Lachlan (Dangerous Doms #5) - Jane Henry Page 0,16
me.
If ever I loved him, it’s hopeless now.
Chapter 4
I want to know who did this to her, who made those pretty eyes brim with tears. I’ll make them pay. I’ll make them rue the day they made my girl anything but happy.
My girl.
As soon as I give space to my uncensored thoughts, I regret them. I can’t do that to her. A connection to me means being roped into mob life. And though I’d worship the ground she walks on and take care of her every need, there’s no escaping the sometimes vicious, violent lives we lead.
“It’s no one,” she says, but it’s a lie. I can tell by the way her gaze swings from mine, unwilling to make eye contact with me. But I’ve known her for years, and I know when she’s being evasive. She’s strong-willed and feisty, but I know how to handle her.
“Fiona.” My voice is laced with warning, stern and corrective. I want answers, and I want them now.
I step closer to her, so close now I can see the glimmer of tears on her cheek, reflecting moonlight. Her eyes are red-rimmed and swollen. She didn’t just get choked up or shed a lone tear. She’s been weeping.
I can’t help myself. I reach for her before I know what I’m doing. Before tonight, I’ve never let myself touch her before, though I’ve imagined just this so many times it’s like a fantasy come true. I cup her jaw, so small in my hand. So fragile and soft. I brush my thumb along her cheekbone, wiping away tears.
She leans into my touch, her eyes closing with a soft sigh of relief.
My heart thunders, my skin alive and prickling with awareness and heat. She’s so close I could brush my lips against hers, and I know, I fucking know, that her face would tip up to mine and she’d welcome that kiss.
And I know we’d never be the same again.
We both want this. We both crave this.
I’m a man of the Clan who’s risked life and limb for my brothers. I’ve taken lives and issued threats, and defended my brothers in battle. I’ve put myself on the front line and welcomed danger. I face my fears with conviction and strength, never allowing myself to quake in the face of duty. But this… bloody hell. My hand begins to tremble and my heart races. Keeping myself apart from her’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
I want to kiss her so badly I can’t breathe. I can already taste her, so sweet and seductive, she’d pull me under, never to resurface again.
They’d kill me. Nolan first, but Cormac and Keenan would help him finish me off. That is, if Sheena didn’t murder me with her own bare hands before they got to me.
“You’re lying to me, lass,” I whisper in her ear. Her hair tickles my nose and brushes my hand, warm and intimate. I’m washed in the scent of warm vanilla. “You know I expect you to tell me the truth.”
And I do. I’ve told myself I’m like her older brother, stepping in to take care of her when necessary. I’ve made her report to me, insisted on her safety, and I won’t allow her to lie.
But Jesus, I’m no brother to her.
She doesn’t respond, but places her hand on my wrist. Maybe she meant to stop me, but she doesn’t push me away.
“What if I am?” she whispers.
I close my eyes against the rush of heat in my chest, at her flirty suggestion.
“Lying?”
“Aye.”
“You know better than to lie to me.”
A girl who lies ought to be taught a lesson.
The thought of punishing her makes a low hum of need coil in my belly, and I’ve barely even touched her. I’ve subdued my own desires, to master, dominate, and control. But I know what I want from Fiona. I know that she’d fight submitting to me, but I’d show her how good it could be.
She shivers, but this time I don’t think it’s from cold.
She tips her face up. I stare at the fullness of her lips. I bend down, and time stills. Her eyes close. Her lips part.
And like a coward, I brush my lips across her cheeks.
For long seconds she doesn’t breathe, before she pulls away. Moonlight glints on gold at her neck. The locket. She’s wearing the locket I got her, that I agonized over buying for her, afraid she’d read something into an intimate gift like jewelry. In the end, I felt it the