Chapter 12
AOIFE
Four dresses, three tailored suits, and two handbags later, we leave in search of the Apple store, where Dominic insists on buying me the newest iPhone and an iPad.
‘I don’t need any of this.’ I motion as he whips out his credit card and beams at the assistant who looks equally impressed and terrified of my new fiancé.
He radiates danger and devastation, even if you don’t know who he is or what he’s been accused of in the past. The Kincaids must have one hell of a family lawyer.
‘I disagree.’ His eyes find mine again. ‘Now, let’s go find a jewellery store.
’ His gaze shifts to my left hand as his huge palm lands on the small of my back, ushering me out the door.
Shivers shoot over my spine. I can’t help it.
I’m vibrating with an awareness I didn’t even know existed.
And worse again, from what he said last night, apparently he can sense it off me.
‘Here.’ He slows to a stop outside a glass fronted store. A hundred diamond rings glitter beneath the shop’s brilliant spotlights.
His hand remains on my lower back, and it’s curbing my ability to form coherent sentences. ‘Fine, but nothing outrageous. It’s completely unnecessary.’
‘Again, I disagree.’ His dark eyes gleam. ‘Let’s not fall out about it, though. It’s not like we can have make up sex.’
Unwittingly, my lips are dragged upwards by a force of nature that I can’t control. ‘Of all the things I heard about you, I never heard that you were funny.’
He deadpans then. ‘Are you laughing at me?’
My heart stutters in my chest. ‘No.’
His lips twitch as we step inside the store. ‘Got you.’
‘Asshole.’ I shake my head.
‘There she is.’ He nudges me gently with his elbow. ‘The woman with enough spark to leave that cunt Kavanagh at the aisle. I’d have loved to have seen his face.’
‘I never want to see it again.’ I shudder.
‘And you’ll never have to, which is why we’re here.’
Our security waits outside while Dominic buys the biggest diamond solitaire in stock.
‘There’s no need.’ I reiterate as the assistant places it in a black velvet box.
‘My wife will wear the ring I choose for her,’ he growls. Our eyes collide and those invisible, inappropriate sparks burst between us again.
‘Oh, wow.’ The assistant stares at us in wonder. ‘The chemistry between you two is palpable. How long have you been together?’
I’m prepared to lie, but apparently Dominic deems it unnecessary. He looks at the chunky silver on his wrist pointedly, before slipping the ring into his suit pocket. ‘Twenty-eight hours officially.’
The assistant bursts into laughter. I assume she thinks he’s joking. He leaves her none the wiser as we exit the shop.
‘What now?’ My mouth is dry and my feet are sore from the cuts rubbing against the inside of the leather.
‘Now we eat.’ His pupils dip to my lips, then bore into mine again.
Is he going to spend the next year tormenting me with his innuendos? Still, it’s a marked improvement on ‘I’m going to fuck every hole you own,’ I guess.
The two men fall into line behind us as Dominic steers me towards a small à la carte restaurant tucked on the edge of the shopping village. He hands one of them the Apple bag. ‘Set Aoife’s phone up,’ he adds ‘please’ as an afterthought before guiding me inside the restaurant.
The décor is warm but dark. The walls are panelled in dark wood. A single red rose and a tealight punctuate each table. The ceilings soar overhead, but there’s little natural light. The entire setting is utterly romantic.
From the fear glinting in the manager’s eyes, he recognises my fiancé. He takes our order and rushes off as quickly as his scrawny little legs will carry him.
‘Are you sure we’re safe?’ I whisper from the leather seat across from him, tapping my fingers off the mahogany table. ‘What if Rory hears where I am?’
‘Rory is still on a drunken rampage. I have eyes on him all over the city.’ Dominic reaches out to still my fingers. ‘Relax.’
Huh. That’s easier said than done when I’m torn between a constant fear for my life and the fear I might do something stupid like throw myself at my saviour—the leader of the largest organised crime syndicate in the city. The man indirectly responsible for so many deaths, including my brother’s.
A waiter brings over the wine Dominic ordered for us—a crisp white so pale it’s almost clear.
‘So, tell me about the future Mrs Kincaid.’ He brings his glass to his full lips, without taking his big black eyes from me. The weight of his attention is as thrilling as it is intense. ‘My family will fire questions at us. I’d like to have at least a few of the answers.’
