“Bridget,” he said warmly and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I smiled at him, my heart rising as I gazed into his eyes. “For the love of God, Murphey, what’s going on?”
He laughed, as did the others, who’d gathered, hanging back a few feet, but arranged in a wide semi-circle. They had all claimed lamps and laid them at their feet. The candles lit their faces. All the people I loved, gathered together. It was magical. As I scanned the circle, I realized others had joined Tag, Quinn, Paddy, and Deir’. Bre, and her da, and some of my favorite regulars, and, oh! Deir’s sister, Ailey, who I’d met in Skibbereen, was among them, along with Shea and Pippa O’Malley, who I waitressed for there.
I jumped. “Oh, hello!” I wanted to run and hug them, but something told me it’d have to wait for later.
Killian cleared his throat. “Uhh…ya wanted to know what was about, so…”
He stopped, staring at me with the most loving expression on his face, it brought tears.
“Go on, now,” Quinn urged. “Ya’ve got this in your pocket, son.”
Killian’s smile grew wider. He inhaled deeply and blew out his breath, glancing down for a moment before lifting his head. “Lawd. I forgot everything I wanted to say all of a sudden.” He peered out over the sea for an instant that seemed like an eternity. “Bridget. I love ya, honey. You’ve become the light of my life. Nothing was right when you were gone. I was a miserable man. And now you’re back, I don’t ever want to lose ya again.” He took another deep breath. “You danced on this cliff with me once without music.” He leaned in and whispered in my ear. “Along with other things.” A shiver of desire pulsed through me.
“Well, if it’s music you’re wanting,” Quinn pronounced. “I know a savage song….”
Killian whirled around. “Don’t ya dare.” He shook a finger. “I think my instructions were perfectly clear. And you didn’t have a speaking part.”
Quinn mimed zipping his mouth shut. When Killian faced me again, Quinn twirled his finger by his temple, and I burst out in laughter.
Killian didn’t turn. “Quinn?”
“Mmm.” He let on he couldn’t talk because his lips were sealed.
“Ignore him. Bridey…as I was saying,” he shot a dark look over his shoulder, “you once danced with me on this cliff.”
He slowly dropped to one knee, and I swear my heart stopped. This is what he was doing? He was…could he be….
“I want to continue that dance with you for the rest of our lives.”
I covered my mouth with my hands, and tears tracked down my cheeks. He reached into a pocket.
“Are ya willing to dance that dance together? Will ya marry me?”
I looked at Deirdre. She nodded her encouragement. Paddy had his handkerchief out and was mopping his face. I refocused my attention on Killian.
“Ya…” My voice pitched. “Ya want me to…marry ya?”
“Aye. Say ya will.”
He wanted to make me his wife. Me! I gazed into his gorgeous green eyes and nodded rapidly. He jumped to his feet and swallowed me up in a hug. Everyone swarmed as one around us.
Epilogue
Bridey
Many hours later, we tumbled, exhausted, into bed. The celebratory drinking went on way into the wee hours of the morning, and everyone was quite twisted by the end of it, except Killian and me, who hoped to have a private celebration of our own. But now we were thoroughly spent. I flopped on the bed on my stomach and melted into the mattress, like butter on a biscuit. Killian climbed in on the other side, switching off the light.
“My feet are throbbing, my neck and shoulders ache, but I’m the happiest girl in all of Ireland,” I muttered.
“Mmm. Poor baby.” Although he was as knackered as I was, he made an effort of massaging my shoulders then let his arm just plop on me. After a few moments he took it up again, but without squeezing, just gliding along my skin. The rhythm changed to a familiar one.
We’d been together long enough for me to recognize when a sweet gesture turned into something else. I opened my eyes. Two seconds ago, I was picking an epitaph for my grave, I was that tired. Now, an energy pricked my skin. His hand wandered along my side and back. Down again, a smidge lower.
“Mmm. That feels gooood,” I murmured, eager for him to take it further. It was a well-choreographed dance. He knew exactly what to do to get me going, and he teased me mercilessly. He dipped near my breasts, then away. Closer, then retreated again. In a matter of moments, he took me from a limp dishrag to someone who tingled all over with restrained desire. His finger barely brushed the side of my nipple, and I sucked in a breath. He could be so seductively cruel.
