Chapter 11
Shannon dropped Victoria at home and then went to the hotel to change and to the grocery store to pick up lunch. His spirits had risen exponentially after talking to her, and he was more hopeful now that they would find their way back to each other.
Determined to do everything he could to convince her to give him another chance, he bought her favorite salt-and-vinegar chips as well as the chocolate chip cookies from the bakery that he knew she loved.
Anything to make her happy, to put the big smile back on her face and to dry the tears that had rattled him because he’d never seen her cry before yesterday.
He hated being the cause of her tears and was determined not to give her another reason to cry over him.
Leaving the grocery store, he returned to the house to pick her up for the beach.
She had a beach chair that she wore on her back like a backpack and a bag that he strapped to the bike for the short ride to the town beach.
The beach was busy for a weekday, so they walked along the shore a ways to a more deserted portion of sand, where Victoria spread the sheet she had brought. Then she removed the cover-up she’d worn, revealing a skimpy black bikini. Had she worn that one because she knew he loved it? He hoped so.
After they ate the lunch he’d gotten for them, Shannon stretched out on the sheet next to her.
“Will you do my back?” she asked, handing him the sunscreen. She lay facedown, her head propped on her folded arms, her gaze trained on him.
“Happy to.” He took his time rubbing in the lotion on her soft skin. “You want me to do your legs, too?”
“Sure.”
Shannon continued the sensual massage on the backs of her thighs and calves, noting the way she squirmed occasionally as he touched her. When he was finished, he lay down next to her. “Return the favor?”
“Of course.” She gave him the same treatment he’d given her, and by the time she was done, he was hard as a rock.
Shannon ached so badly that he moaned.
Victoria giggled. “Everything all right over there?”
Delighted to hear her laughter, he said, “Are you teasing me?”
“Maybe a little.”
He turned on his side, facing her, so she could see what she’d done to him, watching as her gaze traveled from his face to his chest and then his groin, focusing on the huge bulge in his board shorts.
“I did that?”
Shannon scowled playfully at her. “You know you did.” He reached for her hand and linked their fingers. “I hated sleeping alone last night.”
“I did, too. I’ve gotten very used to sleeping with you.” Glancing up at his face, she said, “Could I ask you something else?”
“Anything you want.” Kevin had helped him see that to make it work with Victoria, he had to open himself completely to her.
“Are there other things I should know about you? Things I don’t know that I should?”
“No, you know all the big things about my life and my family.”
“I didn’t know you played rugby.”
“Past tense. That’s a young fool’s game. I’m too old now to take that kind of beating on a regular basis.”
“If I hadn’t forced the issue, were you ever going to tell me about Fiona?”
“Probably not. Again, not because I didn’t trust you with the information, but because it’s just so damned hard for me to talk about it.”
“I understand.”
“I’m going to talk about it, though. I’m going to do the work with Kevin so I can be what you need and deserve in a partner. I want to be the guy who gives you your fairy tale, Vic, and I want to find a better way to deal with it for my own sanity, too.”
“It means a lot to me that you’d put yourself through that, in part for me.”
“In big part for you. The fear that I had lost you forever was a huge wakeup call for me. I hope you know that.”
“Do you ever, when we’re together, mistake me for her?”
He stared at her, seeming dumbfounded by the question. “Never. Not one time. Ever. When we’re together, Victoria, there’s no one else but you.”
“Will you…”
“What, love? Anything…”
“Kiss me?”
“God, Vic, there’s nothing I’d rather do.
” Mindless of where they were, he moved closer to her and put his arms around her, sliding his leg between hers.
He gazed at her lovely face for a long moment full of the best kind of anticipation before he laid his lips gently on hers.
Shannon watched her eyes close and felt the tremor that went through her when he deepened the kiss, stroking her tongue with his.
After a while, he pulled back but only so he wouldn’t get carried away, not because he wanted to stop kissing her.
“Do you remember the first time we kissed?”
“Of course I do. We didn’t stop until we’d done everything.”
“Almost everything.”
“More than I’d ever done with a guy I’d just met.”
“We’ve been good together from the start.” He kissed her again. “If you give me the chance to make you happy, I promise I’ll give you everything I’ve got to give for as long as you want me around.”
She released a deep breath. “I’m probably always going to want you around, if for no other reason than I’m addicted to the sound of your voice.”
“Ah-ha, now the truth comes out. It’s all about the bloody accent for you, isn’t it?”
She dissolved into laughter. “Not all, but mostly.”
