Chapter 33 Isla
Chapter Thirty-Three
ISLA
He found me. Dare found me, after all the care I took so that he wouldn’t.
I ran out of money after three days and bought a burner phone to call Colleen. I explained nothing over the phone, just told her I was in trouble, and she wired me five grand and told me to stay put, knowing something was terribly wrong.
I’m grateful for my friend, as shady as she may be, but maybe Dare got to her. He wouldn’t hurt her... would he?
As I hurry to follow him to his car, he doesn’t even look at me.
It's only a quarter of a mile to where he's parked at the bus station, but it feels like five miles because I keep trying to talk to him, and it falls on deaf ears.
“Dare, please,” I say when he’s sitting in the driver’s side, staring across the street where someone is helping the asshole who accosted me up.
He’s been a thorn in my side since the bus, and I can’t deny that I’m grateful Dare showed him a lesson, but it was brutal.
The guy’s going to be in the hospital for a long while, from how Dare pummeled him.
I’ve never seen him act like that, never seen him violent, and it both scares me and... arouses me.
I shift in the passenger seat, reaching over to take his hand.
He jerks away from me. “I said, don’t touch me.”
“Dare, you have to listen to me. It’s not what you think. I—”
“It’s not what I think? So, you didn’t leave me while I was sleeping to what, run off with some fucking guy?” His voice is loud, almost yelling, and I wince.
“I didn't run off with anyone, Dare, and I think you know that. That guy’s been bothering me since the bus, but he doesn’t have anything to do with why I left.”
“Then that’s even worse. You’re probably giving information to Cormac.”
My eyes widen. “Cormac? You really think I’d funnel information to your enemy?”
“I really don’t know anything anymore.” He revs the engine, driving to the bed and breakfast. “You’re staying here, right?”
I blink.
He’d figured that out easily, and I hadn’t told Colleen where I was staying, so it wasn’t her.
“How did you know?”
He snorts. “What do you think, I’m an idiot? It’s the only place within walking distance that would accept cash. Cash that you stole from me.”
“I’ll pay you back—”
“Stop. Just fucking stop, Isla, you know it’s not about the money.”
I start to cry softly.
This isn’t the man who whispered sweet nothings into my ear after we made love, not the man who showered me with gifts and touched me so softly.
He’s not angry like I imagine Liam is or sullen and quiet like Cillian. No, he’s furious. And he looks like hell, stubble dusting his jaw, stale beer practically coming out of his pores.
“Are you... is everyone... okay?”
Dare laughs darkly, shoving the door open when he parks, and I scurry to get out with him.
He’s got blood spattered on his hoodie, and his knuckles are bleeding worse than they should be.
“We’re all pretty fucking far from okay, Isla.”
Isla. Not a ghrá.
And that’s all my fault.
Will he ever call me that again?
I frown as he heads to the front door of the bed and breakfast. “Where are you going?”
“You think I’m going to leave you here now? Who knows what you’ve told—”
“I haven’t told anyone anything, Dare. If I wanted to escape again, I would’ve back when you hit that guy who was bothering me.
I could’ve run off then. I could’ve escaped the car when you parked.
I didn’t. Or I could’ve just not followed you, refused to talk to you, screamed for help.
But I didn’t. Because I want to talk to you, baby, tell you what’s going on. ”
His green eyes, dark and haunted, shoot to mine. “Don’t call me baby. Not now.”
I swallow hard, and he tears his eyes away from me.
We walk into the bed and breakfast, and the receptionist—who I now know is actually the owner—raises a gray eyebrow again but doesn’t comment as we head upstairs.
He may have been overcharging me for the room, but at least he was minding his business.
I hurry ahead of Dare, nearly running to keep up with him. “I’m upstairs. Room 6B.”
Dare jerks open the door of the staircase and makes it to my door while I’m still hustling to get there, standing in front of it with his arms crossed.
I quickly unlock it, and he pushes in, looking around.
I sigh as he looks under the bed.
“What are you doing? Looking for the guy I supposedly ran away with?”
“Looking for weapons,” he says flatly. “Don’t want you to shoot me.”
“Dare, I would never—”
“I thought you’d never leave, either, but you fucking did, Isla.”
“I had a good reason.”
“What reason?”
I can’t tell him the truth. Not yet. It wouldn’t be fair for the other two.
I huff out a breath. “Where are Cillian and Liam?”
