by Mari Carr
“I love you so much,” he whispered as he thrust in, one long, slow glide. It felt so fucking good. He’d never taken a woman without a condom, and he knew he would never take Kelli with one again.
Once he was seated to the hilt, he paused for just a moment, trying to regain some semblance of control. This wouldn’t take long, but he was bound and determined he wouldn’t go down alone.
He placed his forehead against hers, both of them closing their eyes briefly. Then he shifted his hips and, for the first time in his life, he made love to a woman, to the woman…the friend, the enemy who’d claimed his heart, hook, line, and sinker.
They moved together, finding their rhythm naturally. Her body was made for his, and his for hers. Kelli’s hands roamed over his shoulders, along the top of his arms, lightly scratching him, leaving her marks, as she whispered his name.
“Colm. God! I love you. Love you so much…”
Her words prodded him on. He needed more. Needed everything.
She was everything.
He took her harder, faster. Kelli planted her feet on the mattress by his knees, lifting her hips to meet him, silently demanding that he take even more.
“I…I’m,” she chanted on a breath, letting him know she was there. She was ready.
“Me too,” he said, reaching between them to stroke her clit. He’d found that no-fail switch the very first night they were together. And now, like then, it drove her over the cliff, her back arching.
Her pussy clenched tightly against his cock, and Colm saw stars. Honest-to-God stars.
He came roughly, almost violently.
“Jesus. Kelli. Yes!”
It was agony and blinding bliss. He jerked, filling her, deafened by white noise and overwhelmed by the most intense pleasure he’d ever experienced.
By the time Colm returned to his senses, he was lying on his side, next to her, and Kelli was facing him, stroking his cheek, his beard with the back of her fingers.
She smiled. “You came inside me,” she whispered, sounding happier than he’d ever heard her in his life.
Colm couldn’t contain his own grin. “I did.” Then he remembered something else. “Call Robbie. Tell him you don’t need his help anymore.”
“I already did. He was actually relieved since things with him and Brooke have gotten pretty hot and heavy.”
“When did you call?” he asked.
“About three minutes after you left earlier.”
“It took you three minutes?!” he said, acting appalled that it had taken her that long.
She raised the hand, touching his cheek in surrender. “I couldn’t find my phone. It had fallen between the couch cushions.”
“You’re forgiven then.” Colm shifted closer to her. They were already nearly nose to nose, but it wasn’t enough for him. “We might have made a baby tonight, Kell.”
“How cool would that be?”
“You’re going to be an amazing mom.”
“And you’re going to be the world’s greatest dad. Way better than mine. That’s for sure.”
Colm was reminded of earlier, her tone proving his gut feeling had been correct. Kelli had been hurt by her dad. “I’m never going to leave you, Kelli.”
“Colm…” She started to shake her head, and he was worried that she was unable to believe his words as the truth. He understood why, but he still felt the need to reassure her.
“Look at me,” he demanded.
Her lowered gaze raised to his.
“I’m never going to leave you.”
He saw the hope buried deep in her eyes. “I know that,” she admitted. “I know you.”
“I know you’re upset that he didn’t call when he was in town.”
She nodded slowly. “I can’t understand why…” She shrugged one shoulder. “I always thought he stopped visiting, stopped calling because he didn’t want to deal with my mom, but…”
Colm lifted her head with his finger under her chin. “I’m sorry.”
She shook off the heaviness, smiling at him. If there was one thing about Kelli, the woman had a heck of a rebound. “It’s okay. I sort of secretly stole your dad and made him mine years ago anyway.”
“Not sure that was much of a secret,” he joked. “You know, Dad would have kept having kids, would have kept going until he had a little girl—he said he always wanted a daughter—but Mom claimed chasing hellion twin boys broke her. You filled that void for him too.”
He knew he’d found the words to make her feel better when her face lit up. “You think so?”
He nodded.
“I’d give you my mom too, but I think you’re covered in that area,” he added.
Kelli gave him a rueful grin. “Yeah. I think I have enough mother’s love to last me until the end of time. I know I bitch about Barb a lot—”
“What?” Colm pretended to be shocked. “No.”
“She doubled-down on the insane snowplow parenting after my dad left. I’m starting to understand why.”
“Overcompensating?” he asked.
