In Deep (27 page)

What a coincidence. An officer following on Kieran’s heels, seeing the two soldiers on the ground and the constable shot as well, and Connor was the only man left standing. It would take a dimwit about two seconds to figure out what had happened here.

The officer squatted between the soldiers, looking at one, then at the other who lay facedown. He placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Sullivan?” Without waiting for a reply, he barked up the stairs, “He’s wounded. Quickly, get him out of here.”

“Colonel,” the soldier on the ground croaked. “Talbot played us false.”

The officer looked up, then squinted at Talbot’s body on the ground. His gaze wandered to Connor standing there with Talbot’s blood all over him. Connor could see the man’s mind working behind keen eyes. The officer then looked at Kier and harrumphed.

Straightening, he righted his uniform and took a step forward, inclining his head in a half-bow to Connor. “Colonel Frederick Banbury, sir. Your brother sent for us. I say the evidence speaks for itself. Please report for a statement later.”

With that, the colonel turned and waited until the soldiers finished getting their two comrades out of the basement.

Connor was dumbfounded. “Kier, what’s going on?”

His brother shrugged. “A pang of conscience seemed to have finally changed the Baroness Wickfield’s mind. She confessed that Talbot produced false evidence against you.”

“See,” Jaidyn hissed. “So why exactly do you have to”–she spoke in a deep growl to imitate his words earlier–“
leave at once and never come back ever
? I tell you I love you and I want to be with you, and you are frightened like a maiden on her wedding night?” She gave a derisive snort.

“Jaidyn.” Connor fought to sound calm. “Be reasonable about this. We can’t be together.”

She crossed her arms before her chest and took one more step back. “Why not?”

Why … wasn’t it obvious? “Because you’re married!”

“So?” Her chin inched higher. “I’ll get an annulment. The marriage has never been consummated.”

“Um …” Kier stepped forward, his face a self-conscious grimace. “There might be a bit of a problem there.”

Jaidyn didn’t grace him with more than a brief glance. “Keep out of this.”

Taking a deep breath, Connor was certain, so she could rain another tirade on him, she stopped short, blinking back at Kier. “Oh … Connor? You never told me your brother was actually your twin.”

Kier was daring enough to take one step closer to her; Connor himself kept a safe distance. Jaidyn was deep in a fit of pique, and it was a fine line between courage and stupidity.

“So,” Kieran drawled, rubbing his chin to hide an oddly broad grin. “You are the real Jaidyn Donnelly.”

“Yes.” Jaidyn’s glare zeroed in on Kier. “Well … never mind. Pleased to meet you, Mr.…?”

“Kieran. Kieran O’Connor.”

Jaidyn’s mouth went slack. Even her arms seemed to lose all strength and fell limply to her side. She only stood there, gawking at Kieran, blinking every once in a while.

“She’s speechless?” Connor would have never thought he’d see her like this. He turned to his brother. “Why?”

Neil spoke up, his words drenched with offense. “I say an annulment is out of the question.”

“Neil?” Connor felt his forehead wrinkle. “What do you . .” He gasped. “Are you her husband?”

“No.” He sniffed like he was slighted by the question. “I’m her father.”

“But why–” Clearly, Connor was missing something. Could perhaps somebody explain to him why Kieran was amused, Neil snubbed, and Jaidyn perplexed?

Jaidyn was the first to break the heavy silence. “You,” she huffed, glaring at Connor. It was difficult for him not to squirm under her stare, which was more perilous than Connor had ever seen. “You. Are. Ronan O’Connor.”

“How do you know my real name?” Priceless, wasn’t it? The mystery kept on becoming more and more obscure. It seemed everyone knew what was going on but Connor.

“Er …” Kier spoke up once more. Both Connor’s and Jaidyn’s withering glares settled on him, and he duly cringed but stood his ground. “She knows your real name because you both signed the document. But as opposed to you, she apparently read it carefully.”

“What document?”

“The proxy.”

“What proxy?”

Kier sighed. “Circumstances called for desperate measures, and since you never read anything I give you to sign, I thought it was best this way. So … without knowing it … you were married … to her.” Kier breathed deeply. “Felicitations, brother.”

Connor had signed a proxy? “What?” He heard his own voice rise in pitch.

“You lied to me,” Jaidyn growled.