‘I assumed a man with your resources could find out every boring detail of my life in ten seconds flat.’
‘I might have done a little digging—with a JCB.’ He smirks. ‘You graduated from Trinity last month, right?’ I watch his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows. ‘Smart as well as sexy, huh? I told you Mama K will love you.’
I have no idea what to say, so I opt for nothing, in case my mouth fires off again.
‘You know, you kind of look like a teacher…’ he muses, those huge eyes perusing me. ‘You’ll drive the teenage boys wild. They’ll all be wanking themselves stupid over you.’
Heat surges up my neck. I swear I’m three seconds away from breaking out in a full-blown rash. ‘You can’t say things like that!’
His filthy mouth might be the undoing of me. No one has ever spoken to me that way, and I’m ashamed to say, his filthy mouth does things to me. Makes me wonder what other filthy things it’s capable of.
The mere thought of it sets an ache throbbing between my legs.
Being around him, feeling this intense sexual awareness is… utterly confronting.
I don’t want to want him.
But I can’t help it.
‘Besides, there will be no teenagers and no boys.’ Clearly he doesn’t possess all the facts. ‘I just got a job teaching five-year-olds at a Catholic all-girl school at Fernbank. I’m supposed to start in September.’
‘Fernbank,’ he repeats.
‘Yes,’ I sigh, dragging my eyes from his. ‘Though that’s not going to happen now.’
‘Why not?’ He demands, sitting straighter.
‘While becoming your wife may save my life, I have a sneaky suspicion it may end my career. Pretty certain the board of governors won’t want a Kincaid on the school premises.’
He skims his fingers over his sharp jawline. ‘You don’t need to work. Not while you’re with me.’
‘I want to.’ I insist. ‘When it’s safe to.’ I wouldn’t put it past Rory to burn the building down with me and the kids inside. I shudder.
He inclines his head. ‘Why?’ Either he wants to be exceptionally well prepared before introducing me to his family, or he’s a brilliant actor.
‘I believe in education. I want to help girls like me, trying to do better for themselves,’ I say simply. ‘Plus, short of joining the Guards, teaching is one of the most wholesome, respectable professions I could think of.’
He lets out a low, bitter laugh, then. ‘Sweetheart, the Gardai are either on my payroll… or Rory’s—most of them anyway.’ He studies me for a long beat. ‘Why is wholesome and respectable so important to you?’
‘Seriously?’ I exhale a small, humourless laugh.
‘I come from the shittiest estate in the country. It’s riddled with crime, prostitution, drugs.
’ Our eyes meet again. ‘I don’t want to spend my life dodging discarded needles on the street or looking over my shoulder, wondering who’s coming for us next—or how we’re going to pay them off. ’ I trail off.
I’ve said too much. Dominic Kincaid is categorically not interested in my life, even though he’s doing a spectacular job of convincing me otherwise.
He watches me with his usual intensity. ‘I get that,’ he says contemplatively.
‘More than you probably think.’ Silence settles between us for a long beat.
‘I grew up in poverty. Someone was always owed. If the money wasn’t there, the debt was claimed in other ways.
I endured pain. Loss. Uncertainty.’ His jaw tenses.
‘The difference is… instead of trying to escape that life, I decided to preside over it. Limit the damage that others could do to the people I love. To those others love. And even to themselves.’
A sharp stabbing sensation slices my chest. Jason’s face springs to the forefront of my mind. His floppy blond hair falling into his blue eyes. The lopsided smile he’d flash as he’d ruffle my hair and laugh.
How the hell is Dominic limiting the damage that people do to others or themselves? He pushes the poison that took the only light left in my life after my mother died.
Miraculously, I manage not to blurt it out loud.
‘So you ensure the entire city fears you.’ It’s barely more than a whisper, but he hears me loud and clear.
‘I ensure they respect me and I make damn sure no one ever dares to question me again.’
Yep. I’ve heard exactly how he harnesses respect. My fiancé has shown nothing but kindness to me, but I know who he is.
What he is.
What he’s capable of.
And I’d do well to remember it instead of stupidly obsessing about every masculine inch of his body.