Chapter Twenty-Nine
The door of their hotel room swung shut, closing out the buzz of chatter in the hall as well as the lingering wariness that had loomed over the reception after Brennan appeared.
There’d been no separating Danny from his father once Shauna gave the all clear.
That boy’s inner child was still desperate for his father’s love and willing to withstand Kieran’s ire to receive it.
But Maeve took Kieran’s side. The Sullivan siblings spent the reception divided—Shauna and Danny bending like broken vines toward the slip of light Brennan gave them, and Kieran and Maeve standing strong like moonlit blooms.
A deep sigh drew Lily’s attention from her study of the white-framed door.
Kieran stood beside the bed, shrugging off his suit jacket and tugging at the knot in his bow tie.
He was too large for the small room. His broad shoulders seemed tucked in like one of the many trinkets adorning the old inn.
A queen-size bed was scooched in at an angle into the corner of the slope-roofed room.
A vanity littered with Lily’s makeup and brushes sat below the window and a dresser stood opposite the bed.
A cozy private bathroom equipped with a standing shower was beside the door to the hall. Overall, there was barely room to move.
“Are you okay?” She set her clutch atop the dresser and slipped off her heels, leaving them tucked along the wall.
His waistcoat joined his jacket on the back of the chair by the vanity. “Yeah. I double-checked that Maeve and Saoirse and Danny are all locked up. Told Maeve to jam the chair under the door handle once I left.”
“I didn’t ask about them.” Lily stepped forward and took over for Kieran’s distracted fingers. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as she slipped each button free and opened his shirt. “Are you okay?”
The soft black fabric came away in her hands, and Lily placed the shirt with the other pieces of his tuxedo.
Standing there with his ribbed undershirt tucked into his dress pants and his tattoos on display, Kieran oozed confidence.
Someone could never look at him and all his success and guess his past, yet there it was, lurking right beyond their door.
“I’m okay, Princess. Just tired. Haven’t had to play protector from my father in a decade.”
His hands closed around her waist, and he drew her in, breathing deeply when he trailed his nose across her collar and up her neck.
Closing her eyes, Lily leaned into his embrace. Kieran could make her forget the entire world. She wanted to be that for him, too.
“If you protect them, who protects you?”
A chuckle rumbled through his chest, and he leaned back enough to quirk one eyebrow. “You think I became a professional fighter because I had someone to protect me?”
The truth of his words sank in her skin—heavy like a bone-chilling cold. “Was there really not anyone?”
“There was Daideo.” He reached one hand between them and thumbed the golden medal he wore outside the gym. “He’s the only reason I had any sense of right and wrong, or what love was supposed to be like. But he died when I was ten.”
“And he gave you this?” She took a hold of the medallion, turning it in the light. A winged man wielding a sword shimmered before her.
“For my First Communion, yeah. This is St. Michael the Archangel. Protection’s sort of his gig.”
A man who’d died nearly twenty years ago and a medallion. That was all Kieran had in the world. The lines of Lily’s lips curved downward, and she laid her hand flat over the medal. Beneath the base of her palm, his heart beat strong.
“I’ll protect you.”
His tongue darted out, a rebuttal at the ready. Then, as if thinking better of it, he settled on kissing her forehead instead. “Whatever you say.”
“Hey.” She tipped her chin up and met his dark eyes—such a rich, beautiful brown. Deeper than the silt of a sleeping riverbed. “I can protect your heart.”
If he let her. She swallowed down her nerves and held his gaze. No pasts, they’d said that first day. No feelings. But that had changed. They had changed. The truths she’d told and the secrets he’d shared. The way they’d bared themselves to one another.
They’d changed for the better.
“There’s no need for that.” He cupped her face with one hand and traced his thumb across her cheek. “You can do a lot better than me.”
“Oh, right.” She rolled her eyes. “Because hot guys who respect me, care about my well-being, and fuck me like I’m a porn star and they’re my top subscriber are just a dime a dozen.”
“And if they were, would you choose the guy with the fucked-up family issues?”
Lily worked her jaw and mulled over her words as she searched Kieran’s face for a hint of this newfound self-deprecation. Was this what he saw in the aura of his father’s abuse? A fuckup?
“You aren’t your father, Kieran.”
He shrugged. “Some days I am. I was an ass to you the first day we met. That’s definitely something I learned from dear ol’ Dad.”
“Okay, and?” She found his hands and threaded their fingers together. “You’ve more than made up for it. You’re the guy I wanna test run all my fantasies with, remember?”
“I want that, too.” He squeezed her hands in his.
“What I’m trying to say is…you’re better than Brennan. You’re a good man, and you deserve a good life. And, well.” She swallowed then blew out a breath, shaking off her doubts. “One of my many fantasies about you includes a good life.”
The corner of his mouth twitched upward. “Really? When you think about your future, I’m still there?”
“Of course.” Lily stood straight and schooled her face into a mask of seriousness. “Twenty years from now, you’re my baby daddy.”
He groaned and dropped his forehead onto her shoulder.
“No can do, Princess.” He freed his hands from her grasp and found the zipper at the back of her dress.
He dragged it down with agonizing slowness, his knuckles trailing in the zipper’s wake, and kissed across her shoulder, nudging the straps out of his way.
“I’m Catholic. Can’t be having any bastards. ”
Lily shivered and stepped out of her dress. “Fine,” she huffed, exaggerating the i in fine. “I’ll marry you.”