“Over-everything. But I know what my mom does is out of love for me. Sometimes I worry…” She didn’t finish the thought, but he knew where her fears were leading.
“Genetics are not insurmountable, you know. You can be any kind of mother you want to be.”
“I know. It’s just…what if I go too far the other way? What if, in my attempt to not be crazy overbearing like my mom, I don’t do enough for my kids?”
“That’s what I’m here for. I’ll keep you on the straight and narrow. And you’ll do the same for me. We’re in this together.”
“Together,” she repeated, as if she was trying out the sound of it. He and Kelli had both spent too many years as single units, independent people who answered only to themselves. It would probably take both of them some time to get a little less set in their ways. He couldn’t wait to start.
In fact…
He gripped her waist and pulled her hips to his, loving the way she swung one leg over him. “Marry me.”
She lifted her head from the pillow. “Was that a question or a demand?”
Colm moved his hand from her waist to her ass, gripping it tightly, holding her even closer. “Both,” he murmured against her lips, kissing her. “I need you to marry me, Kelli. Need you to be my wife. I need it more than air.”
She kissed him back. “You know, somehow you’ve managed to do all of this backwards. Lovers to friends, living together to dating, babies to marriage. You’ve made a mess of the whole thing, hotshot,” she teased.
“Oh, I did, did I? Just me. Alone. Thanks for clarifying that.” He tickled her until she cried uncle, then gave her another kiss. He was addicted to her lips. When he pulled away, he realized she hadn’t responded. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
“I still haven’t heard a question.”
He playfully bit her shoulder. “You love to make me work for shit, don’t you?”
“It’s what makes life worth living.”
“Will you marry me, Kelli? Have my babies, share my bed, and drive me crazy for the rest of my life?”
She pretended to consider, acting as if it was a really hard decision.
“Bear in mind, I own a lot of neckties, and I would have no trouble tying you to this bed and spanking your ass until you agree.”
“Wow. I was going to say yes, but I’m suddenly thinking I might need more convincing.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Say yes and I’ll still tie you up and spank your ass.”
“Yes.”
“Marry me soon.”
She rolled her eyes heavenward. “God, you’re a demanding ass.”
“Soon, Kelli,” he stressed. “Very soon.”
“Fine. Soon.”
Epilogue
“Hey, Pop Pop,” Colm said, peeking his head in through his grandfather’s open bedroom door. He’d moved in with Aunt Riley and Uncle Aaron when they built an addition onto the back of their house, creat
ing a little suite for him. Now he spent most of his time there, with Bubbles as his daytime companion, the two of them playing rummy and watching way too much reality TV, though neither of them would ever confess to that. In the evenings, he’d watch sports either here with Aaron or at the pub, surrounded by family and the regular patrons.
Pop Pop glanced up from the romance novel he was reading, tucking it under the pillow with a guilty grin. The entire family was aware of his penchant for steamy romance novels, even though Pop Pop insisted he was reading mysteries and thrillers.
“Well, this is a nice surprise. What brings you here, lad?” Pop Pop stood up and gestured to the small sitting area in his room. Colm took one chair, his grandfather the other.
“Kelli had her sonogram today. I wanted to come by and tell you…” Colm paused, grinning, still struggling to believe the news himself. “Twins. She’s having twins.”
Pop Pop’s eyes lit up and he clapped his hands together. “Bless my soul. Twins! That’s wonderful news.”
“Yeah. Kelli’s over the moon. I’ve never seen her so happy.”
“And you?”
Colm’s smile grew wider. “Dream come true.”
“It is indeed. Oh,” Pop Pop stood up again, “I almost forgot. I wanted to show you something.”
Colm rose and followed his grandfather to the special wall. One entire wall of his bedroom was covered with photographs of the family, each member represented.
The photographs changed from time to time, based only on Pop Pop’s whims, rather than to mark celebrations or special occasions. Unlike most people, he didn’t frame posed senior portraits or wedding photos. All of Pop Pop’s pictures were candids; brief moments in time that, according to Pop Pop, captured the essence of the person photographed.
Pop Pop raised his finger and pointed to Colm’s frame. For the past several years, it had been a picture of Colm sitting at the pub, a pint in front of him as he talked to Padraig one day after work. He’d been wearing a suit, his tie loosened, and he was kicked back, relaxed, smiling. He’d asked Pop Pop at the time why he’d chosen it. After all, it was a simple photo that seemed to show very little. Just him at the bar.
