Epilogue
CAROLINE
Declan’s arms are solid around me, and I stir awake against the floor of the kitchen as I hear the front door open. I’m afraid for a second before I remember that most of the people that were threats to me are now either dead or in love with me.
Declan seems to sense my tension. His hand slides gently down my arm, like a reminder— you’re safe now. His chest is soft and hairy against my cheek, and it takes a lot to move away from the warmth of him to look over my shoulder.
Rian steps inside, silent and tall in the entryway, the dark from the evening casting a dark shadow across his face.
He’s haloed under the entry light, like he’s walked into a confessional.
Or like I have. His jacket has some blood on it, but he unzips it and tosses it, and he’s like new in a button-up and slacks—looking fresh, like he came from a conference.
There’s something in his expression that I haven’t seen before, and then his eyes fall on us. Nude, in the kitchen, Declan’s soft cock still inside me, stirring our juices.
There’s a flash of jealousy for a moment, and then he pushes it aside and sits with us, like it’s normal, like I’m not the woman he loves and Declan’s not his brother, and we weren’t just having sex, and he doesn’t mind. “I didn’t expect you back so soon,” I say.
“I’ll give you two a moment,” Declan murmurs, and I shift to sit up, but Rian moves his hand out and presses his palm against my lower back. Stay, don’t get up. I settle back into the dip of Declan’s pelvis, and I feel him swell inside me.
He shrugs, making eye contact. “I’ve done it before.” Toss a body, he means. Make a statement out of death, he means. I shiver. Not from fear but from how he watches me. Naked, used, thoroughly ruined in the most intimate way.
And yet…his eyes are soft. Starving. “You two look like you had fun,” he says. No accusation. Just an ache behind his voice.
“We did,” I reply honestly, tilting my head, studying him.
“I’m not hiding.” Finally, I move off of Declan, and the space between us becomes evidence—sticky, swollen, damp with every time we came, with the impulsive mess of it.
The air smells like sweat and sex. I prod him, needing to know what I’m walking into. “How does that make you feel?”
Rian’s jaw flexes. His eyes flick to his brother, then back to me.
“I’m not mad,” he says. “I’m just…” He leans in, hands cupping my face, lips brushing mine. The kiss is tender. Electric. “I want you too.”
Declan shifts behind me, sitting up slowly. His hand settles on my hip, and the possessive way his fingers press into my skin doesn’t go unnoticed. I feel him tense.
“I’m not threatened,” Rian adds, a little louder now. “I’m not jealous.” But he is. I can taste it. And Declan can too.
“You sure?” Declan asks, his voice low, unreadable.
“Are you?” Rian shoots back, meeting his brother’s eyes.
Tension coils around us like a wire pulled too tight.
“I have nothing to be jealous of,” Declan replies, his hand sliding against my back, making circles on me with his palm.
My heart thuds once, loud and low. The floor feels less steady beneath me, like the house itself is holding its breath.
Rian’s still looking at me like I’m the only answer to a question he didn’t know he was asking.
Declan’s touch is agonizing juxtaposed against it.
“I’m not choosing between you,” I say carefully, eyes flicking to Declan. “I won’t do that. I…I love you both.”
“You don’t have to,” Rian says. “I’m not asking you to. I don’t want you to.”
“Then what do you want?”
He exhales. “Caroline, when I met you, I was supposed to kill you. Not even supposed to—I was programmed to kill you. But you’re so…
disarming. You’re everything I never thought I needed.
Funny, charming, a strong mother, a strong fighter.
You’re moralistic, but you understand the gray areas.
I want you. I want us. All of us. Whatever the hell that looks like. ”
I search his face for doubt. There isn’t any. “So, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying…I’m done pretending any of this is normal. That there’s a right answer. That love looks the way we thought it would.”
He’s saying the right things, but I still feel the edge of a cliff beneath my heels.
I’ve been standing on it since the day they took me.
Since the moment I realized I wasn’t afraid of them—I was afraid of myself around them.
Of the way I could bend and still not break.
Of how much I might want what I shouldn’t. “Why do I sense a but?” I whisper.
“Because when I was dumping my father off a bridge…” He smiles thinly, sarcastically, pointedly. “I realized we can’t walk away from this life. It isn’t possible.” He looks at Declan, who nods solemnly. “Kellan was right. It isn’t just over because our father is gone.”
“I don’t want this life. I won’t be queen to a mafia,” I say, shaking. I search the ground for my clothes, but Rian wraps himself around me and pulls me into his lap like he’s done before. He gives me his own body heat like he’d give me his entire body if it meant it would make me happy.