“No, I didn’t. I didn’t even know–”

Jaidyn stepped up to him. “You lied to me!”

“Pah!” Connor leaned down until his nose almost brushed the tip of hers. “You lied much more!”

“No-no-no-no-no.” Jaidyn shook her head, prodding at his shoulder with each syllable. “All this time I had a bad conscience because of this–and then it turns out you’re not such an open book after all!”

What was this about now? “I just went under a different name.”

“See?” Those elegant ginger eyebrows wandered up and she gave him a superior look. “I didn’t. I didn’t lie about who I really was.”

Goodness, she was sexy when she was that worked up. “Of course,
Miss Donnelly
.”

“Lying, deceiving bastard!”

Her fists pounded his shoulders, but the punches didn’t have the intended effect. Instead of backing down, he felt himself grow hard.

“Watch your mouth,
wife
.” God, it felt good to say that. “Or I’ll stuff it.”

“Hah! Anything you put in my mouth you’ll lose!”

“Oh yes?”

His mind was roaring, his body tense. Her lips beckoned seductively, the fire in her eyes adding to the allure. Connor dipped his head and closed the distance to her mouth, his tongue stroking deep between her lips. His arms whipped up and wrapped around her, pressing her body into his. There was nothing gentle about his kiss; Connor devoured her, staked his claim on her.

With a moan, Jaidyn melted into him, tilting her head and kissing him back, matching his hunger stroke for teasing silken stroke with her tongue as it swirled around his.

Feeling her melt in his arms, Connor let one hand slide down to her waist. Jaidyn whimpered in pleasure, her hands fisting in his hair. She drew herself closer to him, rubbing her feminine softness against his engorged rod.

Their greedy kiss went from desperate hunger to sweet, slow enjoyment, and when it finally ended, both Connor and Jaidyn were panting against each other’s lips.

“We’re married,” Connor whispered.

Jaidyn nodded and smiled. “We are.”

“All right now. That’s quite enough.” Neil peeled Jaidyn off him, but she never broke eye contact with Connor.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Connor saw Neil and Keir murmur, then Jaidyn was being dragged up the stairs and out of sight.

With a dreamy smile on his lips, Connor stared at where he’d seen Jaidyn last.

“She’s got a temper.” Kier was at his side now.

“Yes.”

“You are aware she’s going to give you hell for the rest of your life?”

“Yes.” And he was looking forward to it.

“God!” Kier exclaimed. “Look at you. Smiling like a halfwit.”

“Mm-hmm.” Then suddenly it dawned on him. “Wait, where’s she going?”

“Home. With Neil.”

Connor jumped into motion without thinking. Kier clasped him by the elbow and held him back. “Calm yourself. You’ll see her tonight for dinner. Come on. Let’s get that statement down now and then go home.”

With a friendly pat on Connor’s shoulder, Kier started up the stairs. “Did you ever sleep on your way here or just fornicate? You look like you could use some rest.”

Connor grumbled under his breath as he shuffled after Kieran.

_____________________________

R
estless, Connor paced the parlor. Where the hell was she? He stopped and looked out the window from behind the curtain. Still no coach in sight. What the hell could possibly be keeping her? He paced some more, stopped to check his pocket watch. Connor frowned. Not even a minute had passed?

This was torture, pure and simple, and Connor hung on to his sanity by a thread.

He sighed, his eyes rolling skyward, trying to ignore the prickling feeling at his nape. Impatience sizzled through his veins and a dark hunger nagged him. Purgatory couldn’t feel much different.

“Anxious to meet your wife, brother?” Kieran patted him on the shoulder. For the blink of an eye, Connor was tempted to wipe that smirk off his face.

“Here, maybe that’ll calm your nerves a bit.” He held up a glass of brandy for him. Connor downed it in one gulp.

Kier’s eyes narrowed on Connor’s necktie before he fiddled with it. Next, he righted the lapels of Connor’s coat and brushed some lint off his left shoulder. “There now. That’s better.”

Hooking a finger into the necktie, Connor tried to loosen it a bit. “That’s much too tight.”

Kier shook his head, playfully slapping his hand away. “No. You just think it’s too tight because you haven’t dressed up like this in years. Which, I might add, would have never happened if you’d stayed here instead of running away because you couldn’t stand being near me.”

