“What’re they doing?” Ronan asks, looking completely nonplussed.
“Spending all my money,” Paddy grumbles, his arms crossed over his chest while he eyes his wife carefully. His muscles are coiled like he’s ready to spring and sprint into the room to snatch her off the chair if she even wobbles.
“And mine,” Niall grunts, edging almost infinitesimally slowly into the lounge. Ronan doesn’t seem happy to hear it.
“Jaysus feck,” he groans. “Sure, and why on earth would you give them money to spend on Fiona’s dancing?”
“Because Mellie won’t shut up about how Fiona isn’t making enough to pay her rent since ye’ve put her on one set a night, banned lap dances, and won’t let her take her top off,” Niall replies, his fingers flexing as he moves into the room another small step.
“Aye, this is all your fault,” Paddy snaps at Ronan. “If you weren’t so hung up on the lass, my wife wouldn’t be balancing on a chair in heels right now, risking her fucking neck.”
Ronan shrugs, shoving his hands in his pockets, his eyes glued on Fiona on the stage.
“I’ve a plan for the lass,” he mutters, his eyes narrowing. “One that doesn’t involve yer wives cashing her up. When she couldn’t make rent, she would have come and asked if there was something else she could be doing around the club. Iintendedto move her to bartending or waitressing. Ye’re messing with my plans, and I don’t like it.”
As interesting as Ronan’s conversation is, I don’t give a fuck about the plan for his little stripper, who won’t have a bar of him. My eyes are glued to the lasses. Of the three of them, it’s Andie who wobbles first.
Jesus fuck. I shove past Paddy and Niall, sprinting across the room as she overbalances, her arms wind-milling, and she shrieks, toppling off the chair.
As I move across the room, my heart is in my mouth, but she falls away from the table and other chairs. Thank Christ for small mercies. I catch her before she hits the ground, the other two erupting into cheers.
“Good catch,” Andie giggles as I set her on her feet. She’s steady as she stands upright, but she’s definitely tipsy. I keep a hand splayed across her lower back, though she doesn’t seem about to fall again.
Sliding my lips up the outer shell of her ear, Andie shivers lightly.
“No more standing on chairs,leannán,” I murmur. Her beautiful blue eyes turn to me, wide and trusting.
“Not even when you’re here to catch me?” She waggles her eyebrows, and I can’t catch my smirk in time.
I brush my hand over her legs, my fingertips trailing over the bare flesh exposed by her very short skirt and her breathing hitches, her eyelids drooping. I think I’ve changed my mind about her attire. She should definitely wear it here.
“I’ve nothing against catching ye,leannán,” I breathe into her ear. “But are ye ready for what happens once I do?”
My gaze dips to Andie’s mouth as her tongue darts out, running along her lower lip. A growl rumbles out of my chest at the sight. Christ, she’s sexy.
“This is girl’s night,” Lauren grumbles from behind me. “You’re not a girl, so you’re not invited.”
Is the lass seriously telling me off for saving Andie’s neck? I turn to give her a piece of my mind, but Paddy speaks first. Making it clear the lass was talking to her husband, not me.
“Connor interrupted first. With a world-class catch, I might add. If you lot are going to be risking your necks balancing on chairs, you’re not allowed to have girl’s night without us.”
“You wouldn’t have noticed us on the chairs if you had been in Seamus’s office where you belong,” Mellie points out.
“Andie would be in a world of pain if we had been doing that,” Paddy counters. Mellie opens her mouth to argue when Niall’s voice cuts through the conversation.
“Ye’ll not be standing on chairs again, lass,” he tells his wife, using the tone he usually reserves for when he’s fucking cunts up.
The rest of us turn to him in surprise, but his wife doesn’t shrink away from the tone. Instead, she looks fuckingturned on. What the fuck? They’re a strange pair.
“And if I do?” she asks, all breathy.
Jesus fuck, we really shouldn’t be privy to this conversation. Niall doesn’t reply, picking her up, throwing her over his shoulder, striding out of the room, and heading for the back door.
Mellie lifts her head and waves happily to the other two, looking smug as all shit.
“It looks like girl’s night is over,” Lauren sighs, tangling her fingers with Paddy’s. “I suppose you can take me home.”
He doesn’t waste any time tugging her out of the room. Ronan wandered off as his little stripper finished and returned to the dressing room.