by Mia Madison
EPILOGUE
Hannah
A month later, when he has a few days off, Kieran takes me to down to Durham so I can meet Josh. We have dinner at Josh’s house with his mother, Kate. That feels weird at first, but Kate is such an open, friendly person that before long we are laughing as if we are the best of friends.
“I'm so happy Kieran found someone,” she says. “He's a good guy. One of the best. I have been nagging him to stop fooling around for years. Of course, the irony is that the moment I find someone, the guy I decide to marry turns out to be a total bastard. But that's life for you. The one that floats your boat is not always the one that's good for you.”
Josh rolls his eyes.
“Parents, huh, Josh? If only you could choose them, but you're stuck with us,” Kieran says.
“It could be worse,” Josh says, and we all laugh.
*
“I like them both,” I say to Kieran after we say our goodbyes, both Kate and Josh kissing my cheek as if I was one of them.
“Yes. I always said to Kate that it was a pity we would drive each other mad if we spent more than a few days in the same house, or I could have married her. She's a good mother though. I know that much.”
“Josh is a credit to you both.”
“He's going to join the fire department when he leaves school.”
“He admires you.”
“I told him not to do it on my account. I'll be proud of him whatever he does, whether he becomes a firefighter or not.”
We've already checked into a little boutique hotel Kieran found a few miles away. He usually stays with Kate and Josh when he comes to visit, but not this time. When I heard how Kieran usually stayed at their house when he came to see Josh, I wasn't sure about it, but now I've met them I totally understand how it is between him and Kate and I don't mind at all.
“So, do you want to do anything before bed?” Kieran asks me.
“No. I’m all yours.” I smile at him.
“I have something I want to do,” he says.
“What's that?”
“I want to tell you how much you mean to me. You getting along with Josh and Kate is like the icing on the cake. I loved you before, but now I love you all the more.”
“You love me?”
“I do. And now you're going to tell me that you couldn't love me because I'm old as the hills and just not lovable, aren't you?”
“No. I'm not going to tell you that. I'm going to tell you this.” I whisper in his ear, “I love you, Kieran Forrest. I think I’ve loved you since the night you broke into my room.”
And he whispers back, “If that's the case, Hannah Palmer, you had better marry me, because nothing less will do.”
He pulls his lips away from my ear and we're both grinning at each other like a pair of Cheshire cats.
“Guess who I'm putting first on the guest list,” he says.
“I don't know, your parents? Vanessa? Josh? Mike?”
“After Josh and Mike, and my parents and Vanessa.”
I look at him puzzled. I haven't met all of his friends yet. it has all been so quick. But I couldn't be more certain that I want to marry this man.
“Traffic Teddy,” he says. “He has to be there.”
“Of course, a wedding is not a wedding without Traffic Teddy.” I laugh. “You're out of your mind. I still can't believe you made me wear that thing.”
“I had to do something to hide your curves. You were too tempting. We were going to visit a primary school, and I kept thinking of how you looked the night I got you out of bed. I thought it would stop me wanting you, but not even a bright yellow fur covering worked for that.”
“In that case, there's no hope. We have no antidote. You're doomed to stay with me forever.”
“Thank fuck for that. But I'd just better check if you still have the same effect on me.” He pulls off my dress leaving me in my underwear.
“Nope, I'm still besotted,” he says. “I think I'm just going to have to kiss you everywhere and make sure you're real because since I met you, there's magic in the air.”
“You've just got to believe it's real,” I tell him. “To keep the magic alive.”
“Oh, I believe. There's nothing more real this side of Loch Ness. Or the other side, for that matter.”
Kieran
A year later
It's our wedding day tomorrow. Not a day too soon for me, but Hannah insisted she wanted a summer wedding. Though she's lived in Scotland for seven years now, I don't think she's grasped the idea that you can't expect the weather to behave according to the seasons; anything can happen in July. But the weather forecast is good, so I'm crossing my fingers that she'll get what she wants.
Hannah says she's looking forward to seeing me in my kilt. Apparently, I don't wear Scottish national dress often enough for her. I teased her that I might turn up in full gear instead because I know that turns her on, but she says she gets to see me in that all the time.
I sent her off with her friend, Amy, and my sister, Vanessa, a few hours ago to do whatever the bride and bridesmaids do the night before a wedding. We had our stag and hen parties last week, so they are having a quiet night. Tradition says I’m not allowed to sleep with her tonight. It will be the longest I've gone without seeing Hannah and holding her for months.
“Are you going commando under your kilt?” she asks me on the phone, before she goes to bed.
“You'll have to find out, won't you? Are you, under your dress?”
“Of course, I'm not,” she says. “Brides don't. Too much danger of tripping up the aisle and traumatizing the minister and the guests.”
“And they wouldn't be traumatized if I tripped?”
“Not the ones I know.” She laughs.
“I would dare you, but knowing you, you'd take me up on it. And then I'd get the blame if you fell over.”
She giggles. “Of course you would. But I'm not doing it anyway. Now whisper sweet nothings and get off the phone because I have to get my beauty sleep for tomorrow.”
