Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Nora
A fter being utterly shattered by the most incredible orgasm of my life, I rub my palm over the shaft outlined at the front of Brendan’s pants. “How about I return the favor and release some of this tension?”
Brendan presses his hand over mine and chuckles. “No need. Having you come around my fingers and cry my name pushed me over. Other than being a bit of an uncomfortable mess, I’m grand—more than grand.”
I blink up at him in wonder. Really? He was that turned on by touching me?
That both humbles and terrifies me. This is real. It has nothing to do with his family or mine. It has nothing to do with him getting close to me for ulterior motives.
It’s as real for him as it is for me.
Which is both beautiful and heartbreaking.
It takes effort to pull a lungful of air into my tight chest. “Brendan, we really need to finish talking.”
Two fingers press over my lips. “Not yet, angel. Don’t spoil this moment with talking.”
When I don’t object, he pulls the throw blanket over me, nuzzles into my neck, and kisses a ticklish spot behind my ear. When he lays his heavy arm across my body and pulls me tight against him, I’m cocooned in the warmth radiating off him.
“This is better than talking.” He kisses my neck again and his entire body relaxes.
Branden Quinn is a snuggler. Who knew?
Despite knowing I have to rip the bandage off and cut ties, I can’t bear the thought of ruining this moment. I close my eyes and let the orgasm afterglow hold me in its spell a little longer. I’ll tell him—I will—just not now.
We deserve this much, at least.
I’m not sure how long I’ve been asleep, but when I wake up, Brendan isn’t lying beside me. Panic sets in for a moment and then I hear the toilet flushing in the bedroom. Sitting up, I set my feet on the floor and run my fingers through my hair.
“Hey, you’re awake.” Brendan saunters closer and leans over the arm of the sofa to kiss me. “I hope I didn’t wake you. I needed to piss.”
I fold the blanket and stand to set it on the back of the couch. “You didn’t wake me. I’m surprised I even fell asleep. I’m not usually a napper.”
Brendan’s mouth falls open, and he feigns shock. “Napping is one of my best events. How can you not like napping?”
“It’s not that I have anything against napping. I guess I’ve just always pushed through and ignored it when I felt tired. You know…busy, busy.”
“We need never speak of this again. I will train you in the ways of self-care. You will learn to love naps.”
“The man who gets his face punched in cage fights is going to teach me about self-care?”
He prods the scab on his split lip. “This is entirely on you. Normally, no one gets close enough to damage this pretty face. And as for the naps, I don’t care how many hours it takes with us snuggled in bed. I will teach you to love them.”
“If you’re there, I’m sure I will. You’re like a snuggly radiant heater.”
He grins. “I have been known to throw off a few BTUs.”
A knock at the door makes me jump and Brendan holds up his finger. “Our dinner has arrived.”
Dinner? How long was I asleep?
Rushing to the door, he keys in a few digits and presses his thumb on the scanner. The whines and clicks of lockdown release. When he opens the door, he swings the thing wide and lets in three women.
The first is an elegant woman in her thirties with mahogany brown hair. The second is a girl, much younger, with long, jet black hair. The third is an older woman in her sixties with silver hair and kind eyes. And they are each carrying a serving tray.
“Thank you, ladies.” Brendan closes the door after them and waves for me to join him. “Ladies, this is Nora. Nora, these are the other women in my life. Laine and Piper are my sisters-in-law, and that is Cora, queen of our household and the best cook in all of Ireland, hands down.”
The older woman waves her fingers at him and makes a tsking sound, but it’s obvious she adores him. “And you are a flatterer and a scoundrel.”
“Guilty on both counts.”
“It’s lovely to meet you, Nora.” Laine sets down the tray she is carrying and comes over to offer me her hand. “I’m Tag’s wife.”
“And soon-to-be baby mama,” Brendan adds.
Laine grins and runs a hand over the gentle swell of her belly. “Quinn, the next generation is in progress.”
“Congratulations.”
She beams. “Thank you. We’re all very excited.”
“Damn straight, we are.” Brendan’s grin has grown even wider. “That baby is going to have the four best uncles any child has ever had.”
“Without a doubt.” Piper comes over to join us, but instead of shaking my hand, she pulls me into a hug. “It’s good to meet you, Nora.”
