Chapter Twenty-Seven
In which family is celebrated and finally, finally a proper consummation.
Alec…
“Martin.”
“I’m not talking to you!” His voice was muffled, either because he was part way through that glass of whiskey or he was hiding tears. After Fee and I danced, and more than one song, I’d caught his gloomy face, sitting at the edge of the crowd and went to make amends.
“You have my most abject apologies,” I said, putting my hands in my pockets to keep from wringing them like some Victorian maiden. Martin was the most easily won over of the Cassidys, firmly in my corner from the beginning and yet he was the one shot.
Because of me.
“You should have been safe. That you were hurt is unforgivable,” I stumbled on.
“Not a word from any of you about how this was intended to turn out?” His watery blue eyes looked up at me. “Eh. Never mind. I know why no one told me. No one ever tells me anything and truth be told I’d rather it be me that’s shot than you or my Fee.”
Sucking in a deep breath, I nodded. “If it makes you feel any better, your graciousness has made me feel terrible guilt for possibly the first time in my life.”
“Oh?” He lit up, “Well, that’s good then.”
Fintan strolled up, still clutching his bottle of Teelings. “So, amends have been made, then?”
“Yes, Martin graciously forgave me,” I said, eyeing the old man. Though he’d been in the thick of combat and was currently two-thirds of the way through this latest bottle, he was in rather good shape. “I must ask. That enormous implement of death that you used on Lee Ville’s men with impressive results- what is that thing?”
He cackled, sounding just a bit like Fee when she did it. “It’s meant to throw the shorn hay into even rows in the field, the wires have to be strong and sharp to cut up the stalks. It’s called a Titter.”
For the first time in my life, I believe I cackled, too.
Alastair waved at me, pointing meaningfully at the six-tiered cake, miraculously still intact on the stand. Noreen nibbled off a corner before someone shooed her away, but one of the caterers hid the chewed spot with some hastily positioned flowers.
“Will you come cut this cake? I deserve something after the day we’ve had,” he complained.
I found Fee chatting with my mother. Kissing her on the cheek, I said, “Mother, first, my sincere apologies for not doing this much earlier today, but may I introduce you to my wife and your daughter-in-law, Fee Cassidy-Davies?” I turned to Fee. “I assumed we would hyphenate.”
“You would be correct, Alec Cassidy-Davies.”
My mother looked no worse for wear, maybe a smudge or two on her Chanel suit but nothing that distracted from how beautiful she was. “Lovely to meet you, Fee,” she said. “A bit after the fact, but certainly welcome nonetheless. Perhaps one day my son will choose to enlighten me as to how all this came about? ”
Laughing, I gave her a gentle hug. “It would take much longer than one day to explain it all.”
“More like a decade,” Fee mumbled.
“But perhaps we’ll have more time to talk. We can visit you in Tuscany, or maybe you’d like to spend more time in London?”
Her eyes glittered, but Mother nodded. “I’d like that. I’ve been talking to some of the guests. Quite the group.”
Every muscle in my body tightened to steel. “Has he been bothering you?”
“No dear,” she squeezed my arm. “He said hello as Elspeth introduced herself and then kept his distance. She’s quite a fascinating character, we’ve spent most of the afternoon after the… unpleasantness complaining about our children. Quite enjoyable to know there are worse sons than you.”
“I am deeply wounded,” I put my hand to my tattered tuxedo shirt. “But since we have to cut the cake before Alastair buries his face in it, I’ll ignore your harsh words.”
Kissing my cheek, she smiled up at me. “I could not be happier to be here. To see you in love with such a fine, and…” she winked at Fee, “such a fierce woman. You’ve met your match.”
The cake - made with dark and white free-trade chocolate - was cut, bites fed to each other and the caterer attempted to serve pieces far away from Noreen’s nibbled edge. But trying to keep her and that ram boyfriend of hers away was proving impossible, so the caterer finally gave up and slapped the entire second layer onto two china plates and put them on the ground for the goats.
Fee nor I would ever wish to have our faces shoved into our wedding cake, but Noreen was all for it.
Kyle, his arm in a sling after dislocating his shoulder in that fall, handed me a burner phone.
“Saluti , Dario.”
“Saluti. It’s done.” His voice was light and amused, as if assassinating the Don of the Bonadonna Mafia was all in a day’s work. Of course, as the second in command of the Toscano assassins, it was. “I will tell you that we were quite hurt not to be invited to your wedding, but given the circumstances…”
“Your discretion is appreciated,” I said, “the funds should be in your account by now.”
“They are. Enjoy your evening.”
“Who was that?” Fee asked, still munching on one of the meringue flowers from the cake.
“Just tying up some loose ends, darling.” Looking across the dance floor, I found the man who sired me looking back.
Fee followed my gaze. “You don’t have to say a single goddamned thing to him.” Her arm slid around my waist and if her searing gaze had been a physical thing, Cormac MacTavish Senior would be on fire.
“It’s fine.” I kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you in a moment, wife. Perhaps we can slip away from the celebration for some private time.”
“Is that what we’re calling fucking, now?” Fee asked, a sly smile on her lips. “Do married people have to be so subtle?” She squeezed my hand and stepped back. “I’ll be around. With a knife, if you like. A gun. Perhaps Grandad’s pitchfork.”
It was like walking toward an older, darker-haired version of myself, and it was unsettling. My bride was correct. I didn’t have to speak to this bastard. Not in this lifetime. But my father Simon, my true father, taught me never to hide from anything. Or anyone.
“Cormac.”
His gaze met mine. “Alec. You throw a grand party.” I knew he’d been fighting alongside his sons this afternoon, killing the men who threatened me and my wife.
“Thank you for your part today.”
His smile was sad. “I will always be here, if you need me. Even if we never have anything else.”
