The Wedding Pact (The O'Malleys #2)(64)

The rest of the reception passed in a blur. Every time she looked up, she found Aiden or Cillian glaring at her, a physical reminder of the talk she had coming. She tried to dredge up some righteous indignation. Good lord, she tried. But there was nothing.

She’d been sleeping with the enemy.

Worse, she could still feel the imprint of his mouth on her skin, his hands on her body, his cock inside her. Even knowing the trouble that was coming, she still wanted James almost more than she wanted her next breath—which just proved she was too stupid to live.

They saw Teague and Callie off in a flurry of bubbles. Carrigan was an island of misery in the midst of all the joy, her glowering brothers flanking her as she walked to the waiting town car and they got in on either side of her. She barely had time to take a breath before Aiden started in. “What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. You? James fucking Halloran? Seriously, Carrigan? How fucking stupid can you be?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, staring straight ahead. “I’m not stupid.” They didn’t know James. They didn’t understand that what he and she shared was something she couldn’t make herself pass up. “You don’t understand.”

“No, I goddamn well don’t. He kidnapped you. Christ only knows what he did to you when you were in his house.”

Carrigan turned to glare at him. “Christ has nothing to do with it. I know what happened—and, more importantly, what didn’t happen—to me. And it’s a moot point now anyway.”

“No, it’s not a fucking moot point.” He pointed a finger out the side window. “That guy is the enemy. He might be someone you’re attracted to or whatever the fuck was going on back there, but he’s a Halloran. He’s not for you, and you damn well know it.”

Yeah, she did. Not too long ago, that forbidden aspect would have been enough to make James even more attractive to her. Was that all this is? The lure of the untouchable? She hunched lower in her seat, every instinct crying against that belief. It was different with James. He was different. Maybe she’d originally entertained thoughts of him because he was the one man her father would lose his shit over, but that had quickly morphed into something…genuine.

Aiden gripped her shoulder. “Look at me, Carrigan.”

She wanted to dig in her heels and shut her eyes like she had when they were kids and he pissed her off. But they weren’t kids anymore. They were adults, and she was facing real-life consequences. So she turned and met his gaze, doing her damnedest not to drop her eyes. Her brother’s face seemed to have acquired new lines in the last few hours, and every single one of them was because of her. “Aiden—”

“He is not for you. I’ll keep this from our father, because we both know what he’d do if he knew.”

Nothing good. Seamus’s potential reactions ranged from locking her in the attic for the rest of her life to marrying her off right away to the first man he could find that wasn’t an enemy of the O’Malleys. Nowhere on the list was him smiling, patting her on the head, and telling her that he just wanted her to be happy. Her happiness was, and always had been, secondary.

On her other side, she could practically feel Cillian seething. He shifted. “You can’t seriously be thinking of letting this go, Aiden. He defiled our sister.”

“Are you serious right now?” She turned and smacked him. “I’m a grown-ass woman, and no one defiled me.”

“Except that time he threw your ass into a trunk and kidnapped you. Since when are we so willing to forget that? Aiden, you have to tell Father.”

“I don’t have to do a damn thing—and neither do you.” The boy she’d grown up with, the one she’d played countless hours of imaginary games with, was gone, replaced by a cold son of a bitch that Carrigan would think twice before crossing. Apparently Cillian felt the same way, because he jerked back. Aiden looked at her, and then Cillian. “Neither one of you is going to do anything that might jeopardize the peace deals we have going. Not a single fucking thing, do you hear me? That means you keep your mouth shut.” He jerked his chin at Cillian. “And you keep the hell away from Halloran. We can fix this, but you’re going to do exactly what I say.”

She didn’t want to. She wanted to rail and scream and hit in protest. But it wouldn’t do a damn bit of good. She was as trapped as she’d always been. Damn you, James. Why did you have to come to the wedding? Things were going good.

And he’d been her dirty little secret.

She tried to smother the shame the thought brought. Today had more than proven that James wasn’t ever going to be accepted by her family. He wasn’t on the list. Hell, he was so far off the list, he was probably the last person in the world her father would allow her to marry.