“What?”
She seemed not to expect the question.
“What do you want? You did this thing. You found Mary and you discovered her connection to me. Why?”
“Garrett Huntley is going to pay me twenty-five percent of whatever I recover.”
Declan shook his head. He didn’t think of the ramifications of what her in league with Huntley meant. He had to deal with the first problem.
“That’s not what you want. You made a deal with him, an inauspicious one I might add, but that’s not why you came looking for me. I’ll ask it again. What do you want? To hit me? To kill me?” He paused. “To fuck me? What do you want?”
She’d always been genuine, his lovely Sinead, and she wasn’t any different now. The rage in her expression was real. Nearly frightening.
“I want you to feel pain.”
It shouldn’t have hurt as bad as it did. It should have been expected. Of course she would want that. He’d inflicted pain, she would want to avenge that. Still, the idea of her wanting to hurt him… he sighed.
Then quickly ducked as she hurled the glass of whiskey she’d been holding at his head.
“No! You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to be sad.”
He charged at her, sweeping her up and pinning her to the wall. His face inches from hers. He saw her green eyes and her full lips and her cherub-like Irish skin. He smelled her hair. He’d thought he would never have this again. He’d never have her in his arms again, but here she was.
Because she’d been smart and clever and realized that everything he’d told her hadn’t been lie. And he was so fucking grateful for his mistake because here she was. He could tell her he was sorry. He could beg for forgiveness. He could win her back.
All of this was in play now, because she found him.
Thank god, she found him.
That was the truth. There was risk, yes, but he would manage the risk. He always managed the risk. There was his sister too, but he would protect her. He would protect them both.
This, now, was for him.
She struggled against him but he’d pinned her with his body. His hands pressing hers against the wall. His thighs pinning her thighs so she couldn’t kick him. His dick, hard now, keeping her core pressed against the wall.
“What do you want, Sinead?”
“Don’t say my name,” she spat at him. It was there. All the hurt. All the anguish. Everything he’d done to her on her face. It crushed him. It didn’t, however, cow him.
“My name is Declan,” he said. “Say it.”
She pushed against him but he was an immovable force. “Never.”
He grinned at that. “Oh my lovely. You’ve issued a challenge then for me. Because now the first time you’re going to say my name is when you are begging for me to make you come.”
“You touch me and I will kill you,” she growled.
It was awful, he thought. Awful that he should be turned on by what essentially was a hissing cat. She was in pain. Her claws were out. She wanted to inflict serious damage.
All he’d wanted to do was save her. Even if it was from himself.
But he was just that selfish.
“I love you,” he said, because it was the truest thing in his life.
That was when she really got angry.
Chapter 13
She pushed against him with renewed strength, but she wasn’t strong enough and he reveled in that. That she was at his mercy. That he had her here now and he didn’t have to let her go.
“I hate you!” she spat.
It was a lie. He knew this despite her red face and angry words. Or at least he wouldn’t believe it. Because there were only two possible reasons why she was here: She loved him, or she truly despised him.
Of those two, there was only one possibility he would accept.
He wondered if she realized tears were streaming down her cheeks. He dipped his head and kissed away one of those tears.
She tried to bite him.
“You’re going to give in to this,” he said as he tilted his head to kiss her other cheek.
She howled like some lunatic wolf. He took the opportunity to kiss her exposed neck.
“Why would you do this to me?” she said, her voice cracking. “How could anyone be so cruel?”
“I love you,” he said roughly. “I never lied about that. You are under my skin like a parasite, and there are days I wish I could take a knife and cut you out of me. Except then you would be gone and I don’t know how I would live.”
She stilled then, and he braved touching his mouth to hers. Quickly so she couldn’t strike. He pressed his hips into hers and he heard it. A small gasp. A sound that said yes.
“Say my name. I want to hear it from you.”