January Girl (Wilder Irish Book 1)

by Mari Carr

  “No. It’s not.” He took the box from her, pulling the diamond necklace off the silk lining.

  Caitlyn raised her hand. “Put that away, Lucas. I’m not keeping it.”

  He ignored her. “I noticed you wear a lot of silver. This is white gold. Thought it might match what you have better.”

  The diamond halo pendant was only 2.5 carats and hadn’t cost him more than ten thousand, so he couldn’t understand her fuss.

  “I can’t take that from you.”

  He also didn’t understand her refusal. “It’s a birthday gift, Caitlyn.”

  “Fuzzy socks are a gift. A Yankee Candle. A bottle of wine. All acceptable birthday gifts. We’ve only been together a month or so, Lucas. That’s something you’d give a woman on your fiftieth wedding anniversary.”

  He grinned, and then gripped her upper arm, turning her back to him once more. “Cait,” he purposely used her nickname, “say thank you.”

  As he gave her the order, he drew the chain around her neck and fastened it. Her hand flew to the pendant once it was in place.

  She was still shaking her head as she twisted to face him again, but he wasn’t in the mood to hear any more of her refusals. It was her necklace and that was the end of it.

  “Say it.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered. “But—”

  Lucas gripped her head and kissed her, hard. Then he rested his forehead against hers, his gaze stern. “I’m not taking it back. You can pawn it if you hate it that much, but it’s yours.”

  “I don’t hate it. It’s the most beautiful necklace I’ve ever seen.”

  He smiled. “Happy birthday, Caitlyn.”

  She laughed. “You’re a day early.”

  “I know. I just wasn’t sure what your plans were for tomorrow. Thought maybe you’d do something with your parents.”

  “Actually…” She paused, and he sensed she was suddenly nervous. “Would you want to come to my apartment on Sunday to watch the playoff game with my family? We’re doing fun food and there will be a birthday cake.”

  “Fun food?”

  Caitlyn rolled her eyes. “Aunt Riley’s name for appetizers. Every quarter, we pull out a different platter of food. Wings, cheese fries, jalapeno poppers, crab dip, meatballs, stuff like that.”

  “Damn. That sounds really good.”

  Lucas hadn’t been back to the pub since the night he’d picked her up in the limo and whisked her away while her uncle and cousin shot daggers at him. His absence there hadn’t been an accident. He knew that. It was yet another way they’d been avoiding letting the real world interfere.

  They’d created this cocoon, this paradise where nothing could touch them, hurt them, drive them apart.

  “It’s no problem if you’d rather not deal with all of them. I know you’re not used to big families, and mine is huge and loud and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, only Irish.”

  “I’d love to come.”

  He hadn’t anticipated her response, hadn’t expected her face to light up with absolute joy. “Really? Okay. That’s great.”

  Every time he thought he’d figured Caitlyn out, she took another hard left and he was lost again. She chastised him for buying her expensive jewelry, yet looked like he had given her the moon on a platter by agreeing to spend time with her family.

  There wasn’t a single relationship in his past that compared to this one, which left him flying blind.

  He stood up, grasping her hand to help her out of the tub. Lucas dried her off, then himself, and together they walked back to the bedroom. Neither of them spoke as they climbed onto the mattress, and for the second time that night, he made love to her.

  They lay together in the aftermath for nearly thirty minutes, simply holding hands and talking about a whole lot of nothing.

  “I guess I should clean up and get dinner started,” she said at last.

  Lucas stopped her when she headed for the bathroom. They hadn’t used a condom this time either. He suspected they were a thing of the past.

  “No.”

  She looked at him quizzically.

  “Don’t clean up. We’re going to go to the kitchen and fix dinner together. I want to watch as my come slides down your thighs, Cait.”

  “Lucas,” she whispered.

  “I’ll clean you up myself before we eat. But until then, I want to make sure you remember who you belong to.”

