“You’re a gol-derned stubborn mule, is what you are!”
“Dad, I’m not arguing with you. I’m going back.”
“I blame you, Alastair. You’ve got it in your fool head that she needs to be bait.” Spitting-nails furious, Hoyt paced Piper’s airy living room. “She barely survived the last attack.”
Alastair straightened his tie and tugged on his shirt cuffs, perfecting his already pristine appearance. “I am only here to make suggestions. What Piper chooses to do is entirely up to her.”
“And you suggested she hightail it on back to that god-forsaken inn to flush out some crazy person.”
Ire flashed in Alastair’s sapphire eyes. “Hoyt, she’s no safer here than there.”
“Now that’s a dammed lie! She’s a hundred times safer, and you derned well know it.”
Lifting two fingers to his brow, Alastair scrubbed back and forth, as if Hoyt’s rant was giving him a tension headache. It probably was if the throbbing of Piper’s own skull was any indication. They’d been going round and round on this topic for the better part of an hour. Hoyt had mellowed from livid to hot under the collar since the subject of Piper’s return to Ireland came up. But he became fired up again at a moment’s notice.
“Dad, enough. I’m a grown-ass woman and I’m tired of hiding out here.”
“It’s only been two days, Pip! It’s not like it’s been two years,” Hoyt pointed out with no little sarcasm. “It’s doubtful that underhanded rat is going to suddenly crawl out from whatever hole he’s burrowed in and expose himself. He’d rather take potshots at you in the dark.”
“So tell me, what is the appropriate amount of time to twiddle my thumbs and wait? One year? Two? When will he get bored and go away?” She flopped down on her double-wide loveseat and dropped her head back to glare at the innocent ceiling. “We’ve scryed, we’ve cast spells, we’ve created wards—all the magical things I’d rather not have to do—but nothing has worked.” She lifted her head and sent him a beseeching look. “I can’t run forever, Dad. I deserve a life, however short it may or may not be.”
Hoyt perched on the ottoman at her feet and rested a hand on her knee. “I love you too much to risk your life, Pip. Don’t ask me to stand back and do nothing.”
“Oh, Dad.” She couldn’t relay the myriad of feelings building inside—adoration, frustration, exasperation, understanding. All she knew was that she couldn’t hide out here in her home when the only man she’d ever truly loved was an ocean away and dealing with the fallout of their magical connection. Initially, when she’d heard he didn’t want her to return, she’d taken it to heart. But it wasn’t long before her fighting spirit emerged. “I promised Cian I’d create his Granny’s potion. I’m not going to bail on him or his family when they need it for their financial survival.”
“If that’s the only reason you’re returning, I can make the elixir.” Alastair shrugged casually, but Piper sensed he’d said it to get a rise out of her, to make her confess to another, more profound reason for wanting to go back. “A potion isn’t worth putting yourself in a killer’s crosshairs.”
“Whose side are you on?” she snapped.
“Yours, dear girl. Always yours.”
Somewhat mollified, she turned to her father. “I love Cian. And I’m returning to Ireland, because I’m a Thorne and I don’t run from trouble.”
Pure triumph curled Alastair’s lips upward in the same way crushing disappointment pulled Hoyt’s downward.
“Excellent!” Alastair slapped Hoyt on the back—none too gently—and willfully ignored his cousin’s glare. “Do you need to pack, or should we pop back immediately?”
If Piper didn’t know better, she’d believe old Cousin Alastair had a horse in this race. She was certain of it when her dad dug a hundred-dollar bill out of his wallet and held it up. Alastair swiped it and tucked it into the breast pocket of his suit coat with a shit-eating grin.
Piper had to laugh.
“We’re both going back with you, Pip.”
“Poor Cian is going to feel cock blocked with the two of you there.” She rubbed her temples. “And that doesn’t bode well for my love life.”
“You’re worth the wait, child. I suspect your young man knows this.” With a smile and a wink, Alastair strode out of the room.
Silence reigned for a full two minutes as Piper waited for her father to speak. Hoyt wasn’t one to not insert his two cents into a situation such as this. But as the seconds ticked by and as he said nothing, she began to feel perhaps she’d misjudged him.
“No lecture, Dad?” she asked gently. “No ‘You’re a gol-dern hard-headed mule, Pip’?”
“No lecture. Your mother and I have raised you to be an intelligent, free-spirited woman. There isn’t anything more we could say or do that’ll make a difference.” When he looked at her, there was a sheen of moisture coating his eyes. “I’m proud of you, Pip. So very proud. And I don’t want you to ever doubt how much we love you.”
