You're losing your mind over a woman who hates you.
Maybe. But she won't hate me forever. People can be turned, loyalties can be shifted, and I've never met a woman I couldn't charm when I put my mind to it.
Tierney Blakewill be no different.
The next few hours crawl by like torture.
I review security protocols. She'll have protection but not be stuck in a gilded cage. I want her to be a wife, not a prisoner. At least until I figure out what game she's playing.
I’ve had updates from the team watching her in Belfast. She left her country completely emotionless and something about that bothers me more than it should. Either she's a sociopath who feels nothing, or she's damn good at hiding how much it affected her.
Knowing what I know about her psychological profile, it was probably the latter. She compartmentalizes trauma and locks away pain so she can function.
All so she could come here and marry me.
I click on video files leaked from our contacts in Ireland. They show her during sparring sessions and weapons drills. Watching the way she moves, the way she avoids threats, the fierceness I saw in Bucharest..shit, it all makes my pulse throb.
Every motion is precise and lethal. In one video, she managed to disarm a man twice her size and pins him on the ground in under thirty seconds.
My soon to be wife is beautiful when she's dangerous. And apparently, she's always dangerous except for when she’s with her boring boyfriend.
I grit my teeth and drain the rest of my whiskey.
Focus.
I’ve been trying all night to run scenarios, to plan my approach, and to think strategically. But every time I closemy eyes, I remember her writhing underneath me, angry, desperate and absolutely magnificent.
And in a few hours, she's going to be mine to manipulate, seduce and ultimately betray when the time comes.
At midnight, I get the text I've been waiting for.
Her plane just landed. ETA to the penthouse is 45 minutes.
Forty-five minutes until she walks through my front door and my bachelor life grinds to a halt.
I read the message three times, toss my phone aside, and push back my hair.
She's here. In my city, breathing my air, probably plotting seventeen different ways to escape or kill me in my sleep.
Her father tore her away from the life she knew, from the man she chose, and from a future she thought she could control.
And here I am, ready to let her fall in love with me instead.
I’ve never met a woman who could resist the old Bronx charm when I really turn it up. In reality this job should be straightforward but nothing about Tierney Blake is typical.
The lights of the Manhattan skyline glitter in the dark inky sky. Somewhere out there, she's in the back of a Viacava car, probably staring out at the same lights and any minute now, she'll enter my territory to face the man who destroyed her old life.
My pretty little fiancee will have to be contained for her own good. Especially knowing her skill set and motives for risking her life.
Yet despite knowing all of that, I can't fucking wait to see that vicious hellcat again.
Get ready to sink your claws in deep, Tierney Blake. I’m ready for you, and claws slice both ways.
7
TIERNEY
“Hey…” I whisper down the phone. “Sorry to wake you. We need to talk.”
