My dress has ridden up, so the next smack lands on bare skin, and I bite my lip to keep frommoaning.
“Feel that?” he asks. His hand smooths over the burning skin. Possessive. “That’s what happens when you throw things at me.” He leans in closer, his body pressed against my back. I can feel how hard he is.
“And Erin?” His hand slides up and grips my hip. “Next time, I won’t stop at five.” He releases me suddenly and steps back. I’m shaking. Burning. My arse stings, my thighs are slick, and I can’t—I can’t?—
“Pick up my coat,” he orders. “Now.” I turn, glaring at him through the blur of tears and rage and something else I don’t want to name.
His eyes are black, his pupils blown and his jaw tight.
Cavin McCarthy is as affected asI am.
“Pick. It.Up.” I bend down slowly, my cheeks on fire, feeling his eyes on me the whole time. Itwaspetulant of me to throw it at him. I’m not a child anymore.
His fingers brush mine when I hold it out to him. “Good girl,” he says softly, dangerously. “See how easy that was?” Then he drapes the coat over my shoulders again. “Keep it. You’ll need it.”
His thumb traces my jaw. “You’re shaking.”
“Ihateyou.”
”I know.” He leans in. His lips brush my ear. “But your body doesn’t. Does it?”
I open my mouth to protest, but I’ve forgotten how to speak.
His voice drops to a whisper, low enough that only I can hear. “Do us both a favor tonight.” It doesn’t sound like a request, not the way he says it. Not with his body angled toward mine like he’s caging me in without touching me, and the sting of his palm is still throbbing on my arse. “Pretend to like me.”
I stop breathing. “Why thehellwould I do that?”
He holds my gaze for one more second—long enough that I see something dangerous flash in his eyes. Long enough that I feel an answering pull low in my belly that I absolutely do not want. “Because otherwise, they might call off the arrangement. And we both need this marriage, don't we? You, for whatever reason brought you here. Me, for mine.”
He walks away, leaving me trembling against the wall with my arse on fire and heat pooling between my legs.
Bastard.
I freeze. Disbelief burns to fury, then burns to something I don’t have a name for. He glances back once. There’s amusement in his expression,but also tension. Conflict. He doesn’t like this any more than I do. But the way he looked at me, like he wanted to devour me and destroy me in equal measure. I press my palms against the cool wall and try to remember how to breathe.
Cavin McCarthy, my… husband?
What just happened?
Chapter Eight
Cavin
The dining roomfeels too stuffy, too formal. All gold and noise and too bright for the hour. Light reflects off the silverware, and for a second, I wonder if this is what Erin sees.
She blinks when it’s too bright and flinches at loud sounds.
And now, I feel it too.
I don’t want to fucking be here.
Everyone’s in place. My brothers and sisters. My cousins—Declan, Daire, Ashland, Colm, Donovan, and Lorcan. We’ve other men in the clan but have kept it to family tonight.
The room is full but silent, tension-packed like gunpowder. Erin’s mother shoots her a warning look across the table, and I feel it, the echo of my own childhood—disciplined, polished into silence.
Behave. Remember that your presence reflects on all of us.
I love my family, I truly do, but they’ve been hard.
