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Dad's Irish Mafia Friend (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 110)

Page 20

by Flora Ferrari


  Finally, the shock of nearly seeing him being blown into a million pieces started to ease off and I managed a small laugh, sagging into his arms for a badly needed hug. Nothing calmed me better than the solid feel of his chest, burying my head against the warmth of him and breathing him in. He was my man and I didn't have to let him go. Not ever, because this really was real.

  "...Garrett?"

  "Kaitlin?"

  "We've had sex before getting married."

  Garrett looked down at me, the smallest smirk tipping the corner of his mouth. "Ah. You know yourself the order of everything's all mixed around in my head what with the concussion."

  "Did you lie to Father Riley?"

  "Well now there's an interesting spiritual conundrum. When you think about it, seeing as you were always my intended and we were living under the same roof, that makes us common law married even before the Church gets involved, doesn't it now?"

  "What if I say no?"

  Garrett's face turned serious, the gleam fading from his green, green eyes and he took my hand in his, moving it across to his chest where I could feel the beat of his heart beneath my fingertips. "You were always mine, Macushla. I love you and my heart beats because of you and you know it. As far as I'm concerned you've been my wife since the first time I kissed you."

  Garrett

  Kaitlin held her hand out and I slipped the claddagh ring onto her ring finger of her left hand, right where it was supposed to be.

  "The only thing I haven't done is asked you properly."

  Dropping down onto one knee, I took out the small red velvet box that held my Grandmother's engagement ring - an emerald circled by diamonds. Kaitlin's eyes widened when I opened it.

  "My granddaddy bought this for my granny right after he won his first heavyweight title. I've just won the fight of my life because of you. Will you marry me, Kaitlin Kearney?"

  "Yes, Garrett Brannigan I love you, and I will."

  EPILOGUE

  Kaitlin

  One year later

  The hairstylist had been battling my unruly locks into beautifully relaxed, tumbling curls all morning and I thought I might pass out in a cloud of hairspray when she finally dubbed me finished. I had to admit, the romantic tumble pinned back from my face was worth the wait.

  I picked up my bouquet, giving myself a final look over in the mirror. The dress was even more perfect than it had been in the fittings and French, Ireland based designer, Delphine Grandjouan had come into Dublin especially to make the alterations to fit my growing belly.

  Somehow I'd always pictured myself getting married with a beautifully swollen bump and my baby growing inside me. I loved the delicate lace of the strappy bodice and the stylized celtic roses embossed into the lace, hugging my child. The flow of the chiffon skirt swept away in an elegant line, stretching out to a small, narrow train behind me. I felt ethereal and fae. Everything was perfect.

  The San Francisco side of me felt like I should be walking barefoot onto a beach with flowers in my hair, but the church wedding Garrett wanted felt more right to me now than that ever would have.

  He'd been paranoid for weeks that our little angel was going to come early, but I knew she'd hold out until she could be born in wedlock. I hadn't realised how important that was to him, and how he must have known we were meant to be together right from the start, but I was so glad he'd trusted that we were meant to be, and made our baby with me when he did, so she could be right there with us when we said our vows.

  I couldn't wait to see his face when he saw me, and I wasn't going to have to wait much longer.

  We just had to cross the street to reach the church.

  The building looked like a Roman temple from the outside, but when we'd come to visit it, months ago, Nora had assured me it wasn't nearly as old as that. The tall Gothic spires of the cathedral for the Irish Church were far older than any part of the low, blocky church where our ceremony was taking place. But St Mary's Pro-Cathedral was Catholic, and Catholic it had to be.

  She'd sounded disappointed, but I didn't care. There was enough history for me inside these walls. I didn't need the relics of St Patrick or any other saint to make this day special. I'd waited long enough. And now today was finally here.

  Just as I remembered, white fluted columns flanked the aisle, with a broad row of pews on either side stretching the length of the barrel-vaulted hall, all the way up to the dome and the cupola at the far end by the altar. The whole space had an air of calm, grounded serenity.

  I felt at peace the moment I stepped inside. We'd kept the flowers minimal, but there were flickering candles all around, throwing warm light against the tiles of the floor and the warm terracotta of the walls.

  I felt a tingle start across the surface of my skin. This was the place I was going to marry Garrett. Up there, in front of the white marble altar with two carved angels kneeling in awe of a sunburst of light crowned with a cross.

