AISLING

Taylor dropped me off like the kind best friend she was. Before stepping out of her sleek Mercedes—she only offered to dropped me off so she could show me the blasted cool thing—I kissed her on the cheek.

Taylor had driven inside Papa's compound, so I just walked straight to the main door where two guardsmen were stationed.

Papa, surprisingly, was home—seated on one of the plush couches in the sitting room, watching something on the iPad Samuel, his American guard, held for him.

"Papa. You are home," I said, plopping down next to him. It was only then I heard the soft strains of Clair De Lune, then looked in and realized he was watching my show.

"You're getting better and lovelier at every show," he said, turning to look at me while Samuel still held out the tablet.

A wide smile graced my features. "Thanks, Papa." I leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be present at my daughter's ballet show."

"It's nothing, Papa. You've been at most, and I know you are busy taking care of real estate and The Galaxy."

Father owned a real estate business, which he and my brother worked together in, and also an art gallery, The Galaxy, which was under my name. He had gifted it to me as my twenty-first birthday gift. Not everyone knew though—the internet luckily did not.

"About that..." Worry lines carved deeper into his face. Samuel took the tablet away on command and stood, arms held together by his side. "I'm stepping down, Niamh."

He always addressed us by our middle names.

"Stepping down from real estate business and everything else. Tadhg is taking over." He heaved a sigh, and I knew that wasn’t all. There was something else coming.

"I understand, Papa. You're old and you need to take more care of yourself." I said, leaning my hand on his shoulder.

"Renji Mori is in Boston." My heart skipped a bit at the name. "You know?" I shook my head.

"Uh... Not really. I haven't had the time to scroll on social media."

"That is because it's not on social media, yet. Renji Mori is taking over Y&M Couture. Just like me, Yamaha is stepping down as well. Not just from the boutique but from the Yakuza too, Niamh."

My breath hitched. "But... You hate the man and... Boston is yours. There would be problems if Renji decides to work the Yakuza here in Boston." I said, not knowing what reason my heart was thumping so loudly for. If it was the fact that Renji would remain in Boston for a while—or maybe a long time—or the fact that there might actually be bloodshed.

"There would be no problem, Niamh. Yamaha and I decided on a truce." Truce? I waited to hear the rest of it. "You will marry Renji, my dear."

Well. Fuck.

*

Really?!" Taylor screamed the whole bar down. We were at a club and even though the music was loud, she was louder.

"Yes, really," I answered while sipping my strawberry daiquiri. "You've asked that question like five times now, Tee."

"Well because it's unbe-fucking-lievable." She exhaled dramatically before taking a sip of her bubbly. The alcoholic. "You getting married to Renji Mori? Girl, that's your dream coming fucking true."

I tried not to smile at her words but it was quite impossible. She was right. Who knew the man I'd always wanted would be handed to me on a gleaming golden platter?

"Well, it is what it is." I shrugged, trying my best to act nonchalant, but Taylor always saw through my bullshit.

"Well this calls for a toast." She raised her glass, and I did mine. "To you getting married to your three-year-long crush!"

I clinked my glass with hers, and we drank to the toast. After finishing my daiquiri, I switched to bubbly like her. Needing to actually get drunk because what? It was a happy night!

After both me and Taylor were a drunken mess, we went to the dance floor, twirling and rocking to the music. Tonight I was just Aisling, not the famous painter and ballet dancer Aisling O'Connor... I was just myself.

I made out Taylor rocking against a man and it was incredibly hot. I'd never rocked against a man in a bar; it was usually girls because it felt safer and then I was in a relationship. But now I’m a single lady, so I moved to the closest guy who had been staring at me like his life would end if he looked away. I didn’t get the chance to even meet his body with mine before I was pulled harshly away from the dance floor.

The hard pull made me topple—if the person wasn’t still holding my hand, I would've fallen butt-first to the ground.

"Fuck." A deep, gravelly voice cleared my drunken haze. If I'd been drunk before, sobriety slammed into me now. "This is who I'm getting married to? An alcoholic."

I stared at the face above me clearer, wondering why the fuck I was seeing Renji in the same club as me. "Who are you?" I narrowed my eyes and raised my free hand to touch him, but he swatted it away like the mere touch of my skin against his was the plague. It broke my heart a little.

I pulled harshly against his hold on me, but he still held tight. "You are drunk," he asserted—it wasn’t a question.

"I very well know where I am." My voice had a slur to it, betraying my sobriety. "Let me go. Your mama never taught you how to touch a lady?"

Renji scoffed above me. "You can pass for a man, Aisling O'Connor. Your voice isn’t even girly."

"Too bad. It only shows how much of a woman I am." I pulled harshly again, and this time he let me go. "What are you even doing here? Looking for one of your women to fuck?"

"Yes, most probably. Then I found the woman I’m supposed to marry grinding against a man." He said it harshly, and it did something to my underbelly.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please. Whatever I do with a man in a club is none of your business. We are still not yet married, remember?" I raised a brow.

Renji stared at me like he wanted to smash my head against one of the pillars. Good. I didn’t expect our first conversation to go this way, but if he thought I was one of the pushover women he had met, oh he’s got another thing coming.

"If you don’t mind, anyway, I’m going back to my dance floor while you can go to your women." I turned around, but the blasted handsome man grabbed my wrist and started pulling as he strode off.

"I’m taking you home."