He shuddered at the thought. Anything was better than facing off against her ice-queen of a mother. “And now I’ll be spending it with total strangers who have no idea what the hell to make of me.”
She laughed at that. “Trust me, you will be the least interesting thing happening at Thanksgiving. The Hayes and Darcy families have been feuding for more than forty years, and now they’re all going to sit down at a table where someone gets to use a big knife? Yeah, they need you there just for security!”
“I’ll go,” he said, “on one condition.”
“Oh?”
Ciaran smiled down at her. “You have to go with me. You’ll sit right there beside me instead of under the scrutiny of your dragon of a mother.”
“That’s a done deal,” she agreed. “I was already planning on it.”
Ciaran’s smile shifted into a grin. “It seems to me, I owe you a debt of gratitude…and I do like to pay my debts.”
Her eyebrows shot up, and a smile that was pure flirtation curved her pretty lips. “What did you have in mind?”
“Take my sister back home, then you’re going back to your house, you’ll climb into that big bed of yours, wearing not a stitch…”
“And?” she prompted.
He kissed her again, hard and quick, before whispering against her ear, “I’ll show you exactly why they call the Irish silver-tongued devils.”
“You are so bad,” she whispered.
“Only when you want me to be, love. Only when you want me to be.”
Ciaran closed his arms around her for a moment, kissed her, and then stepped back. “I do owe you a debt of gratitude,” he said seriously. “For giving me another chance when I don’t bloody deserve it. But I promise you this, I’ll spend my days trying to earn it…and every one of my nights.”
She smiled at him, watery and overly emotional as she was wont to be. Loralei would forever have her heart on her sleeve, and he would do whatever it took to protect her from anything that might hurt her.
“I do love you,” she whispered softly as she headed out the door to take Mia home.
“Aye. But I love you more,” he said and meant every word of it.
* * *
The End
* * *
Thank you for reading Ciaran, A Bourbon and Blood Novella. If you’d like to read Mia’s story, it can be found in Bennett, Bourbon & Blood, Book One. Clayton, Bourbon & Blood, Book Two will be available in March!
Ciaran (Bourbon & Blood) Page 8