  It wasn't the showy space I'd thought it might be, way back when he was determined I took his name so that Kilpatrick and Tiernan's gangs would leave me alone and I was so glad all that was behind us.

  Garrett stood up there for reasons beyond wanting to protect me. And I knew that now. He wanted to be everything to me, and when he became my husband in a few minutes time. It would be forever.

  "It's beautiful," I whispered to Nora, not wanting to raise my voice and draw attention to us before the organ music changed and the flower girl and ring bearer started the procession ahead of her, my maid of honour.

  Nora nodded. "It really is. I thought it'd be a bit austere, but it's not."

  "I love it."

  Simple and grounded and far more real than some extended parade down an overly long aisle that I'd thought Garrett had wanted.

  After the arrests O'Rourke made, we didn't have to rush into anything any longer, and I'd been enjoying being engaged but now I was impatient to be Garrett's wife.

  The church wasn't packed. We'd only invited a small group of friends and relatives and I loved that however well respected and revered Garrett was, this was private. It wasn't an opportunity for him to show his power in this city, it was a time for us to show each other that our love was set to last.

  So much had changed since he'd turned in everything he had on the gangs in this city, and all of it was for the better.

  The notes of the organ shifted and the wedding march started, making the nerves I'd been holding off rise to the surface.

  Nora gave me one last hug and turned to go through the doors ahead of me.

  I barely remembered the walk down the length of the church. Garrett was the only thing that I could see.

  His smile made me certain that I had found my place. No one else had ever looked at me the way he did. Love glowed out of him and I hoped he saw the same in me. There was nothing I wanted more than to be joined with him forever.

  "Garrett Brannigan, do you take Kaitlin Kearney, as your wife, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, all the days of your life?"

  "I do."

  "Kaitlin Kearney do you take Garrett Brannigan, as your husband, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, all the days of your life?"

  "I do."

  I couldn't keep the smile from my face or the tears from my eyes. Those two small words were the most profound I'd ever spoken or ever heard all at once, I felt the world shift.

  Garrett Brannigan was my man and that was never going to change.

  "I now declare you man and wife."

  My husband didn't wait to be told he could kiss me and I clung to him as his tongue tangled with mine. Deep in my belly, our baby kicked.

  EXTENDED EPILOGUE

  Garrett

  Five years later

  Kaitlin waved at me from the edge of the stage. Her black robe billowed slightly in the breeze from the door at the side of the auditorium. The voluminous thing was coming right off her just as soon as we had the pictures taken
with her holding her degree in her mortarboard.

  The deep emerald dress she had on underneath was much more to my liking, and I was looking forward to seeing her in it at the party I'd arranged to celebrate afterwards.

  She was always a stunner, but today she was by far the most beautiful woman in the room.

  No one else on that stage held a candle to her. My wife had raised our daughter and carried our twins to term while gaining her law degree at Trinity and I couldn't have been prouder.

  I had our newborn twins cradled one in each arm and they'd slept soundly through the ceremony, as good as gold. Just like I knew they would for their daddy.

  Nora had our little girl bouncing on her knee, letting her use her phone to take pictures. Kiera was so proud of her mammy. The past few years, every time Kaitlin headed off to class, Kiera would pack a bag of her own to take to nursery and tell us all she had lessons to go to as well.

  I thought Kaitlin was the one to make my life complete, but the children we'd made together had stretched my heart and filled it so full of love, it had to be overflowing.

  Our little boy, named for Kaitlin's father, Donovan, had his mother's deep red-brown hair and our little girl, Orla, was a sandy mix of blonde and copper. Kiera's hair had the same dark tones as mine.

  All three of them were as perfect as I could have ever pictured them, and it was Kaitlin who'd made them that way.

  She tempered the roughness in me, shining it up so it shone out in them.

  Since I'd married her, she'd continued to astound me. Once we decided to stay in Ireland, after Kiera's birth, her application to Trinity College was an obvious choice, but managing her final year alongside the birth of our twins had made me all the more certain I'd married a superwoman.

  Seeing her with them latched to her breasts and feeding our children filled me with more pride than I could have imagined.

  Aside from me, they were the only ones to ever touch her breasts and it was always going to stay that way. No one else in the world had a claim on them for all of eternity.

  She came down from the stage, flushed and smiling and I beamed back at her, full of pride.