He rolls his eyes. “Of course, you’d ask that. You can’t play us all, Isla. I sent them on a wild goose chase because Liam is likely to shoot you on sight, with how angry he is.”
I bite my lip. “You really think Liam would hurt me?”
Dare sighs, looking down at the floor. ”No.”
“Then why? Why did you send them somewhere I wasn’t?”
He sets his jaw. “I don’t know.”
I step closer to him.
God, I’ve missed him so much. Missed all of them. I want to ask so many questions, ask about Cillian, Liam, but I know how jealous Dare is, and he’s already so angry.
“You look skinny.”
“Yeah, well, it’s been kind of hard to eat while I’m fucking devastated, Isla.”
My heart drops, but he doesn’t pull away, so I get even closer, slowly taking his fingers in my hand, being careful of his knuckles. “Let me bandage these.”
He looks up at me, and his eyes are unreadable. “Fine.”
I tug him to the bathroom.
He takes his hoodie off, and he’s wearing a rumpled white t-shirt that shouldn’t be baggy on him, but it is.
He’s still muscular, but he’s lost a little weight since I last saw him; his stomach is a bit softer, probably from drinking.
I sigh and pull out some gauze and disinfectant from my medicine cabinet, wincing as I pull a fragment of tooth out of his right knuckle with a pair of tweezers.
Dare doesn’t even flinch when I pour the disinfectant on his knuckles, even though I bet it stings like a bitch.
I wrap his knuckles quickly, and when I go to pull away, Dare stops me, pulling my hands so that I bump against his chest.
As soon as he touches me, all my blood burns for him.
“You were supposed to be mine.”
There’s something angry but mournful in his tone, and I try to look into his eyes, but he’s looking down at my breasts, pulling my dress over my head, leaving me in just my panties.
None of my bras fit because my breasts have swollen with the pregnancy, and the drugstore doesn’t sell underwear, so I’m not wearing any.
“You are mine, whether you like it or not.” He pushes me against the wall.
I grunt as my back hits the doorknob, but it doesn’t hurt, not much.
“Dare,” I start, but I don’t know how to finish.
It doesn’t matter, anyway, because he leans down to kiss me roughly, shoving his tongue into my mouth and lifting me up against the closed bathroom door with his hands on my ass and thighs.
We’ve never had sex like this, up against the wall or on the countertop like I have with Cillian and Liam, because Dare’s so big.
I gasp against his mouth, and my legs instinctively go around his waist.
He reaches between us to slide his fingers through my lower lips, and when he finds me slick, he grunts against my neck, biting down in a way that stings and aches so good, likely leaving a mark.
I don’t care. In fact, I like the pain; it makes me feel alive again when I’ve felt dead since the moment I walked out of that bedroom and left him there. Left them behind.
He shoves down his sweats with one hand, freeing his impressive erection, and pushes inside of me with no prep.
I’m already wet, though. Always wet when he touches me.
I cry out as his cock pierces into me.
The glide gets easier as I get slicker and he thrusts up into me, pushing me up against the door.
This bathroom isn’t nearly as big as the one in the cottage, but we manage, and Dare doesn’t say a word to me, just claiming me with his mouth and his cock, marking my neck up with bites and hickeys.
He’s so big it takes a few thrusts to get completely inside of me, and I feel so full I can barely stand it, already pulsing around him.
He groans against my neck and fucks me savagely, hard.
I’ll be sore after, but I don’t care. I want it just like this, want him to take out all his anger and hurt on me because I deserve it.
The more I’ve been alone at this stupid bed and breakfast, the more I’ve realized I was wrong.
I should have told them. I should have let us all figure it out together, but I thought it was too late. I thought they’d hate me now, assume the worst, and maybe they do.
But at least I have this last moment with Dare before I tell them everything. I pray I’m able to get a moment with the other two, as well, something to take with me.
I cry out Dare’s name when I come, gripping onto his shoulders for dear life while he surges up into me, hiding his face in my hair, and I can’t see his expression.
He lets out a string of Gaelic curses when he spills inside me, and I gasp, waiting for him to let men down to the floor. But he doesn’t. He just stands there, still inside me, holding me up against the door.
“Dare?”
He finally pulls his head up, and there are tears in his green eyes.
“Oh, Dare,” I whisper, and he curses again, slowly letting me down to the floor.
He pulls up his sweats and stalks out of the bathroom into the bedroom, jerking open the door before slamming it shut.
Standing on trembling legs, I brace myself on the sink, staring into the mirror at my pale face.
What have I done?