He ceased his movement altogether and I wanted to cry out, but I held still. Anticipating. Again, he caressed my skin, but this time going north to south. From the small of my back, to my tush and around it. I moaned and lifted onto my elbows. “I thought you were tired.”
“I was. But now I’m awake.” He slid his leg across me. “Very awake.” Shifting his weight onto me, he kissed me behind my ear, on the ear, and nibbled on my neck, adding a tiny added nip here and there, making me crazy. I arched, wanting the sound of his lips in my ear again, and he complied. He brought his hands diving under my tank and cupped my breasts.
It was game on.
He stilled again, and I took a deep breath, relaxing for a moment, knowing he would have me tensed up with his next move. He slid along my body, kissing my rear with a thoroughness that made me lift my head again, searching for his mouth.
Oh, Gawd. I can’t take much more of this. I’ll die if he doesn’t take me soon.
But it went on. In periods, he eased the tension, only to take me to the edge of my control again. I was ready for him. More than ready for him. Pushing my tush into his crotch. We could make love for a thousand years, and I’d never tire of it. I may get physically tired, but I wouldn’t become disenchanted with the way he made love. My body responded to even the simplest touch from him. I only hoped I could please him the way he pleased me.
Killian
We lay on our sides after lovemaking, gazing into each other’s eyes. Enough light came in from the parted curtains to illuminate her features.
“You asked me to marry you,” she said incredulously.
“I know.” I chuckled and moved a strand of hair from the face I would be lucky enough to wake to each morning. She may have flown in the past, but my little bird agreed to stay and be my wife. I still couldn’t believe it. “Did I surprise you?”
Her brows rose. “Surprise?” She peered at the ring I’d placed on her finger. “I hadn’t a clue you were thinking along those lines. Not even a smidgeon of a clue.” She studied me. “Ya don’t regret it, do ya?”
“Regret it?” I frowned, searching her expression. Did she still not understand how much I loved her? “Hell, no, I don’t regret it. It was one of the wisest things I ever did.”
She gave me one of her incredible smiles. They made her glow in a way I’d never seen with another, a way I could never describe, but it made her the most beautiful woman on the planet. Fair took my breath away. I rolled onto my back, lifting my arm. “Come here, bride.” She scooted closer and laid on my chest. She settled in, and I kissed her hair. “I love ya, Bridey. That spark within you has ignited my very soul, love.” She rose onto an elbow to look at me, leaving a hand on my chest. “You spread a warmth through me when my heart had gone cold, a warmth only you could provide. And I want to stay by that fire forever, feel your heat, see your light, taste those strawberry lips of yours.”
“You are…unbelievable.”
I covered her hand with mine and moved it over my heart. “We had an audience before, now I want to ask you, when it’s just you and me…will you marry me, Bridget?”
“Oh, Killian.” She gazed into my face. “Being your wife is so far beyond anything I ever dared wish for. I…I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll be mine.”
She didn’t
hesitate. “I’m yours.” She kissed me softly, then laid beside me again. As she drifted off, she murmured, “I love you.”
After a time, my arm became cramped, but I didn’t want to move it. I watched the shadows trade places on the roof and thought about the two of us, of what lay ahead, what brought us to where we were now…and to think it all started with a single kiss in the press.
She tasted of sin and sweet strawberries. But if she was a sin, then ya could just call me one unrepentant sinner. A sinner for life.
Before You Go…
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Page Ahead for an Excerpt From:
Hell Hath No Fury
Hell Hath No Fury
The Devilish Divas Series, Book Seven
Elyse
And I thought school was torturous. It had nothing on summer, pool side, where all of the in kids congregated on one side of the chlorine water and pretended I didn’t exist. And I didn’t really. And to be truthful, that’s how I liked it. Most of the time.
Mandy Cartwright climbed the ladder, rising out of the pool slowly so everyone could get a view of her wet look, the water rolling lovingly off her killer body. I glanced down at my own suit. It was a navy tank with white and yellow polka dots, with a bottom that matched and looked like a skirt. So together the two pieces looked like a dress. I thought it was cute this morning.
And therein lies the problem. Cute not sexy.