  There wasn't a day that went by when I regretted the deal I'd done with O'Rourke. Dublin was my city again, and the boxing gyms were doing their job, like they always had back in the old days. Giving people like my father and Kaitlin's dad a chance at a life that didn't involve guns and drugs and violence.

  Last month, we opened our fourth in Ireland and Kaitlin had been going over the legal contracts for our first venture across the pond. In San Francisco, right where her father had intended it to be.

  Kaitlin was the catalyst for that, and I couldn't have loved her more for it. She was my love and my life.

  She took Donovan out of my arms, cooing over him, and I leaned over, pulling her into a deep kiss.

  "I just remembered, we've got to get home as soon as possible Mrs Brannigan. There's an emergency with a tow rope in our bedroom."

  Kaitlin's eyes cut to mine and she slid her hand up along my thigh, teasing over the outline of my cock. When it came to her, she always had me hard in seconds and that would never change.

  "Is that so, Mr Brannigan? I guess we'd better hurry then."

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS

  Book 1: Baby Lust

  Book 2: Veteran

  Book 3: Built

  Book 4: Bambino

  Book 5: Rescued

  Book 6: Leader

  Book 7: Professor

  Book 8: Burned

  Book 9: Worldly

  Book 10: Pistol

  Book 11: Policed

  Book 12: Driven

  Book 13: Lucky 13

  Book 14: Lumberjacked

  Book 15: Protector

  Book 16: Carpenter

  Book 17: Italian Stallion

  Book 18: Gardener

  Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin

  Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 21: Cocky CFO

  Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th

  Book 23: Mechanic

  Book 24: SEAL’s Secret

  Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch

  Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina

  Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy

  Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol

  Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess

  Book 32: Statham

  Book 33: Bodyguard

  Book 34: Greek God

  Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter

  Book 36: Mountain Man

  Book 37: SEAL’s Justice

  Book 38: Royal Romance

  Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery

  Book 40: Crocodile Dan D

  Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby

  Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby

  Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter

  Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door

  Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace

  Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny

  Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter

  Book 49: Steamy

  Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend

  Book 51: Possessive Professor

  Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter

  Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby

  Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day

  Book 55: Doctor Next Door

  Book 56: Possessive Policeman

  Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter

  Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter

  Book 59: Virgin in New York

  Book 60: Rock Star’s Baby

  Book 61: Possessive Protector

  Book 62: Possessive Australian

  Book 63: Best Friend’s Brother

  Book 64: Possessive Cowboy

  Book 65: Summer Romanced

  Book 66: Possessive Prince

  Book 67: Lovers’s Enemy

  Book 68: Cop’s Best Friend

  Book 69: Possessive Firefighter

  Book 70: Football Next Door

  Book 71: Doctor December

  Book 72: Possessive Canadian

  Book 73: Blue Collar Billionaire

  Book 74: Possessive K-9 Cop

  Book 75: Possessive Brazilian

  Book 76: Hockey Obsession

  Book 77: Possessive Boston Irish American MMA Fighter

  Book 78: Halloween Next Door

  Book 79: Possessive Russian

  Book 80: Baseball Mine

  Book 81: Cop’s Caribbean Captive

  Book 82: Instalove Island

  Book 83: Dad’s Best Friend

  Book 84: Thanksgiving with Dad’s Boss

  Book 85: Possessive Italian Neighbor

  Book 86: Possessive Portuguese

  Book 87: Possessive Christmas Cop

  Book 88: Russian’s Obsession

  Book 89: Possessive Doctor’s Christmas

  Book 90: Possessive Parisian Pilot

  Book 91: U.K. Boxing Day

  Book 92: Jealous Russian Stalker

  Book 93: Italian Mountain Man

  Book 94: Aggressive Russian

  Book 95: Possessive Valentine

  Book 96: Possessive Hunter

  Book 97: Dad’s Russian Mafia Friend

  Book 98: Russian Teacher

  Book 99: Australian Obsession

  Book 100: Russian Next Door

  Book 101: Dad’s Irish Friend

  Book 102: Nanny for the Russian Mafia

  Book 103: Best Friend’s Dad

  Book 104: Basketball Babymaker

  Book 105: Possessive Veterinarian

  Book 106: Brother’s Fireman Friend

  Book 107: Brother’s Canadian Cowboy Friend

  Book 108: Summer Vacation with Dad’s Best Friend

  Book 109: Dad’s Italian Mafia Friend

  Book 110: Dad’s Irish Ma
fia Friend

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