He kissed from her lips to her neck, nibbling on her soft skin. “You’ve got me extremely hot and bothered here.”
“You seem to be having the same effect on me.”
“Let’s take a swim and cool off.” He got up and extended a hand to help her. “Don’t look at it,” he said of his obvious erection. “That only makes it worse.”
Victoria laughed at the face he made at her.
In the water, they splashed and played and ended up wrapped up in each other again. As he kissed her, he cupped her breasts under the water and dragged his thumbs over her stiff nipples.
“Shannon,” she said, sounding as desperate as he felt.
“Is tú grá mo chroí,” he whispered in her ear.
“What does that mean?” He’d spoken to her in the words of his homeland before, but she’d never heard that particular phrase.
“‘You are the love of my heart’ in Irish, or you might call it Gaelic. We call it Irish at home.”
“It’s lovely. Say it again.”
He said it over and over and over again, holding her close to him as he whispered words of love in the language of his home. “I want to be inside you so badly.”
She clung to him with her arms around his neck and her legs wrapped around his hips. “I want that, too.”
“Should we go home?” Pausing, he said, “No, wait. You said you wanted time, and I shouldn’t pressure you—”
She kissed him. “Shannon?”
Dazzled by the way she looked at him, he said, “Yes, Victoria?”
“Take me home.”
On the short ride, Victoria told herself she was doing the right thing taking him back and deciding to have faith in him.
Their brief breakup seemed to have had a profound impact on him, and he’d come back to her with answers to her questions and the words she needed to hear, some of them said in a language and accent that set her blood to racing.
Shannon drove the bike into the driveway and cut the engine, the silence stark after the roar of the bike.
He got off and then helped her, removing the helmet with fumbling fingers that she took as a sign of his eagerness.
With his hand warm and firm on her lower back, he guided her inside, closing the door and locking it behind him.
When Victoria turned to him, he scooped her up and into his arms, walking toward the bedroom as he kissed her hungrily.
He put her down on the bed and removed his T-shirt as well as the cover-up she’d worn to the beach.
She had a brief moment of worry about getting sand in their bed, but then he kissed her again, and sand became the last thing on her mind.
“This bikini makes me crazy,” he said gruffly as he ran his hands over her ribs and up to cup her breasts.
As she looked up at him, another question occurred to her, one that rocked her to the core and one she probably had no right to ask. But it could be the most important question of all.
Apparently, he sensed her withdrawal. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I have another question, and I’m sort of afraid to ask this one because it’s not a fair question but one I still want to ask.”
“Whatever it is, you can ask me.”
“I wondered if you might ever love me as much as you loved Fiona.”
“Ah, Vic,” he said on a sigh. “I already do, but it’s a different sort of love I feel for you. It’s more grown up and mature. Fi and I were so young and stupid and still figuring out life. You and me… We’re past all that nonsense, for the most part.”
“Are we?”
“Yeah, we are.” He gazed down at her, using his fingers to brush the hair back from her face.
Then he tipped his head and kissed her neck on his way to her chest. He untied the bikini top and removed it, leaving her breasts bare to his ravenous stare.
“You’re so damned beautiful. All I could think about last night is how I would bear to live without you, without your smile and your joyfulness. I need that so bad. I need you, Vic.”
“You have me. I’m here, and I’m going to be here for as long as you need me.”
“Forever?”
“That’s an awfully long time.”
“Won’t be long enough.” He kissed down the center of her, tugging at her bikini bottoms and helping her out of them.
“Hurry, Shannon,” she said, sounding as breathless as she felt. “I want you.”
His hair fell over his forehead and his cheeks were flushed the way they got when he was turned on. She loved knowing that about him, and other things, too, like how to arouse him to the point of madness.
Victoria held out her arms to him.
He removed his shorts and came down on top of her. “I wanted to take my time,” he said.
She smiled up at him. “We have all day.”
“Mmm, I like the sound of that. All day to love you and hold you and kiss you.” He entered her in one deep thrust that had her arching into him, wanting to be as close to him as she could get. “Vic…”
Victoria held him tight against her as their bodies moved together in the perfect harmony they’d had since the beginning. “Tell me again, Shannon, in your words.”
“Is tú grá mo chroí,” he said. “The love of my heart.”
She closed her eyes against the burn of tears. “Is tú grá mo chroí,” she said, tightening her hold on him. “Always.”
Thank you for reading Episode 1! Turn the page to read Episode 2: Kevin & Chelsea story.