Kenrick from Duncan’s is behind the bar tonight. “Guinness for you?”
Kenrick has been serving me drinks for years and knows I’m typically a Guinness man. But I’m not in a stout mood. I need something stronger to get me through what I’m forced to endure tonight. “Whisky.”
“Coming right up.”
I’m watching Ellison be pursued by brother number two of the night, and I want to rip his skinny arms out of their sockets.
Alan Douglas is a pit boss at the casino. I’d love to hear how the hell he proposes he’ll protect Ellison when he’s tied up all night at work. I’d also like to know if he plans to break his dirty habits—cocaine and cocktail waitresses—if Ellison becomes his wife.
Fuck. No.
She is not marrying a man who snorts coke and fucks any woman who will spread her legs for him.
I’ve been inconspicuous while watching Ellison. Controlled. Restrained. Careful to not appear angry. Careful to not look too long. Careful to not appear interested. But I swear to God if Alan moves his hand any lower on her back I’m going to go over and break it off his arm.
Everything about this is fucked up. I can’t stand watching Ellison with my brothers. But not looking would be so much worse.
“Jamie, can I have a minute?” Fuck. I know that voice, and I don’t have time to deal with her right now.
I turn around and I’m right. “Good evening, Adaira. What can I do for you?”
“Could we go somewhere away from the crowd so we can talk?”
Mother. Fucker. I know Ellison will be safe but I still don’t want to leave her with these horny bastards. “Can’t talk here?”
“I was hoping to have a word privately.”
I can predict with one hundred percent accuracy that this conversation will include her asking me to choose her over Ellison. She doesn’t understand that will never happen.
I take the whisky Kenrick has poured for me. “Fine, but make it quick.”
Aye. I sound like an arse but it’s impossible to be nice when she’s taking me away from Ellison at this pivotal moment.
Adaira leads me away from the canopy toward the guest house. I suspect this conversation is about more than a job. And truth be told, it isn’t about a conversation at all.
I stop when I see her intention is to take me into Thane and Isobel’s guest house. “I think this is private enough. We can talk here.”
“The only reason I’m in nursing school is so I could become your assistant. You knew that, but you chose her. She’s not even Fellowship.”
Neither Adaira nor her father approached me to ask if I wanted or needed a nurse. They went straight to Thane with their plan. Thane approved her request to go to school, but my uncle has never told me I have to take her as my assistant. I owe them nothing.
“I’m sure you’ll make a fine nurse when you finish school, but I need someone with experience at the infirmary. I can’t waste valuable time teaching you how to be a nurse. I need someone who already knows what they’re doing.”
“I have experience. Lots of it. And I know exactly what I’m doing.” This conversation is going in the exact direction I expected.
“This is about the brothers and their well-being. Ellison was a better choice because she has worked in a busy emergency room where they had a high rate of gunshot wounds and trauma. I need someone with that kind of experience. You’re a first-year nursing student, and although I’m sure you’re doing well, I don’t have time to train you.”
Adaira steps forward and her hands go straight for the button and zipper of my pants. “I’m a fast learner, Jamie. And I give a quality blowjob. You’ll like the kind of skills and knowledge I have. Promise.”
A year ago, I’d have let this girl suck me off—and I’d have probably fucked her afterward—but not today. Not after Ellison.
I push her hand away. Damn. I don’t think I’ve ever turned down a blowjob. “No.”
Adaira laughs. “Well, hell. She’s been helping you less than a week, and you’re already fucking her.”
“We aren’t fucking.” What Ellison and I are doing is far more than that.
“I don’t believe that for a second. And those horny fuckers out there squabbling over your girl’s pussy are dumbasses if they believe you aren’t fucking her.” Adaira takes my whisky from my hand and downs it before returning an empty glass. “Just so you know, I didn’t want to blow you anyway. I’m into girls.” What the hell?
Not what I was expecting from the lass who just tried to undo my pants. “Why did you try to suck my dick if you’re into pussy?”
“My dad’s health isn’t great. He’s convinced he’s going to die soon, so he’s trying to push my sisters and me into being claimed and married as soon as possible. He wants to know he’s giving us over to husbands who will protect and care for us after he’s gone.”
Bruce Lowry has six daughters. I can see why he’d feel the need to encourage them to marry if he isn’t well but some of them are still very young, including Adaira. “What kind of health problems is he having?”
“High blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides out the roof. He thinks he’s going to have a stroke or heart attack any day now.”
Sounds like he could. “I can see where he’d be anxious about leaving so many daughters without the protection of husbands.”
“I’ve told him I don’t need a man to protect me. I do just fine on my own.”
“Does he know you like women?”
Adaira groans. “Yes, but he still wants me to be married to a man. He said I could have my womanly fling on the side. Can you believe that?”
“From Bruce? Yes.” He’s set in his ways—like most Fellowship men. “What about nursing?”
“I care nothing about it. My girlfriend wants to be a nurse so we enrolled at the same school. It’s an easy way to spend time with her without causing an uproar with my dad.”
“Your girlfriend isn’t Fellowship?”
“No.”
She’s dating a woman and she’s an outsider. Interesting.
The role of brothers have been defined within a relationship based on gender so what happens when a couple isn’t male-female? I’m not sure. There’s never been an open female-female or open male-male relationship within The Fellowship.
“Ellison is hot as fuck. I bet you shag her every chance you get.”
I’ve had her four—no five—times in twenty-four hours. Aye, I definitely shag her as much as possible but that’s no business of Adaira’s. “No comment.”
“Whatever. I don’t need your confirmation. I already know you’re burying yourself between her legs.” If Adaira makes this assumption, does that mean everyone else probably does too?
Adaira gestures toward my empty glass. “Let’s go get you another drink. You’re going to need a few of those to keep from turning possessive alpha when you see your brothers going after your girl.”
I won’t argue with that. I already want to clean some clocks.
Adaira and I part ways and I return to the party. I’m irritated as fuck when I see Ellison dancing with Lyle Campbell, the brother who opened the topless dance club. The same brother Leith threatened with a slow, painful death if he let Lorna anywhere near his stage again. He has no business putting his filthy hands on Ellison. They aren’t fit to touch something as beautiful as her.
I place my empty glass on the bar. “Another whisky. Make it a double.”
“Coming up.”
This is so much worse than I expected. I’m not tolerating seeing Ellison with my brothers, and it’s making me fucking crazy.
“Fuck the double, Kenrick. Give me the bottle.”
Kenrick chuckles and passes me a half-full bottle of Johnnie Walker. “That’s the last of Sin’s whisky. He won’t be happy it’s gone.”
“Fuck. Sin.” This is his fault. He’s the one who insisted on doing this introduction tonight—presenting the woman I love as fair game for our brothers while I’m forced to sit back and watch in agony.
I take the bottle of booze and retreat to a table in the corner where I can wallow in misery as I watch Ellison with her many suitors.
I’m going to feel like hell tomorrow at clinical.