"She better not be in your fucking bed, Declan!"
"She's inabed. Would you rather I locked her in the closet?"
Thea sighed. "No, of course not. As long as she's safe."
"She is."
"You said that last time," she reminded me. "And look what happened!"
"I can't help it if your sister is almost as stubborn and reckless as you!" I hissed.
There was a long, pregnant pause. "You never did tell me why she left in such a hurry."Dammit.That wasn't a conversation I wanted to have with her.
"You need to talk to her about that, not me. I'm not a fucking mind reader."
The grumble of annoyance across our connection told me Verity had said nothing at all to her sister, which suited me just fine. I'd prefer it if my balls stayed attached to my body for now.
"I would, but you told me she ditched her phone."
My jaw clenched. "I'll let her call you from my phone when she wakes," I told her before ending the call.
41
Verity
The sound of rain hitting the glass doors like bullets woke me. I lay still with my eyes closed, cocooned beneath the thick comforter, still wrapped in a now-dry towel.
It was weird waking up to silence. The hostel had been anything but silent. This reminded me of my bedroom in Ireland, where if I opened the french windows, I could hear the sea roaring in the distance.
Had Declan left me? I couldn't hear him. No TV. No voices talking. My cheeks flamed at the memory of him carrying me from the bathroom. Then his comment about me sleeping with his brothers popped into my head, and I winced.
His opinion of me must be somewhere in the gutter. First, I'd let Ronan seduce me, then Conal. No doubt he assumed I was hoping for a full-house. All three Kelly brothers.
Saoirse was right. I needed help. Urgent psychological help to repair my non-existent boundaries.
Maybe I should go back to sleep and pray for death. A sudden, catastrophic brain embolism seemed like a better option thanfacing Declan. He'd seen me naked.God.What must he think of me?
He had a girlfriend, for fuck's sake! Compared to his beautiful model girlfriend with her long, lean legs and pert breasts, I looked like a heifer fattened up for a trip to the market. I truly was delusional if I thought he'd ever look at me in that way.
"Since you're clearly awake, I'll order some food."
My eyes snapped open in surprise to see Declan sat in an armchair across the room, his long legs resting on a coffee table. At some point, he'd changed into a pair of loose cotton pants and a clean polo shirt.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry as the Sahara as my gaze lingered on the broad expanse of his chest before moving south. All thoughts of Bridget, hisbeautifulgirlfriend, wentpoof.
"Hungry?" When my eyes slid back up to his face, his lips had curled up in wry amusement. I flushed at being caught ogling him so blatantly. What the fuck was wrong with me?
"No." My stomach chose that moment to growl like a junk-yard dog. He rolled his eyes.
"Get up while I call room service." The bastard stood and stretched while I fought hard not to lose myself in a blistering hot fantasy where he stalked over to the bed, pulled the covers off me, and…
"Here, pick what you want." He tossed a menu onto the bed, disrupting my chain of thought. "We're stuck here for at least 12 hours, so I'd prefer it if I didn't have to listen to your stomach cannibalize itself."
I nodded while staring, unseeing, at the menu, thankful for the way my long hair hid my fiery cheeks. Once he left me alone, I crawled out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom. By the time I'd scraped my hair back into a braid and pulled a robe on, my legs trembled from hunger.
When had I last eaten something? The only food to pass my lips in recent memory was the cheese sandwich I'd stuffed down before I left for the club yesterday afternoon.
What time was it now, anyway?
