Chapter 29 Eredine #2
When Regan had first appeared in Ardnoch, I’d been surprised to learn she was nothing like rumor had it.
I’d expected a spoiled, immature, flighty princess, and instead I met a sunny, kind, loyal young woman desperate to mend her relationship with her big sister.
No one had expected her and Thane to fall in love after he asked her to be the children’s nanny, but fall in love they did.
And I’d watched Thane, whom I knew fairly well from babysitting the kids over the years, lose the shroud of sadness that had encased him for years.
I witnessed his transformation into this new person. Because Regan made him happy.
That was the kind of love I’d always wanted.
Transformative.
My breath caught at the thought because … I had changed. I was more open. And more content than I could remember being in years.
Did that mean I was in love?
Thankfully, before I could fall down that rabbit hole, Arro distracted me with wedding, work, and pregnancy talk.
Soon enough, though, it was time for me to get back to the estate and Arro back to work.
We paid up, called goodbye to Flora, and as I held the door open for Arro, she stepped outside and tensed.
Alert, I hurried to her side. “What is it?”
Arro’s gaze was firmly fixed down the busy street. “Do you see her? That social media gossip bitch. The young blond on the phone.”
I raised an eyebrow at Arro for calling anyone a bitch. It wasn’t really her style.
She sighed. “Sorry. This pregnancy is making me salty, as Eilidh would say. I don’t know where she picks that stuff up.”
My lips twitched as I tried to spot the influencer she was talking about. And there. Outside the sportswear store owned by Zuzanna and Prentice. “Why is she still here?”
“Because she’s as scummy as the paparazzi.” Arro curled her lip in distaste. “Lachlan is aware of her. The local police have warned her after a few residents complained she was trying to harass them for information about our family and the estate members.”
I turned Arro away. “Just ignore her. She’s not worth your energy.”
“Ery! Arro!”
My heart leapt at the familiar voice as we looked up across the street toward the Gloaming. Arran checked the street was clear and then jogged across, smiling at us. Anticipation and giddiness filled me at the mere sight of him.
Arro snorted at my side. “You’ve got it bad.”
“Pot, kettle,” I reminded her before turning to Arran, and just in time.
He grinned as he bridged the distance between us and then I was swept in his arms and he kissed the life out of me right in the middle of the street.
I couldn’t help the little moan that escaped me, and I wound my arms around his neck to hold on. He held tighter and lifted me off the ground to increase the depth of the kiss.
“Ahem. AHEM.”
At Arro’s exaggerated throat clearing, Arran released me with a chuckle and lowered me to the ground. His hand settled on my hip, keeping me pulled to his side. “Oh, hello, wee sister. Just noticed you there,” he teased.
Arro rolled her eyes. “Enough of the PDA, Arr. You’re thirty-six, not sixteen.”
“Tell that to my libido,” he deadpanned.
I bit back my laughter as Arro made a comical gagging noise. “Okay, you’re provoking my morning sickness, so I’m going back to work.”
“First.” Arran released me to step toward his sister and place a hand on her belly. “How is my niece or nephew doing in there?”
Arro smiled fondly and patted his hand. “Wee bump is doing good. We both are.”
“When do we find out if it’s a boy or girl?”
“We don’t.”
Arran frowned. “You want to be surprised?”
“We do.”
“Robyn and Lachlan are going to find out. And soon, I believe.”
“Well, I don’t know what to say, Arran. Just because it’s highly possible your sister and brother had sex with their partners at the same time and got pregnant at the same time doesn’t mean we’re going to do everything at the same time when it comes to our babies.”
“This is a weird fucking family,” he murmured.
“The weirdest. We’re also the most awesome.
” She patted his cheek teasingly. “Just don’t get Ery pregnant at the same time as Thane gets Regan pregnant, or we’ll start attracting those folks who travel the world looking for strange and paranormal stories to write about it.
Now I’m off. Bye, lovebirds!” She shot us a grin before hurrying across the street to where she’d parked.
I barely managed to say goodbye—I was reeling from the mention of Arran getting me pregnant.
The thought wasn’t nearly as scary as it should be, which was, ironically, terrifying.
“You finished for the day?” Arran asked, drawing me out of those thoughts.