Mandy’s, in comparison, had a sort of Sports-Illustrated-Swimsuit-Edition quality to it. It looked like someone had taken a roll of gauze and criss-crossed it over her…headlights, and with the under-boobage that was sticking out of the bottom part of her top, it was clear she had some massive chesticles. The mummy-like cloth then dipped around behind her, then back to the front to make an “X” over her impossibly flat stomach, marking the desired spot below with no subtlety whatsoever. It was more NYC than Lincoln, Nebraska, but Mandy could pull it off. She was a cheerleader after all.
Heat fired my cheeks, making them the lobster-like color I’d be if I hadn’t put on SPF 1000. Another strike against me. I couldn’t tan. I swung around to grab my towel off a chair and cover myself, but I was so flustered I wasn’t paying attention and walked right into the path of an on-coming lifeguard.
“Hey, hey, hey.” He grabbed my arms to keep me from doing a face-plant on the wet cement. “Careful.”
I raised my head to thank him and my breath caught in my throat. He was simply gorgeous. A bronzed body with muscle definition in all the right places. Sandy-brown hair long enough to shake out of his eyes, which were an intense grey-blue. I resisted the urge to drop my gaze and check out the lower half, to see how well-defined he was down there. Barely resisted. “I…uh…uh…uh….”
Brilliant, Elyse.
He chuckled, which annoyed the heck out of me, and I straightened my spine, daring him to make some kind of smart-assed comment that I’d have to destroy. Tilting his head, he narrowed his gaze on me. “What’s your name?”
I wasn’t expecting that. “What? Why?”
“For the report I’ll have to file later.” He released me, glanced around, then started walking backward to his raised chair. “I have a feeling you’re a repeat offender.” He flashed me a smile so warm it could have taken yards off the polar ice-cap, then turned around and started to walk away.
Ho-ly shit! His ass was as perfect as the rest of him. He twisted his head, catching me mid-ogle. The grin grew. “What are you looking at?”
“Who? What? Me?” I grabbed the towel off my chair. “I’m just…drying off.”
He put his hands on his hips and took a few steps toward me. “Funny, because—” he gestured, lowering his voice to this sexy growl “—you haven’t even gotten in the pool yet.”
A shrill whistle blew. I jumped. It was the life guard he was there to replace. “Hunter. Get over here. I have a date.”
“Coming,” he called back, but he didn’t turn at first. Just kept staring at me. It felt like he was melting me with that stare, and it wasn’t exactly unpleasant either. “Your name?”
“Hmm. Oh…Elyse.”
“Elyse. French or something?”
I shrugged. “Or something.”
“Quit flirting and get your ass over here.”
I glanced at the other guard, breaking the magical stare.
“I’m Hunter. I’m new here.”
I nodded, tongue-tied.
He spun around and returned to the chair to take his position.
My heart thudded, out of control, in my chest. I buried my face in my towel, pretending to dry it. The guard said, “Quit flirting.” Could the new boy, Hunter, be flirting with me? I chuckled at my overactive imagination.
No way. He’s so far above me, in every way. I must look like an ant to him.
I climbed into my chair and peered across the pool. Yes, the Glam Girls had zeroed in on him. I could almost see the ripple of excitement that spread through them. That was who he’d end up with. A Mandy Cartwright or Trish MacIntyre. Maybe even Bethany Raman. Definitely not me. I shook my head, angry with myself for having even entertained the idea for even a second. It was ludicrous.
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Also by M.J. Schiller
The Devilish Divas Series
To Hell in a Coach Bag
Damned If I Do
The Devil You Know
Satan, Line One
Pitchfork in the Road
Sin Worth the Penance
Hell Hath No Fury
About the Author
Bestselling author M.J. Schiller is a retired lunch lady/romance-romantic suspense, chick lit writer. She enjoys writing novels whose characters include rock stars, desert princes, teachers, futuristic Knights, construction workers, cops, and a wide variety of others. In her mind everybody has a romance. She is the mother of a twenty-three-year-old and three twenty-one-year-olds. That's right, triplets! So having recently taught four children to drive, she likes to escape from life on occasion by pretending to be a rock star at karaoke. However…you won’t be seeing her name on any record labels soon.
mjschillerauthor.blogspot.com
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