It was larger than the previous area and more comfortable with beautiful, lush greenery surrounding me. Calling Ireland “the Emerald Isle” was absolutely spot on.
Crystal-clear water pooled in front of us and there was a small, rushing waterfall to the right. The sound of the falling water hitting the pool at the bottom was something dreams were made of.
I’d loved learning the family history at all the genealogy-related sites I visited with Mom, but this… this was the Ireland I wanted to see.
“This is amazing.” I didn’t even glance away from the majesty he’d presented me. Not for a second.
“I know.”
“So what are we doing?” I asked, finally turning away. “Picnic? Fishing?”
“I thought we’d take a swim.”
Raising an eyebrow at him, I said, “I didn’t bring a suit.”
“Do you need one?”
That sounded like a challenge to me.
I looked him dead in the eye and pulled my shirt over my head, then toed off my shoes and dropped my shorts. I gave him a smile before wading out into the water.
A bra and panties covered as much as any bikini I owned.
Just like when I was a kid, I dove in instead of slowly acclimating to the water. Never saw the point in going slow. It was a good thing that was how I rolled. This might’ve been the warmest day I’d had in Ireland, but it still just hit close to seventy degrees.
When I came up for air, Eagan popped up at the same time beside me. Man, he was fast.
And damn it, I’d missed my chance to see Eagan half-naked. I’d imagined he wore boxers or boxer briefs at the least. Imagined it more often than I probably should have over the last week.
We swam around, splashing and laughing, or trying to dunk each other. Like two old friends who didn’t need to fill the air with chatter when really we’d only known each other a week. And that was just in passing. It wasn’t like we’d spent a bunch of time together.
My mom had always been around and I hadn’t been about to abandon her in a foreign country.
“That felt great,” I said once we were back on the grass, dressed, and drying out. “Is this where you come to relax?” This was possibly the warmest day since I’d arrived.
“One of them.”
Eagan had his head dropped back with his face tilted to the sky and his eyes closed like he just wanted to drink in the heat of the sun. It was the perfect time to really look at him. I mean, really look at him without being noticed. He wouldn’t know I was being a creeper.
His dark hair curled near his ear. It didn’t do that when dry. His strong jaw, normally quite tense, was slack and relaxed.
I liked the relaxed look on him. This was also my first chance to see him shirtless.
Eagan had long, hard, lean muscles and the perfect amount of everything.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” The words came out of nowhere. I tried to hide my visible cringe.
Eagan’s head snapped in my direction.
“Why do you ask?”
“Just curious.” Silence hung between us. “This girl in the pub gave me the fourth degree about staying at your place.”
“Alana?” he asked.
I nodded.
“She’s just nosy Parker.”
“More please.” I turned my head away from him and closed my eyes, letting the sun continue to dry me.
“She likes drama and gossip. I don’t take girls to my place for that very reason.”
I opened an eye just a slit and raised the eyebrow above it.
“The walls have eyes,” he said.
“In your apartment? Cameras? Have you been filming me?” I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. I knew he meant that everyone would know his business but couldn’t resist the opportunity to play with him.
His eyes grew wide. “No. Of course not. I meant everyone is always around. It’s none of their business what I do.”
I was about to tell him I was kidding, but my ringing phone cut the words off.
“Probably my mom again.” I sighed out the frustration filling my chest. “If I don’t answer, she’ll think you’ve already killed me and buried the body.”
“She has a high opinion of me, doesn’t she?”
I snorted. “It’s not you. She just worries.” But then I saw the name on the caller ID and bolted upright with a smile. “It’s not my mom.” I hit the green button. “Hey, Indie.”
“What the hell?” she shrieked. “You’re stuck in Ireland?”
“Yup. Totally stuck.”
“I wish I were stuck.” She said something else away from the phone. No idea who. “You’re still meeting me, right?”
“I assume I’ll be back by then.”
“So what the hell happened?” she asked.
I gave her the quick version of losing my purse and what I had to do to get back home, all the while feeling Eagan’s eyes watching me.
“Holy crap. I guess there are worse places to be stuck,” Indie said. “But I bet your mom acted like she was leaving you in Iran.”
We both giggled.
“I said Syria.” Both of us laughed harder.
I’d known Indie since middle school. She understood my family and had a weird one of her own.
“You’re about to meet the tour, right?” I asked.
“Yeah. Dad’s being dumb about me driving to Chicago.”
“Oh, poor you living the rock star life.”
“So… ”
“So?”
“Any… fun of the male persuasion?”
My gaze automatically jumped to Eagan, as if she’d instructed me to look at him, herself.
“There’s potential,” I finally said. “Maybe. I’m not totally sure.”
“Oh, I’m getting those details.” Then she covered the phone and called out a muffled, “Coming.” Then back to me, she said, “I have to go.”
“Go live your glamorous life,” I said with humor.
“Seriously, Maggie, do you want me to see if Dad will fly me to Ireland? I can wait with you.”
I thought about her offer for a moment but decided against it.
