He huffed, then rolled to the side and propped his head up on his elbow, all the better to glare down at me. “Ye didn’t stab Ilya, dat was me own feckin’ fault. But I do need to make sure ye’re ready the next time Sloan wants ye for a job. We’ll all have to be at our best, every feckin’ minute.”
I smoothed my hands along the blankets. “I made things harder for you. I... I get tired of everyone blaming me for shit. I guess I just want to make sure we’re on the level. This is over and done with, right?”
Cillian didn’t budge. He was a statue. It didn’t take long for me to figure out I’d fucked up by coming in here, and by the time I went to slide off the bed he grabbed my bicep. It actually hurt.
“You know, people train for the ring, and they fuck up a lot while they train.” I tried to tug free, but Cillian didn’t let go. “You can’t beonall the time. You can’t be perfect every day. It’s just not possible.”
His grip tightened until I winced, and then he huffed out a breath and moved his hand until he was clutching my forearm. He shook it. “Ye feckin’eejit. I don’t want yer gobshite philosophizing. We don’t get bad days.” He slid his hand down to my wrist and pinned it in place, and my pulse immediately kicked into high gear as I tensed. “Don’t tell no one this, but I don’t want ye dead. Fuckups mean a box in the ground for ye rather than the other bloke, the way it worked out last time. There can’t be mistakes or it’s us, Fallon.” He pressed my wrist tighter to the bed.
“I’ll try.”
He growled, and I wasn’t prepared the way I should’ve been when he moved on top of me and snatched my other wrist, slamming it to the bed. I bucked, but my chest gave an unpleasant pang of pain. I could throw him off, but I’d end up hurting myself in the process. Anger blazed to life in my belly as I decided to lie there, and he grunted when I relaxed. He jammed his knees between mine and spread my legs.
“I could break your nose right now,” I hissed, and he grinned as if he thought that was the best thing in the world. He settled in, at the same time knocking aside the blankets, and I was shockingly aware of the fact he wasn’t dressed. His full weight relaxed on me and my breath caught. He wasn’t a small guy, and his total lack of concern for me really drove home that Aspen had been careful since I’d come back from the hospital.
“Tell me somethin’,” he said, his voice taking on that dangerous, musical lilt that had the hair standing up on the back of my arms. I’d heard him sound that way when he was torturing someone. “What’s he see in ye?”
Straining my arms to test Cillian’s strength had him shifting more of his weight to keep me in place. I could easily throw him if I wanted to try it, but he wasn’t doing anything too bad, just making me uncomfortable. I sighed and slammed my head back against the bed.
“Who?”
“Aspen,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “Is it that ye let him in yer arse? Is that the only thing? Ye’re hot, but he’s had better.”
The words stung, and the asshole clearly didn’t give a fuck about... well, my feelings. Did he even have any? Every time I thought he was starting to warm up to me he would be a prick again. I tossed my weight, and he fought me, keeping me in place, and my ribs hurt bad enough that I stopped.
“I’m moving in one minute and I don’t fucking care if I hurt you when I do it. Let go.”
He grinned and his nostrils flared. “Oh, I’d like to see that, but answer my question.”
“Are you for real?”
He didn’t budge, only stared.
I sighed. “I don’t know, okay? I’m hot, I know that, but Vail likes me more than anyone ever has. He loves me.” Cillian grunted and I knew he felt the same way about Vail that I did. “I love him, and Aspen....” My face heated. “If you don’t like me, then I can’t explain it. You’d have to ask him why he likes me.”
“He was polite to my auntie and he works without complaining.”
We both flinched, and Cillian’s smirk grew. He didn’t let me go as we glanced toward the corner of the room. When or how Aspen snuck in I didn’t know, but he had his arms crossed and he was glaring, and I wasn’t sure if he was pissed at me, Cillian, or both of us.
13
ASPEN
The first thingI noticed was that Cillian was too heavy to be lying on Fallon, who I knew for a fact was still tender in the ribs and lungs. Then there was Fallon’s pump, squished beneath the weight of Cillian’s body, and an instinctive protectiveness I’d only felt for Vail rose inside me. I stepped toward the bed, back straight and mouth twisted in irritation. I’d thrown on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt before I went searching for Fallon to see if he was all right, but I didn’t expect to find him here.
“What are you doing?” I asked, but I wasn’t sure if I was aiming the question at Fallon or Cillian. Maybe both of them.
Fallon answered first, though. He flinched, and a charming shade of red spread across his cheeks. “I was checking on Cillian.”
I raised my eyebrows and stared down at their compromising position. Cillian was buck naked, while Fallon only had on his pajama pants. This was the closest I’d ever seen them while Vail wasn’t around. Usually Cillian wanted nothing to do with him, but now it wasn’t hard to see his semi trapped between him and Fallon. Not that I blamed him.
I kept quiet because there wasn’t anything to be said. I’d caught them.
Fallon cleared his throat, his cheeks blazing brighter. “I wanted to see if he was still alive.”
Cillian smirked at me, and we stared at each other. It wasn’t hard to figure out what went through his head most of the time—it revolved around sex, and everything we’d done together before Vail, we’d shared. While Fallon was part of Vail’s world, too, I was also getting closer to him, and Cillian was curious.
He cocked his head, the question there in his eyes, and I nodded, stepping over to close the door. The room was dark until I turned on the lamp on top of the nightstand beside the bed. Hooking my fingers under my shirt, I lifted it up and over my head and threw it to the floor.
