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Aoife
I blewout a breath the minute my butt hit the backseat. Settling in for the short ride from the O'Donnelly’s home to Finn’s building, I watched as Finn hugged Aidan for the final time before making his way to the yard where Samuel was waiting to shut the door behind him.
It was an unusual sight.
Finn didn’t normally wait on Samuel to open or close the car door for him, but at Aidan O'Donnelly’s home? Sam had done so upon arrival and departure.
I could understand after having met the man.
My first meeting with the crime lord had been without the other man’s knowledge. I’d seen Aidan waving a gun, pacing back and forth as he worked off his anger at the architect he’d been torturing in Finn’s salon.
Seeing him with his family? With his wife?
It was an experience–that was for sure.
It told me their business persona was not how they were when at home.
I wasn’t sure whether to take comfort from that or not.
When Finn climbed in beside me, Sam shut the door, and called out a goodnight to Aidan and Lena who were hugging one another against the night chill as they watched us drive off their land. His scent filled the small cabin, and as was often the way now, I thought of sex and long nights with him.
“Well, that was unusual,” I told him, deciding it was time to stop watching my tongue.
I wasn’t a shrew, but the man had asked me to marry him. He needed to know the real me, so he could call it off before we wed. We were Catholic. There was no such thing as divorce, and in light of Aidan’s zealous ways, divorce was undoubtedly as perilous as any mortal sin.
Before he tied himself to me, he needed to know that I wasn’t always meek. I took direction from him, just as I had at the table, but I had a voice.
“Unusual isn’t the word,” he mumbled, running a hand over his face. Leaning back against the seat, he turned his head to the side to stare at me. “You did well in there.”
“I had a good time until things got weird.”
He winced. “Things often get weird with Aidan. You need to get used to it. It’s just how he is.”
And it went without saying that I’d be dealing with him until either he died or I did.
Hopefully, considering my age, it would be him shuffling off this mortal plane first.
“I know,” I told him, well aware that was the truth. “I’m not afraid of that side of your life, Finn.” Then, I immediately pulled a face. “Okay, that’s a lie.” He laughed. “Well, not an outright lie. Just, I mean, I’m not afraid to own up to what you do. If that makes sense.”
“You couldn’t hide from it considering how we met.”
How little he knew. I’d met him years before, and he couldn’t remember me, but why would he? When he’d left, he’d been around fourteen, and I’d been two, for God’s sake. Why would he remember a toddler?
Still, I remembered him. Mostly because Fiona had kept him alive.
There was a starkness to his tone, though, and I knew it was founded in guilt. I knew the reason I met with the Senator, my father, was a nagging sore that ate at him.
“Are we really going to get married?” I asked, my voice soft.
He frowned at me. “Of course we are. Aoife, don’t be backing out on me now—”
Before he could rant, I rolled my eyes at him. “I wasn’t backing out. I was asking ifyouwere going to. You haven’t necessarily seen the best side of me, Finn. What you’ve seen is a side that I don’t even know myself. I-I’m like a different person around you.”
“I know,” he told me, and the pride and satisfaction in his voice had me snickering and hitting him on the leg. When his thigh tensed where my hand lay, I liked the tiny response so I kept it there.
“But I’m a pain in the ass, Finn. When I don’t sleep, I get really grouchy. Not like a regular grouch, but I snarl and shit. I’m like a gremlin. Seriously.”
He laughed at that. “Impossible. You’re too sexy to be a gremlin.”
