Page 16 of Merciless Promise
But he was right about other men. I flashed a watery smile as tears began to roll down my cheeks. I couldn’t even think of another man. I didn’t even want to. I accepted that, although I’d never admit it to him as I forced my tears to dissipate as quickly as they’d appeared. I’d accomplished that feat by the time he pulled out, then I collapsed face down onto the sheets and lay there enjoying my post orgasmic haze.
“I’ll have the announcement printed in tomorrow’s paper,” he said to me before he got off the bed and went into the bathroom to shower.
DUBLIN, IRELAND
Imade it to Dublin right after securing Ekaterina’s assurance that she would indeed be marrying me. While the very thought was enough to make me ill, I could and would do this until I could put the rest of my plan into action. I supposed it wouldn’t be too hard, as she was a better piece of ass than I thought she’d be. Truthfully speaking, she had gotten my dick hard, and kept it that way well after we’d fucked that night. With the sex being so good, I’d make the rest work until I no longer had to.
That period was what was stressing me out. Well, that and the meeting I’d called both my grandfather and cousin to. Instead of making either return to New York City, I’d made the decision to come to Ireland. Ekaterina was back at my Irish digs while I was at the main house, and Nolan was there to keep an eye on her in case she decided to do anything foolish. The very thought of punishing her now for past and current sins wasappealing, but not as much as this meeting with my grandfather would be.
I can’t wait to stick it to you, old man.
Of course, he valued no one else’s time but his own, so he had yet to make it to the study. Cillian hadn’t either, although I was sure he was busy sleeping off his latest bender. At the Daniro party, he seemed a lot more put together, but I knew it wouldn’t last. These periods of time for him never did. I had no idea what had one day driven the younger Brannington to the bottle, but I also didn’t care.
I got up from the chair and walked over to the bar in the corner. My grandfather had the most expensive liquors in all the world proudly displayed like a work of art. The corner of this room reminded me a lot of the Irish pubs I grew up going to, only this was not open to the public. As I ran two fingers along the gold edge lettering of this thirty-two-year-old bottle of single malt Irish whiskey, I decided to indulge in that. After all, I was his grandson and not some random crew member.
I’d just finished pouring about three fingers into a glass when the sound of footsteps caught my attention. Quickly slamming the drink back, I looked to the door in time to see Cillian walk through it. He seemed lucid enough at the moment, but as he made a beeline for the very place I stood, I knew it was just a matter of time.
“You want some of this?” I asked him as I dangled the bottle in front of him.
“No,” he said, then walked around the back of the bar and grabbed an imported water from the refrigerator. I eyed him suspiciously.
“You give up drinking again?”
“Something like that,” he replied before moving away from me and over to the chair where I’d just been sitting.
“That’s great,” I told him as I took a seat in the one next to him.
Cillian looked disinterested in being here, and I couldn’t blame him. I had summoned him with no indication of what it entailed, and I was sure he had much better things to do with his time than wait here with me. What I had to announce was important, though. It affected him every bit as much as it did me.
“So, are you going to tell me what this is all about?” my cousin finally asked.
“I’d like to know that myself, Garmhac. I don’t appreciate being summoned like one of your men,” my grandfather said as he joined us. When he reached Cillian and me, he turned and motioned with his hand for his right-hand man to leave, and once the door closed completely, he looked straight at me. “If you have something to tell us, then do it.”
“Very well. I’ve given your ultimatum a lot of thought,” I began, and I didn’t miss the way Cillian instantly sat up straighter in his seat. “And I think you’ll be pleased to know that I’m taking a wife.”
Those words sounded so foreign to my own ears, and mostly because marriage wasn’t something I had ever been interested in before. If it hadn’t been for my grandfather’s ridiculous demands, I wouldn’t have even considered it now. Alas, I refused to lose what I had spent my life helping build and maintain, especially when the alternative was to have it turned over to the unseriousness that was Cillian.
“And who would this dame be?” Ronan Brannington asked.
I smirked at my grandfather, then responded. “Ekaterina Kotov.”
The color drained from my grandfather’s face before it quickly reappeared, but much redder in color. “Is this some sort of joke?”
“She’s the girl that ran down Prin?—”
“We know who she is,” my grandfather immediately said to Cillian. The blond just shrugged. “I forbid it.”
“You can’t forbid it, Daideó. We had an agreement when you presented the terms to us. I found a wife as you insisted, and we’re anxious to have a son right away.”
Anxious was probably too mild a word, but I would fuck her senseless day and night until she became with child. With any luck, it would be a son, and once he was born, we’d all be rid of Ekaterina.
“Absolutely not. I have no idea what sort of joke you think that this is, but?—”
“I can assure you that marrying her is no joking matter.”
“You can’t possibly love her,” he responded.
“Not particularly, but love is neither here nor there. It matters little in our world. I will give you the fucking heir you desire, then you can butt the fuck out of my life.”
