Page 32 of SCRUMptious

I’d had four relationships worth being labeled such. I’d broken up with one of the men when I realized he was falling in love and I wasn’t. In another instance, neither of us saw a future together and had parted on friendly terms. The other two? They’d both said I was cold and closed off … unreadable. When one man said that about you, it was easy to push the criticism aside as justification for his failings, but when two men said the same thing, it was time to start questioning if they were right. I’d even gone so far as to ask a close friend what she thought. She’d clucked and hugged me before saying I just hadn’t found the right man yet to unlock my hidden depths. I’d taken her answer as an unequivocalyes.

Studying me with shrewd eyes that belied his age, Donal scratched his stubbled jaw. “The idea of us living together—even for a short while—terrifies the living shit out of you, doesn’t it?” When I didn’t answer, he continued, “You love me, but you don’t see a future for us. You want to be with me, but a small part of you wonders why we’re bothering to prolong the inevitable.”

My eyes went wide. “How do you …” My question trailed off before I could fully acknowledge how right hewas.

Donal crawled across the sofa until he reached me. Taking my glass, he set it aside. “I told you. I see you, Lauren.”

My eyes flicked between his and then down to his mouth. His lips hitched up in a shy, knowing smile before he leaned forward and pressed those lips to mine. When he pulled away, he said, “I’m in it for the longhaul.”

“But how? We literally live an ocean apart.”

“What if we didn’t?”

The question hung between us for several long moments.

“How?” I eventually asked, and then held my breath, so afraid was I to hear his answer.

With his body propped up with one strong arm, Donal pushed a lock of hair behind my ear with the other. “I could move to L.A. to be withyou.”

I let out the breath I’d been holding. “You’d do that?” I asked, my eyes tracing the planes of his face and filling with tears. It was too much. He was toomuch.

“I’d do anything for us to be together.” Donal’s mouth dropped to mine. Our lips merged, and our tongues tangled. “I was made for loving you, Lauren,” he said, pulling away. “Let me loveyou.”

As a fat tear slipped down my cheek, I marveled at how far Donal and I had come and how fast. At how I’d ever thought he was just a temporary blip on my radar … at how I’d told myself that years from now he’d be nothing more than a lovely memory I’d cling to at night.

The truth was, Donal Casey was lodged so far in my heart I would never be able to shake free of him. I never wantedto.

He was right. He saw me. And he loved me—better than any man before him. Better than I’d ever thought possible. His entire life was here in Dublin, and yet he was willing to give it all up to be with me back home in America. I could never have done the same for him—not with the situation with my mother—but he’d never even thought to ask meto.

And now he was telling me he was allin.

Could we do this? Should we dothis?

Fuck it, I thought, pushing my doubts aside. I loved this man, and I wanted to be with him as long as fate would allow. I knew one day we’d go our separate ways, but in the meantime, I permitted myself to be selfish and cling to what wehad.

I nodded and threw my arms around his neck, pulling him down to me with an “oomph.”

Laughing, he said into my neck, “I take it that’s ayes.”

“Yes, Donal. Yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand timesyes.”

“I like it when you scream yes,” he chuckled and then sucked my neck into his mouth, his teeth nibbling their way down to my collarbone. “Think I can get you to do it again?”

I squirmed against him, opening my legs wider so he could settle between my thighs. “What do you think?” I asked, rolling my hips against his erection.

“I think I fucking love you,” he answered, pushing his hand into my leggings to find my pussy already wet and needy for him. “Fuck, Lauren. You’re dripping.”

I bucked against his fingers, silently begging him to touch me harder, faster.

“I want to be inside you. Forever,” Donal growled, shoving his fingers in deep and twisting them to hit my g-spot. “Do you hear me? You’re it for me, Lauren.”

My back arched off the couch, and I closed my eyes and dropped my head back, savoring his words but trying not to let them drill too deeply into my heart. I’d heard something similar before, and that man had turned out to be a liar. Not that Donal was anything like Javier, but it was hard to let go of old hurts. So instead of his whispered promises, I focused my attention on the magic of his touch.

“Open your eyes,” Donal commanded from aboveme.

When they fluttered open, I found his face hovering inches from mine, fierce and determined. “I mean it, baby. You and me, together always.” His thumb circled my clit and my breath caught, the intensity of his stare and the exquisite pressure of his fingers taking me higher and higher. “Say you believeme.”

My whole body trembled with the force of my impending orgasm, but I didn’t want to let go just yet. I didn’t trust myself not to say things I could never take back. Instead, I rolled my bottom lip between my teeth, using my flesh to back the words.

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