Chapter 30 This is a Safe Space #2
I haven’t even come down from the climactic-high when Lachlan shoves my panties to my feet and thrusts inside me.
Hands on my hips, he drives in and out at a punishing pace, slamming deep enough to hit my cervix—the way he likes.
A yelp of pain and bliss rips from my throat.
Heat builds inside me again, reaching a peak each time he tops out.
“Oh god,” I pant uncontrollably, the pleasure so intense I could die. “Oh god, oh god, oh god.”
“That’s right, Emery. I’m your god tonight. I’m your god every night.” He moves my hands behind my back, pinning them in one, and fists my hair again, pulling my head and using his hold on me to thrust harder. I’m unable to do anything but take what he’s giving.
I don’t know how, but I orgasm again so quickly, I’m in shock.
Lachlan hisses. “Fuck, you feel good when you come on my dick. Again.”
I can barely move. My body is useless. If Lachlan wasn’t holding me, I would be face-first on the mattress like I was before.
“Again, Emery.” He releases my hands and reaches between me and the bed to rub my clit, somehow stirring me back to life. Desire swarms me like angry bees wanting to reach their queen, which in this case is another orgasm.
“Come on, mo bhana-phrionnsa,” he whispers in my ear, knowing his Gaelic is like a verbal aphrodisiac.
His pumping switches tempo, moving faster and not as deep. He rubs my clit until it’s thrumming with ruthless ecstasy. So close. So close. So close.
In my ear, he whispers, “Breathe.”
But it’s lost in my climax and the tingling of my lips, telling me I’m about to faint.
The next day I can’t walk. I mean, I can, but I look like I just rode a bucking bull. To keep from embarrassing myself, I stay in my room. Hobbling there isn’t fun. Lachlan insists I take a bath. He even gets it ready for me and gently sets me in the soothing, bubble-filled tub.
When he leaves, I reach for my phone on the small bath table and open my latest romance read—a fantasy about a dragon and a little fierce main character who not only tames the most revered dragon but the hottest dragon rider who she thinks is her enemy.
I’m on the second book and things are getting super spicy. My core twitches, and I’m thankful Lachlan isn’t around. It’s like he has a sixth sense when it comes to my hoo-ha.
To prove his sense is next level, he walks into the bathroom.
I set my phone face-down on the small table.
His aqua eyes narrow as he strolls toward me. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” I say as innocently as I can.
In place of his usual business suit, he wears beige chinos, a white button-down shirt, and a navy linen blazer that has British aristocrat on a yacht in the south of France vibes.
The outfit fits him perfectly, as do all his clothes, like the fibers are tailored to accommodate his exact size.
I always loved the old money style, but Lachlan makes it sexy in a way only a man can.
His ever-present scruff enhances his sharp jawline and defined cheekbones.
“Emery. If you keep fucking me with your eyes, I’m going to climb in that tub with my clothes on and make you remove them with your teeth.”
I almost say don’t make promises you can’t keep. Taunting him only leads to sex, and I’m enjoying this bath—or I was.
He picks up my phone.
“No!” I reach for it, but he steps away.
He types in the code—our contractual marriage date he set—and reads the screen. After a while of showing nothing other than a bored expression, his eyes find mine.
“Is this what you want, Emery? Do you want me to get a throne so you can sit upon it while I make you come on my face?”
“It wasn’t, but now…” I touch my tongue to the outer edge of my top lip.
His nostrils flare. “Not until you’ve eaten and had at least one glass of water.”
“So bossy.” I recline against the tub and fold my arms under the warm lavender scented water.
“Shoving those pretty tits to the surface won’t get me to concede. You’re playing with fire, Emery.”
I didn’t mean to push my breasts up. It’s a result of crossing my arms.
He sets my phone on the counter out of my reach.
My mouth falls open in shock.
“No one takes care of you but me. Now close that mouth before I use it.”
I make a gasp and gape even wider.
He walks over, touches my chin with his finger, and pushes my lips together. “Good girl. I’ll send Lorna up with some food. I have to meet with Wes about Tessa. Eat. If you do, I’ll reward you when I get back.”
“Wait. What about Tessa?”
No one has talked about her since he kicked her out of the castle.
“He wants me to give her her job back. Otherwise, he’ll feel obligated to bring her to America, and since I won’t offer her a job there, he’ll have to babysit her until she figures something out on her own. She will. She’s obviously cunning and resourceful.”
“Why can’t she stay in town and get a different job?”
“There’s nothing around here that I—Rory doesn’t own. He won’t hire her out of loyalty to me. She’d have to find a place to stay or return home. It's the last place she needs to be. Their father is heinous, and their mother is self-serving.”
