Page 26 of Shamrocked
I groaned into his mouth and he lifted his head, his eyes glittering like clashing swords.:There will be no more worrying in this regard. You’re ours. We’re yours. End of story. Trust me to keep your faith and heart intact.:
Sagging against him, I made no protest when he took the cup from my hand and held it for me. It was a miracle I hadn’t poured the whole cup out on the floor. Now that would be a travesty.
He flashed a grin at me so quickly I almost missed it and shifted me around toward Vivi again.
She looked around, up at the ceiling, over at my newest painting, a smile on her lips.
“It’s safe to look now,” I said, though my words were slurred.
Laughing, she turned back to me. “Whatever’s going on, you should definitely keep doing it so you get more kisses like that.”
Aidan lifted his chin toward the door as my other two guys came in. “Here’s Keane and Ivarr. They’ve arranged our escort.” To them, he asked, “Are they ready?”
“They’ll be here in ten minutes,” Keane replied. He sniffed the air and his eyes lit up. “Is that coffee I smell?”
Vivi held out the carrier. “Help yourself.”
He knocked back a long drink and sighed like he’d sipped nectar of the gods. Meanwhile, I was mesmerized by the way his throat moved as he swallowed. There was something so raw and sexual about him, even when all he did was take a drink.
“And the other things we discussed?” Aidan asked.
“Done as you ordered,” Ivarr replied.
“What?” I asked.
“Precautions in case we don’t come back.” Aidan said it as casually as if he’d said I should grab an umbrella, it might rain. “The leprechaun too?”
“He agreed.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded, pulling away from the hard warmth of Aidan’s body.
He looked at me, his eyes grim. “If we can’t free Doran, we don’t walk away. We die. But this time, we’re taking steps to ensure you do walk away. Warwick will see to it.”
I couldn’t breathe through pain that ripped through me. Aidan’s memories flickered in my head like pages turning in a book. Death, after death, after death. His head chopped off. A sword through his heart. Crawling across the ground, gasping, his lungs filling with blood, trying to reach her.
The treasurekeeper, the one he’d loved so much that he’d lied to Doran, accidentally betraying him to Balor’s curse.
Blood and darkness, pain and loss. My chest hurt so bad I started to slip to the floor, though he caught me up against him.
“Ri? Are you okay?” Vivi’s hand touched my cheeks, fluttering like a small bird. “Here, sit down.”
They helped me sit in the office chair, and Aidan crouched before me, holding my hands. Lines of pain and regret bracketed his mouth and eyes. “I didn’t want to share that with you. I’m sorry, Riann. I tried to shield you from the darkness of my failures.”
“How many times have you died?” I cried, wiping my tears away.
“Too many times to count.”
I closed my eyes and I saw her again, the woman he’d loved. She’d been small, too, like me, but otherwise, we looked nothing alike. She’d been fragile and perfect like a painted porcelain doll, her golden hair in ringlets about her face. “What was her name?”
“Cassandra, and she was far from perfect. Beautiful, aye, but…” He blew out a sigh and dropped his gaze our clasped hands.
It was Ivarr who continued the story. “You’d think that a legend like ours would be good, right? That we’d call the best treasurekeepers possible to our side. That good would always triumph. We’d send the demons back to hell and the people would cheer. But that rarely ever happened, even before we lost Doran. People are people. Some are good. Some are evil. Some are selfish, vain, and heartless. Unfortunately, we were given a treasurekeeper that liked us to fight over her affections rather than work together. She was a distraction, not a conduit. A true weakness. And it cost us our friend and leader, and destroyed our bond.”
“It was my weakness, and we’ll speak no more of it,” Aidan growled, more like himself. He gave my hand a squeeze. “I intend to see this treasurekeeper survive whatever darkness we meet trying to free Doran. So we will do all that we can, and if the situation becomes dire, as it has so many times in the past, Warwick will whisk you away to safety.”
“No. I don’t want to leave you.”
“You will. You must.”