“You, too.”
When Piper steps back, she looks me up and down and bites her bottom lip. “You look smashing, by the way. Brendan? Was I right about the sweater or was I right?”
Brendan bows his head. “You were right. I don’t know why I even questioned the queen of fashion acquisition.”
Piper gives him a teasing smile. “It’s enough that you recognize your mistake.”
“And thank you for going to the trouble,” I add.
Piper laughs. “Shopping is never any trouble. I’m a professional.”
Cora finishes fussing around the table and brushes off her hands as she arrives to our group. “It’s lovely to meet you, lass. And, I’ll have you know, young Mr. Brendan has never had me make a special meal for a lady before. You must’ve truly turned the lad’s head for him to ask.”
Heat warms my cheeks as Brendan winks at me. “Cora, you’re spilling my secrets. There goes my plan of coming off like a disinterested player.”
Cora rolls her eyes. “You’re a terrible tease.”
He steps forward and gives the old girl a hug. “Thanks again for helping me.”
She tips her head way back to meet Brendan’s gaze and cups his square, stubbled jaw. “Och, my wee lad. It’s what I live for. You know that. But on that note, I must get back to my kitchen. I’ve got a loin that needs tending to.”
Piper snorts. “My loins need tending, too. Sean’s coming home early.”
Brendan groans as the ladies burst into a round of giggles. Laine smiles over at me as she corrals the others. “And on that note, we’re off.”
Brendan walks them out, closes the door behind them, and stops with his hand on the security screen. “If I don’t lock you down, do you promise not to race out of here the first chance you get?”
I sigh. “Not the first chance I get, but once you let me finish what I was telling you this afternoon, you’ll likely escort me to the door.”
“Never going to happen. Did you see how happy Piper is and how much we love her? That is Mattie McGuire’s daughter. She’s from the enemy camp. She was the worst possible person for Sean to fall in love with, but he did, and we made room for her in our family.”
I’m not sure what he sees in my expression, but I’m thoroughly shocked. “Sean married Piper McGuire?”
“Aye, he did. He found her beaten and left for dead after her father offered her to the Bratva to sweeten a gun deal. It was brutal. Then, after Sean fixed her up and got her back on her feet, her crazy old man kidnapped her and tried it a second time. We barely got there in time to rescue her.”
“How long was that before he was killed?”
“Uh…twenty minutes? That was Mad Mattie’s last night on earth. He was smacking Piper around because she refused the Russian agreement. That was his very last mistake.”
Oh, my goodness. My father is controlling and can be indifferent, verging on cold, but he would never beat me or trade me off as chattel. “That’s insane.”
“Aye, the moniker of Mad Mattie didn’t come out of nowhere.”
I can’t imagine how betrayed and scared Piper must’ve felt. Seeing her now, I’d never have guessed.
“So, if we can navigate that, there’s nothing you can tell me that will scare me off.”
I wish that were true, but he’s wrong. My stomach twists and I know I can’t put this off any longer.
“What if I tell you my father is the head of the Europol task force formed to take you down?” My heart sinks as his brow furrows. “I’m from the enemy camp, too, Brendan. Just not the one on the south side of the river.”
He moves over to the window and sinks into the leather chair. He rubs both hands over his face before pegging me with a tortured gaze. “Holy fuck. Way to bury the lead.”
“I tried to tell you.” I go over and sit on the couch opposite him. “I didn’t know who you were until last night. Now that I do, I have to stop this. Da moved us here specifically to dismantle organized crime in Dublin. He’s gunning for you and your family.”
“I didn’t even realize there was a task force in play.”
Shit. I can’t win for losing with this. “And I shouldn’t have told you. Officially, my father sells corporate insurance, but you trusted me with your family secrets, so I’m asking you to not make me regret telling you mine.”
“I’d never do that.”
“Not you, but does knowing put my father in danger from people in your organization?”
He waves my concern away. “That’s not the way we do things. The only people who ever have to worry about us are the people screwing us over.”
“And how do you rank the people coming for you?”
The heartbreaking truth is there in his expression. “Okay, so things are a fuck-ton more complicated than I realized.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you.”
He looks away, digesting it all while I wrestle with the weight of what I just said. Did I tell him too much? Yes, I did…but will he turn that against me? “You value family, so I’m trusting you when you say you won’t go after my dad.”
