Page 44 of Irish Betrayal

She hugged him.

Last night.

There was a brief moment after dinner when his arms wrapped around her, when he cradled her head gently to his chest, that she’d felt safe. Like she was where she should be.

She’d been so ashamed of herself. Disgusted. Blair remembered a tremor starting in her body, beginning at her toes and climbing up the back of her neck.

Terror traveled until eventually her brain began to work. Her body felt fragile and broken as she shoved away; bile once again coated her throat.

She looked directly at Peter before turning to run. He looked so smug and satisfied. In that moment, a dawning realization set in that something was wrong. Not with Peter alone, but with her as well.

That new epiphany needed careful consideration. Was Peter the only person in the wrong? Could that wrongness in her have called to the wrongness in Peter?

At least she would have an excellent excuse to avoid him for a few days. Katy asked that she stay the weekend and even spoke to Dr. Bartel and made sure it worked with the professor’s schedule.

It would also be nice to have time away from the university. Linda had made a comment yesterday that Blair seemed stressed, to which she had immediately lied, at least about her mental anguish. She only said she’d been struggling with a stomach ailment.

After her teacher had persistently questioned her, Blair had made an appointment with the university clinic for the following Wednesday morning. Satisfied, Linda told her to enjoy the weekend and not to make it all about school.

Not. A. Problem.

The guest house she was used to staying at had the most amazing soaking tub, and she planned to use it. Often.

The sun was setting on her rental as she neared Muskogee. It was only about an hour and a half from Stillwater. Bébhinn had insisted Blair rent a Jeep because, according to her friend, “They’re the only vehicle worth driving.”

It hadn’t taken her long to pick back up on the American way of driving, though the lane switching on roundabouts had gotten hairy a few times.

Blair had practiced driving on the right side of the road a little last year when Dagr had invited all of her friends to his “cabin” in Colorado. She got warm just thinking about how many times Daniel’s thigh had touched her leg in the huge hot tub.

They’d still been walking softly around one another, but damn, it’d been hard to keep her hands off his chiseled body so close to hers while he was partially undressed, wet, and so, so close.

What really didn’t help her attempts to keep her libido under control was sharing a house with Dagr and Bébhinn, who were newly together and apparently incapable of going five minutes without touching each other. Then there was Gray and Ciar, who were still insisting their relationship was completely platonic despite the fact that the sexual tension between them could power the entire house. Between the four of them, Blair felt like she was constantly surrounded by temptation and walking around with a vibrator she couldn’t turn off.

Blair gripped the steering wheel. She would not think about her friends or Daniel. Both were painful. She had hurt Daniel, was still hurting him. Every day she felt the weight of her betrayal, and yet, she couldn’t allow him to be a part of the screwed-up world that she was now living in.

As Blair approached the gate to the Stanton compound, she couldn’t wait to drop her bags at the guest house and take a long shower before dressing for dinner. Katy didn’t stand on ceremony with her guests, but Blair would never take the host’s hospitality for granted.

She planned on having a drink or three at dinner before going back to her room and making some long-awaited life choices.

twenty

DANIEL

Daniel was halfway through his second whiskey when Katy Stanton checked the time for the fourth time in ten minutes.

“You’re pacing internally,” Rowan observed lazily from her seat near the massive stone fireplace. “I can feel it from here.”

Daniel shot his aunt a look over the rim of his glass. “I’m sitting down.”

“Your jaw says otherwise.”

William barked a laugh from the head of the dining table. “Boy looks like he’s waiting for a firing squad. Blair got to the guest house twenty minutes ago. She’ll be coming down the drive anytime.”

Daniel ignored that. If William were in his shoes, he wouldn’t be nearly so smug. However, Daniel did feel a glimmer of hope that Blair would welcome him back into her life tonight.

Blair so rarely answered his texts, but when he’d taken a chance to text on the flight to there, she’d responded.

Daniel: I miss you.