There were several reasons. One, I’d probably be home before she could get here. Two, Indie was this amazingly cool rocker-type chic that all the guys liked. Even if I didn’t want to admit my crush on Eagan out loud, I certainly didn’t want any hotter competition.
“I’ll probably be on a plane tomorrow night.”
“OK, but if Ireland claims you, I’m coming to get you.”
“If that happens, I’ll feel very sorry for Ireland,” I said before hanging up.
Eagan gave me this gorgeously confused look.
“Oh, that’s my friend Indie. She said if Ireland tries to keep me, she’s coming to get me,” I said and he snorted. “Nobody wants that to happen.”
Then he laughed and handed me a sandwich from this little insulated bag he had stowed away in his backpack. I tipped my head as if to say thank you.
“Indie is an interesting name,” he said after swallowing the bite he’d taken.
“Yeah. This guy used to give her shit about it when we were in middle school.”
“What’d she do?”
I shrugged, opening a bottle of water and taking a big drink. He did the same.
“She kneed him in the balls.”
Eagan choked on his water, sending a fine mist over his legs. Obviously, he hadn’t been expecting me to say that.
“Isn’t that a little extreme?”
“I don’t think so.” I paused, trying to decide if I was going to tell him who Indie was. Then decided I would. It wouldn’t be to impress him and it also wouldn’t matter because she wasn’t there. She hated it when people treated her differently because of her dad. “Indie’s dad is Vince Cinderstone of Kissing Cinder.” His eyes grew wide. “So a few of the guys liked to give her crap about her dad. Say that she thought she was better than everyone else when in reality she was as normal as could be.�
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Eagan glanced at me three times. Like he wanted to say something yet wasn’t saying it.
“What?” I asked.
“I love Kissing Cinder. Saw them in Dublin two years ago.”
I rolled my eyes. “Everybody loves Kissing Cinder.”
“Yet you know them.”
“I know her dad. I’d say I’m more… acquainted with the others.”
“Hey, Maggie?”
I glanced over at him in all of his delicious glory.
“I could hear your friend the whole time.”
Then he winked at me.
Chapter Five
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
If he’d heard her questions and he’d heard my answers, he knew I’d been sort of talking about him.
Like saying there was possible fun of the male persuasion on the horizon couldn’t have been clearer.
Still, I said nothing.
Instead, we each turned back to face the sun and soaked up the heat it had to offer.
With Mom, I’d been on the move the entire time. Relaxing this way was a nice change. If it meant being alone with Eagan for a few hours, even better.
Even if it was with my eyes closed.
“We ought to get back,” he said.
“Already?” I cracked open one lid to see him.
“Already?” he asked with a smirk. “You’ve been asleep for two hours. I should go help with dinner.”
“Dinner?” I sat up quickly. “I really fell asleep?”
He nodded, then stood and began folding the blanket we’d been on. Sure enough, when I looked at my phone, it confirmed the day had passed while I’d been asleep.
Well, crap to that.
After everything was all packed up, we were back on the road to the pub.
“If you fell asleep on the ground, then maybe my bed isn’t so comfortable after all,” he said as he drove.
The windows were down and the breeze felt amazing, even if my hair had to look crazy blowing in it.
“Your bed is amazing,” I assured him. “I don’t know. It was just such a relaxing day.”
“You were too relaxed?”
“Exactly.” I glanced from him to the road, then back again, working up the courage to ask the question I’d wondered since I’d woken up. “What did you do while I slept?”
Eagan didn’t answer for a good long while. I didn’t know why. It wasn’t even an overly personal question.
“I had a book in my bag.”
“So you just read?” I asked. He nodded. “Interesting… ”
“Well, I didn’t just read.”
I whipped my head back around to him.
“What’d you mean?”
He shrugged but didn’t look over at me. Not even a glance.
“I liked watching you sleep.”
I continued to stare. My lips parted as I tried to come up with a funny retort or something adequate in response.
Nothing came to mind.
My brain stopped working the moment he’d said he liked watching me sleep.
Still, I came up with nothing to say by the time we got back to the pub.
Eagan parked his car around the corner and turned left toward the front door for the pub while I was supposed to go right toward the door to his apartment. I paused instead.
“Maggie,” he called out. “Why don’t you come in? I’ll feed ya, then you can go about your night of Irish TV watching.”
I smiled over at him. This would be the third time today he fed me. It was one of his many positive attributes. Being able to feed me went a long way.
An hour later I was on Eagan’s couch in my pajamas, which consisted of shorts and a tank top, watching TV. On one hand, I thought about going out one last time before leaving tomorrow yet didn’t do it. There was something comforting about being surrounded by Eagan’s things. This was his home and he’d been so kind through what should’ve been a terrible experience.
I was giving that whole ‘going out’ idea another thought when there was a knock at the door.
It was obviously going to be someone looking for Eagan. He was working and the only person I actually knew here, so it couldn’t be someone for me.
Wrong on all fronts.
When I opened the door, I found Eagan on the other side holding a bag.
