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When I walk in, the warehouse is quiet, and I walk slowly towards the back, my nerves jangling as I approach the room where they held the meeting. If Connor’s gone, I don’t know what my next move will be, but to my relief, when I step through the door, he’s still there sorting through papers at the table, everyone else gone.
He looks up, and an unreadable expression crosses his face. I stop dead in my tracks as he stands up slowly, pushing back his chair to circle around the table towards me, a dangerous glint in his eye.
“Ardaigh Gaeilge,”he murmurs. “Hasn’t anyone ever warned you about coming to a place like this alone to meet a man like me?”
He’s very close to me by the time he’s finished speaking, his voice low and quiet in the gathering warmth of the room, and I can feel the heat emanating off of his powerful, muscled body.
“Who said I was coming here to meet you?” I manage, somehow keeping my voice steady, and Connor’s eyes crinkle with mirth as he smirks down at me.
“Who else would you be here to see?” he asks, and then his hands are on my waist, pulling me towards him that last inch so that I’m flush against him, and his mouth comes down onto mine.
God, it’s so good. I’m almost grateful I’d never kissed any man before this, not really, because nothing in the world could compare to Connor’s mouth. Certainly not the chaste, one-sided kisses I’d had with his brother. They don’t count, not when I’m being kissed likethis, hot and demanding, Connor’s tongue seeking out the space between my lips, the heat inside, his groan vibrating against my skin when our tongues finally tangle together.
This is everything. It’s addictive, intoxicating. I could drown in his kiss. He’s rock-hard almost instantly, the huge, thick bulge in his jeans grinding against my thigh as his hands tighten on my hips, slide around to my ass, squeezing and rocking me against him as he devours my mouth like a starving man.
I’m lost in it. My hands slide up the front of his shirt, grasping at the fabric, pulling him closer instead of pushing him away like I should. I’maching, and I moan against his lips, forgetting why I’m here or what I’m supposed to be doing until Connor slips a hand under my loose linen top, his fingers skating up towards my breast, and I’m jerked back to the present.
“No, I—”
“There’s no proper bed here, lass,” Connor growls against my mouth, his other hand still squeezing my ass as he moves the hand searching out my breast higher, his English accent gone entirely. “But I had a fantasy about bending you over just about any surface I could find, if you don’t object—”
“I most certainlydo!” I gasp the words, finding the strength to shove him away as I step back, panting, wiping at my swollen mouth with the back of my hand as I try to regain my senses.One kiss, and it’s like I forget everything I came here to do.“You think I’m going to lose my virginity bent over a charity shop table in a filthy warehouse?”
Connor shrugs, that smirk still playing over his lips. “You tell me, lass,” he says affably. “You’re the one who came to me.”
“I’m here totalk.” I take another step back as he takes one forward and then another, trying to keep some distance between us. “I came here to negotiate with you.”
Connor raises an eyebrow at that. “You? Not your father?”
“Is you marrying my father a part of the deal? I thought not.” I cross my arms, refusing to give an inch. “If you do this, if you agree, we’ll be married. Husband and wife. So I think that it’s you and I who should be negotiating right now.”
“Is that so?” Connor’s voice is noticeably cooler, but I plunge forward anyway.
“My father is resistant to change, as you might have expected, but I amnotmy father. I’m open to doing things differently than might have been done before. And since I’m the one who will be married to you, who will give you your heirs, I think that it’s what you and I want that matters most.”
“As you’ve said,” Connor replies dryly. He frowns, looking at me for a moment in silence as if considering. “You talk about this like you think we’ll be partners, Saoirse, but I want to caution you that won’t be the case. I won’t take instruction from your father, and I certainly won’t take it from you. That’s not your place in this.”
“And what is myplace?” I tilt my chin up, looking at him defiantly, and he closes the distance between us in a second, as close to me as he was before. I try to back away, but the wall is close behind me, and I end up with my back against it, Connor looming over me as my heart leaps into my throat.
“Your place will be in my bed. Bearing my children. Maintaining relationships with the other wives. The domestic sphere, just as it’s always been.”
“Thank god I have a degree from Harvard,” I quip, and Connor snorts.
“That was your choice. If you want to dangle yourself as my bride to lure me back, you should expect to maintain the role you’re offering to take up.”
“So you want me to be your trophy wife.” I shrug, refusing to let him see what, exactly, I think of the concept. After all, it’s nothing less than I always expected. “I’m hardly surprised. Anything else?”
“Yes.” Connor’s face hardens as he looks down at me, his body shifting towards mine so that he’s nearly touching me from chest to thighs. “If you’re looking for love, Saoirse, you won’t find it here. I’m not interested in love or even a real marriage.”
I look up at him, frowning. “What do you mean by arealmarriage? We’ll have to be married properly, in a church, legally—we’ll be husband and wife—”
“Oh, we’ll observe all the formalities. I expect that neither you nor your father would accept anything less. But what I mean is that beyond the piece of paper and the rings we exchange, beyond the business of producing an heir to follow me, you and I will have very little to do with each other. I will run the Kings as I see fit, and you will run my household and deal with the other wives. You will turn a blind eye to whoever I wish to fuck, so long as I keep it discreet—and in exchange, Saoirse, once you give me an heir, I too will turn a blind eye to whatever dalliances you choose to have, so long as you don’t get pregnant by another man. We will time our attempts to get pregnant, and you’ll be on birth control otherwise, so that you can do as you wish. While we’re trying to conceive, you will be in my bed only. That’s mynegotiation.”
I stare at him, shocked for a moment into absolute silence. Of all the things I’d thought he might say, that was the absolute last. In fact, I never would have imagined it. “I’m not interested in sleeping around,” I blurt out before I can think of anything else to say, and it’s true. Connor turns me on, but I’ve never met any man who really seemed worth my time or effort beyond him or his brother.But then again,I think as Connor raises one eyebrow at my outburst,you never really looked because you knew who you were promised to. What else might be out there if you were free to sample it?
“Well, Iaminterested in sleeping around, Saoirse,” Connor says bluntly. “So the rest is your business, whether to have affairs when we’re not trying to conceive or not. I won’t concern myself with it.”
“I can’t believe you—” I trail off, my mind racing. My first thought was to be horribly insulted, but the longer I let his words sink in, the more that initial reaction fades, and I can feel myself warming to the idea. I’d never considered the possibility of an open marriage—or rather, I’d accepted that whoever I married would probably sleep around as he pleased, while I was expected to be only in my husband’s bed. Men in my world have always been allowed to do whatever they want—but never the women.
