Chapter Eleven
My head was spinning at not only what I had agreed to, but also due to something else I couldn’t quite describe.
Cillian Brannington had always been spontaneously wild, but there was something he wasn’t saying, which scared me.
Whatever it was had to have scared him, too.
I could see a fear I’d never seen before in his eyes.
Without even knowing what had him so spooked, I let out a breath before answering him. “We’ll go now.” Cillian pulled me back into his arms for the briefest of moments before stepping back. He bent down to grab his bag, and I remembered that I had nothing. “Can I at least go back to get a bag?”
He hesitated. “Hurry up and meet me at my car in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be back soon,” I said, and knowing how little time was left, I hurried back to my cottage.
Both my mother and sister were sleeping, so I made sure to stay as quiet as I could as I stuffed as much clothing into my own backpack, then grabbed my purse and cell phone.
Slipping back out of the house as quietly as I had entered, I raced back toward the parking lot.
When in front of Cillian’s sports car, he turned on the headlights, and I froze.
He then motioned for me to get in, so I did. Once seated beside him, I looked at the cramped confines of the car, which seemed much too small for his long legs, and a sudden thought crossed my mind.
What could he possibly want with the poor daughter of his school’s headmistress?
Whatever it was, he smiled at me and all insecurity disappeared. I loved Cillian. It didn’t matter that he was way out of my league. There was something between us, and it was more than simply sex. Granted, he’d been my first and only lover, but I knew he loved me as he claimed.
I held onto that as he sped away from the only life and home I had ever known.
The two of us would build a new one together, and I leaned back in the bucket seat.
Closing my eyes and smiling, I could already imagine actually going to sleep in his arms tonight as promised.
Only once had we ever been able to do so, but we’d gotten caught the next morning by a groundskeeper.
He’d naturally ratted us out to not only my mother, but Cillian’s grandfather.
“Everything is going to be fine,” he told me in reassurance.
I placed my hand on his kneecap and gave it a squeeze. “I trust and love you. As long as we have each other.”
“It’s all we’ll ever need,” he said, then turned back to the road.
More than a few times, I would watch as he seemed focused on all three mirrors.
Once or twice, I had even looked out of the one closest to me, expecting to see something, but finding nothing.
Cillian was being overly paranoid, which was unusual.
I could’ve and should’ve asked him about what, but I closed my eyes once more.
About an hour later, the car came to a stop, and I slowly opened my eyes.
It was in that moment that I realized we were outside of a twenty-four hour wedding chapel.
I swallowed the small lump in my throat, realizing he’d actually meant to elope with me.
Now, is when I should’ve been afraid, and as if he sensed my hesitation, he turned my head with one of his large hands, then tipped my chin upward.
“I had a friend get us the license we’ll need.”
“You actually want to do this tonight?”
“No reason to postpone the inevitable. You do want to be Reagan Brannington, yes?”
I nodded. “I do.”
“You should save those two words for inside,” he teased, and for the first time, his smile partially reached his weary eyes.
A half hour later, we exited the building as quickly as we’d entered it. I couldn’t believe it. “We’re married,” I exclaimed, and he grinned.
“We are. There’s a resort next door. We’ll stay there tonight and decide where to go to start this new life together tomorrow.”
“Sounds perfect,” I said to him. We got back into the car, then went straight to the hotel.
Once inside our room, the earlier exhaustion set in, but I knew he would want to consummate this union of ours.
I was still a bit sore from his earlier possession of me, but I could never deny this man anything.
I slipped off my sandals, then watched as he removed his shirt.
When he turned, I saw his chest and gasped.
“Oh my God. What happened!”
I’d sensed that he had been in pain back at the pier, and now I knew why. Moving closer to him, I attempted to reach out to touch him with my hands, but pulled them back at the last minute. Instead of using my fingers, I leaned in and placed a few chaste kisses to the darkest looking bruises.
He grimaced once or twice, until he finally pulled me into his arms. “Don’t worry about them, or me. A rugby game in Dublin got out of hand.”
“Are you sure that is all it is?”
“Of course. Like I said, forget about them. I’d fucked you earlier, and I’m about to do it again.”
“Cill—”
“Shh,” he crooned to me moments before sweeping me up into his arms. He carried me to the bed, then dropped me down onto the firm mattress. His eyes swept over me right after, and I felt my thighs grow damp and my nipples harden.
“Make love to me,” I whispered.
“All night, and for the rest of our lives,” he promised before his body came down on mine.
It wasn’t long before he was thrusting inside of me.
There was something frenzied about the lovemaking, and it was as if he was trying to brand me as his.
I wanted to tell him that I was already his– now and forever –but each time he drove into me, I could do nothing more than cry out his name.
Cillian brought me to two orgasms before he climaxed, then afterward, I fell asleep in his arms exactly as he had promised.