Chapter 17

Noah~

I was tired as fuck, and still annoyed as hell. Ronan was still crying about his wife accusing him of having an affair, and after that bullshit with Walt and Isaiah goddamn Florez, we weren't keen on bringing in anyone new. All it took was to trust one wrong person for the house of cards to come crashing down, and we hadn't survived this long for that to happen now.

So, with Ronan crying, we had agreed to meet with him yesterday to vet other possible pilots to help with his routes, and that had taken us farther into the night than any of us would have liked. It'd also all been for nothing since we hadn't liked any of them. While it was easy to threaten a man's family, money did funny things to people, and it was always possible that a man's greed might outweigh the love for his family. I'd seen it happen too many times to count.

At any rate, after not finding a suitable pilot for our needs, Declan and I had decided to stop outsourcing the positions since it was becoming more trouble than it was worth. We had enough money and smart enough soldiers to send to aviation school, and it wasn't a bad idea to see which ones were interested in being more than just muscle for the family. After all, we already had Lochlan and Aran working for the family as talent, so why not have our fingers in more esteemed pies?

So, after everyone had gone their own way, Declan had kept me over to ask me how married life was going, and that had just pissed me off more. Never having slept next to a woman before, laying down with my wife had felt a bit surreal, especially after having just had sex with her. Though it could have been better for her, it'd been everything for me, and it'd been disappointing to not be able to tell her that. One night had changed so much for me, and I couldn't even tell her because she would never believe me, nor would she even care if she did. I had fucked-up big time, and I was still working on how to make it right.

After that, I'd been on my way home, hoping to catch Shea before she'd gone to bed, but then Brody had called me to tell me how they had a problem at Lir with an Italian that they couldn't know for sure wasn't associated with the Sartoris. So, instead of bothering Declan with the mess, I had decided to handle it myself, needing to tell Declan only if I'd had to. Luckily, it'd been just some idiot looking for trouble, and once we'd found out that he wasn't a Sartori, we'd done what we did best and had made an example of him to the other patrons of Lir.

Three hours later, it'd been close to midnight by the time that I'd gotten home, and Shea had looked too peaceful to awaken. Oh, I'd wanted to, but she hated me enough as it was without disturbing her much-needed sleep. So, instead of waking her up to take her again, I'd taken a shower, gone to my office, then had fallen asleep there after another couple of hours of making sure that my will and financial accounts were all updated to reflect my marital status. Right before falling asleep on the couch, it occurred to me that Shea needed to update her shit as well.

When I'd woken up only a few hours later, I'd been out of the house before Shea had gotten up for work because Declan had called me to tell me that we were meeting with Sartori and Kotov tomorrow, Morocco's report on Klive finally completed. Excited to finally be getting somewhere, instead of waiting to have breakfast with Shea, I'd gone straight to Declan's to get the details.

So, while I could have ambushed Shea at work to have lunch with her or just see her, I had decided against it because I really did have other shit to do, and I also wasn't a pussy. There was no way that I should be missing my wife like this, especially when she'd rather see me dead than share a meal with me. It also didn't help how Declan's fucking words kept coming back to haunt me. He had warned me that I'd want her to be happy, and I had dismissed his advice because I'd been too arrogant to care at the time.

Well, I cared now.

Walking into the bedroom, the timing couldn't have been more perfect. I just stepped inside the doorway as Shea came walking out of the adjoining en suite, and surprised danced across her face before she tightened her robe around her. Obviously, she hadn't been expecting me, or else she would have made sure to get dressed inside the bathroom.

After taking in my appearance, she said, "Well, I guess I should be grateful that you bothered to take a shower first."

Before coming home for the night, I'd been helping Cathal with some ‘interviews' near the docks, and things had gotten bloody as Cathal, Kevin, and I had done our best to remind a few of our associates of the territory lines. So, assuming that Shea wouldn't appreciate the blood, I'd taken a shower in one of the extra bathrooms before heading to our bedroom.

"Inna know da ye had a thing fer blood, lass," I told her. "Next time, I'll let ye wash it off fer me."

Her brows furrowed a bit. "What?"

I cocked my head at her as I stepped further into the room. "Did ye already ferget what yer husband does fer a livin'?"

Shea's face turned red, and that's when the light bulb went off. Regardless of how our marriage had started out, it never occurred to me that she'd be thinking adultery before murder when it came to me missing in action. It should have, but it honestly hadn't.

"In all actuality, it really is none of my business," she muttered as she started making her way towards the dresser.

My hand snaked out to stop her, grabbing her around her arm. When she stubbornly looked up at me, I said, "Everything that I do is your business, Shea. As much as you'd like to deny it, you're my wife. That makes you the most important person in my life, so everything that I do is more than your business."

"A wife that you didn't want or pick," she reminded me. "So, I doubt that my status is as important as a real wife's place beside her husband."

I grabbed her chin with my fingers. "I might not have picked you, but I'm pretty sure that I've already proven that I want you." Her dark eyes flared with resentment. "Or do ye need remindin', lass?"

Shea jerked her head out of my grip, but when she tried to yank her arm out of my grasp, I just held on tighter. "I'd like to get dressed," she bit out.

"For what?" I shot back, letting her know exactly what I had planned for us next.

Glaring up at me, she asked, "Are you even using protection?"

"What da feck would I need protection fer, lass?" I asked, pissed that she'd even suggest that I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. "If a bullet pierces my heart, then so be it."

Shea's eyes widened. "I'm talking about condoms, you asshole."

Of course, she was.

"I'm only going to say this once, lass," I warned her. "You'll watch how you speak to me. If I mistreat you, then you're free to express yourself however you want. However, by my count, I haven't mistreated you once since we've said our vows."

She looked ready to murder me. "So, you don't think letting your buddies talk about me and how you're still free to sleep with other women mistreating me?"

"That conversation wasn't meant for your ears," I reminded her.

She let out a dark laugh. "Well, I've got news for you, Mr. Murphy," she practically snarled. "The way you treat women when they're not in the room tells people exactly how you truly regard them. Anyone can put on a show for the cameras, but it's how you act when you're off stage that demonstrates integrity."

"I'm not going to apologize for preferring blondes before I met you, Shea," I snapped. "We enjoy what we enjoy, and me preferring blondes was no different than someone preferring horror movies to action movies. However, that doesn't mean that they've never watched or enjoyed an action movie just because horror movies are their first choice."

"You know what else that means?" she fired back. "It means that I'm entitled to my own preferences just like you're entitled to yours."

I had my hand wrapped around her neck before she could even finish her sentence. "I'm nothing if not a man of my word, Shea. So, when I tell you that I will kill you if you ever let another man touch you, then believe it. While I might not torture you like I will him, I'll still kill you, lass."

Instead of cowering, she said, "Well, that's nice to know. So, while you're out satisfying your wants and needs with all the blondes that are willing, I get to wait here and pray that you don't bring me any diseases. I mean, God forbid that I should be allowed to find a little happiness with someone that might actually want me. How lovely."

I was going to fucking strangle her.

"Oh, baby, if that's the case, then I'm going to prove to you just how much I fucking want you," I warned her. "I'm going to fuck you until you're begging me to stop. I'm going to devour every fucking inch of your body until there's nothing that I don't know about you. And when I'm done? I'm going to do it all over again, and I'm going to keep doing it until I've convinced you that brunettes are my new favorite flavor, and one brunette in particular." Shea's eyes widened with apprehension. "Whether you believe it or not, I plan on honoring my vows, and since you're the only woman that I'll be touching for the rest of my life, I'm going to touch you every-fucking-where, baby."