Last time, they’d enjoyed music and each other for half the night. The woman, Shawn recalled, wasn’t the least shy about her talents. The memory made him grin even as he contemplated the most polite way to turn her down.
The only thing Brenna saw—besides red—when she carted in the last tray of empties, was the way Shawn had his head tipped down and the way the blonde had her hand on him. She stalked over, slammed the tray down on the counter by the sink with enough force to make the glasses dance.
“Is there something you’re after in here?”
Eileen was quick enough to read the threat in the eyes that were burning over her face, and the meaning behind them. “Not anymore.” In a cheerful gesture, she patted Shawn’s arm. “I guess I’m heading back after all. Some other time, Shawn.”
“Ah . . . hmm.” He had a split second to make up his mind, and going with instinct, fixed a guilty, sheepish expression on his face. “Well.”
“Always a pleasure, coming to Gallagher’s,” Eileen added as she strolled to the door. She kept the snicker inside and wondered how the pint-size redhead was going to make Shawn suffer.
“Is this the last of it, then?” Shawn began scrubbing the pot again, as if he’d dedicated his life to that single purpose.
“It is. And what was that about, I’d like to know?”
“What?”
“You and the singer with the big breasts and boy’s hair?”
“Oh, Eileen.” Deliberately, he cleared his throat as he set the pot aside to deal with the glasses. “She was just saying good night.”
“Hah.” She skewered a finger into his side and made him jump. “If she’d been any closer, she’d have been inside your skin.”
“Well, now, she’s just a friendly sort.”
“Just keep this in mind, while you and I are rolling on the sheets, you keep your distance from the friendly sorts.”
Even while delight rippled through him, he straightened slowly. “Are you accusing me of something, Brenna?” It pleased him that he managed the right mix of hurt and insult. “Of making moves toward another woman while I’m with you? I didn’t realize how little you thought of me.”
“I saw what I saw.”
He studied her a moment, then began to wipe off counters with a moody and injured air. It would be interesting, he thought, to see how much she worked to bring him around.
“She had her hand on you.”
“I didn’t have mine on her, did I?”
“That’s not the—” Damn it. Brenna folded her arms, unfolded them and jammed her hands in her pockets. She’d wanted to shred the skin off the blonde’s face. Still did, she admitted, if it came to that. It wasn’t in character at all. Not that she’d back down from a fight, but she wasn’t one to start a brawl. And surely not over a man.
“You were smiling at her.”
“I’ll be sure not to smile at anyone unless you approve it first.”
“It looked overly cozy.” Her hand was still balled in her pocket. If she hadn’t felt so foolish, she might have given in to the urge to pop him with it. “I’ll apologize if I misunderstood.”
“Fine.” Leaving it at that, he walked over to push open the door and call out his good nights. When he turned back, she looked so frustrated and unhappy he nearly relented. But a man had to finish what he started. He spoke coolly, with just enough bite to let her know she had more making up to do. “Would you prefer staying over with Darcy?”
“No. No, I wouldn’t.”
“All right, then.” He crossed to the back door, opened it, waited. She got her cap and jacket from the hook by the door, then bundled them under her arm and stepped out into the chill.
They didn’t speak as they got into opposite sides of his car. She brooded out the window while he drove out of the village and up the road toward the cottage.
She told herself she’d had a perfectly normal reaction. And shifting in her seat, she told him the same. When he didn’t answer, she had to struggle not to squirm. “Can we agree this is new territory for both of us?”
Ah, he thought, just the direction he’d hoped for. He sent her one quiet look, then nodded.
“And we never, I suppose you could say, discussed the boundaries of it.”
“You wanted sex. You’re getting it.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her flinch. Perfect.
“That’s true. That’s true,” she repeated in a mutter when he pulled up to his cottage. She was starting to feel a little sick to her stomach. “But I . . . it’s only that I—” She cursed and had to scramble out of the car to keep up with him. “Damn it, you can at least hear me out.”
“I’m listening to you. Do you want tea?” he asked, viciously polite as he walked inside.
“No, I don’t want tea. And take that stick out of your arse for one bloody minute. If you don’t have the sense to see that woman wanted to jump you, you’re blind as six bats and twice as dim.”
“More to the point would be what I wanted—and intended.” He started up the steps.
“She’s beautiful.”
“So are you. What does that have to do with it?”