“I know.” He nods, looking me in the eyes so deeply that I feel like I’m staring at the freckles in his eye and not in his eyes themselves.
“So what? It’s over?” I ask sharply, confused.
“That’s up to you. This is me giving you the choice. You can walk. Right now. We’ll survive it.” My throat tightens. “Or,” he continues, “you can stay. And rule with us. Not beneath. Not behind. With. ”
I freeze, not sure how to answer, and Declan senses it. “Caroline,” he interjects, his voice low and syrupy, “you and I both know you like the violence. You can admit that you want to be a part of this with us.”
I look between the brothers, the heat between my legs blooming. How can they be so right about me? How can they see things about myself that I don’t even see?
“It can’t be the same. We have our sons to think about. You both said you grew up as child soldiers…we can’t do that to them.” Fear starts to crawl up my throat.
These men I thought I knew…was I wrong? Did they only say they’d changed because then I would help? Because then I would fuck them?
“I don’t want to run rackets. I don’t want to live in fear. I don’t want to raise my children in shadows. I won’t kill to keep peace. I won’t rule your father’s empire,” I say.
“Good,” Rian replies, without hesitation. “Then don’t.” He shifts my body so I’m straddling him the way I straddled his brother just minutes ago. His voice is low, but clear. “Take what you want. Burn what you don’t. Start something new. And let us stand beside you while you do.”
I let out a laugh that’s more pain than humor. “You think it’s that easy?”
“No,” he says softly, kissing my neck. “I think it’s impossible. But I’ve watched you do the impossible more than once.”
I wrap my arms around him, trying not to melt against his touch. “I choose my terms.”
He nods. “You lead,” he says. “We follow.”
Tears prick at the corners of my eyes, but I don’t let them fall. Not yet. “Don’t say that unless you mean it.”
“I mean it,” he says, repeating, “You lead. We follow. But we can’t totally leave it all. And I think you always knew that deep down.”
My voice is barely a whisper. “And if I decide to leave it all?”
“You have a choice, Caroline. It’s yours to make. It’s not an ultimatum. It’s reality. I will always love you and want you.”
My breath catches. Because that’s it, isn’t it? That’s the thing I’ve been afraid to ask for. Not power. Not freedom. Just this. Love without a cage.
I turn between them. Two men who broke me open and stitched me back together, each in their own brutal, beautiful way. And here they are, asking nothing but for me to choose.
I lift my chin. “I want something else,” I say. “Not this house. Not the throne. Not the bloodlines. I want to build a home where my children can laugh without flinching. Where we don’t have to keep secrets or clean blood from the floor.”
Rian’s voice is steady. “Then that’s what we’ll build.”
His hands slide over my breasts, his touch familiar and reverent. He touches me like he’s been waiting hours, years, to hold me. His palm glides down my torso, between my thighs, and I’m already wet again, aching.
Declan watches, eyes dark with heat. His hand snakes around my waist, pressing into my stomach as if to anchor me while Rian slides two fingers into me, curling them just right.
I gasp. My hips rock into it. Rian kisses me slowly, deeply, while Declan’s mouth finds my neck, my shoulder, my spine. He worships me from behind while his brother opens me in front.
I tilt my head back against Declan’s chest, feeling him harden again as I grind down into Rian’s lap.
“Take her,” Declan growls, breath hot against my ear. “I want to watch you fuck her, brother. I want to see her come again.”
Rian lifts me effortlessly, adjusting me over his lap. His cock is already pressing against me, thick and hard, and when he slides into me, I cry out. Softly, desperately.
They hold me between them. Declan’s hands on my chest, Rian’s hips moving under mine. I ride him slow, greedy, tears slipping from my eyes and mixing with sweat.
“ Is tú mo ghrá ,” Rian whispers, thrusting up into me.
“I know,” I gasp, my voice breaking. “I love you too.”
Declan kisses my tears away. “We both do.”
I come undone between them—shaking, full, whole.
After, they don’t let go, and I don’t want them to. I relax into their arms, letting them hold me, just for now. Because soon, I’ll have to make a thousand choices for all of us.
But not right now. Right now, I get to belong. And belonging is so much more than just surviving.
The End
Dear precious reader, thank you for reading Irish Daddies!
When I finished writing the book, I couldn’t put down my pen yet…
P.S. If you enjoyed Irish Daddies, then I think you’ll enjoy Filthy Rich Daddies! Swipe to the next page for a sneak peek…