Chapter Eighteen
DARE
I stand up immediately, torn. Should I follow Isla or should I give her some space? I’d hoped that maybe we could get to know each other a little better, and my heart aches, remembering the tears shimmering in her beautiful eyes.
I pace around the house for a minute. I’ve never felt this way about any woman. It’s not like I’m some man-whore who doesn’t believe in love, though. I’ve always wanted someone to come home to; I just never thought I’d actually find anyone.
I rub my fingers over the black raven on my skin, remembering how her fingers had traced it. I told her the truth when I said meeting her was my fate.
The way I feel about her… It scares me more than not having my knife in hand to defend against enemies with guns.
What if Isla is my one to come home to?
The thought terrifies me, but it’s also exhilarating. This is the one thing I never thought I’d get, and for it to be her…?
But I hate that she is hurting.
I want to help her. I want to be with her all the time.
My chest tightens when I think of her alone in that room, crying.
That’s it, I’m helping Isla Quinn. Even if that still isn’t her real name.
No matter who she is, I feel something for her, and I have to chase that. Despite Liam and his orders.
I grab my messenger bag and knock lightly on Isla’s door.
“Go away,” she calls, her voice low and hoarse.
“Isla, please. I just want to talk.”
“Do you want to talk? Or do you want me to service you like the pet I am?”
I stiffen.
Fucking Liam and his wording.
“I don’t think of you as a pet, a ghrá. You know that.”
She opens the door with a jerk, standing there with tears streaming down her pretty face.
“Do I know that, Dare? Do I really? It’s not like you refused to participate last night.”
I sigh. “You wanted me, didn’t you, a ghrá? I couldn’t deny you.”
“It’s not fate that brought me here. It’s you. You and your friends kidnapped me.”
“I know. I know, and I’m sorry.” I swallow. “I don’t want it to be like this, but until I can prove to them without a doubt that you’re not Maggie Sullivan, we have to keep you here.”
“Even then, Liam says you can’t let me go.”
“I’ll talk to Liam.” I walk inside the room, hoping she doesn’t kick me out.
If she told me to, I’d leave. Not the house, but her room. She’s allowed a modicum of privacy, even if Liam doesn’t think so. Because she is not anyone’s pet. She deserves the world. Not my world, the dark world of death and danger, but happiness and love.
And fuck me if I don’t want to be there right alongside her.
Why did Liam have to say that shit?
Truth is, I don’t think Liam is sure what to do either.
He seems to be just as affected as I am by this woman.
And though I saw her first, claimed her first, right now, it doesn’t matter.
Not really, because Liam made her fair game for all of us.
All I can hope is that I can claim her heart before they do.
She looks up at me, her expression wary. “What’s in the bag?”
I lift it up, grinning. “Meet Betsy.”
She raises a groomed eyebrow. “Betsy?”
“Aye. She’s my laptop. I built her myself.”
“You call your laptop ‘Betsy’?”
My grin fades. “What, you think it should be something else?”
I look down at Betsy, the peeling stickers on her case, the wear and tear from a year of using her. I get kind of attached to electronics, and when she started wheezing, I just replaced the fan.
Soon enough, I’ll have to retire her for a new hard drive, but for now, she’s still my best girl.
Isla snorts out laughter. “I’ve just never heard of anyone naming a laptop.”
“Well, they should, shouldn’t they? I get a lot of use out of the old girl.”
I open the laptop and boot it up.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for Maggie Sullivan.” I sit down on the edge of her bed, and she sits next to me, her thigh touching mine. The warmth of it is nice.
“Haven’t you done this already?” There’s curiosity and a hint of accusation in her tone.
“I have.” My tone, on the other hand, sounds a little defensive. There’s a reason for that. I haven’t done everything in my power to find Maggie Sullivan. In fact, I’ve hated the whole idea of this mission since it started. We don’t hurt women. Traitor or no. “I just went down the wrong path.”
“What does that mean?”
I let out a long breath.
It’s hard to explain all this technical stuff to someone who’s not in the know, but for Isla, I’ll try.
“I used what we knew to track her down. The car she owned. The credit cards she used.”
“You can hack into credit card databases?”
I scoff. “I can hack into anything, a ghrá.”
Except maybe the Pentagon, but to my credit, I’ve never had to try.
“Then why haven’t you found her?”
“Because she’s a ghost. She ditched her car near the riverbank, cut up all her credit cards. Best as I can tell, she’s gone cash only. The only reason we were at that gala is that she made a million-dollar donation. I thought she might show up.”
“One million dollars?”
“Aye. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the donation Liam put in, but given the state of her bank accounts, it must have nearly broken her.”
Isla stares at me, hazel eyes wide. “How... how much did Liam donate?”
I wave a hand, shrugging. “Couple dozen million?”
She keeps staring, mouth hanging, but I start to do a search, wondering if maybe Maggie ran into some trouble.
Isla peers over my shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“Checking the hospitals.”
“There are a hundred hospitals in this state. You’ll never find her. Besides, if she is really hiding, if she resorts to a hospital, I’m sure she’ll use an alias.”
I look up briefly from Betsy’s blinking cursor as it searches. “I know all her aliases. Imogen Rivers. Chloe Stapleton. Gretchen Wilder.”
“Those are... good aliases, actually.” She stares at Betsy. “You’re going to search all the hospitals in the state?”
“In the nation. It’ll take a while. Maybe a few weeks.”
“That’s... impressive. But what if she went out of the country? Overseas?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” I put Betsy on the nightstand, grinning at Isla. “What should we do in the meantime?”