  Her breathing grew shallow, her face flushed. Both responses were normal when he gave her a command. It was a heady thing to watch her fall into sub space. She told him once it was as if the world went fuzzy and warm, everything taking on a dreamlike quality. He liked that he was the only one who could send her there.

  “Do you understand?”

  She nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “Who do you belong to, Cait?”

  “You.” The response was more air than sound. “For—”

  Lucas gripped her face and kissed her roughly, cutting off the rest of her response. There was no way he was going to let her finish that thought.

  She wasn’t his merely for now.

  She was his forever.

  10

  Caitlyn appreciated the fact that Lucas hadn’t let go of her hand. They’d been in her apartment less than five minutes and had covered all the introductions. The best part about this setting was that half the family was working downstairs during the game. Doing this whole “introducing the boyfriend to the fam” thing was easier in small doses.

  Five minutes.

  So far, so good.

  Ever since he’d agreed to come with her, she had fretted over how the day would go. Which only solidified how screwed she was.

  She’d almost ruined everything on her own Wednesday night. Lucas had asked her who she belonged to and she’d said him. Then she had almost added the word, “forever.”

  Talk about a near miss. Mercifully, Lucas had kissed her before she could spout out that insanity, along with the words, “I love you.” They’d made it to the surface too many times lately. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold them in.

  Today mattered too much. Her family’s approval of Lucas mattered too much.

  “Glad Caitie finally brought you around,” Pop Pop said, patting the spot on the couch next to him. “Come sit next to me, son.”

  Shit.

  “We’ll keep your young man entertained while you go get changed, Caitie,” her grandfather said.

  Lucas glanced at her sweater and jeans, clearly puzzled by what was wrong with what she was wearing. Caitlyn grinned and hesitated to leave.

  “We won’t hurt him until you get back,” Lochlan murmured from behind her.

  She turned to glare at her brother. “You won’t hurt him then either.”

  Lochlan shrugged. “Let’s just say I’m reserving that right. If he behaves, I’ll behave.”

  Caitlyn blew out an exasperated breath and would have continued the argument, if her mom and dad hadn’t walked into the apartment.

  “There’s my birthday girl.” Dad walked over and gave her a big bear hug. She hadn’t seen him since turning thirty-three on Thursday. Typically she did dinner with her parents at their house on her birthday, but this year, she’d asked to push the celebration back to game day, opting to celebrate with Lucas on his yacht instead. She flushed when images of that night flashed through her mind—ball gags, butt plugs and bondage, oh my. He’d brought all her kinky fantasies to life. It had been overwhelming. Amazing. Perfect.

  “And you must be Lucas.”

  The two men shook hands. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Wallace.”

  “Call me Will.”

  Mom stepped next to Dad and smiled at him. “Hello again, Lucas. And before you call me Mrs. Wallace, it’s Keira.”

  “Keira,” Lucas said with a friendly smile.

  Mom lifted the cake box in her hand. “Made your favorite, Caitlyn.”

  For a split second, Caitlyn’s nerves vanished as the prospect of heaven on a platter loomed in fr
ont of her. “Spice cake with cream cheese frosting?”

  “Couldn’t let you get another year older without it, could I? I’m going to put this in the kitchen and see if Riley needs a hand with the fun food.”

  Dad grabbed a seat in the recliner.

  “Will you be okay for a second?” Caitlyn asked Lucas.

  “Everything is fine, Caitie,” he teased, mimicking Pop Pop.

  “He’s the only one allowed to call me that,” she warned him.

  “That’s fine. I prefer Cait anyway.”

  The bastard knew exactly what effect his use of her nickname would have on her. She pressed her legs together and closed her eyes briefly. “Not here. Please.”

  Lucas gave her a kiss on the cheek as he chuckled and from the corner of her eye, she saw no less than four heads turn to look at them.

  “Be right back.” She darted to her room, drawing her sweater over her head, tugging on the Ravens jersey instead. Reaching under the neckline, she pulled out the diamond necklace Lucas had given her. She hadn’t taken it off since he’d put it on her. It was hands-down the most expensive thing she’d ever owned, with the exception of her car, and she was a nervous wreck she’d take it off and lose it.

