Alistair Chapter 11

I knew the confrontation with Brynes would have Darragh and the others sending out more men to watch over her. If they hadn’t insisted, I would’ve. I wasn’t taking any chances with her. I was still burning with the need to beat him some more for what he said, especially calling her a whore. She was far from one. His insults to me I couldn’t care less about.

Knowing we had to wait for more reinforcements and that she was stressing, I’d come up with the surprise last night using the cameras. I was so lucky and thrilled she’d loved it as much as I did. She was my match in every way. Sex with her was out of this world and nothing close to what I had with the women I used for sexual relief in the past. I knew I’d never grow tired or bored. She’d keep me on my toes for the rest of our lives.

Aisling refused to work from the house. She said she wasn’t gonna allow Brynes to run her off from her winery. Since I figured he wouldn’t strike this soon, nor anywhere it would be easy to know it was him or his men, I agreed we’d go to her office there. We’d been here a couple of hours so far. I let her work while I roamed the building and then the grounds more to see where we could tighten security.

With people in and out all day, it was hard to do. She not only had her employees, but there were also people coming and going, taking tours, and tasting wine. All of them might be a potential threat. There were cameras all over, but I saw a few places where we needed to add some. Thankfully, her office was set up so that if there were threats, it would lock down and make it almost like a panic room. I think every one of the family’s businesses where they had an office was set up the same.

I prowled the perimeter and buildings while Creed, Reggie, and Dario were watching over her. I needed to be ready when her family got here. Yes, as expected, there were some coming. I got the message not long ago. I decided not to tell her. It would only make her more nervous, and she needed to concentrate on work. It wasn’t as if she’d be able to talk them out of coming if she knew. They were on the plane before they even told me, not that it was unexpected. I wondered who was coming.

Glancing at my watch, I saw they should be here anytime. After making my last inspection, I headed back to the office. I wanted to be with her when they arrived. Entering the building, I saw Reggie and Dario were stationed outside her door, which meant Creed was inside with her. I gave them a nod, and they acknowledged it with identical chin lifts.

Knowing Aisling would be so involved with her work that she hadn’t thought of lunch, I went to find Carrie. She would know the best places to order food from, which could be delivered out here. I found her in the copy room, as I called it. She jumped when she saw me.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I have a bad habit of sneaking up on people,” I told her with a smile.

She gave me a small smile back. “Yes, you do. I didn’t hear you. Can I help you?”

“Yeah, you can. I want to order lunch, but I have no clue which places are good or who delivers. I thought you might.”

“There are a few places we usually order from. I can get you a menu if you’d like, and then I can place an order for you.”

“Why don’t you decide? I want to order for everyone and some extras. Give me a second, and I’ll give you a head count to add to all of you.” As she patiently waited, I texted Aidan. I knew he was coming. It didn’t take but a minute to get his reply. I shook my head. He said to expect fifteen. God, Aisling was gonna lose it. I didn’t know how many were family versus guards.

“Make it twenty-five plus all the employees. Here’s my card to pay for it,” I went to take out my wallet.

“Your card isn’t necessary, Mr. Graeme. We have a company account with all of them. I’ll charge it to that. I assume it’s work-related and not for pleasure.”

“Yes and no. Can you have it here, say within an hour, hour-and-a-half?”

“I can. No food dislikes or allergies before I order?”

“Not that I can think of. This crew is pretty open to food. As long as it’s good, they’ll be happy.”

“Then I’ll get right on it.”

“Thanks, Carrie, and please, call me Alistair.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know when it gets here, Alistair,” she said with a bigger smile on her face. As she hurried off to her desk, I went over to the guys.

“Anything?” I asked, although I knew the answer was no. If there had been, I would’ve been the first to know.

“It’s been quiet. A couple of visitors wanted to speak to her, but they were told she was in a meeting. Seems they wanted to meet the woman behind this. Personally, I think they just wanted to meet an O’Sheeran so they could brag about it. You know how they are,” Reggie said with a roll of his eyes.

