With the priest, they head back down the aisle to the front of the church.
Aisling’s eyebrow lifts in silent question, her lips pursing slightly as I turn the opposite way to head toward the chancel.
Casting my eyes around the space, I check to make sure we’re entirely alone before I face her once more, stepping close to keep our voices low.
I can see the way she flinches, as if she wants to put more space between us, but she stands her ground as she meets my eye, her chin lifting in that signature sign of defiance that drove me wild from the moment I first laid eyes on her.
If I were being perfectly honest with myself, her fiery side still sets my blood alight.
But I crush the traitorous emotion before it can take root and unleash the even more overwhelming sense of guilt—because it would be a betrayal to Genevieve’s memory to feel such a thing for another woman.
So I grind my teeth and force myself to focus.
“You’re sure you want to go through with this?” I ask, voice hushed. “It’s not too late to back out.”
“Don’t you dare ask me that like you thinkI’mthe one who doesn’t have the balls to go through with this,” she counters, her voice a soft hiss.
The determination in her eyes brings back her words from the other day,You owe me this much, Raf.
Like I’m the one who’s caused her some great harm. If anyone owes anyone anything after the way we left things, I’d say it’s the other way around.
She tricked me into thinking she was some innocent, random girl who walked into my family’s club when she knew good and well her family would kill me without a second thought if they ever found out I took her virtue.
God, I was such afoolback then.
The signs were practically screaming at me.
But I was a victim to my own desire, too lost in a pretty face and a quick tongue to notice that Aisling is about as Irish as they come.
“It’s not about which of us has the balls. I think we both know you’ve got an iron pair. But I do know that, unlike me or my family, yours are devout Catholics. We’re standing in a houseof God, so I feel obligated to ask. Can you stand before a congregation and say vows you know you don’t intend to keep?”
A hint of shame creeps into Aisling’s striking azure eyes before she blinks it away, and she purses her pouting red lips. “I’ll do what I have to and make peace with God later,” she says flatly, her fiery determination out in full force once more.
“Fine,” I say with a curt nod. Because despite my reticence to get involved with Aisling—or the Murrays—I do need their help.
And at least Aisling’s offer to fake it until we don’t need each other makes it a much more temporary situation, so even if I never intend to love another woman, a fake marriage that will form an alliance we can both trust won’t be the end of the world.
And even if it’s a risky endeavor, I think I can trust Aisling to keep our secret.
Because her parents have never mentioned a word about my past with Aisling, so she must never have said anything to her family about our three passionate nights together.
If she had, I have no doubt the Murrays would have tried to string me up a long time ago.
So at the very least, I can trust her to keep this fake marriage a secret to ensure our alliance works until our shared interests are met.
Then we can go our separate ways once more.
“If we’re going to do this?—”
“Sincewe’re going to do this,” she interrupts, her eyes flashing.
“Sincewe’re going to do this,” I echo, trying my best not to roll my eyes, “I think we should establish some ground rules.”
“Like what?” she asks, her eyebrow quirking.
“Under no circumstances will we have sex.”
She does roll her eyes at that one. “Like I wouldeverwant to have sex with a self-serving prick like you.”
