Page 125 of Dublin Beast

He exhales hard. “Aye, I heard ye asked to see him. I nearly lost my fucking mind. I thought ye were asking him to help you disappear. To leave me.”

“I wasn’t,” I say, turning to him fully. “I needed more information.”

“So why not ask me? I’ve never once lied to ye. Why the fuck couldn’t ye come to me?”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you, but I see that I have. I’m sorry about that. I promise, from now on, if I have a problem with you or need more information, I’ll come to you.”

I cup his cheek with my palm, and he presses deeper into my touch. He still seems so sad, his pain so close to the surface.

“May I ask a question now?”

He scoffs, laughing despite himself. “Aye, of course.”

“Why did you say the last part of Yasmine’s letter is for me? I mean… we definitely click but we’ve known each other less than a month. She’s talking about loving again and moving on. Is that where we are?”

He meets my gaze and though his eyes are still rimmed with red, they are clearer now. Steadier. “I don’t know where we are. All I can tell ye for sure is that my heart is beating again. Yer the first thought that hits me when I wake and the last thought before I sleep.”

He lifts our joined hands to his lips and nips my knuckles. “When ye turned away from me, it hurt more than I thought possible. Like ye said, we hadn’t known each other long. But ye shut me out and I felt it right to my soul.”

I close my eyes and he kisses the sting of where he bit me. “I didn’t say that to make ye feel bad. Don’t be sorry. Just don’t push me away again. I like ye here and I’d like to see where this takes us without people trying to kill us at every turn.”

I bark a laugh. “That would be such a novel change in pace, wouldn’t it?”

“Aye, it would.” His arms come around me again, and this time, he pulls me onto his lap. Straddling his hips, he holds me tight. Our foreheads press together, our breath mingles, and I swear something shifts between us.

This might be happening fast, but we’re both adrenaline junkies. Slow and steady isn’t our go-to.

Still, it’s real. We both feel that.

And yeah, he’s not the only one who would like to see where it goes.

Bryan’s breath is warm against my skin, his arms wrapped around me as if I tether him to this world. His forehead rests against mine, and for a long moment, we just breathe together.

In and out. In and out.

The fire in the hearth pops softly, casting gold and amber shadows across his face, and I reach up to cradle his jaw. His scruff is rough beneath my fingertips, but his eyes… his eyes are soft. Open. Devastating.

I lean forward and press a kiss to his mouth. It’s been weeks since we touched like this and I’m half afraid I imagined the electricity we share.

I prove myself wrong on that the moment our lips touch. He groans as he kisses me back. No hesitation. No frenzy. Just a slow, aching hunger.

He shifts to lay down, and I melt into him, every inch of my body drawn to the steady, grounding pull of his.

He rolls to press me into the mattress and kisses me like I’m precious. Like I’mhis. Like he’s let go of the anger that’s been driving him and is welcoming something new into his heart.

Maybe it’s love—or maybe that’s where it’s headed.

It’s a consuming kind of passion that steals my breath and makes my eyes burn with something dangerously close to love. But honestly, I’m okay with not putting a name on it and letting things play out.

Bryan is definitely worth it.

His hand slides up my spine, strong fingers sinking into my hair, holding me to him as our kiss deepens. My body hums as warmth floods through me.

Stretched out beside me, one hand finds the curve of my waist, while the other cradles my face. “Can we make tonight R-rated instead of PG? Are ye up for it?”

I smile and run my hand over the steel length trapped behind the fabric of his sweatpants. “You seem up for it.”

“Och, trouble, you have no idea.”

---