I whirled around. “Do you blame me? Why should I stay here where I’ll always look over my shoulder? Where I’m not wanted? I know you think I’m a nuisance, now I won’t be your problem. You should be happy.” My gaze finally settled on his, and dammit, my heart skidded to a stop and then raced like hell at the sight of him. Reddish blonde hair had grown a little longer than normal and his pale skin made his eyes a little greener. That sharp jaw, and that mouth—god that mouth!—just made me relive every moment we’d spent caught up in one another. In bed.
“Happy? You think I should be happy?” He took a few steps closer, stopping when he was close enough that I could smell him. “I am a lot of things right now Fiona. Angry. Frustrated. Hurt. What I am not, is happy that you’re leaving me.”
Leaving him? “You’re kidding, right? Why would I stay when you always second guess me, so quick to think the worst of me. When you look at me and still see the little girl with pigtails and braces?” I closed the gap between us and jabbed at his chest. Hard. “You don’t want me.” Another push. “You’re just upset because you’ll be as alone and lonely as I’ve always been.” I pushed his chest again and again and once more because I couldn’t stop.
He grabbed my wrists and held me close. Too close. “Maybe that’s true enough, but maybe it’s just because I’ll be lonely without you.”
I shivered when he lifted his hand and traced my jawline with one finger. The move, so simple and so light, tore apart something inside of me. I wished I could just rip myself from his arms and sever the hold he had on me.
“I’m sure you’ll learn to live without me. You’ve done it just fine for years.”
“No I haven’t Fi. Do you know how hard it’s been to see you and want you all these years and know that I couldn’t have you?” His words came out on a growl that made me shiver. So raw and emotional, I could feel the longing.
But was it enough? I wasn’t sure. “No Keane I don’t, because instead of giving me an inkling of how you felt, you chose to make me feel like a pest.”
“I couldn’t do a damn thing about how I felt Fiona!” Big strong hands cupped my jaw and held me close, pressing his forehead to mine. “How could I?”
“You killed a woman to protect me, but opening your mouth would have been what, too hard?”
“Yes dammit! Seamus is my best friend and you’re his daughter. How could I tell him I’d fallen for you?”
That’s it. I’d heard enough. “Yet I’m supposed to believe you when you tell me now, when no one is around.” Of course he thought I would, because I’d always loved every single thing about him. He could do no wrong in my eyes. Absolutely perfect.
“Yes, you are.”
“Give me one good reason I should.”
Instead of words, Keane pulled me forward and thrust his fingers in my hair, kissing me long and hard until my legs shook. I gave back as good as I got, pouring everything into a kiss I was pretty sure would be the last we shared. I opened to him and savored the flavor of whiskey and Keane on my tongue, enjoyed the way his hands roamed my body and left a trail of fire in its wake.
He pulled back, as breathless as I felt. “I’m no fucking good with words Fi. I use my fists or whatever weapons I have to get my point across. But I can’t do any of that with you.” He kissed me again, this time sweet and soft. Loving. “You want a good reason Fiona? How about because I fucking love you. Is that a good enough reason?”
He’d finally rendered me speechless. I stood with my mouth gaping in disbelief like a suffocating fish, unable to believe the words he’d just said. “Maybe I really was hit by that bullet and now I’m in a coma, dreaming this.” That had to be it, because if not, that meant Keane had just said he loved me. “You…do?”
“I do. I never could have slept with you, risking everything. Unless it meant everything. Which it did.”
The smile spread slowly from one side of my face to the other, his words lifting me higher than I’d ever felt in my life. Could this be true? I, dorky little Fiona O’Malley actually got the man of her dreams?
“I guess this is where I tell you that I love you too.”
“Not if you don’t.”
“You know I do.”
“I hoped that you still loved me, but I knew I couldn’t count on it after everything we’ve gone through.”
How could I not love this man? Despite how big and brawny, masculine and tough he was, the vulnerability and uncertainty in his eyes told me how important my answer was to him. “Even when I hate you, I still love you Keane. It’s kind of my thing, you know.”
“You’re killing me here, Fi.”
“What will you do when my dad comes back? Hide me in the closet?”
“No,” he answered fiercely, “I’ll tell him that I’m in love with you and you’re my girl. My woman.”
My brain told me to go slow, that maybe Keane was telling me what I wanted to hear. But my heart told me the truth. That as hard as it would be to hold our love close, he did love me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and brushed a gentle kiss against his mouth before I whispered in his ear, “I love you too Keane. So much.”
“I love you too Fiona.” He whispered softly.
“Good. Show me.” I wrapped my arms tight around his shoulders, pressing my mouth to his. He moaned when I licked his lower lip and squeezed my ass, pulling me closer to his hardness.
He pulled back suddenly. “I love you Fiona but I am not fucking you in Seamus’ house.”
I laughed hard at his tortured words, tempting him by rubbing against him. “You don’t think I could tempt you?”
“Oh I know you could. Or you could pack and let me fuck you all night at my place.”
I shivered and shoved my hands down his pants. “Lucky for you that sounds incredible.” I let him hoist my bag up and pull me through the house and into his sexy black car. “Or we could pull over somewhere and I can experience car sex for the first time.” I wiggled my brows at him.
