Page 41 of A Seductive Beauty
“Okay.” I sigh.
He drops to his knee in front of me. “I’ll protect you with every fiber of my being. I want you to be my queen. My wife. The beauty to my beast.” He pulls my hand to him and slips the ring on my finger. “We are getting married as soon as possible. Patrick and your parents will never force you to do anything again.”
“Yes.” I nod at him. I love him, and I want to be with him. We still have a lot to discuss and work out, but he’s everything to me. He slips the ring on to my finger. He was right, his is the only ring that feels right and should be on my finger. He then puts the special Cartier bracelets that require special jewelers screwdrivers to lock them on my wrists. Both are white gold. One has small diamonds. The third bracelet looks like a nail and wraps around my other wrist. All three bracelets can’t be taken off easily and look beautiful. I pull him up to me and take his lips in a soft kiss.
“I love you, Aidan. Only you, and you aren’t a beast. You’re my man. You’ll rule over Belfast and Ireland, and I’ll be at your side,” I swear against his lips.
He takes my lips deeper as his tongue works through my mouth, claiming me again. When he pulls away, both of us are breathing heavily.
“I want to take you right here, but it’s not safe.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his mobile. “Are you here?” he demands into the phone. After a moment he pulls the phone away and leads me over to the bar. “You’re shaking, my love. Did I scare you when I killed that man?”
I shake my head, the emotions taking over everything in me. “No, I was so scared I’d never see you again,” I confess as he hands me a tumbler with amber liquid. I shoot back the whiskey, knowing it was Jameson.
“Come.” He orders me, and we make our way out of the office, down a back stairwell, and out into the chilly night air. He guides me into the back of a BMW SUV. This isn’t his normal automobile that Shane drives him around in. There is no partition separating the front from the back, and I look up to see Shane in the driver’s seat and the guard from earlier in the passenger seat.
“Fiona, this is Gael. He’s the head of your personal guard. He’ll accompany you whenever you are off the compound and will remain nearby. His number is programmed in here along with mine and all my brothers.” He hands me a new mobile phone. “Never go anywhere without him.”
“Okay. Nice to meet you, Gael.” He turns and nods at me.
“Hello, Mrs. Tiernan.” His use of the name causes me to gasp, and I turn to Aidan.
“I’ve been planning this for a while. It’s why he was at the gate that day. But I didn’t know until that day when you escaped that I would make him your primary guard. I thought at first I was going to kill him, but then I thought better of it. He directed you to me and made sure you were safe. He’ll never make a mistake of letting you go again.”
“You’ve planned to marry me?”
“Since the moment I made you mine, beauty.”
As we pass under streetlights, I stare at the engagement ring he gave me. It’s a large round diamond on a white gold band of smaller diamonds. It sparkles on my finger enough that people aren’t going to miss it, but it’s not as gaudy as the one Patrick had me wearing. I turn to look at Aidan as he texts on his cellular. I reach over and turn his head toward me so he’s looking at me.
“I’ve always been yours and I always will be,” I say softly, his lips tip up and he leans in toward me to kiss me.
“Boss, we have company,” Shane says. We both swing around to look out the rear window just as a car moving fast slams into the back of us. I scream and Aidan pulls my head down to his lap as guns fire around us.
“The car is armored, but I’m not taking any chances with you, Fiona,” Aidan growls as he pulls a gun out of his jacket.
The car swerves as we are hit again from behind, harder this time. The sounds of metal clashing and grinding, tires squealing across the pavement, and gunfire break through the night. I cry out again as the car is jolted.
“Boss, they are blocking the road.”
“Back up should be here in a moment,” Aidan says calmly.
I can’t see what’s going on, so I carefully lift my head and peek out the front window. We are coming up on several cars fast, but Shane isn’t slowing down. The car accelerates and we barrel toward the roadblock. An explosion rocks the night, and a fireball is now in the place where the cars were before. Shane slams through them, driving through the flames. I grip Aidan’s leg tightly as I shake in fear. We make it through to the other side where several more cars are waiting. I turn to look behind us as two break off to follow us and the rest stay back and stop the car that was chasing us.
Aidan pulls me up and wraps his arms around me.
“I told you I would protect you.” He kisses the top of my head and I cuddle into him more. “No one will ever hurt you, or they will die,” he vows.
We make it back to the compound without further incident.
“Tomorrow the girls will be over, but I have plans for you now.” He leads me through the house and up to the room we shared before. “I couldn’t sleep in this bed after the smell of you wore off the sheets. I stayed at the office house.”
I look at the made bed, and the memories of him and I wash through me.
“Strip, beauty,” he demands, and my body trembles as I turn to look at him.
Chapter Eleven
Aidan