As her mouth was hanging open, it took a minute to get her feet moving. In all the years she’d known the man, he’d never told her she was beautiful. It threw her off her stride. She could feel her mind trip as she tried to keep it on track.
“You don’t think of me that way, and that’s all right. It’s not what I’m trying to get to, anyway.”
He’d make sure they came back to it, but for now, he emptied the contents of his pockets onto his dresser. “What are you trying to get to, Brenna?”
“I know when we started this—when I started this—I never said what I expected.” Wishing she had his clever way with words, she dragged a hand through her hair. “What I mean is, that while we’re together this way, until one of us or both of us decide this has run its course, I wouldn’t consider being with another man.”
He sat on the trunk at the foot of the bed to take off his boots. “You’re meaning that this area of our relationship should be an exclusive one? That neither of us sees anyone else? Is that the way of it?”
“Aye, that’s my feeling on it.”
They would be exclusive to each other, and it was her idea—even demand. A strong first step, he thought, to where he wanted her to lead him. He took his time, letting her believe he was considering. “That fits in with my feeling on it as well. But . . .”
“But?”
How do we know, and who decides when that changes, Brenna?”
“I don’t have an answer to that. I never expected this to be complicated. I didn’t know it was until I saw that singer hanging all over you. I didn’t like it.”
“While I’m touching you, I’m touching no one else. You’ll have to trust me.”
“I can trust you, Shawn.” Easier now, she stepped toward him. “It’s the big-breasted blondes I have trouble with.”
“Recently, my taste is running strong for well-packed redheads.”
Because she was relieved that the chill had gone out of his eyes, she laughed. “Well-packed, my ass. Have we made up, then?”
“It’s a beginning.” He patted the space beside him. “Let’s have your boots off and we’ll make up some more.”
Happy to oblige, she sat, tugged on the laces. “I hurt your feelings. I’m sorry for that.”
“I don’t mind spatting with you, Mary Brenna.” He stroked a hand over her hair. “But I don’t like you thinking that I’d think of another woman in that way when I’m with you.”
“Then I won’t think it.” After toeing off her boots, she straightened, but her eyes went wary at the way he was staring at her. “What is it?”
“I like looking at you.”
“Nothing new to see here.”
“Maybe that’s part of it.” He framed her face, then combed his fingers through her hair, drawing it back and away. “I know this face,” he said quietly, “as well as I know my own.
I can conjure it up in my mind, the way it runs from cheek to jaw.” He skimmed his lips along the sweep. “The shape and color of the eyes, and the moods of them.”
Just now, he noted, the mood was surprised, and not a little uneasy. “The mouth,” he continued, brushing it lightly, retreating just as hers softened. “The curves and dips of it. Such a lovely face. I don’t mind looking at it, even when you’re not around.”
“That’s an odd thing to . . .” She trailed off as he brought his mouth back to hers, lingered there.
“Then there’s the rest of you.” He skimmed his hands down, a light play of fingers. Then captured her hands before she could tug the sweater off. “No, let me.” He drew her to her feet, lifting the sweater, inch by inch. “It gives me pleasure to uncover you, to work my way through the layers to that amazing body of yours. It drives me mad the way you cover it up.”
She might have gaped if she hadn’t been so busy just trying to breathe. “It does?”
“I keep thinking, I know what’s under all that.” He loosened the hook of her trousers. “I’ve had that under me.” He let the trousers drop, pool at her feet. “Step out of those, darling,” he murmured, and toyed with the hem of her undershirt.
“I’m built like a twelve-year-old boy.”
“As one who’s been a twelve-year-old boy . . .” He slipped the undershirt over her head, then let his gaze run down her. “I can promise you that’s not the case. Milkmaid’s skin and strong shoulders.” He dipped his head, touching his lips to one, then the other. “And here.” Slowly, he trailed his hands from her waist to cup her breasts. Her breath caught, released, shuddered. “Soft and firm and sensitive.”
She started to drift along, to cruise on the wonderful slide of his hands. Then gasped, half in shock, half in amusement, when he lifted her, stood her on the little chest.
But the humor that sparked in her eyes went dark when he closed his mouth over her breast, caught her nipple delicately between his teeth. “Oh, God.”