“If I had any doubts, I think you both assuaged them when you saved my life after I’d been shot.”
Hoyt winced. “Don’t remind me, or I’m liable to lock you up and throw away the key to keep you safe.”
“That’s the thing, Dad. You can’t keep me safe. Life is full of risks. But you and Mom have prepared me, and I’m ready to live my life to the fullest.”
“With Cian?”
“If that’s what he wants.”
“I’ve never seen another man look at you the way he does. I’m glad he realized he cared before it was too late.”
“Me too. Now, it’s going to be a matter of convincing him that he’s not the one putting me in jeopardy and that sending me away isn’t the best course of action.”
“If anyone can do it, Pip, it’s you.”
She dove for his embrace when he spread his arms wide. “Thank you for your faith in me, Dad. I love you so much.”
“Always.” His arms tightened right before he released her and tilted up her chin. “And I love you more,” he assured her with an affectionate smile.
“You always say that but it’s not possible.”
“I love you infinity,” they said in unison then laughed. They’d played their little game from the time she was a small child. Each proclaiming to love the other more. It always ended with “I love you infinity.”
“Gather what you need. I’ll let your mother know we’re leaving soon.”
“Do you think we’ll ever find the person who wants to hurt me?” Piper asked in a small voice.
“I don’t know, Pip, but we’ll dern well try.”
Cian rubbed his eyes and blinked to check his vision as Piper strolled into his living room. Although a huge part of him wanted to send her right back to America, an even larger part wanted her to stay with him forever. One glimpse of her uncertainty was all it took to have him rush forward and wrap her in a tight embrace.
“Piper.” He expelled a heartfelt sigh. “You’re a foolish, foolish woman to return here.”
“I couldn’t stay away, Cian.”
He hugged her tighter. She didn’t give one peep of protest over his fierce embrace, and for that, he was happy because he had the burning desire to crush her against him. He had to convince himself she was really alive and well.
“I’m powerful angry with you for returning. But my heart… it felt like it had taken a battering with you gone.” Finally remembering her injury, he drew back and frantically unbuttoned her shirt to search for the wound. “Are you alright? Does it still hurt? Should you be restin’?”
She prevented his clumsy attempt by clasping his hands between hers. “Cian, stop. I’m fine. I promise. Not even a mark remains.”
He simply stared at her, all the things he was unable to say bottled up in the back of his throat.
Piper placed her palm against his jaw. “I promise I’m okay.”
He jerked her back into a hug and rested his cheek atop her head. His gaze connected with Hoyt’s. “You’re too trusting, Mr. Thorne. She’s not safe here, and you know it.”
“You try arguing with her.” Underlying the other man’s resignation was a fondness for his daughter’s stubborn ways.
“We’ve plenty of that in our future, to be sure,” Cian said with a grin. “Now, if you would step out of the room, I’ve a mind to kiss my woman all proper like.”
Hoyt chuckled but exited all the same.
“What’s considered ‘proper like?’” Piper asked. Her face was alight with curiosity, hunger, and no small amount of anticipation.
“I think you fecking know,” he growled.
He claimed her mouth—mainly because he had to. Her kisses drugged his mind, heated his body, and had him clinging to her like a drowning man to a life raft.
This was all he’d ever dreamed about; a woman who loved and desired him beyond reason—and she did. Even had she never admitted her feelings, Cian felt it in Piper’s desperate response and her inability to let him go.
When they paused to gulp ragged breaths, he pressed his forehead to hers and breathed her in. “I love you, Piper. I think I have from the moment you spit your drink in my face. And when you threw rocks at me on the cliff, I knew you were a warrior woman. My warrior woman.” He paused to kiss her again. “I won’t lie and say all this doesn’t terrify me or that I didn’t pretend it was only physical between us, but I’ll trust you not to break my poor wee heart the way Moira did.”
“One day, you can tell me the circumstances surrounding her betrayal, but whatever it was, I promise I won’t do the same thing. I love you, Cian.” Her tender reverence as she traced his jawline caused his heart to hiccup. “I’m willing to give us our all, if you are.” Her eyes widened at his prolonged silence. “Please say you are,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” he replied gruffly, right before he gripped her hair in his fist, gave it a light tug, and lowered his mouth to within a mere inch of hers. He pressed his arousal against her and grinned “I’m as willing as a man can be, darlin’.”
Her fingers outlined his erection through his jeans. “I can feel your willingness,” she quipped.
“Don’t be fondling me lucky charms!”
“Why?” A sinful smile curled her lips and the last dregs of Cian’s blood surged into his dick. He couldn’t answer her if he wanted to, because all his concentration was now below the belt. When she unzipped his pants and gave him a rub, he groaned. “I think sex with you is going to be magically delicious, Cian O’Malley.”
