71. CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
Mom wakes up from surgery groggy and so sick to her stomach that she vomits. A nurse comes in to clean her up. I’m concerned, but also dying of embarrassment that Eoghan’s witnessing this. His face, however, shows only concern.
We help her eat the light soup sent up for her, and with her new pain meds, she’s calm.
“We’ll get your mom to sit up and take a few steps either tomorrow or Saturday,” a nurse says. “And then she’ll be moved to our rehab facility.”
I close my eyes and tension settles into my shoulders. I hoped she’d be in rehab by later today. Only because I feel terrible for keeping Eoghan here.
Although, he looks like there’s no place he’d rather be.
“Are you sure this doesn’t make you worry about your mother?” I say, fearing I’m just a reminder of his own pain.
“No,” he says firmly. “In fact, because there’re so many of us and my da has turned lethally possessive about who goes near her, helping your ma gives me a sense of usefulness.”
When he turns away, I cup his shoulder from behind. “Did something happen when you went home?”
His quiet breathing scares the hell out of me.
“She’s gone,” he says gruffly, but spins around. “To Ireland. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”
The heartbreak in his eyes tightens my chest. “Eoghan O’Rourke. Now, you listen to me.”
The hardened confidence returns. “I’m listening, sparkles.”
“I want you to get your gorgeous ass on a plane to Ireland as soon as my mother is settled.”
Smiling, he pulls me close to him. “Will you come with me?”
Meeting a man’s mother is tantamount to getting a ring. Especially a man like Eoghan. It speaks to how serious he is about me. But he also wanted to bring me home with him when his niece was born.
“I’d like that,” I whisper.
“It’s a date. We can visit Whitechurch.” He winks.
The surgeon returns and with a full report on how the operation went, I call my brother since I have concrete info to convey and not whiney worrying. Yet, Eoghan doesn’t seem to mind that side of me.
At all.
“What?” Daniel answers on the last ring right before his voicemail.
I step out into the hall. “Mom is out of surgery. That’s what.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Daniel, what the hell is wrong with you? Our mother…” I stop, seeing Eoghan walk toward me.
“I’m busy, Jillian. That’s why you’re there. I gave you time off to deal with this.” He muffles the phone for a second and then says, “I have to go.”
The line goes dead, and I’m left to stare at it.
“What’s wrong? Who was that?” Eoghan asks calmly.
“My brother. He’s in the middle of a meeting,” I lie.
I remind myself, Eoghan is only playing Daniel’s game because of me. He’s a dangerous man who would think nothing of offing a director in the D.A.’s office.
That would kill my mother.
Seeing it’s noon, I say, “You don’t have to stay here all day with me.”
“Aye, I do.”
“Really, you—”
He grips my face with a little more force than I like. “Really. You’re here. I’m staying. There’s nowhere else I want to be, Jillian. How can I make it any clearer to you?”
He’s breaking down my walls, making me question who I should be loyal to. But I still don’t see how we can have a future that doesn’t end up with me being a mafia trophy wife, pushing out babies. When I give in to the idea that I’ve fallen for him, that’s the image I see. Me squeezed into some prom dress at galas looking so out of place among the thin, beautiful women in his world.
“I’m trying to process everything,” I whisper.
“So am I, believe me.” He puts his arm around me and leads me back into Mom’s room.
We have a peaceful day with her, sitting nearby as she rests and watches her favorite shows. Mom and Eoghan trade stories about Ireland. I hadn’t realized how much my mother missed her homeland. She never talked about it with me but can’t shut the fuck up around Eoghan.
I swear both their brogues are getting thicker. Like it’s a contest.
The sun sets over the mountains in the distance, and when her dinner comes, we slip out for a quick bite. When we return, she’s nodded off. And a woman in dark blue scrubs is seated next to her reading a magazine.
“Hi. Are you waiting for her to wake up to take blood or something?” I ask, removing Mom’s glasses that she often falls asleep wearing.
The woman looks up from her reading and smiles. “No. I’m just here to make sure she’s comfortable.”
“Oh, I can do that.” My heart pinches.
“I was hired to stay all night.” The woman’s eyes stray to Eoghan.
“All night?” I spin around to find him grinning at me.
All those calls he slinks off to make. Then these things happen.
A twinge of anger bubbles inside me at the decisions made without my consent. Before I say anything, though, I take a deep breath and acknowledge normally I’d be here dealing with this on my own. Instead, Eoghan is here, taking the additional burdens off me. He’s thinking of those little but exceedingly important details because my mind is all over the place right now. Unlike my brother…
What is wrong with him?
“Thank…” I stop when Eoghan narrows his eyes at me.
Clearing my throat with a tiny growl, I step to Mom’s bed and kiss her forehead.