  She loved it more than she could say. It looked silly with her jersey, but she didn’t care. It was staying on.

  She returned to the living room just as Bubbles was walking through the apartment with her cousin, Darcy. She was clearly midway through some story, because all Caitlyn heard as she joined Lucas on the couch was, “But that was all back when I was a ’ho in Vegas. Back before I met Riley. Now, I…” Her voice faded as she and Darcy walked downstairs to the pub.

  “Where are they going?” Caitlyn asked.

  “Riley needs more barbeque sauce for the wings,” Colm explained before turning back to Lochlan, discussing the upcoming game.

  “Nice jersey,” Lucas murmured.

  “Pop Pop got it for me for Christmas four years ago. Swears the Ravens only win when I wear it.”

  Lucas reached out and touched the necklace. She expected him to tease her for her choice of accessory for a football jersey, but he remained quiet, looking very pleased instead.

  “Just to be clear, your grandfather’s nurse, Bubbles, was a ’ho in Vegas?” Lucas asked as Caitlyn laughed.

  “Oh yeah. Totally.”

  “And she shares that openly?”

  “She says it all the time. I was six the first time I realized I didn’t know what a ’ho was. So I asked my parents.”

  “What did they say?”

  “My dad said something to the effect of a ’ho is a woman with lots of boyfriends. That answer stood until I was eleven and decided I wanted clarification. I looked it up on the computer and realized my dad had done a pretty excellent job of explaining it to a kid.”

  “Thanks for the confirmation,” Dad said from across the room, confirming Caitlyn’s suspicion that at least half of the family was eavesdropping on their conversation. “I thought I’d nailed it that day.”

  For a few minutes, the conversation swung to politics. Lucas leaned right—which wasn’t a huge surprise to her. Likewise he didn’t seem shocked to discover the majority of her clan tilted left. Yet another way they were different. Initially, those differences felt like something too difficult to bridge, but now she was starting to become a true believer in opposites attract.

  Her mother carried in a huge platter of wings, setting it on the coffee table. Like a pack of hungry wolves, the family descended, everyone loading up their paper plates, pouring on the ranch dressing and moving on to the trash-talking phase of the day.

  The Ravens were playing the Steelers, which meant a serious rivalry in her family. Her dad and Lochlan—whom he’d won over to the Steelers side when her brother was only young, much to Pop Pop’s regret—started bragging about their quarterback’s stats.

  The rest of the family resided firmly in the Ravens’ camp. She watched as Lucas listened to them argue and chuckled with amusement as bets were placed.

  “You’re a Baltimore boy, Lucas. Want a piece of the action?” Colm asked, when Lucas remained quiet about his allegiances.

  Lucas shrugged and shook his head. “I’m afraid I don’t have a horse in this race.”

  Pop Pop looked at him, confusion crinkling his forehead. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan.”

  It was the absolute worst thing he could have said.

  Caitlyn cursed herself for being a fool and not questioning him about his football ties before they arrived. Like Colm, she’d assumed he was a Ravens fan.

  “What self-respecting Baltimore local roots for the Cowboys?” Colm asked, aghast.

  Lucas didn’t appear offended by her cousin’s question. “One who prefers to see his team win occasionally.”

  The room lit up. Caitlyn suspected a full five minutes passed as everyone spoke at the same time, loudly, as they fired statistic after statistic at Lucas. Meanwhile, he lobbed them all right back, countering with some pretty fair arguments of his own.

  It ended when her mother yelled over the battle, “Cool it!”

  Dad was the first to break the brief silence. “I appreciate you taking the heat off me for once, Lucas.”

  Meanwhile, Colm was still shaking his head. “Jesus, Caitlyn. It wasn’t bad enough you brought a conservative into our house? You had to bring one who’s a Cowboys fan?”

  Caitlyn had done fairly well holding it together until that point, but Colm’s far-too-serious question pushed her over the edge. She burst out into loud, uncontrollable laughter. And because the Collins clan was incapable of holding a grudge for longer than three seconds, everyone else erupted with snorts and giggles and chuckles too.

