“Bring her into this? Until a month ago, I had no idea that there was a ‘this’ or a ‘her’ to bring into anything.”
I yanked myself away from him and tucked the towel more firmly under my arms to hold it up. “Will you at least let me get dressed?”
“I’ll come with you,” he said, causing me to spin around.
“I’m fully capable of getting dressed on my own. I don’t need?—”
“I don’t trust that you won’t call the police on me. I’m going with you.”
I hadn’t even thought about calling the cops, but now that he’d mentioned it, I glanced over at my cell phone, which was on the floor where it had fallen when he’d scared me. Cillian’s eyes moved with mine, and he finally kicked it away from us, and I watched as the damn thing slid under the couch.
“Get upstairs and put some damn clothes on.”
I glared at him, but I would feel a bit stronger when I was more covered up. I headed to the staircase, and as he’d promised a few seconds ago, he did indeed follow me, which only grew my ire. I wanted to turn and rail on him the second my feet hit the upstairs loft, but I knew it was pointless. My worst fear had come to life, and it was a nightmare of my own making.
I walked over to the small dresser, pushing aside some of Ciara’s stuff to grab a T-shirt and a pair of yoga pants. I also grabbed a sports bra, and when he wouldn’t even give me privacy to dress, I turned away from him. I tied the towel around my waist as I kept my back to him, then quickly put on the bra and shirt.
This one was long enough to cover down to mid-thigh, so I was able to grab some panties to put on before my pants. Once dressed, I sat on the edge of Ciara’s bed and looked over at him. Cillian had always dwarfed me in size, but the years had been good to him. He grew more into his muscular frame, and I could see the outline of a six pack through his shirt.
My gaze moved higher to a face I used to only dream about. While he had aged in the time we’d been apart, he was still so devastatingly handsome. Despite the time and distance that had been between us, my body still recognized him, and acted accordingly. I should’ve been used to betrayal by now, but never had it come from me, myself.
I ran one hand through my still wet locks. They were curly, and if I didn’t brush them soon, they would dry and become frizzy. A bad hair day was the least of my troubles though,especially after I noticed his still menacing expression as he stared down at me.
“Where’s my daughter right now?”
“She isn’t?—”
I couldn’t even get the lie out fast enough because he closed the distance between us and wrapped his hand around my throat to silence me. It was effective, as was the slight tug he gave that sent me bolting to my feet. His grip was tight enough to control me, but not tight enough to impede my breathing. The very act though was enough to make my heart stop beating and my breath catch in my chest.
“I’m going to warn you one last time to think carefully about how you respond. Your words have consequences, most of which I no longer have the foolish notion of love and destiny to sway me away from.”
I pulled at his hand if for no other reason than to put some space between us. He looked down into my eyes, and I could read the warning within his dark glance. I eventually nodded the best that I could, and he relaxed his grip before stepping back.
“Fucking start talking. You’ll see I have far less patience than I used to have.”
“Okay, okay,” I said to him. “Ciara is staying overnight with my best friend. I had a date this evening, and she agreed to keep her.”
“Do you often have dates that require you to have the place to yourself?”
“I don’t see how that is any of your business,” I pointed out, but shook my head at his unyielding expression. “No, I do not. Tonight was the first in a long time.”
“And this date...It has ended?”
“Yes, but again, my social life has nothing to do with?—”
“It has everything to do with Ciara. I need to know if ‘Uncle Jimmy’ or ‘Uncle Thomas’ or ‘Uncle Dale’ are common fixtures in her life.”
I grimaced as he mentioned Dale, which meant he had known about my date. It should’ve infuriated me, especially seeing as I had no idea that I was being watched, much less followed. Nothing surprised me when it came to a Brannington, though. There was no level they would not sink low enough to, and my mother and sister were prime examples of that.
“I’ve never introduced a boyfriend or man to Ciara. She’s everything to me, and the most important priority in my life.”
“As she should be,” he said, but I could still sense his disapproval over my choice to start dating. I wanted to tell him that I doubted he had lived like a monk in all of this time, but he had also believed that I had died, and would’ve had no idea Ciara even existed. “What happened after our wedding?”
I closed my eyes at that, because other than running off in the dead of the night, it had been the singularly most beautiful night in my entire life. For a single evening and morning, I’d been able to feel like Cinderella with her Prince, until it all unraveled after sunrise.
“You tell me,” I spat out at him.
He growled, and even still, the low sound of it did something to me. And he knew it. I saw something unrecognizable flash in his eyes momentarily as I shivered, then he wiped his face clean of all emotion.