*
So now it's our wedding day, and I'm waiting with Josh, my best man, at the front of the church for her to arrive. Scotland has been kind and given us sun and a clear, blue sky for our special day. And all the males in the wedding party are decked out in kilts to the delight of Hannah's American friends who have made the trip overseas.
The music Hannah chose for her entrance, Purcel’s Trumpet Tune, begins and I can't wait to see her, but I know I'm not supposed to look too soon. Josh has a peek, though, and tells me she looks lovely.
I can't say I've ever been moved by a wedding ceremony. I've been to quite a few and sympathized in my head with the groom as if he was there under duress. I know now how short-sighted that was. I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be than here getting married to Hannah. When I turn and see her, at last, on her uncle's arm, and she smiles at me, I get a lump in my throat. She looks like an angel in a simple ivory satin and lace gown. My sexy, beautiful angel.
I always thought weddings were long but ours is over in the blink of an eye, and we are man and wife. All of it goes by so fast—the reception, the cake cutting, and the traditional Scottish dancing that lasts in reality until midnight. I wish the day would slow down except for one thing. The guests all want our attention and I hardly have time to speak to Hannah. By the end of the evening, I can't wait to get her alone.
We leave our own party to a rousing send off. And at last, it's just us—Mr. and Mrs. Forrest. We're going on a honeymoon to Mauritius for two weeks but not tonight. First, I'm taking Hannah back to my place, that's been our home for a few months, for a secret reception of my own that she knows nothing about.
When we go inside, there's nothing to see at first, but then Hannah notices the roof ladder is down, and looks at me quizzically, giggling.
“Go up and see,” I say.
“In this dress?”
“Yes, in that lovely dress. I'm right behind you, in case you stumble.”
“Wow!” she says. “I don't believe you did all this. It's beautiful. Why don't we come up here more often?”
There's a patio heater up there and fairy lights plus the blanket and heap of pillows we've only used up here twice for picnics in the early days. We've just been so busy with the wedding and everything, we've not used the roof at all.
I've planted flowers everywhere, smuggling them in over the past few weeks and keeping them watered when it hasn't rained.
Amy and Vanessa helped by organizing all the last-minute touches just before we got home. I don't even know if Hannah noticed I had the chauffeur take a few detours to make sure they had enough time after the reception.
“Why didn't you say you were doing all this?”
“I wanted to surprise you on our wedding night and make it special.”
“What if it rained?”
“It was all going to happen in the living room. A living room picnic.”
“A picnic? That's good. I was so excited I hardly ate a thing all day.”
There are delicate canapés to eat on a tray and champagne on ice laid out by the girls. We sit on the pillows under the stars with the fairy lights glowing around us and pick at the food. I open the bottle and pour out the champagne.
We clink glasses. “Here's to us,” I say.
“To us. I love being Mrs. Forrest already.”
“I love you being Mrs. Forrest.”
“Oh, look,” she says. “I wondered where Teddy was.”
And I laugh. “I didn't do that. That must be Amy.” We thought about having Teddy at the wedding but we didn't want to make anyone wear the costume and miss out on the fun. There's a mini-sized Teddy sitting on the flower pot nearest the blanket and when we looked around, there are all the other cartoon characters in miniature around the roof.
“Amy's great with a needle. She must have worked on these. I'll have to give her a big hug when I see her. She's very fond of Teddy herself after she met Grant when she was wearing the costume.”
“So, Mrs. Forrest, did you enjoy our wedding?”
“I did, but there's one thing I forgot to do.”
“What's that?”
“Check if you're a true Scotsman.” She giggles.
“I am.”
“I still have to check,” she says, putting her hands up my kilt. She grins. “Thought so. And already hard.”
“You can't keep your hands off me. Admit it.”
“I can't. That's true.”
“Ditto. But you have a lot of dress in the way, beautiful though it is.”
“A dress with a big skirt that hides everything. Maybe you should check if I'm a true Scotsman's wife.”
“Should I?” The thought sets my cock straining against the thick tartan of the kilt.
She giggles.
“Dirty girl. You left your underwear off, didn't you?”
“Might have. Or maybe I did something just before we left the party about that dare you didn't make.”
I run my hand up her leg under all the layers of her dress. She's not lying. And she's so, so ready for this, for me, for us.
“You know, there's one thing we never did up here, that we haven't done once since we were married. You're failing in your duties as a wife.”
She laughs. “I wonder what that could be. What can I do now to make amends? I want to pass my wife exam.”
Her eyes lock on mine. I know that look. And I'll never tire of it.
I take her in my arms and kiss her hungrily, like I've been wanting to kiss her all day. She moans into my mouth, and I trail kisses down her jaw, her neck, past the pearls she's wearing to the low neckline of her dress.
I run my hand over her back. “The dress seems to be fastened with a million tiny buttons. I'll never get you out of it.”
“Who says I have to get out of it?”
“You want to make love in your dress?”
“Yes, but don't be gentle. I want you to fuck me hard in my dress.”
As if my cock wasn't rock solid already, she says that.
