Forever Flames: Padraig & Stevie (Charming Irish #4)

Prologue

Padraig - Present Day

I can’t get there fast enough.

Every red light. Each turtle-speed driver feels like the universe testing my patience. Daring me to slam my foot on the accelerator and tear through the streets until this restless fire burns itself out.

More than a decade of wrong turns, missed chances, swallowed words.

Watching her life unfold from a distance. Sometimes with pride. Mostly with regret so sharp it’s split me open.

Now she’s in reach again.

Close enough I can almost smell her skin.

I let her slip through my fingers once. Stood there and watched the only woman I’ve ever loved walk away without a fight.

Drifted, while she built something solid without me.

A family and children whose faces I’ve mostly seen from the edges of photographs and stories.

I tried to fill the hollow she left with anything else. Women. Music. Noise.

Nothing came close.

Until Rafferty. Becoming his father carved me open. Changed me in ways I never knew possible.

I’ve poured everything into being a man my son can be proud of. A safe place in a world that almost stole him before he took his first breath. I’ve found strength I didn’t know I had, and I’m never putting my own life on hold again.

It’s time to fight for what truly matters.

Every turn brings me closer.

The dark Pacific Northwest night sky bleeds into the windshield, bruised black and blue against the road unspooling in front of me. Trees, buildings, streetlights, none of it matters except my final destination. Every mile drags me deeper into the pull of her.

A war drum pounds in my chest, each beat locking in with the relentless thrum of tires on asphalt. The steering wheel bites into my palms, knuckles bone-white.

She’s everywhere.

In the curve of every turn. Haunting the air between heartbeats. Burned into the backs of my eyes.

Every version of us hits in ragged bursts. Our first kiss. The last fight. The night we lost our virginity on her living room couch as we fumbled and clutched and couldn’t stop.

The years we mapped each other’s bodies like scripture written in sweat and breath. Worshipping and committing every sin.

I remember the taste of salt on her skin and the sweetness on my tongue when I’d bury my face between her thighs. Hear her gasps turn to raw, desperate cries when I fucked her deep and hard. Feel the molten silk of her pussy gripping me as her nails carve my back.

We tore ourselves apart to stitch our souls together, again and again, until the rest of the world ceased to exist and until there was nothing left but us.

Stevie and Padraig.

Forever flames.

Until we weren’t.

Holy fuck, the weight of what’s about to happen presses harder. I’ve tried to bury it. All of it.

Failed.

Fear rips through me, sharp and unrelenting. What if the man I’ve become isn’t someone she could love again? The thought is like a fist closing around my heart, but I keep pressing on the gas.

I won’t back off. I can’t. Not when the thought of losing her twice is like a slow, cruel death.

I take the last corner too fast. Gravel spits under my tires as I pull into her driveway, killing the engine before I’ve fully stopped. I’m out before the thought’s even finished, boots hitting the path in quick, sure strides. I don’t know this house, but I know she’s here.

I can feel her. Same as I always have.

Wide steps carry me to the porch. My fist hovers. I’m here to close the space between us and seal it shut forever. No matter what it takes.

I knock, sharp and quick, and before I can draw my next breath the door flies open and she’s in my arms before I can say her name. Her mouth crashes into mine, wet and fierce, tasting of everything I’ve been starving for.

We manage to make it inside, the door thudding shut behind us. Her fingers claw at my shirt, shoving it up and over my head. My hands are under her skirt, dragging it up, fisting the fabric around her hips.

She’s already got me unzipped, her hand wrapping around my cock like she’s claiming it. A broken sound rips from my throat as she strokes me, slow for a heartbeat, then urgent, desperate.

“Now,” she gasps against my mouth, and I lift her off her feet, securing my arms under her thighs. Her legs lock around my waist, heat pressed to me through one too many layers.

I shove her panties aside and feel the satiny heat of her pussy against my length. One thrust and I’m buried in her, raw and deep, her back slamming against the wall. She cries out, head thrown back, hands holding on to my shoulders for dear life.

Our eyes lock in utter deja-vu surprise. It’s graduation day, all over again.

Like lightning, we move as if we’re trying to erase the years apart. Fast, hard, unforgiving. Every roll of her hips drags me deeper, every cry from her lips pulls me closer to the edge.

Her teeth catch my chin. “Don’t stop.”

I couldn’t if I wanted to.

I fuck her like she’s mine, like she’s always been mine, until there’s nothing left between us but heat and breath and the pounding of both our hearts.

A sharp cry rips from her throat as I drive into her, finding the exact spot to make her tremble around me.

“Padraig—” My name breaks apart on her lips, half moan, half plea.

Unrelenting, I drive harder until my pubic bone grinds against her clit, my hands fused to her ass making sure she feels every single inch of me. Her heels dig into my lower back, urging me on, eyes locked on mine like she needs proof I’m real.

This is real.

Our fucking sounds fill the foyer. The slap of skin. My ragged grunts. Her breathy moans. The wet slide of my cock inside her.

Her pussy grips me tight like she’s trying to suck me inside her body and never let me go.

“God, you’re perfect.” I kiss her hard enough to bruise her lips.

She winces, emitting harsh squeaks as she chases the edge. I match her pace, slamming into her until she’s gasping, shuddering, and falling apart for me. Her core pulses around my cock when she comes, taking me back to every other time we’ve done this like it was yesterday.

The memory rips control away.

I lose myself in her, in the years of wanting and the truth that nothing and no one will ever fit me the way she does. With a battle cry of ten thousand warriors, everything I have to give erupts. I hold her against me until she milks every last drop from my body.

After, I brace her trembling body against the wall with my cock buried to the hilt. One hand cradles the back of her head, the other is locked around her hip, keeping her in place.

“This isn’t over,” I tell her with certainty. “Not now. Not ever. You’re mine, Stevie. Always have been. Always will be.”

She shakes against me, not from weakness but from everything she’s carried this past year. Grief. Fear. Rage. Love.

It pours out in sobs and gasps, her lips desperate against mine. I take it all. Absorb every ounce until it’s fused with me and part of the man I am from this moment forward.

“You’re strong,” I murmur against her chin. “Capable. The most incredible woman I’ve ever known. I’m going to be worthy of you. I’ll fight for you every damn day. I will never let you go again.”

Her fingers fist in my shirt like she’s trying to anchor herself as her body clenches around me with every ragged breath. I smash my mouth against hers again, driving my vow deeper with every cant of my hips. Locking it in place.

She’s home.

And so am I.