Bad Bishop by L.J. Shen - 49

Three days later, I was discharged from the hospital.

Tiernan was insufferable. Whatever precautious measures he took to keep me safe before the accident were nothing in comparison to what I had to endure now.

“Hunts Point’s on lockdown. No one comes in, no one comes out,” he announced to his soldiers before I’d been discharged. When we pulled up at Fermanagh’s, the neighborhood was barricaded. When the media started asking questions, Tiernan’s friends at the NYPD called it a drug raid.

I was always with Tiernan, and we were always surrounded with enough soldiers. Worse still, we now had to drive with a four-vehicle entourage. He was resigned to wrap me in a bubble until we found whoever caused the accident.

“It’s all connected,” Sam announced the day I returned from the hospital.

We were all in the tiny living room of our apartment. Achilles, Luca, and Fintan included. “Whoever is responsible for the car accident is likely the person who sent Lila that letter.”

The first thing I did when Tiernan and I came back from the hospital was show him the letter I’d received. Hence why we were having this meetup. I’d never been one of the boys, so to speak.

Had never been included in an important meeting.

Now, I was sitting in my husband’s lap, privy to everything that was said.

“You think it’s the guy who attacked her?” Achilles folded his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, and I think he’s freaking the fuck out,” Sam provided. “That letter? Reeks of sloppiness.”

It was weird, having the men discuss something so traumatic that happened to me so openly. Then again, they were all trying to help. And Tiernan had his arms around me, which made me feel invincible.

“Why now?” Luca frowned.

“Baby’s almost here.” Fintan took a pull of his pint. “Now’s the time to try to blackmail you for money.”

“He tried to kill her.” Tiernan bared his teeth.

“ Or he tried to warn her,” Fintan volleyed back.

“That list…” Sam tapped his chin. “We sure managed to cross a hell of a lot of names from it. Anyone outside it isn’t possible—it was a private event, on a private island. People can’t just sneak inside. We narrowed it down to just a few potential attackers. And Blackthorn’s off the list. So.”

He hung his expectant gaze on Tiernan.

“Don’t look at me. I told you from the get-go I think it’s Angelo. He had a motive—Chiara was nasty to him. He was seen asking Lila to dance earlier that night. She made him feel like he was not good enough for her daughter. And at our wedding, he was acting suspicious. Disappearing for big chunks of time from the room and coming back looking like he fought a bear.”

Luca and Achilles exchanged glances. Something unspoken passed between them. Luca nodded.

“Weren’t you supposed to come back with some proof about Angelo?” Luca asked.

“Couldn’t find any,” Tiernan said.

“So you just dropped it?” Achilles cocked his head, frowning. “Doesn’t sound like you.”

“Unless you didn’t really want to find the fucker,” Luca mused. “Why’d you stop looking?”

“I didn’t,” Tiernan hissed through gritted teeth. “I checked all the other fuckers on the list. But, now that you mentioned it, the fact your mother wanted to marry my wife off to Angelo if he raped her wasn’t a great incentive.”

Was this why there were no new developments regarding the identity of my attacker for months?

Because all this time, Tiernan wanted to keep me?

“Yeah, well, no one’s trying to take her away from you anymore,” Luca assured him.

“I’m well aware no one’s stupid enough to try.” Tiernan’s arms tightened around me.

“Riddle me this, though.” Achilles turned to Tiernan. “Why would Angelo, who is rich and successful, poke around in this swarming beehive and send Lila a letter? He doesn’t need the money.”

“He has a point.” Sam shrugged. “If Angelo did it, he’d try to put as much distance between you and him as possible.”

“Unless we have the angle all wrong.” Fintan cocked an eyebrow.

“Meaning?” Tiernan asked.

“Maybe the two incidents aren’t connected, and he has nothing to do with the car crash. Maybe he wants to meet Lila to straighten things out. Make sure she doesn’t talk. I mean, we know she doesn’t remember his face. He doesn’t. He wants to get her alone so he can scare her into silence. He has too much to lose.”

“And the accident?” Achilles asked.

Fintan shrugged. “Could be any of our enemies, and there are too many to choose from. Maybe they thought it was Tiernan in the car, saw the two women inside, freaked out, and fled.”

“Either way.” Sam twisted his wedding band. “All roads lead to Angelo Bandini.”

Luca sucked his teeth. “Fintan’s math is mathing.”

Achilles shrugged. “Fuck it. We have no other leads.”

