“I do want to marry ye’ and have babies, but not right—”
“I’m going to be late for work.” He cut me off, the muscles in his jaw rolling back and forth. “I’d better get going.”
I didn’t move.
“Ye’ can’t just leave when we’re talkin’ about this, Damien,” I argued. “Nothin’ good comes from lettin’ a conversation like this lie. Ye’ know that.”
“We’ve said what needs to be said,” he countered. “I want to marry you, and you don’t want to marry me. I get it. Now, get off me because I have to go to work.”
Like the flip of a switch, my mood turned sour.
“You’re an arsehole,” I grouched as I scrambled off him and stormed out of the room, heading towards the bedroom. “Ye’ can’t resist startin’ a fight when ye’ don’t get what ye’ want.”
“I’m not bitching about not getting my way, Alannah,” Damien shouted from behind me. “I’m pissed off because you won’t take the next step with me.”
“Because I’m not ready yet!” I bellowed, turning in the bedroom doorway in time to see Damien reach for the handle of the front door. “Why can’t ye’ just wait a while?”
“Because I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“And you need to put a weddin’ band on me finger right this second to assure yourself that’s gonna happen?” I shook my head. “I will marry ye’. I’m goin’ to marry ye’, but when I’m ready, Damien.”
“Yeah,” he snapped back. “I got that, loud and fucking clear. Everything will be on your time. Your way or the highway, right?”
“Fuck you!”
“Later.” His lip curled upward into a sneer. “I have work to get to, but I’ll keep thinking of your sweet pussy to make my day go by faster.”
I loathed when he was like this. He could rival Nico Slater, his twin brother, with how much of an arsehole he could become when he was upset about something. With a fierce scowl sent in his direction, I slammed the bedroom door shut. A second later, the apartment front door rapped against the wood of the door panel, causing a loud bang to echo.
“Arsehole!” I bellowed, loud enough for Damien to hear me in the hallway. “If ye’ break that door, you’re fuckin’ payin’ for it!”
I could have sworn I heard his humourless laughter.
“Bloody man,” I scowled and angrily folded my arms across my chest as I tapped my foot against the floor. “He makes me so mad, Barbara!”
Barbara, my eleven-month-old cat, jumped up onto my bed and rubbed her head against my hip. I turned my attention to her and relaxed as I petted her. I climbed up onto my bed and flopped onto my back. When she crawled up onto my stomach, I chuckled as she sat down and claimed my belly as her throne. I found her when she was roughly ten weeks old, and the few weeks that followed my finding her were the best and worst weeks of my life. From entering my relationship with Damien to learning my mother had breast cancer … as well as secrets about my best friends that shook my entire world to its core. Not to mention Morgan Allen’s entry into my life, the bearer of those haunting secrets I had learned about the Slater brothers.
“Stupid girl,” I scowled to myself.
Thinking of how trusting I was with someone who could have been potentially dangerous towards me left me nothing but irritated. I was a smart woman, but I had made some shitty decisions in my past. Morgan was one of them, which was worth an eye roll because I had once thought he was a blessing who came to me just when I needed him.
I knew his name was Carter Miles, but in my head, he was Morgan Allen.
For weeks, I worked in my home office with him, organising and running my business. While building what I thought was a friendship with him, I was shocked to find out his goal, and overall purpose in my life, was to turn me against the Slater brothers. He succeeded for a couple of weeks, but when I did the smart thing and heard Damien and everyone else out, I learned why they had to commit such acts of horror.
They were left with no choice.
I grabbed my phone from my nightstand when it rang and answered it without looking at who was calling.
“Hello?”
“I want to die.”
I grinned. “What’s the matter?”
“This baby needs to be born right now,” Bronagh stated. “I can’t handle bein’ pregnant for much longer. I feel like a balloon that’s about to pop.”
“Imagine how Keela feels. ‘Er due date is today, and there is no sign of ‘er havin’ the baby.”
“I know,” Bronagh groaned. “But she can go at any time. I still have a week and a bit left.”
“Have sex,” I encouraged. “Wild, rough sex. That should get things movin’.”
“We can’t ‘cause it hurts me too much when Dominic gets into a rhythm,” Bronagh explained. “We haven’t had sex in over three weeks, and he’s gonna have to suffer until six weeks after I have the baby … He’ll probably leave me for some woman with a perfectly functionin’ fanny.”
When I laughed, it irritated Barbara. She jumped off the bed and walked over to the window where she jumped up on the windowsill without a backward glance.
“It’s not funny!”
I continued to laugh.
“I’m sorry,” I stressed. “I’m takin’ this seriously, I swear.”
“Great, ‘ere come the waterworks.” Bronagh sniffled. “I’m sick of cryin’ over nothin’.”
“I know, babe, but ye’ will have the baby soon, and then ye’ll be cryin’ for a different reason. Like gettin’ no sleep.”
Bronagh snickered a little. “What’re ye’ doin’?”
“Lyin’ in bed … thinkin’ of how to murder Damien and get away with it.”
Silence.
“What’d he do?”
“He asked me to marry ‘im, again, and when I said no, he became alpha arsehole.”
“Did you explain why—”
“Of course,” I cut Bronagh off. “I told ‘im that I’m not ready yet. I love ‘im to death, Bronagh, and I will marry ‘im, but is it so terrible that I want things to just progress a little slower?”
“No, it’s not terrible. What’s terrible is Damien throwin’ a wobbler ‘cause he isn’t gettin’ his way.”
“That exactly what I said to ‘im!”
“How’d he take it?”
“He had an attitude, then left for work.” I huffed. “He’s put me in a foul mood.”
“He’ll come home grovellin’ for your forgiveness.” Bronagh snorted. “That man is so in love with ye’ he can’t stand when you’re mad at ‘im.”
“I wish he wasn’t as grouchy.”
“Babe, you’ve got the calm twin. Imagine how I feel.”
“Please.” I snorted. “It’s Nico I feel sorry for when ye’ both argue. You’re a nightmare.”
“Hey,” Bronagh jokingly quipped. “I’m a lot more mellow than I used to be.”
“Since you had Georgie,” I agreed. “But ye’ can also be a total mama bear, so I’m not sure if mellow is the right word.”
“Bitch.”
I chuckled. “Do ye’ want to go to the village for somethin’ to eat? I’d murder a breakfast roll.”
“Oh, hell yeah. I want two of them.”
Commenting on how bad two full-size breakfast rolls would be on her body would most likely result in my death, so I kept my mouth shut.
“I’ll swing by and get ye’ in ten minutes.”
“Deal. Me and Georgie will be ready. Beep when you’re outside.”
After I hung up with Bronagh, I got changed into a knee-length sky blue dress with black sandals and tied my hair up into a high ponytail. It was early June, and things were hotter than usual for this time of the year … or for Ireland, in general. It was only ten a.m., and it was twenty-six degrees outside with no clouds in sight. It was roasting, and summer had only just started. It was like all my Christmases came at once. After I made sure that Barbara had food, water, and free run of my apartment, I left with my side bag and keys in hand. When I exited the elevator in the lobby, I groaned out loud when I saw two men walking towards me.