That earns me a thunderous slap on the ass.
Chapter Twenty-Four
In which Scarlett has drinks with the girls and Wallace burns down a lot of stuff.
Scarlett…
Two days later…
Imagine being so swept up by a man’s relentless ability to bring you to orgasm that it takes a full forty-eight hours to remember, “Oh, crap. We haven’t been using condoms! Is he clean?”
If Morgan was here, she’d yell at me and then punch me in the boob. I deserve it. I should punch myself in the boob. Probably the right one because the left one is still sore from Wallace biting my nipple last night.
Instead, I find him in his office. “I have to address something that’s making me question my IQ.”
“It’s high, lass. One hundred and thirty, I’m guessing.” He’s looking at specs for a building on his monitor and I’m guessing he’s got a job to do.
“That’s nice, but it took me until today forit to really hit me that we have been having unprotected sex.”
Frowning, he leans back in his chair. “I’m clean. I’ve never fecked without a condom before.”
“Ever?” My voice goes up to a pitch high enough to attract seagulls.
“No.” His lovely amber eyes are warm.
“I’m clean,” I say, trying to recover my momentum. “And on birth control.”
“I know.”
“What the hell?” I remember the report. The thorough report. “Did you dig through my OB/GYN records?” I sit down abruptly on the couch. “Does the Chieftain of the MacTavish Mafia know I’ve got a birth control implant in my arm? That my periods aren’t regular? About that mole on my left arm that my doctor told me to get looked at?”
“No. I edited what I gave him. That’s nobody’s fecking business but mine, though I dinnae know about the mole. Are ye okay?” He toying with his computer mouse, acting like this was all fine.
“Fine,” I say impatiently. “What if I wasn’t on birth control?”
“We’d get a morning after pill and an appointment with an OB/GYN,” he saysreasonably.
“I’ve had very little control over anything in my life recently,” my voice breaks a little. “Getting pregnant before I was-wewere ready would be so bad.”
Wallace comes over to me, squatting gracefully to look in my eyes. “Little Cinder, that will always be your choice and under your control, aye? I agree that being less than a week into our marriage is not an opportune time to have a baby. But when you’re ready, I like bairns. As many as ye want.”
The man who pinned me to the door while he told me all the terrifying reasons that would compel me to marry him is now also the one telling me he’d never trick me into getting pregnant.
That I have agency.
I kiss him, breath mingling. He tastes of mint and that terrible scotch he loves. His thick arm goes around my back pulling me closer until he pulls away, groaning.
“We canna do this.” He drops his head to my chest. “Your bodyguard will be at the door in less than five minutes, and then… we must discuss the cousins.”
He says it with such bleak resignation that I have to laugh, cupping his face and kissing him onelast time. “Let’s go do all those things. Then we’ll do all the fun things tonight.”
That gets him going, his devilish smile reappears.
As if on cue, the doorbell rings.
“Why do I need a bodyguard?” Wallace is heading for the door, holding my hand.
“Because ye will always need protection. It’s not safe in this world.”