“Uh, no. I need to get back to work, actually.”
His gaze moved to where Arro was pulling out of her space, noting my car next to hers. It was a miracle we’d found parking today. Arro waved as she passed us.
“I’ll walk you over,” Arran said, taking my hand.
I chuckled. “It’s literally right there.”
He shrugged and pulled me across the street.
When we got to my car, though, he positioned my back up against the driver’s door, his hands on my hips as he pressed the length of his body to mine.
This kiss was slower, sweeter than the hungry kiss he probably shouldn’t have given me in front of his sister.
After a while, he broke away with soft brushes of his mouth against mine, but he didn’t move. “I need to tell you something.”
At the seriousness in his tone, I tensed. “What is it? Has something happened?”
Arran gave my hips a reassuring squeeze, but replied, “Aye. It’s probably nothing, but I don’t want to have secrets between us.”
“All right …”
“A few years back, I started getting these strange emails. They’d come every few months, always from different email addresses, all along similar lines. Just a sentence or two telling me they hadn’t forgotten me or what I did.”
My pulse raced. “What?”
“I have no clue what they mean, if they mean anything.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before now?”
“I honestly thought they were just a prank. So I deleted them. But I got one a few weeks ago, and with everything that’s been happening here over the past few years, I decided to have Lachlan’s team look at it.”
“And?”
“They couldn’t trace the email. Something about dummy IP addresses. So Lachlan gave it to his hacker.”
“Nylah?”
He frowned. “You know her?”
I nodded, glancing around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. “She’s the one who uses a system to find any mention of me or my sister online and then takes the pages down.”
“Right.” His grip on me tightened. “Well, Nylah traced the email IP address to an internet café in Bordeaux, France. I don’t know anyone there, Ery. And I haven’t had an email since.”
I forced myself to be rational, to not panic out of instinctual fear.
The truth was, the emails could just be a prank.
Someone who sent creepy messages to random email addresses to get a rise out of people.
Especially if Arran didn’t know anyone living in Bordeaux.
“Who would want to prank you? Who would have something against you?”
He shrugged, his focus drifting over my head. “I honestly don’t know. I can’t think of any instance that I pissed someone off that badly.”
Perhaps it was because I didn’t want to be dragged out of our bubble so soon, but I smoothed my hand over Arran’s chest and said, “It’s probably just a prank. But keep me posted. I’m glad you told me.”
He seemed to relax under my touch as he studied my face. Then he pressed a sweet kiss to my nose. “You’re awfully calm about this considering …”
I shrugged. “I can’t be paranoid about every little thing, Arran. It’s no way to live, and I don’t want to do that anymore. And neither can you. So let’s just live. And if something else happens, we’ll deal with it.”
Arran’s eyes gleamed with something that made my breath catch. “You’re amazing, you know that?” His voice was hoarse with emotion.
And it was turning me on. I squirmed against him. “Don’t look at me like that when I can’t do anything about it.”
The cocky bastard grinned and then kissed me. Hard. Hungry. Completely inappropriately. When he finally let me up for air, my body throbbed with need.
“Now look what you did,” I said breathlessly, and then gave him a little shove. “You better go, or I am not going to make it to work on time.”
“Apologies.” He was still looking far too smug as he stepped back to let me get into my car.
“Just for that, you’re doing all the work tonight.” I slid behind the wheel, but before I could close the door, Arran grabbed it.
He leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to my lips before murmuring, “I’ll keep my head buried between your thighs all night if that’s what you want.”
My belly flipped low and deep at the imagery. “Sounds like a plan.”
“But I’m guessing you’ll want my cock inside you before very long.”
My cheeks burned at his crudeness and even more so at how much my body loved it. Trying not to give his ego any more reason to inflate, I raised an eyebrow and pushed him out of the car. “Let’s just see if your tongue keeps up first before we think about offloading some of the work to your cock.”
Arran laughed loudly in delight, surprise glittering in his eyes.
I tried not to break my sassy scowl, but my lips betrayed me, twitching with amusement. Closing the door, I pulled on my seat belt while outside my window, Arran grinned down at me.
My return smirk made him grin harder before I backed out of the space.
I felt his eyes on my car until I disappeared out of his sightline.