He barked out a laugh at her sauciness. “Am I going to see green clovers, pink hearts, orange stars, and those yellow moons?” he countered.
She paused in her ministrations to frown up at him. “How long has it been since you’ve eaten Lucky Charms?”
“Never?” He hissed out a breath when she abruptly released him and stepped back.
“What? This relationship is doomed. I just can’t talk to you.”
“Don’t ya be torturing me, woman! In this house, we finish what we start.” Cian reached for her hand and shoved it back down the front of his jeans. “I’ll eat those fecking things once a day and twice on Sunday if you don’t stop.”
She broke down in a fit of giggles, and Cian laughed, helpless against her amusement.
“Your face was priceless,” she crowed.
He cupped her breast through her shirt. “I imagine it was. Now wiggle your fingers and lock the door, why don’t ya? I’m craving your lucky charms.”
Piper impatiently brushed his hands aside and lifted her top over her head.
Despite Cian’s skill at removing female underclothes, his hands shook as he unfastened her bra.
Her blazing-hot skin reacted to the cool air, and her nipples hardened in response.
He paused to take in the entrancing sight and breathed in at the beauty before him. “Hello, lovelies. I’ve waited a lifetime to see you.”
Piper’s trill of laughter triggered his grin.
“A week, Cian. You’ve waited a week.”
“We can discuss why time runs differently for you and me… after.” He curled his hands around her breasts, weighing and relishing the feel of them. The brush of his thumbs across the tight buds elicited her soft moan. Ducking his head, he captured one tip in his mouth.
Her fingers curled against the back of his head and she tugged him back with a fistful of his hair. “Does that mean you’re jackrabbit fast in bed?”
Too fascinated by the way the low light caught and highlighted the glistening tip of her left breast, he didn’t immediately process what she’d said. When he did, he glared up at her.
“I’m highly offended you’d believe something so foul of me. Just for that, you’re getting three orgasms before I get me lucky charms off.”
She giggled as he toppled her onto the sofa, and he smothered his own laughter against the silky-smooth skin of her throat.
The friction their laughter caused, registered mightily with his dick, and his eyes practically rolled back to greet his brain from pleasure of chest on chest. She opened her thighs wider, arched her hips, and rubbed the length of his erection.
“Oh, please no! Not three orgasms,” she cried with blatant insincerity; the back of one hand pressed to her forehead.
He didn’t bother to hide his laughter the second time. “You’ve got a wicked mouth on you.”
“I’m known for my wicked mouth.” Her grin was pure deviltry and the sultry smile would’ve brought him to his knees had he been standing. With a pointed look at his crotch, she said, “Very wicked mouth.”
“Stop it right now, or you’ll not get the first orgasm I promised. I’ll spend like a pubescent boy and be the laughing stock of me pub.”
Her husky laughter sent more blood surging to his dick.
With a rough groan, he crushed his lips to hers and sought entry with his tongue.
Her hands were everywhere: touching his skin, cupping his ass, shoving down his jeans. And he’d never felt so desperate to sink into a woman. The musky scent of her arousal filled the air and almost sent him over the edge of madness because he’d never get enough of her addictive fragrance.
Their teasing took a backseat to their lovemaking, and within the embrace of his arms, Piper became a wanton goddess. He, the mere mortal willing, ready, and able to worship at her feet. Every thrust brought him closer to being burned by her sun. Every panting breath she released was a command for him to work harder and bring her to completion.
After every single drop had been milked out of him, and after her second rapturous cry rang out; Cian rested his brow against hers and inhaled huge, gulping breaths of air into overworked lungs. She did the same, and the push of her breasts into his chest made him wonder how fast he could recover to do this all over again.
He grinned as his mind circled around to her jackrabbit comment from earlier. “Perhaps time doesn’t run differently for us, after all, Piper my love.”
“Mmm. I’d say you have the timing down pat.”
Cian chuckled and shifted his weight to roll them over. Flat on his back, he tucked her head against his pounding heart. “Sure, and there’s always room for improvement.”
He felt the movement of her lips as they curled into a smile.
“I’ve no complaints, and if you want to use my body for practice—you know, for that improvement—I’m game.”
“That’s what I like best about you, darlin’. Your willingness to be a team player.” Her golden laughter filled his heart to full. “Piper?”
“Hmm?”
“I have no objection if you want to fondle me lucky charms.”
“Any day of the week and twice on Sundays?” she asked in a drowsy murmur.
A laugh burst out of him, and he tightened his arms around her. “To be sure.”