It was true. People acted as if they were celebrities, and it irritated the family to no end. I had Marco, Remi, and Zeke stationed throughout the winery grounds in case something would pop off. They were our early warning system. At least we didn’t have any paparazzi bugging the shit out of us. They were the worst, in my opinion.

“Aidan and some others will be here soon,” I informed them.

“Does she know that?” Dario asked as he raised his brow.

“No, and I’m not telling her. She’ll only get worked up. When they get here, show them in. Oh, and lunch will be coming in about an hour or so.”

“Hopefully, you’re still alive to enjoy it after she finds out you knew and didn’t say anything,” he said with a grin.

“Hey, why do you think I carry weapons and have been extensively trained?” I joked.

He and Reggie both laughed and shook their heads. They knew exactly how well-trained I was. Slapping them on the shoulder, I knocked on her office door. A few seconds later, Creed opened it. I walked in after acknowledging him. She was at her desk, staring intently at something on her laptop screen. She didn’t look up, and I didn’t disturb her.

“I’ll stay with her,” I whispered to Creed.

“I’ll be outside if you need me,” he said before leaving.

Walking to the couch, I sat down to wait for her to get done with whatever she was doing. While she worked, I scrolled through emails on my phone. I had access to encrypted information. Even if I wasn’t actively working on a Hounds assignment, as the leader, I needed to keep up on everything we had going and any potential new cases. My people had orders to keep me in the loop on everything.

I was studying a new request we just got today when I heard the creak of a chair and her footsteps coming toward me. Closing out the window, I raised my head and smiled at her. No matter how many times I saw her, she always took my breath away. She had outer beauty, yes, but there was so much more to her. Inside, she was even more beautiful, in my opinion. As she sat next to me, I encircled her shoulders and hugged her.

“How’s it going? Anything exciting?” I asked.

“Right now, not much other than reading through what my lead viticulturist has been doing to the new grapes we’ve been growing to make the new wines. I think we need to make a few tweaks to what we’re doing, and I suggested those to him.”

“Have I told you how proud I am of you?”

“Proud of me for what?”

“The passion you have for the winery and the hard work you not only put into educating yourself on winemaking but also the work you continue to do. You could sit back and leave things as they are, but you don’t. You keep improving things. These awards you’ve mentioned will be well deserved.”

“Thank you. I do love it. I was surprised at first by how much I did. Now, it’s become a passion. What about you? Isn’t your work with the Hounds a passion for you? I know you do a wonderful job. The number of people you help every year attests to that.”

“It is a passion for me, and I’ve never wanted to do anything else. Everyone assumes I did it because my athair , dad, did, but that’s not why. Sure, I was proud of him, and in many ways, I wanted to be an upstanding man like him. However, it was what I saw in those they helped and protected that really made me want to do it. I endured all the training and those years in the special unit to ensure I could do my best for them. I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t a Hound.”

“No matter what you do, I know you’d be excellent at it, but I think the Hounds is your spot. I’m so proud of the things you do with them.”

“Oh, you are, are you? You deserve a reward for saying that,” I said with a low growl as I hauled her closer and then kissed her.

Kissing her never grew old, either. I’d waited too many years for her to pass up the opportunity. I felt starved for her kisses and took every chance I got to get more. Her tongue twined with mine. Things grew heated, and my cock began to stiffen. I was running my hand up her thigh to slip under her skirt to see if she was wet when there was a knock at the door. She whimpered as I lifted my mouth away from hers. I put my hand back on her knee.

“Yeah, what is it?” I called out. My voice was gruff with my need.

The door opened, and Creed stuck his head inside. I knew, by his blank expression, that the cavalry had arrived. “You have people here who are anxious to see you both.”

“Who is it?” she asked.

Before he was able to answer her, he was tapped on the shoulder. He moved back and swung the door open wider. In strolled the troops, and in the lead was Aidan. In addition to him, there was his bodyguard Gael, Shane with Niall, Rian with Reign, Ciaran with Daniel, Rory with Fionn, and Tiernan with Milo. In addition to her family and their personal guards, they brought Kendric and Eamon, two of their enforcers, and Cashel and Vander, who were foot soldiers like Reggie and Dario. They filled her huge office. Her eyes widened as she took them all in. After checking them over, she turned to look at me.