Connor felt his eyes bulge. “Is that what you think?”

All this time he’d thought Kier couldn’t bear that on top of everything his brother was a criminal. He’d been convinced that not even Kier believed he was innocent. Fleeing from Georgetown had been one of the hardest decisions in Connor’s life. Leaving his brother had felt like his soul had been torn in two.

Kier’s face sobered. “It doesn’t matter anymore, does it? It’s in the past.”

His voice was almost devoid of emotion. Kier had become so cold. That Connor had stayed away so long had probably added loneliness to the bitterness. But Connor was convinced there was still a scrap of Kier’s former self left. If only he could help him find it again.

Kier poured himself another glass and sat down on the settee facing the window that Connor had been staring out of for the last half hour at least.

“Care to tell me how you met her? Or where?”

Connor reluctantly wrenched himself away from the window and forced himself to sit down next to Kier, setting his empty glass on the table in front of him. “I sort of ran into her on Grenada. She needed a passage north and I told her I’d get her wherever she needed to go. That’s it.”

“A remarkable coincidence. This sounds, dare I say it, beyond belief especially considering the fact that you normally frequent places where she wouldn’t likely be.” Kier gave a knowing chuckle.

Connor refused to elaborate. Kier didn’t need to know all the details. After all, this was Connor’s wife they were talking about.

His
wife
… It still felt surreal. Good, but it would feel even better if she were here.

Connor had never thought he’d marry, ever, not after all that happened to his brother and to him–that is, until he met that feisty woman. She’d drawn him in immediately with her fabulous beauty and fiery hair to match her temper. Her eyes could burn with fury, but they burned even brighter with passion.

“And all this time she didn’t tell you who she was or why she needed to get here?”

Shaking his head, Connor admitted, “I lost my heart to a woman with secrets. It seems to be a pattern with the O’Connors.”

As soon as the words were out, Connor saw Kier look down to hide the sudden scowl on his face before he stood and refilled their glasses.

After all these years, he still refused to talk about it. But Connor didn’t back down. “What still strikes me as strange is that Gabby suddenly found the courage to defy Talbot.”

Kieran shot him a warning glance. “The Baroness Wickfield surely had her reasons. And now she’ll rot in prison for covering for her husband.” His mouth twisted in a humorless smile, flashing white teeth.

Careful to hide his thoughts behind an impenetrable mask, Connor leaned back, cradling the glass of brandy in his hands. “Do you think that’s wise? A mother belongs with her child, no?”

“Her parents can look after the boy.” Kier shrugged with an air of total detachment, but Connor knew it was just an act.

“Oh yes, I forgot about her loving parents, who were so devoted to her that they traded her off to a title rather than to–”

“No, she’d said herself it was her desire to marry Talbot.”

“I wonder, though …”

Setting his glass down with a loud clank, Kier whirled around. If looks could kill, Connor would at least be maimed. “What?”

“Oh, nothing.” Walking around the table, Connor leaned against the window again, capturing the curtain between his index and middle fingers to pull it aside just a little and glimpse at the driveway. Still no coach anywhere in sight.

Silence stretched between them and Connor had a rising feeling that this gamble was about to explode in his face.

Kier sighed. “We both know you won’t let it rest until you’ve said what’s on your mind. So, what is it you wonder about?”

With a one-sided shrug, Connor tried to appear casual. “Knowing her parents, they’ll ship her off without hesitation. But if Gabby were put under someone’s supervision until the authorities decide what to do with her–someone who’d make sure she didn’t flee. Could she spend some more time with her son before going to prison then?”

Looking back over his shoulder, Connor saw Kier had drawn his eyebrows together. The muscles in his cheeks jumped, his mind working overtime. Then some dark, merciless thought flickered in his eyes.

Maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to tell Kier that. After what Gabby must have been through with Talbot, a man as bent on revenge as Kieran was probably the last thing she needed.

But before he could devise a plan to remedy his mistake, movement caught his eye. A coach halted just outside and Connor felt his heartbeat pitch to a deafening staccato.

“Ahh,” he heard Kier say behind him. “There they are. Well, now is your last chance to run, Ronan.”

Connor jumped as Kier addressed him by his real name. He’d almost forgotten it, having used the other name for so long. It was strange, yet when Kier said it, it felt like he’d come home for real.