every time she looked up, she found Aiden or Cillian glaring at her, a physical reminder of the talk she had coming. She tried to dredge up some righteous indignation. Good lord, she tried. But there was nothing.
She’d been sleeping with the enemy.
Worse, she could still feel the imprint of his mouth on her skin, his hands on her body, his cock inside her. Even knowing the trouble that was coming, she still wanted James almost more than she wanted her next breath—which just proved she was too stupid to live.
They saw Teague and Callie off in a flurry of bubbles. Carrigan was an island of misery in the midst of all the joy, her glowering brothers flanking her as she walked to the waiting town car and they got in on either side of her. She barely had time to take a breath before Aiden started in. “What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. You? James fucking Halloran?Seriously,Carrigan? How fucking stupid can you be?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, staring straight ahead. “I’m not stupid.” They didn’t know James. They didn’t understand that what he and she shared was something she couldn’t make herself pass up. “You don’t understand.”
“No, I goddamn well don’t. He kidnapped you. Christ only knows what he did to you when you were in his house.”
Carrigan turned to glare at him. “Christ has nothing to do with it.Iknow what happened—and, more importantly, what didn’t happen—to me. And it’s a moot point now anyway.”
“No, it’s not a fucking moot point.” He pointed a finger out the side window. “That guy is the enemy. He might be someone you’re attracted to or whatever the fuck was going on back there, but he’s a Halloran. He’s not for you, and you damn well know it.”
Yeah, she did. Not too long ago, that forbidden aspect would have been enough to make James even more attractive to her.Was that all this is? The lure of the untouchable?She hunched lower in her seat, every instinct crying against that belief. It was different with James.Hewas different. Maybe she’d originally entertained thoughts of him because he was the one man her father would lose his shit over, but that had quickly morphed into something… genuine.
Aiden gripped her shoulder. “Look at me, Carrigan.”
She wanted to dig in her heels and shut her eyes like she had when they were kids and he pissed her off. But they weren’t kids anymore. They were adults, and she was facing real-life consequences. So she turned and met his gaze, doing her damnedest not to drop her eyes. Her brother’s face seemed to have acquired new lines in the last few hours, and every single one of them was because of her. “Aiden—”
“He isnotfor you. I’ll keep this from our father, because we both know whathe’d do if he knew.”
Nothing good. Seamus’s potential reactions ranged from locking her in the attic for the rest of her life to marrying her off right away to the first man he could find that wasn’t an enemy of the O’Malleys. Nowhere on the list was him smiling, patting her on the head, and telling her that he just wanted her to be happy. Her happiness was, and always had been, secondary.
On her other side, she could practically feel Cillian seething. He shifted. “You can’t seriously be thinking of letting this go, Aiden. He defiled our sister.”
“Are you serious right now?” She turned and smacked him. “I’m a grown-ass woman, and no one defiled me.”
“Except that time he threw your ass into a trunk andkidnappedyou. Since when are we so willing to forgetthat? Aiden, you have to tell Father.”
“I don’t have to do a damn thing—and neither do you.” The boy she’d grown up with, the one she’d played countless hours of imaginary games with, was gone, replaced by a cold son of a bitch that Carrigan would think twice before crossing. Apparently Cillian felt the same way, because he jerked back. Aiden looked at her, and then Cillian. “Neither one of you is going to do anything that might jeopardize the peace deals we have going. Not a single fucking thing, do you hear me? That meansyoukeep your mouth shut.” He jerked his chin at Cillian. “Andyoukeep the hell away from Halloran. We can fix this, but you’re going to do exactly what I say.”
She didn’t want to. She wanted to rail and scream and hit in protest. But it wouldn’t do a damn bit of good. She was as trapped as she’d always been.Damn you, James. Why did you have to come to the wedding? Thingswere going good.
