Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Annie
When Ciaran said we were going to his family’s lake house, I imagined a cabin in the woods, something no frills but comfortable. I thought we’d have to bump over miles of dirt track to get to it. Instead, our destination was a community of enormous houses with meticulously landscaped gardens.
We drove past several impressive-looking homes before coming to a stop at a huge set of wrought-iron gates. One of two guards, who I was pretty sure were armed, acknowledged Ciaran’s driver with a nod and pressed a button to open the gates. As we drove through, I could have sworn he saluted.
The property was surrounded by a high brick wall, and I spotted several security cameras. As I thought about it, I realized just how well protected Ciaran was. He had a lot of different men working for him. I hadn’t seen the same ones twice. His apartment could only be accessed with a special code, and this one had more security than my local bank. Who on earth was Ciaran that he needed to be shielded like this?
As we pulled up outside a mansion, my jaw dropped. The house was stunning. It looked as if it had been plucked from the English countryside and set down in the middle of Michigan.
“How far is the lake?” I asked as Ciaran opened my door and helped me out of the car. So far, I hadn’t seen the body of water for which this area was named.
“It’s about a hundred feet from the back of the house. We have a small boat moored off the jetty.”
I suspected his idea of small differed from mine. It was clear from this place that Ciaran didn’t do things by halves. As I looked at the glass-fronted door before me, I sucked in a breath. Ciaran squeezed my hand reassuringly.
“Ready to face the Reilly clan?”
“I suppose so, but I wish you’d have let me stop to pick up a gift for your sister.” I’d been brought up to consider it rude to turn up at someone’s home empty-handed, especially if they were celebrating something.
“It’ll be fine. She’ll be too pleased I brought you to care about anything else.”
“Okay, then,” I said, somewhat mollified. “Let’s do this.”
I clung tightly to Ciaran’s hand as we walked through the front door. Meeting his family made me inexplicably nervous. It wasn’t as if I’d see them again if I embarrassed myself somehow.
I was surprised by how bright and modern the house was. The brick facade on the exterior was very traditional, and I expected the inside to match. It didn’t. The floor was white-washed wood, and the walls were painted pale blue. A large round table sat at the center of a spacious foyer adorned with a beautiful arrangement of pink roses.
Ciaran led me past a wooden staircase and along a hallway, leading from the foyer toward what I assumed was the back of the house. Beautiful paintings lined the walls.
“Someone has a thing for wildflowers,” I remarked.
“Ah, yes. Those are my sister Erin’s. She’s been painting since she was a kid. She did those in her senior year of high school.”
“You’re kidding!” I paused to study an image of poppies swaying in the wind. Each brush stroke seemed to have been meticulously placed to create a photo-realistic image. There was such a sense of movement in the picture, I could almost feel the breeze whispering over my skin. It was incredible to think a teenager had created something so evocative. “These are amazing.”
“She moved on to portraits after high school.”
“Has she ever painted you?”
Ciaran nodded. “From a photograph, though. I can’t sit still long enough for someone to paint me.”
“I’d love to see the painting.”
Ciaran moved behind me, wrapped his arms around my waist, and leaned in close to whisper in my ear. “Then you’re in luck because it’s hanging in my bedroom.”
“Hmm, that is lucky.”
My spine tingled with anticipation as Ciaran nibbled my skin lightly at the place where my neck and shoulder met. I couldn’t wait until we were alone to explore our burning attraction further, but first we had to have dinner with his family. It was why we’d driven out here, after all.
With some reluctance, I shrugged Ciaran off. He grabbed my hand and led me through to the kitchen. As an avid cook, I dreamed of having a space like this in my home. It was perfect. The cabinets were light blue and the stove, which was a few shades darker than them, had eight burners and a massive oven. A vibrant backsplash tiled the wall behind the stove and the floor was a gray marble. Everything was modern, apart from the copper pots hanging on a rack over the large kitchen island. They looked as if they’d seen decades of use. I had similar ones that had passed from my grandmother to my mother to me.
The savory aroma that filled the air was incredible. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until my stomach growled loudly. Ciaran chuckled next to me, letting me know he’d heard, and I elbowed him lightly in the ribs.
“Will, can you grab….?” The woman emerging from the pantry with a loaf of bread stopped when she saw us and set the loaf down on the nearest counter. “You’re here.” The slender brunette, who was unmistakably Ciaran’s sister, crossed her arms over her chest. “Sean said you weren’t coming.”
“Changed my mind.” Ciaran’s response was flippant. I hoped we weren’t putting her out by turning up unexpectedly. “Come and meet Annie.”
Smiling broadly, Ciaran’s sister rushed across the room. She startled me by flinging her arms around me. I wasn’t used to being greeted so effusively by a stranger.
“It’s great to meet you, Annie. I’m Emily.” She stepped back and turned to Ciaran, pulling him in for a hug. “Thank you for the gift you sent.”
“You’re welcome, princess.”
Emily pursed her lips. “I’ll give you a thousand bucks if you can tell me right now what you got me.”
Ciaran hesitated, making it obvious that whatever gift his sister received, he wasn’t the one who sent it.
“Of course, it was a gold….”
“Silver,” Emily interjected, using the same wry tone I’d heard from her brother.
“Silver….” He grimaced as he thought about it. “Necklace?”
“Bracelet.” She slapped his chest. “You’re such an asshole. Just be grateful Marcie knows what I like.”
“Marcie?” I questioned.
“My assistant.”
“More like his second mother,” Emily said. She threaded her arm through mine. “Come on, let me introduce you to the boys.”
As we walked into the dining room, it was apparent that these were no mere boys.