I knew at least a couple of the MacTavish sons were close by, watching us and bristling a bit. Putting out my hand, I gritted my teeth, shaking his. “Thank you.”
It wasn’t as painful as I’d expected.
“Where are we going?” Fee looped her arms around my neck, laughing because our departure from the party was in no way subtle. Seizing my bride by her waist and hauling her off her feet fast enough to lose a shoe could not be considered a quiet exit.
“While the Lady Elspeth’s skill in re-setting our wedding after a gunfight is almost supernatural, I did not want to have her assistance for the wedding night.” I settled her on a side-by-side ATV, tucking in her skirt.
“Agreed,” she said fervently.
We headed in the precise opposite direction of where the men with the backhoe had just finished burying the bodies and smoothing over the soil. In spring, Fintan intended to plant a new grove of maple trees - rare in Ireland - to make up for the grove we’d cut to pieces with gunfire. “I’ve always wanted to make my own maple syrup,” he’d said with a dark grin.
There was a golden glow in the distance that grew brighter as I drove closer to the river that ran alongside the farm.
“Oh…” Fee sighed. “So much better than the barn loft, which was where I had been about to settle for.”
Kyle and a couple of my people set up a heavy canvas tent, circular in shape with the tent flap pulled back. Inside, golden lights circled the tent’s ceiling like stars and lit up the huge platform bed, covered in cashmere blankets and a multitude of pillows. There was a little table groaning with heartier food than was served at the wedding reception and space heaters to keep us warm.
“My bride.” I offered her my hand, helping her off the ATV. “I am trying to be a gentleman-”
“You are as much a gentleman as I am lady,” she interrupted.
“-but would you like to eat first?”
Fee pulled the canvas ties loose and the door flap dropped, sealing us inside the tent together. “I would like to remove our clothes as quickly as possible.”
“That can be accomplished.” I ripped her dress straight down the front, dropping it in two pieces to the floor.
“I was going to dye that black and use it again! What a waste!”
“I’ll get you another one. In every color,” I promised, kissing the tattoo of the snake on her shoulder, her neck, her lips. Her nimble fingers pulled off my Kevlar vest, what was left of my tuxedo shirt and the tatters of my trousers as I appreciated her lack of a bra.
“That filthy grin of yours could melt the knickers off a nun,” she laughed, kissing me again as I divested her of her own.
My bride was naked, perfect and utterly beautiful and I sat on the bed, straddling her on my thigh. My hands slid over her ass, squeezing her gently as I slid her pussy up and down my thigh, chuckling as her legs tightened around me. Her back arched, her hips pressing down and swirling against my thigh as her clit bumped against my flexing quadriceps.
“You’re blazing hot,” I whispered in her ear, giving her lobe a sharp bite. “So slick against my leg.”
Sliding one hand down to my cock, already hard and straining against my stomach, she squeezed me. “You can be hard to resist like this. And yes, I’m soaking. Fucking. Wet. So why don’t you get to it, husband?”
She’s lucky I didn’t come right then.
Lifting her easily by her hips, I notched the head of my cock inside her pussy and dropped her down, sheathing her completely. Her sharp little teeth dug into my shoulder and I grunted, sucking a bruise into her throat.
“You’re all right?”
She nodded into my shoulder, wrapping her arms around me and holding on for dear life as I bounced her on my cock, feeling the slick, hot path of her cunt squeeze and ripple around me. Some feral part of me needed deeper inside her, so deep that somehow, we would always be connected.
Getting to my feet, I braced my legs, enjoying her yelp and bounced her harder and my Fee laughed, clinging to me, along for the ride and kissing me, biting my lip.
“This first time’s going to be quick,” she said, “but we have all night.” The evil little thing squeezed down on my cock, her strong legs wrapped around my waist and she was right, I flooded her inside and she soaked me, my balls, our thighs slick and wet and it was unimaginably good.
Afterward, I fed her bites of cheese made here on the farm, bits of smoked meat, and fresh bread, enjoying her sigh of contentment.
“I noticed Fintan cozying up to Preet earlier,” I said, enjoying how the lights created our shadows against the canvas wall of the tent. “She’s a brilliant, but terrifying woman. Should you mention to him that she’s buried three husbands?”
She gave out a delighted, raucous laugh. “I’m not getting near that potential train wreck. Some things a man has to find out for himself.”
“I’m sorry that because we weren’t actually supposed to marry today, I don’t have a honeymoon planned out. We could always board my yacht and see where the wind takes us.”
“There’s a big protest against global warming in Northern Japan next week. I’ve never been there. We could sail in, have Hakata ramen, stay in one of those guest houses with the hot springs, and join our comrades, well, my comrades, in trying to save the planet?”
I felt my lips curl in something like a smile, “A Busman’s honeymoon, then?”
Fee curled herself onto my lap, taking the hunk of extra sharp farmhouse cheddar from my hand, now feeding me. “I’ve never been in a tent this nice. We should donate a few dozen or so to some of the refugee camps in Kenya and Bangladesh. They build shelters but they always need something temporary they can put up quickly.”
“‘We should’? Spending my billions already, wife? I am starting to think you only love me for the money you can route towards your causes. Remind me to get you added to all of my accounts tomorrow,” I said, nipping her fingers to get more cheese. And because I loved the taste of her.
“I plan to keep you in bed for a while, because, really, I love you for your body. So let tomorrow take care of tomorrow. And the day after, and probably the day after that as well.But never you worry, my fine fella, I have big plans for those billions.”
I started to kiss her neck, my fingers slid between her long legs, and I said, “But later.”
“Later,” she whispered, turning her head, so her mouth met mine, her fingers clutched my shoulders, and I stood and took my wife back to our bed.