Page 20 of A Seductive Beauty
“She has never been yours and never will be. If you go near her again, I’ll skin you alive. And her name is Fiona or better yet Ms. Griffin to you.” I squeeze tighter, cutting off his air supply. He’s released my arm and is now clawing at my hand, trying to get me to let go. “And don’t ever touch me again.” I push him away from me as I try to control the anger rolling through my body. I return to my senses and see that my men and my father’s are all standing outside the window waiting to see what will happen next. My father is standing behind me. His hand lands on my shoulder and I start to calm. “Leave now before I change my mind,” I growl.
The wanker stumbles to the door, coughing and hacking. “It’s already arranged, you’re too late.” He slams out the door and I take off after him. My phone is in my hand and to my ear before I cross the threshold.
“Lex, I want everything on that arsehole who assaulted Fiona.” I disconnect the call as he runs down the street. I turn to head back into the shop. Mrs. O’Sullivan is behind the counter with a huge grin on her face. I return to the table and sit back down with my father.
“She’s yours and there is no denying it now.” He chuckles, and I take a big swallow of my coffee. I realize it’s an Irish coffee and the Jameson calms my nerves. I look over to see Fiona watching me through the window in the kitchen. She doesn’t have any fear in her eyes, instead I see desire and something I don’t want to think about right now.
Chapter Six
I look out the window and watch the city fade away as we enter the countryside west of Belfast. We pass Belfast Castle and head away from the water.
“I’m glad I was able to have the night off so I could go with you.” Moira’s voice pulls me from my daydreaming.
“I’m happy you could come too. They won’t be so critical with you around.” I sigh.
When my mum kept messaging me about having dinner, I knew I wouldn’t be able to tell her no much longer, so I talked Moira into going with me. I still don’t understand what they are up to. They had told me they never wanted to see me when I left, and now, they seem to can’t see me soon enough.
“Are you going to tell me what happened yesterday at the bakery? Mrs. O’Sullivan said it was quite a lark.”
I turn in my seat to look at Moira. She’s dressed in a pair of white slacks and a blue wrap shirt that is mine. She didn’t have a skirt and I knew my mum would be judgmental if we didn’t dress impeccably. I’m in a black-and-cream skirt, black shirt, and cream sweater. My four-inch cream-and-black pumps will give me the height my mum always says I don’t have. My mum is five-foot-seven and thin as a beauty model. She hates that I didn’t get hers or my father’s height.
“I’m sorry, what did you ask?”
“I asked what happened yesterday.” Moira rolls her eyes at me. “You can only avoid it for so much longer.” She teases me.
“Mr. Tiernan came in with his father yesterday.” I’m not even sure what happened. I watched from the doorway as Aidan almost choked Patrick. “I only heard part of what he said because he wasn’t very loud, but he told Patrick to leave me alone.” I don’t tell her he said he’d skin him alive. After all, her family are all coppers. After I finally told her what happened at the racetrack, she told me Aidan is the head of the Irish mob. I had already learned that part on my own. He doesn’t scare me though. If anything, he makes me feel safe. I don’t understand how after he said the things to me that he did. Or even after everything Moira told me. But to me he’s just a man. He makes my body tremble and my heart flutter. Yesterday when he held Patrick by the throat, it turned me on.
“Well, I guess he can’t be all bad if he doesn’t like Patrick.”
“He told Patrick not to call me Fifi anymore.” I giggle now because it was funny watching Patrick’s face turn red as Aidan squeezed the air from him. We joke for a bit. I keep the conversation light and away from more details about Aidan or Patrick so the driver doesn’t report anything to my parents.
The car pulls into the estate and follows the stone wall to the large circular driveway. My parents’ house is a large stone home built back in sixteen hundred. My father bought it after it was refurbished and restored when I was seven. It’s about thirty minutes from Belfast.
“I always forget your parents practically live in Downton Abbey.” Moira chuckles as the car comes to a stop and a man rushes out into the snow to open our door. He holds an umbrella open as Moira and I exit the vehicle.
“Welcome, Ms. Griffin.” The man tips his head to me and walks with us to the door.
“Thank you.” I don’t know his name because he’s new since I left. I’d heard they hired all-new staff after I left because they didn’t want everyone to know they had disowned me. Every employee has to sign a nondisclosure agreement to work for my father.
We enter the first door then step through the next into the main entrance hall. The man takes our coats and bags from us to put in the cloakroom.
“Your parents are in the drawing room with the other guests. Dinner will be in the formal dining room shortly.” He opens the door to the drawing room and we enter. The room is done in soft creams and dark woods. But it’s so cold and unfriendly. My mother is perched on the edge of the sofa, her back straight and her legs bent back against the sofa with her ankles crossed. She’s dressed in a black cap sleeve tight dress. When she stands, I see that it’s V-necked and showing her cleavage slightly. Her blond hair is pulled back in a severe bun, pulling back on her face, but I can tell she recently had Botox injections.
“Fiona, it’s about time you arrived. You missed the whole cocktail hour,” she says. I haven’t moved from the entrance into the room as I see the man my father is with.
“What is Patrick doing here?” Moira whispers from behind me. He walks toward us and my body stills. I clench my jaw, ready to yell and rail at him. I have no clue why he’s here, but I’m going to find out.
“Fiona, don’t be rude, step in and let your friend enter too.” My mum leans down to kiss me on the cheek. It’s all a show for Patrick and Moira. As soon as she’s against my ear she hisses in it. “I didn’t know you were bringing a guest. That’s very rude of you.” She pulls away. “Hello, Mara.” She slaughters Moira’s name as she’s done since the first time I brought her home years ago. “I’ll let the butler know to set another place setting. Fiona didn’t tell me you were coming too.”
“It’s Moira, ma’am, and thank you.” Moira nods but doesn’t extend a hand to her.
“Darling, I could have driven you out if you had told me you needed someone to ride with you,” Patrick says as he tries to put an arm around my waist.
I step away from him.
“Hello, Patrick. I didn’t know you were going to be here.”
“Well, of course your intended would be here,” my father says as he walks over too.