“That’s Sean.” Emily pointed toward a gigantic man who looked as if he wrestled bears for sport. Wearing a white shirt stretched tight over a muscular torso, he had the sleeves rolled up to reveal several tattoos. There was some sort of vine creeping up his arm. At his neck, there was an intricately drawn Celtic knot. He was as attractive as Ciaran, but in a more rugged way. There was something dangerous about him. “And that one’s Will.” The younger man was skinnier than his brother, but next to any other man, his physique would have been impressive. “Guys, this is Annie.”
“So, you’re Ciaran’s girl.” A smile curved Sean’s lips as his eyes trailed over me. “Yeah, I can see it.”
“Don’t even look at her.” Ciaran hugged me close to his side as if he was afraid his brother was going to throw me over his shoulder and run off.
Sean laughed. “Don’t worry, brother. She’s pretty, but you know I only fuck redheads.”
“Well, thank goodness for that,” I said with mock indignation, while inwardly taken aback at his rough language, “because I’d never be able to resist your charms.”
Sean grinned. “And she talks back. I like her.”
“Ignore my dumbass brother.” Will stepped forward and leaned in to kiss my cheek. “He likes to flirt, but he wouldn’t know what to do with a woman if she flirted back.”
“Oh, I’d know what to do, little….”
“Right!” Emily’s firm voice interrupted her brother. “Let’s stop this before you idiots really get going and scare Annie away. Dinner’s nearly ready, so make yourselves comfortable.”
“Can I help you with anything?” Manners dictated that I offered, though I really didn’t want to leave Ciaran’s side.
“No, but he can.” Emily jabbed a finger in Sean’s direction.
“I don’t know how to cook.”
“I don’t need you to cook, just to carry something heavy. That’s within your limited capabilities, yes?”
The way Sean trooped out of the room after her gave me the distinct impression that Emily wielded a lot of power around here. She probably had to assert herself with such intensely masculine brothers to contend with. I’d only been in the presence of all three Reilly men for a couple of minutes and I was already suffocating from the testosterone.
“Annie.” Ciaran pulled out a chair on the left side of the table. He helped me to sit and then took his own seat at the head of the table. I was glad he’d put me closest to him. “Will, set a couple of places for yourself and Emily and pour the wine.”
His imperious tone set my teeth on edge, but Will either didn’t notice or he was used to being bossed about by his older brother. Being an only child, I didn’t understand sibling dynamics, so I held my tongue and watched as Will fetched silverware from a drawer in the dresser at the side of the room. He found plates in the cabinet and set two more places. Then he grabbed both bottles of wine from the center of the table.
“What’s it to be, Annie? We’ve got red or…” He glanced at the label on the second bottle. “Red.”
“Then I guess I’ll have red.”
He filled my glass first, then the others, starting with Ciaran’s. He took a seat just as a crash came from the kitchen, followed by Emily yelling at Sean about being an idiot. I bit my bottom lip, but nobody else seemed concerned by the noise.
“The answer is yes, before you ask,” Will said. “We are always like this. We can be loud, but I promise you, we’re all good friends here.”
I sighed in relief. “That’s good. I’m an only child, so I don’t really get the whole brothers and sisters thing.”
“Give it a couple of weeks and you’ll be joining in,” Will said.
“Oh, I won’t be here in a couple of weeks.”
“You planning on breaking up with my brother already?”
“No, it’s just that I’m heading home tomorrow.”
Will glanced at Ciaran, whose expression was unreadable. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I might have detected a little tension around his mouth.
“Yeah? Where’s home?”
“Scotland.”
“Ah, I wondered about the accent. I thought it might be Irish.”
It was interesting. I’d always imagined my accent was distinctly Scottish, but since I arrived in Detroit, several people had asked where I was from.
“I have some Irish connections in Detroit, though.”
Beneath the table, Ciaran’s hand landed on my leg. It felt like a warning.
“Anyone we’d know?” Will asked jovially.
“Perhaps. I’m distantly related to….”
“Not now, sweetheart.” Squeezing my leg in a definite command to drop the subject, Ciaran cut me off. “We’re here to enjoy my sister’s birthday, not to untangle your family tree.”
His rebuke stung, but I supposed he was right. He’d already made his opinion of Danny Mulhearn clear and if his siblings felt the same way, it would sour the mood. I’d accepted at this point I would never meet my American relatives, anyway.
With the atmosphere in the room dampened, we didn’t speak again until Sean came into the room, carrying a casserole dish out in front of him as if he was displaying some grand prize. He held it up for us all to see and then set it down at the center of the table with a flourish. It seemed Ciaran’s brother had a flair for the theatrical. Emily came in a moment later with a basket of bread and a dish of steamed cabbage.
“It’s nothing fancy, I’m afraid, Annie, just a coddle.”
“Coddle?” I had a vague recollection of the dish. “That’s a stew, isn’t it?”
“It’s sausages, bacon, potatoes and carrots,” Ciaran explained. “We like to have traditional Irish dishes on special occasions.”
“Well, it smells amazing, and I could use a good home-cooked meal after all the junk I’ve eaten this week.”
“Annie’s on vacation,” Will said as Emily held her hand out for Ciaran’s plate. “She’s leaving tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Emily’s face fell. “But you and Ciaran look so good together. I thought this was the start of something amazing.”
“You never know what might happen,” Ciaran replied cryptically. He stared at me for a moment, an intensity in his gaze that had me shifting uncomfortably in my seat. That strange sense of dread nagged at me once more, but it disappeared as quickly as it had arrived when Ciaran smiled broadly. “Come on, let’s eat. I’m starving.”