  Lucas was the only one who didn’t laugh, though there was definite mirth in his eyes when he leaned toward her to murmur, “There’s something seriously wrong with your family.”

  “I know. Aren’t they great?”

  His grin grew wider. “Yeah. They are.”

  “So how does it feel to be such an old woman?” Padraig teased her.

  “Careful, Paddy. You’re only a few months away from the big three-o yourself.”

  “Ach,” Pop Pop said, waving his hand. “You’re only as old as you feel. As for myself, I don’t feel a day over seventy-five.”

  Caitlyn was happy to hear that. With any luck, Pop Pop would break all the records, going down in Guinness as the oldest man ever, living until he was a hundred and twenty.

  “At least the weather is decent this year for your birthday, Caitlyn. Not a blizzard in sight,” Dad said.

  Caitlyn rolled her eyes. “Here we go.”

  She, in unison with Lochlan, said, “The birthday story.”

  Lucas looked at her curiously. “The story?”

  “Every year, our dad finds a way to work the story of our births into any conversation,” Lochlan explained.

  Dad didn’t take any offense to their joking. “Tease if you will, but I will always be very grateful to have my baby girl. It was a scary beginning, that’s for sure.”

  “Scary?” Lucas asked, clearly curious.

  Lochlan groaned as Colm chuckled and said, “So much for dodging it this year. There’s the bell to start the round. Never, Lucas, never ask a question about the story.”

  Dad ignored them. “I’m glad you asked, Lucas. You see, there was a blizzard the year Caitlyn was born, a real doozy. Keira was working in the restaurant and I had planned to pick her up after her shift because the snow was coming down so hard. Got a call from Riley to come early because Keira was having labor pains. We all thought they were those…” Her dad snapped his fingers. “What do you call them?”

  “Braxton Hicks, false labor,” Keira said. “Caitlyn wasn’t due until Valentine’s Day.”

  “Which would have been a totally cool birthday,” Caitlyn added.

  “Anyway, Riley was freaking out,” Dad said. “And—”

  “I was not f
reaking out,” Riley interrupted. “I was merely concerned. And you’re lucky I was.” No one in Caitlyn’s family ever told a story alone. Once a tale was begun, it wasn’t unusual for everyone to take part in the retelling. “Called Will and then I called Lane.”

  “Lane’s mine and Paddy’s mom,” Colm said to Lucas for clarification. “She’s a nurse.”

  Lucas nodded. Caitlyn was fairly certain he knew that, but Lucas was smart enough not to repeat the same mistake he’d made the night she’d introduced him to Lochlan.

  “Mercifully, Lane was here when I arrived,” Dad said, taking over the story again, “because the city closed the road to the hospital.”

  “How did you get there?” Lucas asked.

  “We didn’t,” Caitlyn said. “I was born right here. In this apartment. My dad and Lane delivered me.”

  “Not going to lie,” Will said. “I was scared spitless. So many things could have gone wrong.”

  “But none of them did, Dad.”

  “That’s right. I was blessed with my beautiful January girl.”

  “You were born in this apartment?” Lucas’s brow was creased.

  She giggled. “Crazy, right? I actually live in the same place where I was born.” Caitlyn looked around the room. “Just one of the reasons why I love this place so much.”

  Lucas didn’t reply. Instead, he looked troubled.

  Part of her, the uncharitable part, hoped he was feeling guilty for trying to take away her home. Neither of them had mentioned his interest in the pub. Not once. For weeks.

  Actually, it had been long enough she hoped that meant he’d given up.

  The main reason why she had wanted him to spend time with her family was so he could see what this place meant to them. It was so much more than four walls and a ceiling. Three generations of her family had lived and worked here—filling the space with a million and twelve different memories.

  Caitlyn was born here. Grandma Sunday died here. Pop Pop had confided to her on her thirtieth birthday that he’d always liked the symmetry in that.

  Life takes away, but it also gives back.