Pop Pop insisted it was the perfect photograph. That he saw an intelligent, family-oriented man who was comfortable in his own skin, self-assured, successful, and on the brink of greatness.
Colm hadn’t known how to respond at the time, but when he’d looked at the picture again, he’d seen it through his grandfather’s loving eyes, and it suddenly hadn’t felt so simple after all.
This time, the picture was different.
“Where did you get that?” Colm asked, somewhat surprised to see that Pop Pop hadn’t updated his photo with a current picture of him and Kelli. There would have been plenty to choose from. He could have used the one of the two of them at Christmas, announcing their engagement. Or one of the small wedding ceremony they’d held at the pub in January. Or even one of the two of them revealing that Kelli was pregnant at a family dinner on Valentine’s Day.
Instead, Pop Pop had somehow found an old photograph of him and Kelli, sitting in his parents’ backyard at a summer picnic. He remembered the day well because they’d just graduated from high school the week before, and they were both excited and ready to head off to college.
Kelli was laughing and talking to him—with her hands flying, of course, one of which held a hot dog. Colm was sitting next to her. She had ketchup on her mouth, and he’d reached over to wipe it off with his finger.
For nearly fifteen years, the picture had been relegated to a slot in one of his mom’s countless photo albums, forgotten.
Colm didn’t have to ask why Pop Pop had chosen it. The answer was written right there in Colm’s eighteen-year-old eyes. His younger self was grinning like a fool…and looking at Kelli as if she hung the moon.
He couldn’t ever recall consciously thinking of her that way, but had he?
God knew he looked at her like that now. Every freaking second of the day.
She’d become his world, and his only regret in life was that the stupid teenager in this photo hadn’t leaned forward and wiped that ketchup away with his tongue…followed by a kiss.
“So many wasted years,” he murmured.
“Oh no, son. That’s not what I see at all. I see two headstrong, stubborn, independent people who had a lot of life to live before they could see and truly appreciate what they’d found. This moment…it was just the beginning of your story. An epic tale.”
“Complete with blackouts, karaoke, wine, and babies.”
Pop Pop laughed. “As well as laughter, friendship and love. The best kind of story. Because it has a happy ending.”
“I love the picture.” They both looked at it for a moment longer before returning to their chairs.
“Twins,” Pop Pop said quietly. Like Colm, it seemed as if the only way for Pop Pop to truly believe it was to say the word over and over a few thousand times. It still hadn’t sunk in for Colm either. It was just too good to be true.
“So,” Pop Pop said. “It sounds like your father’s prayers for you when you were a teenager have come true.”
Colm tilted his head, curious. “Prayers?”
“He always said he hoped you had children just like you,” Pop Pop said with a wink.
Colm laughed. “I think you and I both know that wasn’t a prayer, Pop Pop. It was a curse.”
Pop Pop reached out and patted Colm’s hand. “And you and I both know…it’s not.”
“You’re right. It’s not. But telling you about the babies isn’t the reason I came here. At least, not the only reason. You and I have some work to do.”
“We do?”
“Yeah. Names. If these babies are boys, I want names that mean something tough. None of these stone or dove names. Something rugged. Like a gladiator. Or maybe even a god.”
Colm chuckled to himself as a name popped into his mind.
Kelli would kill him.
“What’s Thor mean?”
* * *
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Wild Embrace
Love is full of bad clichés.
Falling for your boss.
The widowed dad and the nanny.
How did Darcy manage to find both of them in Ryder Hagan?
His broken heart and wounded pride means he only sees her as an employee in his company and part-time caregiver for his sons.
Until another cliché surprises them both:
The old broken elevator trap.
And the wild attraction he’s kept buried begins to break out.
Can his perfectly ordered life survive discovering love again?
Preorder Wild Embrace.
About the Author
Virginia native Mari Carr is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller of contemporary erotic romance novels. With over one million copies of her books sold, Mari was the winner of the Romance Writers of America’s Passionate Plume award for her novella, Erotic Research. She has over a hundred published works, including her popular Wild Irish and Compass books, along with the Trinity Masters/Masters Admiralty series she writes with Lila Dubois.
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Find Ma
ri Carr on the web at
www.maricarr.com
[email protected]