“Whoever it is, he wants her to come alone, judging by the letter. I say either you beat Angelo to it and kill him,” Fintan said. “Or trust the process, let her go, and see what he wants.”

“That’s a no,” Tiernan drawled, and though I couldn’t hear him, even I knew his tone was deadly. “She’s not going anywhere unprotected.”

Sam’s gaze skated between my husband and my brothers. “Didn’t know you had such a hard-on for Tiernan to get Harlem.”

“It’s not about Harlem anymore.” Tiernan tightened his hold on me. “This entire city can burn to the ground and I wouldn’t even blink. It’s about my wife, and about justice, and about making sure she is safe. I’d tear the world to shreds for her, and they know it.”

Luca snapped his fingers. “Bring in my brother-in-law. We have a bone to pick with him.”

_______

Tiernan was restless for the rest of the evening.

He fawned over me like I was about to shatter into minuscule pieces at any minute.

“More iced tea?” He stomped into our bedroom with a pitcher and some cookies. Imma was sent to my parents’ house. He became so unbearably paranoid he didn’t want anyone around me. He even closed down the pub.

“ No, thank you. ” I stared at the pitcher, horrified. “ The baby is pressing against my bladder. I want to pee just looking at it. ”

“What about the cookies?”

“ Heartburn. ”

“Italian soup? There’s leftovers from Imma’s—”

“ For the love of God, sit down. ” I rolled my eyes. “ I’m pregnant, not dying. And I don’t want to eat or drink. I just want to spend some time with you. ”

I patted the space next to me on the mattress to make a point. He still looked unconvinced. Rolling my eyes, I fell forward on my palms and crawled across the bed until my face was flush with his groin. I touched his stomach through his black dress shirt. His sinewy abs immediately contracted beneath my fingertips.

He said something. I didn’t bother reading his lips.

Suddenly, all I wanted was his cock in my mouth. It was unfathomable to me that it hadn’t happened before. I loved his body. Every inch of it.

I felt his groan as I tugged on the zipper of his slacks. I looked up, and his face seemed almost…pained. His lips slightly parted. I knew it was on the tip of his tongue to tell me I didn’t have to do it.

I also knew he wasn’t chivalrous enough to speak those words.

Even in love, my husband wasn’t a hero in anyone’s story. He was a villain. And I wouldn’t want him any other way.

Freeing him from his pants and boxers, his shaft sprang free, slapping his stomach, leaving a tear of precum on his prominent abs.

My breath skated across the crown of his cock. A ragged sigh escaped him, his breath quickening. I wrapped my hand around the base, surprised with how hot and velvety it felt. I dipped my head, giving the tip an experimental lick, screwing the tip of my tongue to the place where another pearl of liquid awaited. It was salty, earthy, and delicious.

Palming the underside of his cock, I let its weight sit on my tongue. As soon as I fastened my mouth around it, the last shreds of his self-control evaporated, along with all that fake gentleness that grated on my nerves. He fisted the back of my hair—tight enough to hurt, but not to make me flinch—and pushed my face farther down his length, making me take two more inches. A muscle in the back of my throat jumped, triggering my gag reflex. He guided my face up, not letting me pull away from his penis as our gaze struck.

His lips moved very slowly. “I’m going to fuck your pretty mouth now, darlin’, hard and fast. If it gets too much, tap the side of my thigh, yeah?”

I nodded, and he let go completely. His hips snapped and he thrust all the way into me. Nausea bubbled up my mouth, but I managed to swallow it down. His tip touched the back of my throat, and I loved the rush of excitement it gave me, having my mouth so full of him.

I was on all fours, sucking him off while he controlled the pace and rhythm by holding the back of my head, sliding in and out of my mouth. Each time he pressed home, I took a deep, greedy suck, trying to keep him there, flicking my tongue over the bottom of his cock, breathing through my nose. He reached to cup one of my veiny breasts, tugging at the nipple roughly.

Wetness pooled between my thighs, and I knew I was drenched. Desperate for his cock to fill me. I ground against the bed, using one hand to work his cock and the other to massage his thigh as he plowed deeper and jerkier into me.

I wondered if he was going to come inside my mouth when he pulled out of me all of a sudden, guiding me down the bed gently, so as not to touch my collarbone. I gasped, catching his hungry gaze as his thick cock bounced between us, pushing my knees apart and stroking the wet part of my panties, driving me even wilder.

Moaning, I arched my back in offering. He tugged my panties down my legs impatiently, stuffing it in the pocket of the slacks bunched at his knees.