“Thought ice cream might be a good end to your Irish adventure.”
“Yum,” I said, then stepped aside so he could get in.
We went over to the kitchen area, where I grabbed two spoons while he opened the containers. It wouldn’t matter what kind he got for me; I wasn’t picky.
“How’s the TV watching coming along?”
“Fine. But I’m not sure I get all the jokes.”
He chuckled and said, “Probably not.”
We took the ice cream over to the couch. I sat first, then Eagan settled beside me quite close. My arm brushed his with the first bite I took.
“How was the dinner rush?” I asked.
“Busy. Had to take a friend home and didn’t want to go back.”
“Why’d you have to take him home?” I asked, hoping he caught the “he” in that sentence and wouldn’t have to correct me. He’d said there was no girlfriend. That didn’t mean a friend with benefits was out of the question.
“He was too langered to get there himself.”
“Langered?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Damn it. I’ve been so careful. Drunk. He was too drunk.”
“Oh.” But then I asked, “What’d you mean, ‘careful’?”
“I’ve been trying to talk more American to you. So I wouldn’t say shit that you didn’t know.”
Well, that was sweet. Seemed like a lot of trouble.
“You’ve been doing a great job then.”
When I couldn’t eat another bite, I set my pint of ice cream, half-gone, on the table in front of the couch. Only a second later, Eagan grabbed it, went to the kitchen, then put the tops back on and set the containers in the freezer.
He dropped the spoons in the sink, then came back to sit by me even closer than before.
“Looking forward to going home?” he asked.
“Not really.” I thought about that for another moment. “I mean, yes. I want to see my grandma. But there’s some appeal to being here.”
I didn’t like talking about going home. For whatever reason thinking about leaving made me kind of sad.
Without taking too much time to think about it, I pushed myself up and kissed Eagan. I did it without thinking, without analyzing. I’d wanted to kiss him since the first day I’d met him, so I did.
There wasn’t a second of hesitation on his end. The moment my lips made contact with his, he brought a hand up to my cheek and stroked a thumb across my cheek, coaxing me to take the kiss deeper.
His tongue swept inside my mouth.
He tasted like the strawberry ice cream he’d just been eating. I groaned at him.
Without breaking the kiss, the kiss heating up to a scorching level that would leave me breathless, Eagan lifted me off the couch. I wrapped my legs around him to hold on. He cupped my ass and walked the two of us over to his bed.
He sat down with me in his lap.
“Is this OK?” he asked, that deep, sexy voice settling low in my stomach.
“This is fantastic,” I said back.
Eagan kissed me again, this time slower and more purposeful. Then he leaned back and pulled my tank top over my head.
His sigh of approval over my not wearing a bra turned everything inside me liquid.
I gave him a little smile, then lifted his shirt. I really liked the progress we were making. What I really wanted was both of us naked. It’d been a while since I’d had sex and my body made it glaringly obvious how neglected it’d been. Every touch sent me begging for more. If I weren’t so needy, I would’ve been embarrassed.
Before I could get back inside my own head, Eagan flipped me onto my back on the bed, then pulled my shorts and panties down my
legs.
Then kissed his way back up my body.
Or halfway back up my body.
He stopped between my legs, nudged them apart with his shoulders and kissed me. Kissed, then licked, and stroked, his days’ worth of stubble deliciously scratching my inner thigh.
Holy shit that felt amazing.
This was the moment that I realized I’d only been with boys and Eagan was a man. It wasn’t just the facial hair. Eagan wanted to take care of me before taking care of himself.
That alone was very, very different.
He reached up, cupped my breast, and flicked the nipple without a single pause to his work, coaxing what I needed from my body.
Then I was riding on a shooting star, crossing the pleasure galaxy before returning back to regular old Earth.
Man, Eagan had talents.
Things could’ve ended right there, I still could’ve gone home a very happy woman.
Eagan had no intention of stopping and I didn’t want him to.
Also, I wanted to repay the favor.
He crawled up my body, dropping wet kisses along the way and stopping to suck gently on my neck.
When I grabbed hold of his cock, he flinched, his jaw tight.
“Best not to do that,” he whispered into my ear.
“It doesn’t feel good?” I asked, dropping him as I pulled back to see his face.
“It does. Too good.” Eagan closed his eyes and tightened his jaw then took a deep breath. He blew that air out slowly, almost as if in pain. “You keep that up and I won’t last long.”
I couldn’t help but giggle. He was too turned on because of me and wasn’t afraid to say it.
Eagan moved away from me, opened the side drawer, and pulled out a condom. After sliding it down his erection, he settled back between my legs.
He pushed inside me and dropped his head against my shoulder with a groan.
Oh, man, he felt good skin-to-skin.
We found our natural rhythm, him pushing in and out of me, me meeting each of his movements with my own.
Suddenly, he pulled out.
I scoffed at the loss.
“Turn over,” he said twirling, his finger in the air.
Something Irish (Courting Chaos Book 0) Page 3