“You knew they were coming, didn’t you?” She uttered suspiciously.

I didn’t lie. “I did, and I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d stress over it. They didn’t tell me until after they were in the air, though. Leanabh, you had to know it was happening.”

“I’ll talk to you later about the stressing me part. As for them coming, I did know, but this is ridiculous. Why does it take all of them? It’s not like Chris is gonna put out a hit on me!” she protested.

“How the hell do you know he won’t? Just because we’ve been at peace with his family for years doesn’t mean they haven’t been secretly waiting for something to give them a reason to come after us,” Aidan argued.

She opened her mouth to argue back, but he cut her off by lifting her to her feet and hugging her. This set off a round of her cousins and brothers hugging her and the men greeting her and me. I shook hands with her family and guards. Once that was out of the way, the discussion resumed.

“He’d be stupid to do it over something like this, Aidan. I doubt his whole family will back him doing it even if he was inclined to. We still have more muscle and power than them. They know what happened with ‘you know who.’ I don’t see him being suicidal.”

“Hurt pride and unrequited feelings can drive a person to do a lot of things they might not normally do,” I warned her.

“Like what?” she asked.

“We rescue people who’ve been kidnapped at times. I admit, there were more than a few times I was so tied in knots over you and how I feel I thought briefly of kidnapping you and seeing if I could get you to admit you had feelings for me or they could grow,” I admitted.

“What!? You’re joking,” she said in shock.

“No, he’s not. I can’t believe you didn’t see how in love with you he was all these years. I swear we wanted to kidnap you both and lock you in a remote cabin until you both came to your senses and told each other. It damn near killed us,” Tiernan grumbled.

“Hell yeah, too bad Daid and Mam vetoed it,” Shane added.

“You’re all crazy. Okay, enough about me and Alistair. Are you all planning to stay for a bit, or what? And when you leave, who is being left behind to be bored to death watching me?”

“We thought we’d stay a few days and see what happens. It’ll do Chris good to see you have family here. If he wants to come back and start shit, we’ll be here. When we go back, if things are still up in the air, Kendric, Eamon, Vander, and Cashel will likely stay. If they’re needed elsewhere, then we’ll bring on more Aegis security. Alistair said you already have three here. How’re they doing?” Aidan asked.

“There hasn’t been anything for them to do other than help me check for security issues and where things can be shored up, but they seem disciplined and know their stuff. I’ve been quizzing them,” I explained.

“Of course you have. I swear, we’ll have to pay them extra for putting up with him,” Rian said as he smirked at me.

“You’re just jealous I’m so much better at it than you. Don’t be. One day, when you’re a hundred, you’ll be half as good as me,” I needled him.

“Fuck you, Alistair. I think we need to have a long talk with Aisling and get her to change her mind about you.”

“And you can disappear,” I shot back.

This got us all razzing each other, which was not only fun but also eased her tension when she joined in. The others stood there, either grinning or adding their comments, too. It wasn’t until we were interrupted by the buzzing of her office phone a good while later that we stopped. She went to answer it with a grin on her face, which meant we eased her ruffled feathers.

When she was done, she got our attention. “It seems lunch is being served in the employee lounge. Let’s go eat before you guys turn even more feral.” They mockingly growled at her. I let Ciaran lead her out while I brought up the rear with Aidan and Gael.

“She doesn’t think he’ll do shit, but I’m not convinced,” Aidan whispered to me.

“I’m not either. The shit he said might not sound horrendous, but I saw his face. He’s not just letting this go. Whether he causes trouble or whatever, he’ll do something. If he harms her in any way, even emotionally, his ass is mine,” I told him.

“You may have to flip coins with us to get the privilege. We’ll see,” he smirked.

I shoved him, and we instigated each other all the way to the break room.

???

