Page 10 of Arranged Scars
“Oh, I would hate to inconvenience that old snake.” I grip my whiskey glass tightly and have to lower my hand to keep Declan from noticing.
“We need to keep Eamon happy. His connections run deep and his sons are primed in key positions in all the major unions. Marrying you to his youngest daughter will cement our alliance for a generation or more.”
I smile blandly. It hurts my fucking face. “I know it’s important to you.”
“Good. Approach the girl. Meet her, do whatever you plan on doing, but do it fast. Eamon’s telling her tonight.”
I stiffen slightly. “You said he was holding off.”
“Holding off doesn’t mean skipping it entirely! Look, I get it, you don’t want to marry a girl you haven’t at least met first, but you have to work with me here.”
I finish off the whiskey. It burns on the way down like it always does. Even the expensive stuff can’t hide what it really is. Money never can.
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Good. Please do. This marriage is going to be difficult enough. Apparently, the girl is estranged from her family, which I didn’t know until recently.”
I plaster another bland smile on my face. Declan doesn’t even notice how hard I’m trying to pretend like I don’t know all this already. Like I haven’t been mercilessly stalking her since the second he told me about this arrangement. Like I don’t know absolutely everything about her, from her favorite meals to all her streaming subscriptions.
“Are you concerned Eamon can’t make good on his end?”
“No, I’m not. She’ll come around. Nobody can resist your charm.” He glares at me flatly. I know he wants to add,just don’t fuck this up, but to his credit, he keeps his mouth shut.
I place the empty glass on his desk and stand. “If that’s all, I’ll get going.”
“Meet the girl in the next few days. I want the wedding to happen within the month.”
I give him a mock salute and leave his office. I pause in the hallway and struggle to get myself back to equilibrium. Every time I’m in this place, it’s like I’m assaulted by memories. Most of them are fine. Some of them aren’t. There are too many ghosts in the old Whelan family home.
I drift out there, not happy that my game’s getting cut short. It was just starting to get interesting. I can’t get rid of the vision of Caroline floating naked in my pool, of her climbing out of the water dripping wet, of her sitting in my sauna glistening with sweat, of her mouth wrapped around my cock, of her coming likeshe was going to break to pieces. I didn’t hire her to fuck her in my goddamn pool. That was never part of the plan.
She was supposed to clean. That’s all, just fucking clean, and give me some time to observe her in a safe and controlled environment. Then she went and stripped in the fucking sauna that first time, and I swear to god, I’ve never been so hard in my life watching her through the cameras.
I stroked my dick and came over and over multiple nights in a row. It took all my willpower to stay away from her.
Until last night, I couldn’t take it anymore.
Fuck, that was stupid. I shouldn’t have gone in there. I shouldn’t have gotten close to her. This whole exercise was meant to give me time to acclimate to being around another Flanagan. I was supposed to be watching her. Finding out her weakness.
Instead, I found out some of my own.
And the worst part?
She’s going to be at my house again tonight.
What the fuck am I going to do?
I step outside to find Liam Lankshear leaning against my car. He’s got dark copper hair and a hard look. He runs my personal crew and is one of the most ruthless and sadistic people I’ve ever met. Liam loves pain, money, and good suits. He’s a great guy.
“How’s the Don doing?” he asks, arms crossed over his chest.
“My brother’s the same as always. Controlling and a pain in my ass.” I nod at him. “You got something for me?”
He takes a phone from his jacket pocket and shows me the screen. It’s an image of Caroline coming out of her shitty little apartment. “Went to the grocery store.”
“Got a list of what she bought?”
He shrugs. “Of course. I knew you’d ask.” He flips to another screen. Chicken stock, rice, vegetables. “I think she’s making a soup.”