He choked out a strangled laugh and grabbed my hand, kissing the back. “How about up against the wall sex?”
My sex clenched at the visual my mind created. “Kitchen table sex?”
“How about I lay you on the table and make you the meal?”
I shivered. “Deal.”
Keane chuckled and placed a hand on my thigh, slowly gliding up to where I ached, dripped for him. “But first, we make love.”
“That’ll be new.” And I couldn’t wait to see what it felt like.
“You’re what?”
I expected Keane to be upset when I told him about my plans and my new job, but I didn’t expect the red-faced anger looking down at me now. “Why did you think I was packing?”
“I thought you’d found another apartment where you felt safer. You let me tell you all that shit when you knew you were leaving?”
“Oh so loving me was only if I stayed around? Good to know, Keane.” I felt as though everything had changed in an instant. My skin was still slick from our loving making—on the kitchen table, thank you very much—and already things had turned to shit. “Sorry.”
“Dammit Fiona get back here.” He grasped my wrist and pulled me back onto him. “I do love you, so fucking much and you cant expect me to be happy you want to leave me.”
“Well, when I took the job you didn’t want me so I didn’t think about you, other than putting distance between us.” I couldn’t tell him that even when I hated him I didn’t want to leave because he would use it against me. He would tempt me to stay, using every tool in his impressive arsenal.
“And now?” he grabbed my hips and moved me back and forth so I slid along his erection, leaving a glistening trail of my juices.
“Now I don’t know. It’s only a six-month contract to start, and I feel like I need to do this. For me.”
He digested that bit of info for a long moment. “I agree.”
I frowned. “Are you trying to get rid of me now?”
He pressed a kiss to my throat and
licked a trail of fire to my ear. “Hell no, I’ll miss you like crazy. But when you come back to me I want it to be because you want to be here, not because I convinced you to stay with me.”
“And you’re so convinced I will come back?”
“I think you love me as much as I love you, so yeah, I think you’ll be back.”
“I do love you, ya know. More than anything.”
Keane
6 months later
Six long-ass months of phone sex, sexting and getting freaky on camera, and finally Fiona and I were in the same goddamn time zone. The same place. Tomorrow she flew back to Boston where I was supposed to be to pick her up from the airport, but neither of us would make it. Because I was here in Washington.
I thought long and hard during our months apart about what I wanted. About what our life could, realistically, look like. Would Fiona be able to live life as a gangster’s wife? More importantly, would she be happy as my wife? I sure as fuck hoped so because I had a diamond burning a hole in my pocket and it was just for her.
I looked around her apartment which stood mostly empty now with the exception of a few boxes and furniture. I’d come up to visit her a few times before, and the difference now was noticeable. Gone were the colorful pillows and blankets, the vibrant paintings from the wall were packed up and headed back to Boston. I couldn’t help but smile at the evidence that I’d been right and she did love me enough to return to Boston.
Even though she refused to return to Cerulean, which I had mixed feelings about.
I had our whole evening planned, right down to the Thai food I’d bought that was now warming in the oven. All I had to do now was wait for my woman to get home.
I didn’t have to wait long, at five thirty I heard the key turn in the door and stood to greet her. She had the phone pressed to her ear so she hadn’t noticed me yet. “If I finish packing I’ll join you guys for a drink but tomorrow I finally get to see Keane!” I heard the excitement in her voice and couldn’t help but smile. “It’s been too long so I imagine we’ll spend the next week in bed.” She laughed and kicked off her shoes before she turned. And gasped. “I’ll call you back Serena.”
“Hey.”
“Hey? That’s all you have to say to me.”
“I was going for effect,” I told her and closed the distance between us so I could hold her in my arms. “I missed you babe.” She sank into my arms, her body relaxing and softening against mine.
“I missed you too Keane, but what are you doing here?” She blinked up at me with questions in her eyes. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine. Seamus and Rosie are somewhere in the South Pacific.” Not that she cared, they hadn’t spoken since Seamus left and I didn’t blame her even if it would make things awkward when he returned. “I couldn’t wait another moment to see you. To hold you. To taste you.” I’d dreamed about it the whole flight over, how it would feel to have her again.
“Mmm, I’m glad because I had a surprise all planned for tomorrow.”
“Oh yeah?”
She nodded. “Hell yeah.” She slipped from my arms and disappeared down the hall. Five minutes later she came back looking like every forbidden fantasy I’d ever had about her. “What do you think?”
What did I think? I thought she looked like the perfect wet dream in her white see thru lingerie that gave me the perfect view of her rosy pink nipples along with the dark strip of hair between her legs. “I think you are everything I ever wanted.”
She sighed and leapt into my arms, wrapping her legs around me. “Perfect. That’s just what I was going for.” And her lips were on mine, attacking them hungrily while my hands roamed her lace covered body. She gasped when I squeezed her ass and one finger slid into her opening.
“You should never wear panties again,” I growled and she laughed
“Maybe you should give me a reason to toss them out,” she teased, licking my neck and nibbling my ear. Pretty much driving me out of my fucking mind.
