“Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me that you didn’t fall in love with your husband after he’s been a total asshole to you.”
“The heart wants what it wants. Even if it’s a killer. Even if he’s the last man I should ever want.”
“Jesus!” I yell, turning around and gripping her arms. “So it’s true? You have fallen for him?”
She nods, as if the admission of her love is the death sentence she’s been trying to avoid all along.
“Where does that leave me and Col, huh? What about us? What happens to us when you both decide to play house without us?”
She shakes her head vehemently, a fresh batch of tears coating her eyes.
“It changes nothing. Not for me.” She entwines her fingers in mine and reaches out for Colin to take her other hand. My mute cousin gets off the bed and immediately takes it, as if it’s the lifeline he needs to keep from drowning in his despair. “It’s true. Somehow without my say so, I fell in love with Tiernan, but that changes nothing for what I feel for you. I gave you both my heart long before I ever gave him a piece of it. You are my family. The ones I see myself growing old with. Please don’t take that away from me just because I committed the sin of falling in love with a man that can never love me back.”
Her words burn as much as they calm my errant heart.
“Are you sure, sweet rose?” Colin asks, pulling her hand to his mouth to pepper tender kisses on her knuckles.
“It’s the only truth I know for sure, and I don’t take it for granted. I love you, Colin. With all my heart, I love you.”
When the big guy sniffles and pretends he’s not seconds away from bawling, all the tightness I was feeling begins to subside. She leans into him, never taking her hand out of mine, and presses the sweetest kiss on his lips.
“I’m yours as long as you’ll have me. That I promise you. I’ll be yours until my final days.”
“I love you, sweet rose. I fucking love you, too.”
Suddenly the air in the room shifts, each vow uttered sounding more sacred and profound than its predecessor. When Rosa turns to me, her eyes filled with newfound hope, I swallow the mountain-sized boulder lodged in my throat.
“Shay, please don’t hate me. But if you promise me that you can love me just a sliver of how much I love you, then I’ll be the happiest woman this world has ever known. I love everything about you, but most of all, I love how you make me feel. How at peace and safe I am in your arms. Please don’t shun me, love me instead. Love me, as I love you.”
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
How the hell can I say no to that?
I bridge the small gap in between us and hold her to me, making sure her connection with Colin stays intact.
“I’m yours, petal. I think since the first day I saw you, I’ve been yours. Te amo.”
“Te amo.”
I kiss her until my words of love and devotion fill her bloodstream, only pulling back once I’ve made sure I’ve left her boneless and content.
Her hooded gaze tells me she’s ready for Colin and me to drag her to bed and have our way with her, but that’s going to have to wait.
“I’d love nothing more than to consummate our vows to one another, but I have a better idea in mind.”
“You do, do you?” She giggles shyly, the sweet melody making my heart want to leap out of my chest.
“Aye, I do. Get dressed, petal. We’re going shopping.”
“Shopping?” She says the word like it’s a curse, and by the way my cousin groans I can tell he has a million different ideas on how to fill up our afternoon. Most of them involve being inches deep inside our woman.
But again, that is going to have to be placed on the back-burner. For a day at least.
Right now, I want to fill the home she bought with all the furniture we need to start our lives together. We may be a family, but the faster we start acting and living like one, the better. We need to get her knocked-up as quickly as possible and moved into our home and away from my brother’s influence. Permanently.
Rosa won’t bat an eye at my suggestion, especially because she thinks Tiernan hates her.
But I know my brother.
And even if I didn’t, I saw it in his eyes just minutes ago.
There wasn’t an ounce of hate in them.
Only love.
And that will be a problem.
Chapter 21
Tiernan
I wake up drenched in sweat, my heart beating unnaturally fast, like a runaway freight train about to come off its rails. Most bosses and dons have nightmares about the blood they’ve shed in the war. They’re haunted by crushed skulls and cries for mercy they never gave.