“Yours,” I say sleepily, holding on to him when he collapses on top of me. For a while, we lie in silence, the room filled with only the loud beat of our hearts and our ragged breathing. I’m content to lie this way forever, I realize, despite his large body cutting off the air to my lungs. I whine when he pulls back and slides off the bed.
“Roarke—”
“I’ll be right back, baby,” he says, and I watch the man walk naked to the bathroom, a sculpted Viking with battle scars painted all over his body. He comes back with a damp cloth, and I blush when he sits on the bed to wipe between my thighs. “I wasn’t too rough on you, was I?”
The flush deepens. “Do we really have to talk about this now?”
He smiles, and the worry in his eyes clears. “I just need to know that you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” I turn my head and bury my face in the pillow, unwilling to meet his eyes any longer. “I just want to sleep. Come back to bed.”
The mattress shifts as he gets off and leaves, but he isn’t gone for long. Minutes later, I feel him slide into the bed behind me, and I’m flipped around to face him. He doesn’t say a word as he pulls me to him.
I sigh as I bury my face in his chest, inhaling deeply at the scent clinging to his skin. “No more dreams tonight,” I whisper, kissing his pec before everything fades to black.
Chapter Six
Roarke
“I think those people are staring at us.”
Elena leans into my side, fear in her voice. My head whips around, and I place a hand around her shoulders and pull her to my chest, scanning for danger. Damnit, I didn’t bring my gun—wouldn’t have gotten it through security anyway. My first thought is that Yuri Balshov or Elena’s father has somehow tracked us to the courthouse, but when I look around, I am met by two familiar faces.
“Christ,” I mutter under my breath, my hand tightening around my soon-to-be wife. “How the hell did they find us?”
“Who are they?”
“The bane of my existence,” I say, but some of the affection I carry for the two interlopers bleeds through in my voice as they approach us.
“Wait, they kind of look like you,” Elena muses, pushing back to study the two men walking toward us, huge grins on their faces. “Are they your siblings?”
“Unfortunately,” I mutter as they stop next to us. Conor and I favor our father—his large frame and dark hair—while Fiona takes after our mother with her red hair. But certainO’Shea features, like our blue eyes, are dominant in all three of us. One look and anyone would pin us for siblings. “What the hell are you two doing here?”
Fiona speaks first, a great choice of a spokesperson, as she knows that I have a soft spot for her. “That’s no way to speak to your siblings,” she says, her eyes shifting from mine to Elena. “Hi, my name is Fiona. This Neanderthal’s little sister.”
Elena laughs, putting out a hand to shake Fiona’s. “I’m Elena, his…”
“Bride?” Fiona teases, earning a blush from Elena. “Sorry, I just assumed seeing that both of you are at a courthouse, holding a marriage license, and queued up to see the judge.”
“Enough, Fiona,” Conor laughs, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her to the side before taking her spot. “My name is Conor, the Neanderthal’s brother.”
Elena takes his hand too, offering him a smile in turn.
“We figured you guys would need witnesses for this marriage deal.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and beg for patience. “I’ll ask again, in case no one heard me the first time. What are you two doing here? How did you find us?”
“We heard you the first time,” Fiona snarks and doesn’t seem one bit fazed when I turn to glare at her. “Fine, alright. Jesus.” She brushes her hair off her shoulder before shoving Conor from her original spot. “So, you know how I’m O’Shea Protection Services’s official hacker? So it’s kind of my job to know what everyone is doing. And also as your little sister, it’s my role to stick my nose in all of your business.”
“Fiona, what did you do?”
“Nothing illegal,” she says out loud before leaning in. “So, I may or may not have placed a line of code in the city records system and set up alerts for anything that involves our name. Of course, I would never admit to such a thing without my lawyer present.” She laughs at her own joke. “Anyway, it’s there so I’ll know if any of you ever get in trouble with the police or a warrant is issued for any of us. I’ll add your name to the system, Elena,” she tells the girl standing next to me.
“Um…thanks?”
“You’re welcome,” she beams. “So, anyway, imagine my shock this morning when I got an alert. My fragile little heart was worried that one of you was in trouble, but imagine my surprise when I realized that the alert was because a marriage license in my brother’s name had been issued. And that you’d made a same-day appointment to get married.” She slaps a hand to her heart dramatically. “And you didn’t even tell me you were getting married. I expected this from Conor, but not you, Roarke.”
I sigh, already exhausted—and it’s only eleven. “Fiona—”
