“Just like that.”
“Why?” Ashlyn asked, making her way back to the sink and washed her hands.
“This way I can stop ye from getting yerself killed,” Shayne said, handing her a hand towel when she finished washing her hands.
“I work alone,” Ashlyn said as she made her way back into the bedroom.
“Not on this case,” Shayne said, and before she could argue, and she really wanted to argue, he pointed out, “The killer is looking for happily married couples, not married women vacationing alone.”
She opened her mouth only...
He was right.
“There are rules,” Ashlyn said, realizing that she really didn’t have a choice and not because the idea of sending him away made chest ache. She was here on a case, one that, unfortunately for her, required the presence of a “husband.”
“There are always rules, lass.”
“Just so we’re on the same page, last night was a mistake. It’s never going to happen again,” she said, expecting him to argue.
“What else?” Shayne asked instead as she made her way to the bed and threw herself across it as she told him the only rule that mattered.
“You follow my lead.”
CHAPTER 22
“She doesn’t deserve this,” Shayne murmured softly as he reached down and gently pushed a strand of her beautiful golden blonde hair back behind her ear only to have his lips twitch as he watched Ashlyn swat at his hand in her sleep before she rolled over onto her stomach with a muttered groan.
“None of them do,” Quinn said from the bedroom door as Shayne reluctantly dropped his hand away and made his way to the living room and quietly closed the bedroom door behind him.
“Anything yet?” Shayne asked as he made his way across the living room and let himself onto the balcony before he closed the sliding glass door behind him.
“Finn and Aidan are watching over the two couples that ye spotted in the lobby. Declean and Liam are home watching over Marty, still no word from Connall, and I managed ta take care of the ghost that attacked ye in the elevator,” Quinn said as he suddenly appeared on the small love seat overlooking the lake.
“Is she engaged yet?” Shayne asked as he placed his hands on the banister and found himself staring out at the lake.
“Last month,” Quinn said, sighing heavily as Shayne watched a couple steal a kiss by one of the firepits set up along the shore.
“It’s only a matter of time then,” Shayne said, knowing that they wouldn’t be seeing their brother again until it was over.
Connall could never stay away from Caireann, not when they were alive and not now when they were trapped in this never-ending cycle of hell. He watched over her even when that meant watching the woman that he loved fall in love with another man, and she did every single time. Once she became engaged, Connall never left her side, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the curse came for her.
“Unless ye break the curse on yer end,” Quinn drawled as Shayne absently nodded.
“What do ye think the odds are that I can make a woman who never wanted ta see me again fall in love with me?” Shayne asked as he placed his elbows on the banister and leaned over the railing.
“Ye don’t want ta break the curse,” Quinn said as he suddenly appeared by his side.
“I don’t want her ta die in my arms again,” Shayne said, wondering what the hell he was thinking when he agreed to do this only to remember that he was the reason that they were here in the first place.
“How long are ye planning on punishing yerself?” Quinn asked while Shayne watched the fires burn on the shore and found himself thinking about a night much like this one a long time ago.
“Until it’s over,” Shayne said as he allowed himself to think about Lasarín for the first time in years. God, he missed her. He missed falling asleep with her in arms, that devious little smile of hers when she thought that she had him wrapped around her little finger, but most of all, he missed waking up with her in his arms.
Finding out that she wasn’t his nearly fucking destroyed him, but knowing that she was safe from this curse was the only thing that gave him peace.
“Ye loved her,” Quinn said quietly.
“Lasarín’s off-limits,” Shayne reminded his brother, something that he’d never had to do before since his brothers knew just how fucking difficult this was for him.
