Page 32 of Guarding Salvation

Aoife backed out of the room with Bram, and he led her toward a kitchen and sat her down in a chair.

“Cuppa?” Bram held up a mug that said, ‘Thanks for all the orgasms.’

“Please.”

She watched Bram make her tea and bring it and a bowl of sugar over, placing them in front of her. He pulled up a chair so he was sitting closer to her and leaned his elbow on the desk as she stirred in her second sugar. Aoife leaned back slightly to put some distance between them when what she really wanted was to lean into him and let him take the weight for just a little while.

“How did she take it?”

Aoife felt her heart squeeze at his caring concern for her friend. “Waggs had already told her. She was upset but she said Bertie had protected me and she was glad I was okay.” She sipped her tea, to push down the tears that threatened to fall.

His hand covered hers, making her want to cry even harder. “Look at me, Irish.”

Aoife lifted her head at his command and saw heat and warmth, but more than that she saw determination.

“I know it hurts but you’re going to be okay. We’re going to fix this so you can have all the things you never dared wish for.”

Lotus chose that moment to walk in, her eyes moving over them both. “You need me to get anything from Peyton’s place?”

Bram stood, backing away from her. “Yeah, she wants clothes, essentials, which I guess is girly shit, and her laptop.”

Lotus arched a brow. “Girly shit?”

Bram waved a hand in the air. “You know, stuff.”

“You’re a dick.”

“Fuck off, Lotus.”

Aoife was taken aback by the animosity for a second until Lotus winked at her and she realised that was just how they were. As dysfunctional as the rest of them.

Chapter 14

“Why the fuck is Aoife in the kitchen washing the fucking floor?” Bram slammed through the door to Bás’ office, his temper hanging on by a thread. It had been two days since they’d arrived back after the attack on her friend and Aoife had withdrawn into herself. The confidence he’d seen emerging from her seemed to shrink back in on itself.

He could understand it. She’d been through a lot, more than he cared to think about in case he lost his mind, but he’d thought they’d had something and now she was keeping him at a distance. Putting barriers up and making excuses to avoid him and it fucking stung more than he’d like to admit. Oh, she was friendly and polite, but she pulled away from his touch and made excuses that she was tired or busy to avoid him.

Perhaps she just didn’t want more with him, but he didn’t think so. He thought it was something else entirely, he just didn’t know what. This was why he never got involved with women, they made him crazy. He just didn’t know how to navigate the complexities of them, even having a sister had given him no insight into what he should do.

The problem was he liked her. No, he more than liked her, he cared about her. She pulled something free in him that had been locked away for years and, now that it was free, he didn’t know how to lock away that yearning for more. Aoife was everything he should avoid, her baggage was enough to sink a fishing trawler and yet he couldn’t stop thinking about her soft smile, or her dirty, husky laugh, the way she fit him so perfectly or the silky softness of her skin. It was the reason he was here picking a fight with his boss when he should be working on the information Hurricane had sent through from Ireland.

Bás looked up from his computer and leaned back, crossing his arms, his manner calm but Bram knew he’d pissed him off storming in here like this. “Care to ask that again like a fucking adult, and not a toddler having a tantrum?”

Bram leaned his fists on Bás’ desk. “Why the fuck is Aoife washing the kitchen floor like a fucking skivvy?”

Bás stood so he was eye to eye with Bram, neither man backing down. “Firstly, watch your fucking tone with me. Secondly, she asked if she could help out and I told her she didn’t need to but if she wanted to, she could see what needed doing around here and chip in with the odd job.”

Bram gritted his jaw, his anger still there but under control now. He didn’t know what it was about Aoife, but she pushed his buttons in a way nobody ever had before. “You should’ve told me.”

“Why?” Bás challenged.

Bram didn’t know how to answer that because the truth was confusing. She felt like his, as if she should be his responsibility, and yet the reality was, she wasn’t and never would be his. The life he led wasn’t the kind he could offer her. So why did he find himself thinking about how he could make this work long term with her. “She trusts me.”

“She trusts Lotus and Snow too.”

Bás wasn’t backing down and he regretted storming in here and confronting him, looking for a fight with Bás was like a hiding to nothing. “Fine, I like her, and I know that’s not healthy in this situation but it’s the truth.”

“There we go.” Bás sat again, his posture relaxed now. “For the record, liking someone is healthy, but don’t let your feelings for her cloud your ability to protect her and do your job.”