Christ, I’m glad I didn’t touch another woman.
“I don’t have to answer to you, you know.”
I reach for her arm and grab at thin air as she’s marching away. We’re almost back at her family home, only paces from her door now.
“You’re a right brat sometimes,” I mutter, and for one brief moment I consider stopping her right here and yanking her straight over my lap for the spanking she’s had coming for years. No one brings out fire in me like Fiona.
“Fuck off,” she says. She spins around to tell me off, her eyes flashing at me. “If I want to go to the fucking Craic, I’ll go.” Her voice is strained, and her eyes flash at me. “If I want to go to Boston, I fucking will.” She juts her chin into the air. “I told them tonight I would.”
Boston?
Jesus fucking Christ, she can’t be serious. One moment I want to pull her over my lap and redden her arse for her cheek. The next, I’m stricken.
I’ve just told Keenan I’m not going. I’ve told him I’m staying here, and he’s already made arrangements for just that. I’m heading to Madrid in the morning.
“You can’t be serious?”
“I’m so fucking serious,” she says. Her voice catches at the end, and she’s swiping angrily at tears again. She breaks my heart when she cries.
“Why? Why the bloody hell would you leave here and go so far away?”
She looks me straight in the eyes and doesn’t blink.
“Because of you,” she says, her voice tight and shaky. “You.”
I feel my brows draw together in consternation.
“Me?”
“You,” she repeats, crying freely now. Her lower lip trembles. “You were with another woman at the club, and I know…” her voice wobbles. She blinks hard, shedding fat tears. “I know I have no claim on you, Lachlan. I know that. And I feel silly even admitting I’ve ever… ever hoped… but I did. I bloody well did. And to answer your question from earlier? Who made me cry? You.”
And then she breaks down, turns from me, and lets herself in the house. The door slams behind her. I hear the final click of a lock and her distant sobs. I step toward her. I want to break this door down and yank her out. I want to shake her until her teeth rattle, then tell her she’s wrong, that I didn’t do anything with another woman, that she’s the only woman for me and always has been. Then I’d kiss her, long and hard, until she melted into my arms, where she belongs.
I take a step toward the door when a voice comes behind me.
“Wouldn’t do that, sir.”
I swivel around to see the guard standing sheepishly a few paces behind me.
“What the bloody hell are you doing here?”
“My job, sir.” He’s below me in rank, so defers to me with respect. “I’m just… well, if you break down that door, I think Mr. McCarthy might not be happy. They just installed that brand-new door a week ago, sir. Custom.”
I know he’s right, but I’m fucking pissed. “Who the bloody hell asked you?” I bellow. He flinches as if I struck him. Good. I wish he’d give me half a reason to.
I turn away and go back home. The wind bites at my still-damp, naked skin, but I barely feel it. What the hell is she talking about? And what does she mean, she’s going to Boston?Chapter 5FionaWhen I shut the door behind me, I could hear him on the other side. I felt like a jerk for the way I treated him, but bloody hell, he’s the one that was with another woman. He’s the one that won’t kiss me. He’s the one that will barely touch me.
Why?
I’ve made my decision.
I tear off his sweatshirt and whip it into the corner of my room, but when I climb into bed, I can’t sleep. Reluctantly, and with another fresh round of tears that will do my bloody head in, I finally get his hoodie, drape it around me, and fall to sleep enveloped in his scent.
Maybe I like to torture myself.
I avoid him the next few days. Nolan makes plans with Keenan. Honestly, it should take a while for me to get my paperwork and bearings to head to Boston, but with the connections the McCarthy family has, I’m a registered student at Boston University by sunset the next day. School starts soon, and I’m eager to go.
I numb myself to the pain I feel leaving this family home. Leaving my friends and family to go to a foreign place. But when I left my home in Stone City, I made a promise to myself that I will not back down from. I said I’d never stop myself from doing what was right for me out of fear. Ever. And I bloody well won’t.