Isla startles but only slightly before a smirk crosses her face. “Bet it’d really piss off Liam if we slept together again.”
“Aye.” I frown slightly. I don’t want her to sleep with me to piss off Liam. I want her to do it because she can’t keep her hands off me. “And as much as I’d love to sink myself into that tight, wet pussy of yours, you’re probably sore, but maybe we can try something…”
“Oh? What’s that?” She leans closer, and I move my mouth close to the shell of her ear.
“I want to taste you, a ghrá. Would you let me?”
Isla licks her lips, slow and purposefully, and I grab the back of her head, pulling her in for a bruising kiss, shoving my tongue between those pretty pink lips of hers.
She moans, clutching at me as I pull away.
I chuckle. “You were blessed with many things, but patience wasn’t one of them.”
“Don’t I know it.”
I laugh.
She lies back in bed, spreading her thighs. The little shorts she’s wearing don’t leave much to the imagination. She unbuttons them, looking down at me expectantly.
My dick twitches in my sweats.
I shed my shirt sometime during the night, so I’m only wearing my sweats. I know it scared her when I talked about fate earlier, but looking at her now...
What if this is meant to be?
I put my hands on her knees, shoving her legs further apart, and she gasps, lying down flat on the bed.
My fingers trail up her thighs to the edge of the shorts before I slowly start to peel them off her.
I discard them on the floor, focused on her bare sex.
“Christ.” My voice is rougher than I’d intended. “Look at you, a ghrá, all spread out for me.”
“Just for you, Dare.”
I know that’s not true because I was right here as she was getting railed by my friends last night, but it makes my dick plump all the same.
What’s wrong with me? This isn’t just sex, not anymore. I don’t know if it ever was. It’s only been a few days, and I’m absolutely gone for her.
What does that say about me?
I groan, kissing along her inner thighs, tasting her scent on my tongue as I get closer and closer to the promised land.
Her skin trembles underneath my touch as I move my hands to her hips, positioning her better on the bed.
She groans at the manhandling, and I grin.
“You like being moved around like my little sex doll, a ghrá?”
“Aye, fuck, Dare, please—”
“Please what?”
“Eat my pussy,” she breathes, and the vulgar tone makes me rock hard, all the blood leaving my head.
“Fuck.” It’s all I can manage before I dive in, lapping at her lower lips before finding her clit between my lips, sucking and moaning against her.
She tastes like the sweetest musk, almost fruity.
Whining out my name, she fists her hands in the bed sheets, and I latch around her clit, nearly vibrating my tongue against it, shifting to slide two fingers into her.
I angle them up, remembering how she’d loved it last night.
“Dare! Fuck, I’m gonna come already, don’t stop.”
Wouldn’t dream of it.
But I can’t really speak when I’m face down in her pussy, so I keep going, pumping my fingers faster as she starts to clench around me.
She makes an incoherent noise, and I grin against her, lifting my head, my dick throbbing in my sweats.
“Darren,” she breathes, and although I go by my nickname, I love the way Isla says my full Christian name.
Something about the whimpering tone to her voice gets to me and makes me groan low in the back of my throat.
“I know you’re sore, but I need to be inside you. Think you can take me, a ghrá?”
“Yes, God, please, yes.”
I can’t help but grin, sitting up on my knees and looping her legs around my waist.
She locks her ankles behind my back, making me surge forward, and my clothed erection rubs up against her core.
Christ, she’s so wet and hot already, nearly burning me through my pants.
I grit my teeth, reaching between us to free myself. I slide into her, but given my size there’s still a stretch.
Isla moans so loud I’m sure she’ll wake the others, and I hope she does. I hope they both hear that she’s mine.
“Just like that, a ghrá?”
She whines and clutches the bed sheets, clenching around me.
I could purr. “Already going to come?”
“Please, please, oh God, Dare, please don’t stop.”
I grunt, thinking that is easier said than done when my balls have already drawn up just sinking into her. I close my eyes and focus on my breathing. I’ve been called a lot of things but never a quitter.
I roll my hips, thrusting into her in long, slow strokes, and Isla trembles under me, still coming, her eyes rolling back in her head.
“Fuck, Isla, I can’t stop it.”
“Do it, Dare. Fill me up.”
I choke out a moan at her words, her raspy tone, and this is probably the quickest quickie of my life but just eating her out made me halfway there.
I cry out when I finally come inside her, and she grabs me around the neck, pulling me down to kiss me sloppily.
Isla smiles when I lift my head. “I appreciate all this, Dare.”
“Appreciate... the sex?” I raise an eyebrow. “Because I should really be thanking you.”
She laughs. “No, not the sex, although that’s always great. I appreciate you actually looking for Maggie. Believing me.”
“I’ve always believed you.” It’s true. From the moment I met her, she didn’t seem like a target to me, and even when I doubted her, some part of me knew she’s not Maggie Sullivan.
But whoever she is, regardless of who she is, she is mine.
When it’s not my shift, I know sometimes, Cillian or Liam go into her room with her until late into the night, and it always makes my heart pound.
I can never sleep on the nights I’m not on the roster, staring up at the ceiling with my jaw tightened and teeth gritted. Full-on movies in graphic detail playing inside my head and driving me crazy, both with jealousy and lust.
But they never stay the night, and that gives me some hope. Whenever all three of us stay over, I end up in her bed more nights than not, with Cillian and Liam bunking in the guest room.
Isla’s sleeping next to me right now, her face slack and beautiful, eyelashes fanning along her cheekbones.
I think about waking her up by going down on her—my favorite pastime—and my dick plumps at the very thought.
What is Isla doing to me?