Ripples of pleasure crashed inside me, cluing me in on an orgasm before he even touched me.

“Time to fuck you nice and good, wifey .”

My round belly stood between us, so all I could see was his face and shoulders. Recently, it had gotten harder to have sex unless I was on top of him.

He pushed two fingers into me, sinking into my wetness, and pulled them out, sucking them clean. “Ready.”

He hitched me up by the waist and turned me over so I was on all fours facing the headboard. His knees sank to the mattress behind me. Tiernan slammed into me all at once, and I cried out, throwing my head back with a moan.

He’d never taken me like this before, always watching out for my delicate soul and trauma. I wished he hadn’t. There was something so exhilarating about this position. About the fact I couldn’t see his face, read his lips, sign to him. I was completely at his mercy as he drove into me, riding me from behind.

Picking up the pace, he leaned over, his six-pack colliding with my back, and tilted my head sideways, awarding me with a filthy, bruising kiss. With each slam of his hips, I groaned into his mouth, our juices dripping down my inner thighs.

A mouthwatering rush of heat found itself in my core. Every muscle in my body burned and tensed. I was a marionette on tight strings. When I arched my back and felt my climax taking over me, the invisible strings cut off. I collapsed on the bed limply. My husband caught my waist from behind, both to protect my pregnant belly and to steady me. He pumped into me a few more times before I felt the heat of his cum spreading inside me, then pulled out.

When I turned around, he already looked perfectly composed, tucking his shirt back into his slacks and zipping himself up. Not a hair on his head was out of place.

Tiernan picked his phone up from the nightstand. Checked his messages. Arched a brow.

“Angelo’s en route to your family’s basement. Turns out he was in the area.” He leaned to kiss the top of my head. Every inch of my skin still hummed with postorgasmic shivers. “Get dressed. You’re leaving.”

My eyebrows pinched together. “ I’m coming? ”

“You just did. But, yes, you’re coming with me to your parents’.”

“ It’s nine thirty. ”

“Yeah.”

“ And there are about forty Irish soldiers roaming this building. ”

“Yeah.”

“ Most likely, the only person who wants to hurt me, Angelo, will be in the same basement with you. ”

Chagrined amusement touched his frown. “Is there a point somewhere in your little speech, Gealach ?”

I shook my head, more confused than ever. “ Why do you need me there? ”

“Because I love you.” He stared at me incredulously. “Isn’t that enough?”

A little earthquake in my chest, its ripples making my entire body tremble.

“ I don’t want to see him. ”

“You won’t,” he assured me. “You’ll be upstairs with your mam and Imma. He’ll be downstairs, playing catch with his internal organs.”

I slipped out of my dress and wobbled into the walk-in closet to pick out a fresh one and a pair of new panties. When I opened my underwear drawer, a strong, manly hand reached from behind my shoulder to close it back shut.

“No.” His lips moved on the shell of my ear. “I want you to walk around leaking my cum.”

His hands slid down from my shoulders to my breasts, cupping them, thumbs caressing my tight, dark nipples. I tilted my head against his chest, moaning. His hands traveled lower, to my stomach. I froze.

For the first time since we got married, Tiernan touched my stomach.

Tears gathered behind my eyes and nose. Grateful, happy tears, and a rush of joy coursed through me.

Splaying his fingers over the round, hard belly, he moved his lips along the crook of my shoulder.

“Sorry about the mess, little guy.”

I snorted, feeling more cum dripping out of me as my abdominals contracted. I turned to him, draping my arms on his shoulders.

“Tiernan,” I spoke.

“Wifey.” He encircled my waist, drawing me close.

“I have something to say.”

“I’m all ears.”

“I love you.”

This wiped the cocky smile off his face.

“Is it your orgasm speaking again, or is it you?”

“Both…?” I scrunched my nose.

“Wrong answer, rascal.” He tapped my nose.

I laughed. “Just me.”

“Say that again.” His eye darkened, his starvation for affection gleaming from it.

“I love you.”

He closed his eye. Inhaling the words into his body. “Now sign it.”

Dropping my arms from his shoulders, I signed, “ I love you. ”

“Now kiss it.”

Reaching on my tiptoes, I sealed his mouth with mine, telling him with my body how I felt, and the ferocity with which I felt it. It was tender and slow and romantic, devoid of our usual carnal hunger.

His forehead dropped to mine. We were both breathing hard.

And for the first time in my life, an elusive, power-drunk feeling washed over me.

I was untouchable.