He frowns. “What would be the point? If he’s heading a task force, there will be six, ten, or even twenty more people on that squad ready to take his place. It makes no tactical sense to go after him.”
I’m both relieved to hear that and disturbed that he is so tactically minded that he knows things like that.
He sits forward and takes my hand in his. “But tell me the truth. If I were just Brendan and you were just Nora, would you give us a chance?”
“In a racing heartbeat.” I drop to the floor in front of him and reach to cup his chiseled jaw. He tilts his head and presses his stubbled beard into my palm. I wish it were this easy. Here we are, within arm’s reach, despite the gaping chasm between us, keeping us apart.
After a long moment, Brendan’s shoulders slump. “Okay, I don’t see how to fix it yet, but I’m not giving up. Right here and right now, we’re just Nora and Brendan. Tonight, we’re going to enjoy our dinner, talk things through, and pull something amazing out of the ether and fix this.”
“And if we can’t?”
He shakes his head. “Failure isn’t an option.”
Despite Brendan’s confidence, we get to the lemon-glazed poppyseed cake and we’re no closer to solving this.
“I admit, it’s not good,” Brendan squeezes my hand on the table, “but I’m not giving up. I’m going to go home and talk to my brothers and see what we can come up with.”
I admire his determination, but there’s no scenario in which we get a happily ever after. My father might be distant and controlling, but he loves me. He protects me because of that love. I can’t run off with one of the men he’s worked his entire career to take down. Not only would that destroy him personally, it would destroy him professionally as well.
He’s studying me and must read my resolve because he frowns and shakes his head. “Don’t give up on me. I’ll find a way. Everything will work out.”
We both hear the lie in his words.
The two of us stay locked in each other’s gaze for a long time, but there are no answers to be found. Brendan places his linen napkin onto the table and sighs. “I’ll help you with your bags in the bedroom.”
Together, we gather up the things he had brought over for me. “You should return these. The tags are still on them, so you won’t have any problem.”
He makes a face. “I bought them for you. Well, I had them bought for you. I was busy keeping you prisoner.”
I chuckle. “I can’t believe you made your sister-in-law go shopping for me.”
Brendan grunts. “You heard her. She was thrilled to do it. Bryan and I taught her to ride a motorcycle to surprise Sean before their wedding. She still thinks she needs to repay us for that. She doesn’t understand how family works yet, but she’s starting to.”
After witnessing the way he was with the ladies and the way his family worked together at the fundraiser, I’m more certain than ever they aren’t the greedy, violent monsters my father paints them as being.
My insides twist and I envy her. She gets to leave the loneliness and dysfunction behind and be loved within a genuine family.
I want that, too.
Someday.
“And, well, Piper loves to shop, so there’s that.” Brendan strides into the bathroom and comes out a moment later with my toiletries kit. “I think that’s about it.”
He tosses it into the top of one of my bags and slides his hands into his back pockets. “Oh, and I better give you this back before I forget.”
He pulls my phone out of his pocket and holds it out for me to take. “Given the situation, I changed my name in your contact list. I dropped the first half of my name and left it as Dan.”
I scrunch up my nose. “You don’t seem much like a Dan, to me.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll play the part if it keeps you safer.”
We take my things out to the living room, both of us growing quiet. I hate the painful sadness hanging between us. I know he thinks he can fix this, but I don’t see it. Maybe I’m more of a realist or I’m protecting myself from the hurt of hoping and being disappointed.
Whatever the reason, I need to say goodbye.
With tears warming my cheeks, I rise onto my tiptoes, wrap my arms around the back of his neck, and kiss him like I’ll miss him—because I will. I’ll miss him more than I can bear to think about.
His arms around me are too tight, almost crushing, but I don’t complain. I understand the desperation he feels. I understand it and share it.
When I pull back and see how glassy his eyes are, I’m done in. Swallowing past the thickness in my throat, I step back. “Best kidnapping ever.”
Brendan’s gaze searches mine and his brow furrows deeper. “Don’t do it, angel. Don’t give up on us.”
Sadly, I already have.
“If my father found out, the Quinns would never find a moment’s peace. The best way I can show you I love you is to stay away from you.”