Page 101 of Sins of Innocence

"Kieran's our friend too." Joy scrunches her cute little nose in thought. "That makes you my friend."

"I'd be honored to be your mate, cailín." Dagda takes a pair of child-sized headphones from the flight attendant before she can hand them to Joy and gives them a visual inspection before passing them on to my daughter.

I smile my gratitude at the flight attendant as she hands Dagda a set of earbuds.

The next six hours just took on a much more relaxing tone.

Neeve watches the exchange from across the aisle, her tablet in her lap. After a moment she says to Torch, "There's a seat here if you want one."

He glances at Kieran, who looks to Sadie for her reaction.

My oldest bites her lip, but nods. "It's okay."

Mom jumps up and scoots to the other side of table to sit beside Sadie. "Here now, you can sit next to Neeve and tell her all about yourself."

Torch is still waiting for Kieran's approval, which he gets with a short jerk of his boss's head. Then the man with the nickname nearly as disturbing as Kieran's sits down.

"Why doesn't Dagda have a nickname?" I ask, the thought popping out of my mouth as soon as I think it.

They call Kieran, Wraith. And Ellie, McLaren. I don't know what Torch's first name is, but I'm sure it's not that.

"Had one once. Left it buried with the guy who gave it to me." He winks at me, but there's something in his eyes that says he might not be joking.

Not that I feel threatened, more like there's a story there and I wonder if I'll ever know it. "Dagda it is, then," I say on a laugh.

Kieran frowns. "You don't need to call him anything."

Instead of wanting to tear Kieran a new one for being so over-the-top about me talking to other men by name, my panties are getting wet.

Aagh! What is wrong with me?

I force myself to disagree. "Um…yeah. I do. Especially if you want him to become part of my daily life."

"I suppose," Kieran says grudgingly then his expression lightens. "Dagda, it's time you and Torch got married."

"To each other?" Sadie asks, eyeing the mob soldiers with more interest than before.

"Nah. I couldn't stand the broody bast—uh, guy in my living space," Torch says deadpan.

Like Dagda's the quiet one. That would be Kieran, but I think Torch is a close second in the taciturn stakes.

"Forget it, Wraith. I'm not getting married." Dagda glares at Kieran. "That's your bailiwick."

The reminder of what this trip is really about sends tension thrumming through me. When we get back to New York, I'll be married to a virtual stranger.

I'm still processing that when Kieran steers me into a seat by the window across from Ellie. He slides into the seat beside me, his big thigh pressing against mine.

Reaching across me, he picks up the safety card discreetly stored in a pocket in the cabin wall and hands it to me without a word.

"Are you serious?" I take it. "I'm a grown adult. I know how a seatbelt works."

"Humor me."

Before I can reply, the cabin door shuts and then the show Joy is watching pauses and the flight attendant goes through the private plane's version of the safety instructions for flying.

When Kieran notices I'm not following along, he taps the card.

I give the eyeroll I avoided from my pre-teen a few minutes ago and jerk my head in her direction. "She's not following along."