I laid her on the sofa and quickly got rid of my pants and boxers, my cock jerked at her hungry gaze and the way she licked her lips as she reached out to me. “You can suck me off later, right now I just need to be inside you.” She opened her legs wider in response, giving me a perfect view of that wet pink pussy, lips glistening deliciously. “Just one,” I told her and knelt between her legs so I could get a taste of her sweet pussy before I slid deep into her.
“Keane,” she cried out, hips jerking so enticingly I just had to have another taste. And another until her arousal dripped between us.
“So fucking good,” I told her and thrust all the way in. “Love you,” I told her and proceeded to fuck her until we were both sweaty and panting. You ready to come?”
“Always,” she answered breathlessly and reached between us. Instead of reaching for her clit she grabbed my balls. “I love you Keane. So much. And I love your cock,” she said and gave a gentle squeeze.
Suddenly my control snapped and I pounded hard into her, sinking deeper when she wrapped those shapely legs around me, digging her feet into my ass. Hard and deep I went, keeping a furious pace that hurtled us both straight into satisfaction. Pleasure. Blind fucking pleasure that I swear had me seeing stars. My name fell from her lips like a prayer as she came. “ I roared my own pleasure into the mostly empty apartment and fell on top of her.
“That’s how a boyfriend is supposed to greet you.”
Boyfriend. I hated that term. I was too old to be anybody’s boyfriend. “And how does a fiancé greet his woman?”
Confusion flashed in her eyes but it quickly turned to naughtiness. “My guess is with more oral.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped at her unexpected comment. I used the moment to roll over and reach for my jeans, pulling out a velvet box and opening it.
“Then I guess you’d better give me the right answer.” I wasn’t a traditional kind of guy, but I was already kneeling beside her, so I grabbed one of her hands and held it to my chest. “Fiona O’Malley you have been torturing me in one way or another for your whole life. I’ve loved you for much longer than I should have, but now that I have you, I can’t see ever letting you go. Wherever we go, whatever we do, I just want us to be together. Will you marry me?”
Tears swam in her blue eyes but she gave me a toothy smile as she nodded. “Hell yeah I can’t wait to be your wife!” She tackled me to the ground and kissed me until I was breathless and hard all over again. “You really want to marry me?”
“More than anything, Fi.” She ground against me and I groaned, wondering if I would always feel so hungry, so wild when it came to her. “In fact, I thought maybe you wanted to drive over to Vegas and then spend the week driving back to Boston. Just the two of us.”
Her gaze softened. She nestled against me, bringing my cock to a rest right at her opening, but she had that soft-love look and I knew she was about to get mushy. “I guess I got lucky when I fell in love with you Keane. I knew you were a good man and now I know you’re also a romantic.”
I frowned. “No one said anything about romance, Fi.”
She laughed at me. “Oh yeah what do you call the road trip I always wanted as our first honeymoon?”
“I love you Fi and I just want you to be happy, that has nothing to do with romance.”
She laughed and then kissed me, slow and sweetly. “Fine but what about the food warming in the oven?”
“That’s just to keep you fueled up for the night ahead,” I told her as I grasped her hips and slipped inside her body.
“Speaking of head,” she purred as her hips rolled in a figure eight that drove me wild. “How do you feel about road head? I hear all the kids are doing it.”
“Right now Fiona, I’ll give you anything you want.”
Her gaze turned serious and her movement became quick and shallow. “It’s a good thing that you’re the only thing I want Keane. Forever.”
“Come closer and let me love you then.” I pulled he
r close and kissed her, knowing our life together would be filled with love and passion. Just as it always had been, only now it would be better. Deeper.
Lasting.
THE END
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Wrangling the Cowboy
Chapter One
Clara
“You got this girl. You’re the best chef on either side of the Mason-Dixon and if that cowboy doesn’t know it, he’s dumber than a box of rocks.”
I had to laugh at my cousin Boone’s pep talk because no one could calm my nerves the way he could.
“Thanks Cuz, I appreciate that. But now I need to go. I’ll call you again in a few days.” I blew out a long breath and stepped from the car, climbing yellow painted wooden steps that lead to a giant farm-style home.
“Where the hell is the new girl anyway?” A deep, annoyed voice sounded from the other side of the door.
If the long drive up to the Hawkeye Ranch in Rogue, Texas hadn’t been intimidating enough for me, the gruff voice of the man inside—inquiring about me—left me shaking like a leaf. Not that I was scared of him, not really, because I didn’t know him, but working for someone like that could make life difficult. I’d already accepted the job and made the move to Texas, and by move, I mean that all of my worldly possessions worth carting from Atlanta to Texas, were in my beat up old VW van.
Still, I was here and ready to work. But the words announcing my arrival wouldn’t come. You’ve got this. Usually giving myself a pep talk helped but this time, not so much.
“She was supposed to be here at ten,” he bellowed to someone inside with him.
I glanced at my phone screen. Nine fifty-seven. I knocked again. “She’s out here knockin’ and wonderin’ if it’s alright to come in without an invitation,” I called through the screen door because I still had no clue if it was cool to enter without an invite.
Fake Fiancé Next Door_A Small Town Romance Page 21