I’ve never been to Megan’s place, of course. The mansion is large enough to house several families, and the inner members of the Clan have private residences right here.
She walks up the stairs, and her legs are trembling. She looks a sight, and as we walk, various staff members look at us in surprise. But no one stops or hinders us.
She’s still trembling a bit when we get to the landing.
I pull a little closer so we aren’t overheard. “You alright, love?” I ask in her ear. I still want to paddle her arse for what she did, but I can’t help but want to be sure she’s protected and safe as well.
“Aye,” she says, but her voice trembles. Not much I can do for her here, but soon we’re at her place. She opens the door, and we both enter. She walks into the room and shuts the door behind her.
“Megan, you don’t lock it?”
She turns back to the door, frowning. “Oh. Well, I think it might lock on its own?”
“Lock on its own? Woman, didn’t your cousins teach you anything?”
“Hey,” she protests.
“I mean nothing against them,” I tell her. “But any single woman of the Clan should be locking her doors and taking every precaution. You ought to know this by now.” I shake my head and turn to her door, check the handle, then draw the bolt across the top.
“Mother of God,” I mutter. She goes around without a guard. She’s got no training whatsoever.
She shrugs, then heads toward her bathroom, stripping off her soaking wet clothes as she goes. She hurls them in the general direction of her hamper. They hit the side and fall to the floor. She’s at the bathroom door.
“You don’t get it, do you?” I ask her, the tenderness I felt a moment ago vanishing.
She eyes me warily and doesn’t speak, but I’m distracted now that she’s stripped with her damp, full breasts on display and her gorgeous curves.
“Get what?”
“You could’ve been killed today, and all that could’ve been avoided if you’d gone with the damn guard you’re expected to use.”
“Don’t lecture me, Carson,” she says, her eyes flashing a warning I don’t heed.
Oh, no, she doesn’t. She may have escaped a spanking, but she won’t escape this.
“You could’ve been raped by that man before he threw your body off the cliff.”
She shivers.
“You could’ve been accosted by the O’Gregors, because you were in their territory. And they’d claim ignorance of your family history. No ink, no McCarthy man with you, you don’t get the coverage of Clan protection, do you?”
“Whatever,” she says. “You men are insanely frustrating. You act as if a grown-ass woman can’t defend herself.”
“I act as if a grown-ass woman and cousin to the McCarthy family shouldn’t have to defend herself, because by virtue of birth, she’s granted a lifetime of protection? Yes. That her loyalty to the Clan impacts fucking everything? Yes. Because it does. I act like a joy ride to Stone City’s the stupidest fucking thing anyone’s fucking done because it is.”
She opens her mouth, then slams it shut. With a little angry growl, she turns back toward the bathroom.
“I’ve had it,” I say to her.
She turns and looks at me. “Have you, then?”
“Oh, aye,” I tell her, my voice laced with anger.
She should know better. I want to stripe her perfect, heart-shaped arse with my belt for real this time, and not just a few warning smacks like she got earlier. I can’t believe she did this, that she’s this nonchalant about it.
Keenan will be here any minute. There’s no time for me to haul her over my soaking wet jeans and give her a proper, thorough belting.
Shame.
She slams the door to the bathroom shut, and I hear a definite click of a lock. I narrow my eyes at the door and growl. No one’s ever driven me to anger like she does. No one’s ever made my palm tingle with the need to punish like her, even Eve.
Bloody hell.
Especially Eve.
Eve was docile and compliant, and even though I’ve been raised to be the head of the house, she obeyed implicitly. She lived to serve. Even the slightest rebuke from me would destroy her, so I had to temper everything I said with gentleness. Sometimes I honestly wished she had a little more fight in her.
But Megan.
Christ, I shouldn’t compare them. How would I feel if she compared me to an ex-boyfriend?
But no. I close my eyes and inhale deeply.
Eve wasn’t my ex.
I loved her with every breath I took. I mourn her loss as if a part of my heart and soul were buried along with her.
I hear a knock at the door at the same time the shower turns off and dimly note how quickly she gets ready. Interesting.
I shake my head, trying to clear my thoughts, to bring myself back to the present, and go open the door to Keenan.