Aisling was exhausted. I could tell. Having to deal with part of her family and the ones they brought with them was a lot. After lunch, we’d let her get back to work while I showed the guys what I planned to shore up, and we talked more about Brynes. It still worried me that Cody hadn’t been able to discover a credible threat against either family to explain the car slamming into them. There were always vague ones out there. They never stopped. We should be eliminating threats, not adding them. The only problem was, I didn’t see how she could’ve broken the news to him about us without causing the rift. It was now just a matter of finding out how big it was.

The house wasn’t big enough to accommodate everyone, so the foot soldiers and enforcers were at a nearby hotel when they weren’t actively on patrol and guard duty. The family members and their bodyguards were divided. Since the house had me and Creed and a state-of-the-art security system, and the O’Sheeran men were all highly trained themselves, their guards were at the hotel as well while they stayed with us. It wasn’t ideal, but it would work.

I hoped having them in the house wouldn’t cause more stress on Aisling. She needed to be able to relax, and one of the ways I planned to help her do that was through sex. If they started to interfere in our intimacy, I’d personally escort their asses to the hotel as well. When I informed her of this, she laughed and said she might lie just to see me do it.

After dinner and time hanging out together, she and I were now alone and curled up together in bed. We had the fireplace going, and we were talking. I was amazed at how much enjoyment just holding her and talking gave me. We didn’t need to be having sex or anything. We were discussing what was on her agenda for tomorrow. I discovered she had two meetings. One at the winery and another in San Diego. Both were with potential new distributors. She was excited because both were lucrative accounts if she was able to win them.

“Is there anything special you know they’re wanting?”

“They tend to be rather picky about who they allow in their establishments. They both have several high-end restaurants and tend to stick to wines from Napa Valley or Italy. One of them is a wine snob, as I call it. They think only wines from those two areas and well-known names are the only ones who make great wines. To get them to even sell one of Maeve’s would be a major win. I’ve been preparing for these meetings for a while. I was supposed to do them the last time I was here. They weren’t thrilled to reschedule.”

“ Mo ghràdh , you were hurt in a wreck and had major surgery. You could’ve very easily died and was in critical condition. What the fuck did they expect?” I asked in outrage.

“To them, it means nothing. A lot of these companies are heartless. As much as I want their business for a variety of reasons, mainly because it opens the door for others like them to consider us, I’m not holding my breath. However, I owe it to the family and our employees to pursue every lead, no matter how unlikely it may be.”

“I love how much you care for others. I can’t wait to get a look at these clowns.”

“I doubt you’ll meet them. It’s not like you can go in with me.”

“Is Creed?”

“Yeah, they know I always travel with one guard, and it was negotiated ahead of time.”

“Well, tomorrow, I’ll take Creed’s place in the room, and he can stay outside.”

“Honey, there’s no need for you to do that. I thought you might take time to explore or do whatever while I was in the San Diego meeting. The one here, I knew you’d find something to do.”

“There’s a need to make sure you’re safe. Would someone be an idiot to come to the winery or into a meeting and harm you? Yes, but not all people are rational. The world is filled with crazies, and with what happened out here last time, you have to forgive me if I can’t take the chance. You were never targeted, except here in California. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but maybe not. I’ll remain silent in the background, but I want to be there. Besides, it’ll be my first chance to watch you in real action.” I gave her what I hoped were puppy eyes.

She laughed, then shoved me away. “Okay, you can go if you never do that again. I hope our kids never try those on me because if they do, all I’ll do is laugh. You never used those as a kid, did you?”

I chuckled before asking, “Don’t you remember my dad?” She nodded yes. “Then you know they would’ve never worked on him. As for Mom, well, maybe sometimes but not always. Our kids better hope they take after you, or maybe not.”

“Why me?”

“Come on, those lethal eyes and your delectable pout. It got to me when you were a kid, and even now, you still make me want to give in to you. They better hope that if they try it, it’s not something that may put them at risk. If it does, then hell no.”

“So if I were to bat my eyelashes at you, pout, and tell you I’ll die if I can’t have something right this minute, you won’t be able to say no?”