“I want you to come.” He traced a finger along the edge of cotton that still covered her, and his mouth worked down. “I want you to call out my name when you do.” And slipped his finger under the cotton, inside her where she was already hot, already wet.
She rocked against him, a jerk of movement while her fingers dug into his shoulders. Pleasure rushed into her so fast it was almost a panic, built so high, so huge, she wondered her body could survive it.
And it was his name she called out.
Was she falling or flying? She felt her legs give way, like a melting of bone, tried to center herself again when she felt him lift her, carry her to the side of the bed.
“The light.”
He laid her on the bed, knelt over her. “We’ll see each other clearly this way. This time.” Watching her, he took off his shirt. “Do you know how arousing it is to know I can take you up, again and again? That you have that much inside you for me?”
She reached for him, drew him to her. “I want you inside me.”
“And I want you weak first.” His mouth began to taste, his hands to roam. “And sobbing my name.”
“You bastard.” The fact that she said it on a moan delighted him. “Just try to make me.”
He thought it a lovely challenge, and set about meeting it.
His hands were light as faerie wings one moment, hard as iron the next. And each touch was a separate thrill. He had a way about him that she’d never imagined when she’d fantasized about having him for a lover. The men she’d known before him hadn’t given her this, or lured her into giving so much back. There was a freedom here, with him. That odd mix of wicked surprise with easy recognition.
And trust. Absolute trust.
She opened herself to him willingly. Perhaps with his skill she’d have been helpless to do otherwise, but she was willing to take all he offered, and to match it.
Even as shocks of sensation lanced through her, she yielded. It was a surrender she’d given to no other.
As if he sensed it, he took her up again, slowly this time, almost torturously, so that her body was a raw, aching mass of nerves.
Her skin was damp and slick. The heat of her all but stopped his heart with need. She moved against him, under him, with a smooth and sinuous female rhythm that made him ache for joining. In the lamplight his eyes were narrowed, focused on her face as he strained against his own need and kept her shuddering on the edge.
Quaking, she sobbed out his name.
He drove himself into her, more violently than he meant to. But she arched up to meet him, accept him, matching the desperate pace that slapped flesh against flesh and had heart thundering against heart. Glorying in it, he lifted her hips, going deeper, pushing them both toward delirium.
“No one but you, Brenna.” The throbbing in his blood was a drumbeat, primitive, constant. “Say it back to me. Say it back.”
“No one but you.” As she said it, her world exploded. Swamped with love, he emptied himself into her.
FIFTEEN
IT WAS HER habit to wake early and get on with the business of the day. On the rare occasions when Brenna slept late, it was usually because she’d had more than her fair share to drink the evening past. So as she’d had nothing but fizzy water the night before, it was a surprise to see the sun was well up when she opened her eyes. The second surprise came on the heels of the first when she noted the only thing keeping her from rolling off the bed was the arm that Shawn had banded around her.
He’d sprawled himself in the middle of the mattress, shoving her to the outer edge. But, she thought, at least he was considerate enough to see that she stayed there and didn’t fall on her face.
She tried to shift around, gave him a shove so that she could get free and climb out. But he tightened his grip and pulled her back until she was curved against him in the cozy spoon position.
“You might be the lazy sort who lies in bed half the morning, but I’m not.” She started to wiggle free, and wiggling, discovered the interesting fact that not all of him was asleep. “Wake up ready, do you?” She said it with a chuckle and pushed at his arms. “Well, I don’t. I want a shower and some coffee.”
His answer was a grunt, but his hand snuck up to cover her breast.
“And just keep your hands to yourself. I don’t want any of this fooling around until I’ve had my coffee.”
He simply parted her legs and proved her a liar. “Well.” His voice was thick with sleep, but the arm that slid under her was strong enough to hold her in place. “You can just lie there, then, while I use you.”
Later, when she staggered into the shower, she thought it wouldn’t be such a sacrifice to be used in such a way of a morning every now and again.
She turned the water on, keeping it on the cool side, as her skin was still hot and flushed. After stepping into the old claw-foot tub, she tugged the curtain around, then ducked her head under the stingy spray to wet her hair.
It wasn’t an easy business with so little water and so much hair, but she had nearly accomplished it when the curtain jingled back. She opened one eye and fixed it on Shawn.
“I don’t suppose you can give me much trouble in here so soon after that.”
“Care to wager on it?” he asked as he stepped in with her.