I take a business card from my bag and hand it to the nurse. “Here’s my number if you need to reach me.”
Before accepting the card, the woman looks at Eoghan behind me. I see him nod in my periphery, and the woman smiles and takes my number.
Eoghan scoops up my hand and steers me out of the room. “Let’s stop for more wine on the way home and—”
“Are you playing me?” I ask and stop walking.
It’s all too much. How can this be real?
“What?”
“Is this all some kind of ass-kissing because of your brother?”
“Elaborate. I have six brothers.” He shoves his hands inside his pockets.
“Cormac.”
His face bends into a look of fury. “You know what?”
My heart smashes, thinking he’s going to say yes. It’s all been a ploy, so I don’t try to get his brother back to stand trial on the kidnapping charges.
He takes out his phone, and with his eyes glued to mine, he holds it to his ear. “Lachlan. Cormac. Get his arse back to Vegas.”
My throat goes tight, and I shake my head. “No, no. Wait.”
“You fucking heard me. Get him on a plane, right now. I don’t care what that means. He fucking broke the law. I know, I know. This is different.”
Dear God, he’s sacrificing his brother for me.
I can’t let him do that. “Stop. No. Hang up.” I claw at him.
Daniel did that deal, not me.
While Eoghan shouts at his brother, I leap to get the phone away from him. It miraculously ends up in my hands, and I end the call, keeping it close to my chest.
“I… I believe you.” My heart hammers so hard and my palms are too sweaty to hold his twelve-hundred-dollar iPhone. Shaking, I hand it back to him. “I’m sorry.”
He takes it, his expression hard as granite.
With no further conversation, we leave the surgery center, though Eoghan continues holding my hand.
When he helps me into the Wagoneer, I stop and say, “I’m sorry. And don’t tell me I can’t say I’m sorry. I’m not perfect, Eoghan.”
Leaning on the door, he grumbles, “I clearly haven’t done a good job convincing you that you are.”
“It’s just that we’re so different. Our lives are worlds apart. I’ve only known you a few weeks. I’ve never been in a relationship, let alone one so intense, and I’m scared.”
He hugs me to end the conversation, the smell of his cologne hits differently because this feels more real.
“Neither have I, sparkles. My craziness is how I’m dealing with it. But I want you. I want us.” He holds my face. “Just nod if you want to try.”
Swallowing, I bow my head to him.
“Good.” He kisses my forehead. “Now let’s go home and drink like we’re two normal people handling a family crisis.”
“Normal,” I scoff because he’s a god. And a killer.
Eoghan starts a fire then opens a bottle of wine that was so expensive his credit card company sent him a link to approve the charge.
We sit on the sofa, and next I’m in his arms, his lips on my forehead.
His phone blew up on the way home, presumably from the line in the sand he drew with his family.
Because of me.
Calls and texts he ignored. Eventually, he turned off his phone.
For me.
The long day drained me, and when I begin to nod off, Eoghan catches my glass of wine before it tumbles from my hand. “Time for bed, love.”
Groggy, I push the knitted cover away, but I’m scooped up into Eoghan’s arms. “Stop it. I’m too heavy.”
“You insult me, sparkles. Do I look like I can’t lift…whatever the hell you weigh?” He easily carries me to the stairs.
Oh hell no.
But up we go.
I consider all those muscles in his arms, his back, his legs.
He carries me into my bedroom and sets me on my feet with a whack to my behind. “I can do a Tunnel to Towers run with you on my back.”
“What is that?”
He shakes his head smiling. “I’ll find a video and show you another time.”
Nodding, I head to the bathroom attached to my bedroom to start my evening routine, a fifteen-step skin ritual that starts with removing eye makeup and ends with several layers of lotion.
Eoghan watches every step from the doorway, leaning on the frame.
God, he’s so gorgeous.
When I put my hair up, he comes behind me and kisses the back of my neck. “This is what I’ve been waiting for.”
His hard cock pushes between my ass cheeks, and my heart skips a beat. A few women at book club brag about their husbands who are machines and want sex every night. I told myself they’re liars.
Eoghan is that machine…
I’ve been told I’m a machine…
I need to tell Eoghan about Johnny before this relationship, or whatever the hell it is, goes any further.
Standing in front of the vanity, I wait for him to lift my nightgown, but Eoghan gives me a peck on the shoulder then brushes his teeth.
He sleeps in boxers that are either too small or designed to hug his tight, curvy ass and tease me with his humongous cock.
“It’s been a long, day, let’s get some rest.” He struts from the bathroom and lifts the covers to get into bed.
When I get in, he pulls me against his chest. “Sleep, sparkles.”
I swear I feel his heart pounding against my back. He squeezes me like he’s riled up, but he wants me to sleep.
I have another idea.
A dark one that can end this fantasy in two seconds flat…