Kieran stilled. The upward trace of his fingers along her bare abdomen halted at her ribs. Something fierce flashed in his eyes, and his gaze volleyed between her eyes and her lips. “Say it again.”
Butterflies shuddered in her belly, and Lily settled herself with her palms against Kieran’s chest. His gaze still held hers—as dark as the night and as powerful as the tide.
If she’d known when she met him how much he’d wreck her twelve-month plan, maybe she would have walked away.
But here she was—caught in his rip current and drowning in him.
Yes, she wanted to protect him. Share a life with him. Marry him if that was what he wanted.
“I’ll marry you, Kieran.”
He had her in his arms faster than she could exhale.
One hand was under her thigh, tugging her up against his waist. The other was in her hair, bending her closer as he captured her lips with his.
They parted only for seconds—slipping off his undershirt and her bra—shedding their clothing until he pinned her to the bed and nudged her legs apart with his knee.
His breath was hot against her skin, leaving a trail of goose bumps as he kissed from her neck to her breasts. “Tell me about our life in twenty years.”
A shiver rolled through Lily, and she bucked her hips upward, desperate to touch as much of him as possible.
“We’ll live off the lake. Somewhere with lots of trees so we can watch the leaves change in the fall.
Outside of the city but not so far you can’t take a train in for work.
We’ll have a beautiful old home. Victorian, maybe, and we’ll restore it with Danny and our kids. ”
“We’re having multiple kids, are we?”
“Siblings are important, right?”
“Hmm, well, I’ll make sure our bedroom has a deck overlooking the water.
” He took his time between sentences and rolled her nipple under his tongue, working her belly into a tighter and tighter knot with every pass of his tongue and promise from his lips.
“I’ll bend you over the railing every morning and make love to you while we watch the sunrise. ”
Lily giggled and snuck a hand between them. Her grip closed around his length, and she flicked her thumb over his tip, making him groan. “That sounds a little graphic for lovemaking. Maybe fucking.”
“Sex isn’t dirty, Princess.” Kieran sat back on his knees and caressed the underside of her thighs. “I could drill you right in this tight little ass of yours—it wouldn’t change how I feel about you.”
Anticipation swam in her veins. “And how do you feel about me?”
He grinned and bent forward, dusting kisses over her abdomen. “Like I’d fix up an old Victorian home with you.”
Each searing kiss up through the valley of her breasts left her more breathless than the last. When he settled between her legs, his cock hung heavily against her inner thigh.
The heat of his chest was tantalizing against her bare skin.
He held himself up with his left hand and with his right he swept her hair away from her face.
He traced her jawline slowly, deliberately, as if committing the shape to memory, before brushing his thumb across her bottom lip. “Tell me what you want, Lily.”
He must have asked her a hundred times that summer, but for once anxiety didn’t swallow down her words. She took his free hand and laced their fingers together, bringing his hand to rest atop hers on the bed. “I do wanna make love. Not fuck.”
A moment passed. Then another. Insecurity crept in her periphery. When Kieran finally spoke, his voice was so quiet, she almost missed it.
“I’m not sure how.”
Lily wiggled her right hand under his left and entwined those fingers, too. “We can learn together.” She curled her legs around his calves, touching as much of him as she could. “I think mostly you just kiss me.”
He did. He kissed her like she was starlight, and he was a sailor lost in the night. Like he was an arid plain, and she was the first downpour of the season. Like if he ever stopped, he might stop breathing, too.
His heart pounded against her chest. His breath filled her lungs. He was everywhere. Stretched over every inch of her skin. Floating through every corner of her mind. He was a deity, and she was his disciple.
“I-need-a-condom,” he whispered in a rush against her lips.
Lily shook her head and tightened the weave of her legs around his. “I’m on the pill. Condoms are just a nice precaution.”
“Christ, you wreck me.” He shuddered before claiming her lips once more, this time delving his tongue into her mouth at the same moment his cock filled and stretched her pussy.
Every deliberate roll of his hips sent waves of pleasure crashing through her. There was no telling limb from limb. No way of knowing where he ended and she began. Her heightened moans echoed in the small room, rivaled only by his ragged breath.
Releasing one of her hands, he snuck a hand between them and swirled tight circles over her clit. The sensation sent shock waves scorching up her spine, and she gripped his hair, desperately holding on to him.
“Come with me, baby.” His words were a prayer. “I need to feel you.”
Lily curled upward, grinding her clit against the meat of his palm. His thrusts were steady and luxurious, each one sending her closer and closer to that beautiful precipice. Something snapped within her. Her breath shattered on his name, and pleasure flooded her senses.
He wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her impossibly close as his own orgasm released deep within her. He moaned into their kiss, and his body went slack atop hers.
They each took slow, shuddering breaths. Their bodies trembled in the aftermath of their lovemaking. But Kieran didn’t roll away. He snuggled into her embrace and rested his head over her shoulder. He trailed butterfly kisses down her neck and drew lazy circles against her side.
His weight was bliss. Every soft kiss was the first pull of a daisy petal. He loves me. He loves me. She was as sure of it as she was of the steady rhythm of her heart that called his name. And I love him. The knowledge was sweet rapture. This man was hers, and she was his.
“You win,” he murmured, though his voice was heavy with sleep.
“Hmm?” Lily asked. She trailed her fingertips through his short hair.
Kieran nuzzled his face against her neck. “That was a hell of a lot better than fucking.”