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But now, I’m hovering directly over the flame…
CHAPTER SIX
Kieran
Myhomelooksdifferent,bringing a woman back to live here. A fiancée. Who’s not Norah. With her gone, I gave up the idea that I’d be lucky enough to marry for love.
Right now, I have to get Isabella moved in and plan a wedding. It has to be a show. It has to send a message. I’ve bought Parisi’s diamond, and now, he has money to fight. That should at least set Koslov on his back foot to better plan his next attack.
We get to the gate, and Isabella remarks softly, “This is beautiful.”
“Thank you.” Our compound, surrounded by a ten-foot wrought-iron fence, includes the sprawling brick colonial my da had built when we were kids. “It was my parents’ house, and my father’s headquarters, the symbol of his power. It made sense for me to keep it as my own when I took over. I bought it from them since they want to live part of the year in a warmer climate.”
“Then he threw us out,” Lachlan drones from her right.
“Where do you live?” Isabella asks him.
“Don’t worry where I live, little one.” He sounds rather comfortable talking to her, and I’m not sure how I feel about him calling herlittle one.
“Let’s get you settled.” I help her out and steer her into the kitchen. “I’ll meet the rest of you in my office,” I say to my brothers.
I hadn’t told Patricia, my house manager, that I planned to bring a fiancée back with me. Forcing a young girl to marry me won’t sit well with Tricia. She knows I’m far from a saint. But my brothers and I direct our ruthlessness to the men in our world.
I still feel awkward announcing a surprise fiancée. But Tricia will hopefully understand this is a business arrangement and stick to her duties of managing the cleaning team, the groundskeeper, the rest of the staff, and keep this house and my life humming.
“Tricia,” I call out to her, and she comes in from the mudroom, where she does my laundry. “This is Isabella Parisi.”
Hearing the name makes her quirk an eyebrow at me. “Nice to meet you, Isabella Parisi. I’m sorry about your mum,” she says cautiously as her eyes land on the suitcase I’m holding.
“Hello,” Isabella responds in kind. “And thank you. You can call me Izzy.” Funny how she didn’t say that to me.
Pushing that aside, I straighten my back. “Isabella and I will be getting married.” The words come off my tongue, and my throat oddly closes.
“Really?” Tricia crosses her arms.
I send her a look, only because Isabella is a stranger, and she needs to know I’m in control of my house. “Yes,really. It was a…” I glance at Isabella. “A deal I made with her father.”
“Welcome home, then, Izzy.” Patricia lowers her head.
“We’ll talk more later, Tricia. I’m showing her to her room.”
When we get to the stairs, Isabella whispers, “Myroom? We won’t…” She clears her throat.
I freeze, hearing she expects to sleep in my bed. “Are you eager to share a bed with a man you just met?” My voice turns gruffer than I intended. “A man like me?Everynight?”
“Um…” She pales at that last part. Not because I think she’s weak. Many women can’t handle the man I’ve become. I certainly don’t expect a twenty-one-year-old to satisfy my deep, carnal urges.
“Didn’t think so.” When she’s fertile, I’ll go to her room.
I move in front of her and climb to the second floor, with all the bedrooms we used as kids. “This entire floor is empty except for mine.”
She looks up. “Is there a third floor?”
Now she wants to be as far away from me as possible. “Patricia nannied Darragh and Cormac, my youngest twin brothers. She and my father’s bodyguards slept up there when they had to stay over for whatever reason.” I take her to the bedroom on this floor that makes the most sense. “This was my sister’s room. You should be comfortable in here.”
“Your sister? Where does she live?”
“The Hamptons.” Which reminds me, I have to call her to plan a wedding. “She’s a party planner. I’ll have her set up the wedding right away.”
