My Irish Mafia King

Chapter 27

Twenty-Seven

LUCY

" T hese are even better than mine," I say, sitting on a quaint old bench in a cute Irish village as a light rain falls, and I swallow a delicious scone.

"Let's not go too far," Killian says, grinning as he takes a bite. "Yours are perfect."

"When we come home," Nora says, "you'll have to make us some, dear. I'm excited to see what all the fuss is about."

I smile at Ellie. "Maybe Ellie can make us all a delicious dinner, and I can handle the dessert."

She grins. "That sounds like a deal."

For a minute, we eat in comfortable silence. It's been a week since the swearing-in, and life has gotten better every single day. My man makes me feel like I belong, whether we're in bed, at a restaurant, or at a mob party. One afternoon, we went to The Celtic Crust together, donning overalls and helping the workmen clear the last of the rubble.

The rebuilding has begun... the future is looking brighter.

"Shall we walk back to the house soon?" Nora says. "Not to sound like a crabby old crone, but I could use a nap."

"You're not crabby or old," I say, touching her hand.

When she smiles at me... okay, no, it's not like having a mom again. No one can ever replace the woman I lost—the woman who raised me alone after our escape from Dad, the woman who died too soon. But it's close. It's similar. It's beautiful.

"Let's do it," Killian replies. "Lucy needs to rest up for later."

I tilt my head at him. He's got a secretive smirk on his lips, his eyes echoing the same. His hair looks almost silver with the rain glistening through it. He wraps his arm around me.

"Am I missing something?" I ask.

He leans down, kissing me gently on the forehead. As usual, I feel the hunger emanating through him as he struggles to hold himself back, remain civilized, but he's always respectful in front of his mom and sister. "You don't want to ruin the surprise..."

I look at Nora and then Ellie. "Why do I feel like everybody's in on this secret, huh?"

They laugh. Ellie mimes sealing her lips shut. "No comment."

The four of us leave the village and walk across the lush green landscape toward their property, the mountains a constant idyllic backdrop. At the house, when we’re alone in the bedroom, Killian tells me, “Wear walking boots… and something comfortable to hike in.”

“We’re going on a hike?”

He looks out the window. “Something like that.”

I press my body close to his, resting my cheek against his chest. “Your heart is pounding like crazy . What’s going on? Why are you being so mysterious?”

He takes my hands, kissing me in that heated way that sets every inch of my body ablaze. Our frantic kissing takes us to the bed. I fall back, pulling him on top of me, opening my legs and wrapping them around him. He groans and presses his groin against me, his manhood hardening quickly like it always does for me, his lips all over my neck as he moans.

“We’ve got about an hour,” he says between kisses.

“Until what?”

“The helicopter arrives.”

“The helicopter .”

“You heard me, a stór .”

I’m breathless as the helicopter flies over rolling Irish hills, the scenery so majestic I feel like I’m inside a painting. I stare down at the mountains and the greenery and the sheer beauty of it all, a borderline religious feeling coming over me as I struggle to take it all in. When I look up, I laugh. Killian is staring at me.

“You’re missing it all,” I say through the headset.

“I prefer to watch you. I want to remember the look on your face, the enthusiasm, the joy. It makes it all worth it.”

“I love you so freaking much.”

“I love you, angel.”

“But don’t be offended if I want to look at the scenery, okay?”

He grins. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

I look down at the hills, something tugging at the back of my mind, a thought I can’t quite place. When the helicopter descends, the setting sun angles into the interior, flooding it with light. The helicopter lands in a field seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Once the blades have stopped, Killian unstraps himself and opens the door, climbing down.

I take off my straps, giggling when he grabs me and lowers me to the lush green earth. “You make me feel so small,” I tell him. “So weightless.”

“Call me cheesy, but you make me feel like I could float away, too.”

I look around the open field. There’s a hill nearby and a mountain close behind that. That déjà vu feeling hits me again.

“What now?” I ask.

“Now, we walk. Or I could carry you if you prefer…”

I laugh, dancing away from him when he leans down to pick me up.

“My bad,” he says. “I shouldn’t forget how independent you are.”

“I’m feeling pretty freaking dependent lately. But not in a bad way.”