“So a normal elite family then.” They’re all deranged in similar ways.
“A bit worse than normal.”
What does that mean? Instead of asking, I say, “Do you want her to come to America with us?”
He and I are leaving at the end of the month with Wes. I personally don’t want to see her again.
“I don’t, but Wes does.”
“Wes doesn’t want to worry about her. She’s still his little sister.”
“Would it kill you to give her the job here?”
He slides his hands into his pocket and considers my question. “How do you feel about it?”
“It’s not my castle.” I shrug and relax my hands to the bottom of the tub.
“It is. This is as much a part of you as it is of me. We became who we are here. I’ll never forget our time here for as long as I live.”
Aww. I could slip under the water and melt into a pool of mush at the bottom.
He runs the backs of his fingers down my cheek to my chin. “As much as I love when you fuck me with your eyes, I love that look the most.”
“When I look at you like I love you?”
“You do love me.”
“And you love me.” He hasn’t said the three word sentence to me yet.
He bends to my cheek and presses a warm kiss to my skin. In my ear, he whispers, “I would end lives for you. There will never be anyone else.”
Two weeks later
Rory hugs me as we stand in front of the castle near the two waiting SUVs.
The sun shines brighter than I’ve seen so far, not a cloud in the sky, and the temperature is supposed to reach 30°C—which I calculated to be 86°F.
They say it’s a fluke. Maybe it’s Scotland’s way of giving me a warm goodbye.
“Please bring him back,” Rory whispers in my ear. “He’ll stay away on principle. Don’t let him.”
“I won’t,” I assure him.
As the new leader of the MacReid family, Knox is content enough to declare peace on the highland castle as long as Rory is the owner and Lachlan no longer a resident—like Angus had wanted.
For a brief time, Rory and Lachlan thought things might get worse considering Lachlan killed Knox’s dad.
It was self-defense. Angus shot first, but even if he didn’t, he took me and that is unacceptable.
Not only to Lachlan but to the rest of the MacReids.
If you take one wife, none of them are safe.
They negotiated new terms, agreed to keep the castles and MacReid businesses separate like they’ve been for centuries, and agreed to cease kidnapping family members—not that Lachlan or Rory or their mum had tried to kidnap anyone from that side of the family.
Lachlan made this clear to Knox when he came to the castle and met with him and Rory.
I got to meet the son of Angus so he could apologize for his father’s attempt to abduct me twice. The second time was more on me. I chose to run and put myself in danger, but Lachlan says that had nothing to do with Angus’s plan to kidnap me again.
Knox looks like his dad but is leaner, younger, and less menacing.
Rory releases me and moves to his half-brother, giving Lachlan a big hug. “I’m going to miss you.”
This breaks my heart. Lachlan would travel back and forth regularly to the castle, like he always has, if he could. Not as the owner, but just to be with his brother and in the place that his mother wanted her family to remain.
If he’s unwilling to come, afraid he’ll rock the boat, I might have to run away to Scotland so he’ll chase me.
“Take care of him,” Rory says to me.
It means a lot that he trusts I can. But then Rory and I never had problems. Wes, on the other hand…
Speak of the devil. The brooding blond emerges from the castle with his usual sour expression. I no longer assume it’s directed at me.
Tessa stands near the SUV parked behind ours, the one Wes will be in on our way to the airport. I only saw her once before now when Lachlan forced her to apologize to my face.
She brought me a beautiful flower arrangement too. It was weird, but I took it and accepted her apology solely based on the fact that it was sincere. I could see it in her eyes, along with an insecurity that hadn’t been there when we first met.
With her chin down, Tessa peeks up at Wes with shame.
He stops a foot away from her and peers down his nose. “Do what you’re supposed to do, or you’ll end up back in London alone. Don’t think because I’m not here, I won’t know what you’re up to. What you did was—”
“Wes,” Lachlan calls out. “She knows.”
I don’t like how Lachlan is defending Tessa, but I’m not worried it’s because he still wants her. Lachlan can’t look at her without showing his disgust. Cross these men in the wrong way and they will make you work to earn back their trust, if they allow you to at all.
I certainly crossed lines with Lachlan, and yet, here he is holding my hand and ushering me into the backseat of the Range Rover.
I slide in, excited to start a new chapter of our lives back in America but also sad to leave behind the beginning of us, which like he said, happened in this castle.
To my greatest surprise, life gave me my very own enemies-to-lovers romance. One where I fell for the beast, challenged him at every turn, and showered him with enough sunlight that he came out of the shadows and fell for me too.
I wouldn’t say my beast is transformed. He will always be a bit of a monster, but I wouldn’t want him any other way.