She’d have lost.
Her legs weren’t quite steady when she snapped down a towel. “Keep your distance now,” she warned, wrapping it around her while her hair dripped everywhere.“I’ve no more time for you. I’ve got to get home.”
“I suppose you don’t have time for any griddle cakes, then.”
She shoved wet hair out of her eyes. “You’d be making griddle cakes?”
“I had a mind to, but if you’re in such a rush, I’ll just scramble an egg for myself.”
He was already dried off and was brushing his teeth, an easy act of intimacy that barely registered. “I suppose I’m not in such a terrible rush. Have you a spare toothbrush around here?”
“I don
’t, but I think under the circumstances you can use mine.”
She kept one at Darcy’s, along with a few other essentials, but she’d been too distracted to remember to gather them up the night before. “Would you mind if I left a few things here, for convenience sake?”
He leaned over the sink to rinse so she didn’t see the gleam of triumph in his eyes. Another step, he thought. “There’s room.” He handed her the toothbrush. “Use whatever you need for now. I’ll go down and put on some coffee.”
“Thanks.”
Leaving her to it, he stepped out to pull on jeans and a sweater. If he hadn’t been obliged to be at the pub, he would’ve found a way to talk her into spending the day with him. As it was, they only had an hour or so.
But he saw, clearly saw, how it could be with them. Mornings like this, begun with love and slipping into the easy routine of a meal before they went off on their ways. Brenna sitting in the pub kitchen for a while in the evening while he worked. Knowing she’d be waiting when he got home.
As he headed downstairs, he reminded himself there were a few steps left to take before they got there. But he couldn’t believe, wouldn’t believe, he could be so in love with someone and not find the way to spend his life with her.
They’d need their own house, one that belonged to them. A big kitchen, and bedrooms enough for the family they’d make. He had enough put by to see about acquiring some land. He put on water for coffee, and got out the makings for tea as well, as he preferred starting his day that way.
He assembled eggs, flour, buttermilk. Then nearly dropped the carton at the knock on the back door.
“I’m sorry.” With a laugh in her voice, Mary Kate opened the door. “I didn’t mean to give a start.” Her cheeks were pink from her walk to the cottage, her eyes bright and cheerful. “I was just out, it being my day off, and I thought I’d stop by for a moment.”
His mind raced for the way to get her out again, fast and smooth, with no harm done. Before he’d come up with anything other than yelling fire! it was too late.
“Why aren’t I smelling coffee?” Brenna demanded. “You wear a body out before ten in the morning, then can’t even . . .” Her voice simply died away as she walked in and saw her sister.
All the happy color in Mary Kate’s cheeks died, and her eyes went wide and dark with hurt. For a moment no one moved. Actors in a bad play waiting for the curtain, knowing that when it lifted disaster would follow.
Shawn reached out, laid a hand on Mary Kate’s arm. “Mary Kate.” He said it gently, and the sympathy in the tone snapped her out of her shock. She smacked his hand aside, turned for the door.
“Mary Kate, wait!” Brenna rushed forward, skidded to a halt when her sister turned. There was color in her face again, the wild, deep color that came from shame and fury.
“You’re sleeping with him. You’re a liar and a hypocrite.” She swung out, and as Brenna neither braced for nor tried to avoid the blow, the slap sent her sprawling. “And a whore as well.”
“That’s enough.” Grimly, Shawn grabbed Mary Kate’s arm. “You’ve no right to strike her or speak to her that way.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Brenna got to her knees. That was as far as the horrible weight on her chest would allow.
“It matters a great deal. Be as mad as you want at me,” he said to Mary Kate. “And I’m more sorry than I can say if I hurt you in any way. But what’s here is between me and Brenna and has nothing to do with you.”
She wanted to weep. She wanted to scream and was afraid she’d do both at once. Fighting viciously for one scrap of dignity, Mary Kate lifted her head, stepped back from him. “You didn’t have to make a fool of me. You knew I had feelings. I still do, only now I hate you. I hate both of you.”
She shoved the door open and fled.
“Jesus.” Shawn bent to help Brenna to her feet, laid a hand over the cheek that flamed an angry red. “I’m sorry, so sorry. She didn’t mean what she said.”
“She does. Right now she means it all from the bottom of her heart. I know how it is. I have to go after her.”
“I’ll go with you.”