“How about we compromise and hold hands?”

I take his hand, smiling as we walk together. As the surroundings get darker, he takes a flashlight from his pocket and switches it on, holding it steadily so the light guides our path. Every so often, he glances down at me, a smirk on his face.

We crest a small hill and walk toward the entrance to the mountains. There’s a mini sort of valley here, which looks like it leads somewhere deeper.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” I ask.

“Like what?” he says innocently.

“Like I’m missing someth…”

I stop talking. I stop walking. My heart beats with crazy speed and significance. A gasp escapes me as I turn in a small circle, memories finally returning to me.

“How did it take me this long?” I whisper.

“Maybe it was the helicopter ride… you were on foot last time.”

“This is where it happened. This is where you found me.”

“Where we landed – that was where I found you. This, my lucky charm, is where we were when the storm hit.” He loops his arm over my shoulder and gestures with the flashlight toward the miniature valley. “Do you remember those crags?”

“The cave where we took shelter… it’s in there.”

“That’s where we’re going,” he says warmly.

“Why?”

“Because that’s where this began,” he says. “I didn’t know it then, couldn’t know it then, never would’ve dreamed it… but that’s where fate first touched us.”

A heady sense of romance grips me, shimmers moving all over my body, making me feel warm and tingly.

“Isn’t it going to be dark in there?”

“Don’t worry,” he says with a playful, teasing note in his voice. “I’ll keep you safe…”

I laugh and slap his arm. “I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can,” he replies seriously. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop looking out for you.”

Now that I remember where we are, the memories rush in quickly. “I remember leaning against that rock when you were tying your shoelace. I was scared, but also… I felt weirdly safe. With you.”

He grins. “Do you remember asking me if giants lived here? When I asked you why, you said because some of these big rocks looked like chairs.”

“Yeah, I do!” My head rushes. “This is crazy.”

We keep walking, hand in hand, letting the memories infuse us. When I see the light shining at the end of the dark valley, my heart skips. Fairy lights ring the entrance to the cave, glittering, beckoning. There are more lights woven around the rocks closer to us, guiding the way.

“When did you do this?” I ask, gobsmacked.

“I arranged it before we left the States,” he says. “This trip wasn’t just about seeing Ireland, not for me… it was about seeing that look on your face. It was about my love for you. It was about cherishing the path fate put us on all those years ago.”

I cover my mouth with my hands when we enter the cave mouth. There are fairy lights everywhere, white and green, glistening all over the slick walls. The cave floor is covered in layers and layers of green rose petals, the entire place blanketed with them. In the middle of the cave, there’s a table with a bucket of champagne and two chairs.

He sets his flashlight down, taking my hands, looking down at me with eyes brimming with emotion. “Do you like it, a stór ?”

“I love it,” I tell him. “It’s beautiful.”

“I wanted it to happen here.”

“What to happen?”

“For our lives to really begin… Lucy, I love you more than anything. I saved you once a long time ago, rescued you from the storm, but that’s nothing compared to what you did for me. You saved me from the life I was going to live without you, from a life of coldness, a life of loneliness. I couldn’t have found this with anybody else. Just with you. Only with you.”

He slowly lowers himself to one knee. That’s when the full magnitude finally hits me. Tears stream down my cheeks as he reaches into his jacket pocket and takes out a ring box.

“Lucy Cassidy,” he says, kissing my hand. “Will you marry me?”

He opens the ring box to show the gorgeous diamond in a silver band. The diamond has a subtle green tint to it, making it freaking perfect.

Instead of answering with words, I take my Claddagh ring off my right hand and put it on my left hand, the heart facing outward, a sign that I’m engaged. He watches me with a wide smile on his handsome face, then slips the engagement ring onto my finger where it joins the Claddagh.

“I assume I can take that as a yes?”

“You can take that as a hell yes,” I exclaim.

He leaps to his feet, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close for a passion-filled kiss. He lifts me up, spinning me around, and then carries me to the table with the champagne. When he pops the cork, a laugh of pure joy escapes me.

I was lost, but he found me. He was lost… and I found him.

And love found us both.

“I love you,” he says, pouring me a glass.

I touch his hand, moving in for another kiss. “I love you too.”