“I want you so much right now, it might get ruined.”
“I'm not planning on wearing it again.”
“I'm pleased to hear it. But even so, you never fail to amaze me, Hannah Forrest.”
Hannah
After putting our champagne glasses on the tray and moving it out of the way, he lays me down on the pillows and blanket. Trailing his hand slowly up my leg, he pushes up my dress, and strokes the sensitive skin of my inner thighs with butterfly touches.
I'm squirming and whimpering under his gaze. He knows I want more. He traces my soft, wet folds so lightly, my hips lift of their own accord to meet his hand.
“Patience,” he says, a gleam in his eye, as he brushes over my clit and bends to take me in his mouth.
I suck in a breath, every nerve ending on a state of alert. A hot, thick sensation pools in my belly. I can't wait. I reach for him under his kilt and he gasps.
“Okay, no patience. I thought as much.” He lifts his head and smiles, his eyes flashing at me in amusement. “How can I refuse?”
And then a second later, he's there, over me, thrusting inside me, so hard, so sure, stretching and filling me so fast, that it takes my breath away.
“You're sure you want it hard?”
“Yes, I do.” Delicious anticipation takes over my whole body making me hotter, wetter, more in need. I know just how raw and crazy we can get.
“You got it, baby.”
He plunges into me again, deeper still, harder and faster than I thought possible, and then again, over and over, relentlessly hitting the sensitive areas inside me again and again, every thrust driving me closer and closer to ultimate pleasure.
My dress and petticoats are all over the place, bunched up, my thighs bare to him, spread wide. I can't help crying out with each push. I vaguely wonder if anyone four floors below at street level can hear me, but then he pounds into me again and I don't care. We are one mass of raw need and abandon on that blanket on the roof.
And then I feel him falter for a moment, and he groans, “Come for me, Hannah,” and I look at him, pleasure overtaking him, and the sight of his beautiful face, his powerful body almost losing control, sends me to the edge and an orgasm rips through me in waves as he floods me with liquid heat and calls out my name.
After getting our breath back, he straightens my dress and pulls me close. I lie in his arms, my limbs limp, still trembling from the strength of that climax.
“I love you, Mrs. Forrest,” he says. “I'll always love you.”
“And I'll love you right back. Always and a day.”
He kisses my hair. “Hey, do you think we corrupted Teddy? I think he tried to cover his eyes, but I'm sure I caught him peeking once.”
“Maybe he's just getting a few tips for when Mrs. Teddy comes along.”
He laughs. “I was going to turn him around. But that means not letting him look might be a disservice to the teddy bear population. So watch and learn, Teddy. Watch and learn.” And my beautiful new firefighter husband starts to kiss me again…
********
CHAPTER 1
Ronan
Another wild goose chase! You would think people would know by now that the fire department is there for rescuing people from danger, not for pulling animals out of trees. But it was a quiet day when we got the call, and it was my turn to deal with this kind of bullshit, so Mike, the chief, sent me to 46 Holburn Crescent with a fire truck, ready to help with the ladder.
I expect a little old lady in a panic about her cat who won't come down from a tree when she calls him in for his dinner or something, and given she'll not be able to climb up to rescue him, that will be my good deed for the day. Service with a smile and a salute and probably a few scratches. Fireman Ronan to the rescue.
But Holburn Crescent is peaceful and sunny, a leafy suburban street typical of this part of York
shire, with no sign of a cat or a little old lady. There is a tall beech tree in the front garden at number 46, though.
I ring the bell and I'm just wondering if this is one of those irritating-as-all-hell prank calls when the blue front door of the house in question opens and a cute dark-haired woman stands there with a cat in her arms.
The cat, a ginger, striped tabby, and presumably the culprit, meows and yawns as if bored with the whole affair. The woman on the other hand looks contrite. Definitely a wild goose chase.
“I'm sorry you were called, officer,” she says, her green eyes looking me up and down and finally landing on my face, missing nothing as if she knows I think she's cute.
But I'm not won over that easily by a pretty face, not when the pretty face in question has got my back up. “I'm not in the police, lady. And you really shouldn't call the fire department about your cat. What do you think would happen if there was an emergency and the crew were all out climbing trees? In any case, it looks like you were perfectly able to get him down yourself.”
In truth, when I take another good look at her, if there's any climbing to be done I'd be quite happy for her to climb me. But that doesn't mean I'm not fucking annoyed at having been called out (and then at not even getting to play hero around here for my trouble).
“He was scared. He's been up there all day,” she says sharply, holding on tighter to the cat.
Lucky bastard is right up against her chest. And a very fine chest it is. I wouldn't mind being clutched right there between those soft mounds. I have to bring myself back to the situation here before I let her off the hook entirely. “No one ever found the skeleton of a cat in a tree. They come down when they're hungry enough. You can entice them down with a tin of tuna if you wait long enough.”
“But Mrs. Jenkins was upset. She'd just called you when I went to see what the fuss was about in the front garden. I had to take her back inside and calm her down with a cup of tea. That's when Toby decided to come down.”