“Does it risk your safety?”

“Well, not really, although it might.”

“What is it?”

She leaned closer and slightly over me, and as she did, her hand slid from my chest, down my abdomen, to my cock. We were both in bed naked with only the covers over us. She gripped my cock and slid her hand up and down. All it took was for her to touch me, and I began to harden.

“I want you to make love to me. Make me scream and beg, Stair. I want to come so hard I can’t think,” she whispered sultrily.

Having no objection to her request, I flipped her onto her back. She let out a squeal as I caught her off guard. “You keep that up, and you’ll find yourself in a load of trouble, little girl,” I growled.

She pouted out her bottom lip. “But I can’t help it, big guy. I hurt, and I need you to make it all better. I know if you give me this big, hard cock, it’ll take care of this ache I have.”

“Oh, you do. Where exactly is this ache?” I played along.

“I can’t tell you. I have to show you. Let me have your hand.”

She let go of my cock, which I wanted to protest, but I held back and let her take my hand. She slowly rubbed it along her soft breasts to her belly and then between her legs. She moaned as my fingers delved into her wet folds. She was slick already. I circled her clit, then flicked my nail against one of the metal balls on her barbell. She moaned and pushed herself harder against my fingers. Grasping one ball, I tugged gently on it. Her head went back, and she cried out.

“Ahh, my little girl likes that. I wonder what else she likes? Maybe this,” I said before thrusting a finger inside of her. She whimpered loudly. I thrust in and out slowly, and then on each stroke, I increased the speed and the number of fingers until I had three inside of her. She began to ride my hand. I worked her pussy for only a few minutes before she clamped down and came crying my name. I prolonged it as long as I could before pulling my hand free.

I raised my fingers to my mouth and licked them clean. I hummed in appreciation. She was lying there watching me. I flopped onto my back. “Climb up here and ride my face. I want you to cover my face in your sweet nectar. I need a treat.”

She shakily got to her knees and then swung her leg over so she was straddling me. I grabbed both ass cheeks and jerked her pussy down on my mouth. I inhaled deeply. I was hard as a post already. It would take self-control to be able to eat her out without coming. I’d have to see how far I got before I had to sink my cock inside of her pussy. The thought of how she strangled me every time I did pushed my control a level closer to zero.

I lapped, sucked, fluttered my tongue, hummed, and even bit her folds and clit over and over, making her gasp and plead. I didn’t stop until I pushed her over the edge into a hard orgasm. I eased her down as best as I was able. When I raised her off my face, she had a dazed look in her eyes. Growling, I yanked her down my body and impaled her on my raging cock. She sobbed.

I thought I might have to do all the work, and I was fine with it, but she surprised me. She started out gently riding up and down my length. With each stroke, she picked up speed just a tad more. Soon, she was riding me hard and grinding herself on me over and over. My lower back was tightening in preparation for my orgasm.

“I’m getting close,” I warned her.

This set her off, and she rode herself up and down on me frantically as she squeezed her inner muscles over and over. I stood it for maybe a minute, and then I was done. I thrust myself into the root and held her still as I pumped her full. She orgasmed along with me. When we were done coming, she slumped on top of me. I wrapped her in my arms and let myself soften as I whispered to her how much I loved her, and she did the same back. We drifted in a sea of contentment.

We stayed there for a good while before I knew we had to get cleaned up and serious about actual sleep. She needed her rest so she would be on top of her game tomorrow. The first meeting was at ten at the winery, and the other one was at three in San Diego. Depending on the time of day and traffic, it could take us a couple of hours to get there.

“Ais, we need to take another shower, and then you need to sleep.”

She whined. “No, let me stay like this. I’ll shower in the morning.”

“No, now. You won’t rest well if you don’t.” I knew from a prior conversation she wouldn’t sleep restfully unless she were freshly showered or bathed. She was never one to like morning bathing. I didn’t care one way or the other for myself. I scooped her up and then walked into the bathroom. She didn’t say another word of protest as I bathed her.