Page 97 of Bargain with the Irish Devil

“It was your fault. You said it yourself, you pregnant tied you to the baby’s father forever. No matter what happens our child will link us, always in each other’s lives, always a part of each other. You wanted me. It was my world you were afraid of. Once you were pregnant, you would see how safe my life, our world can be. Be angry all you want, but I don’t regret what I did. I didn’t while I was doing it, and I’m not about to now.”

She sighs. “If I were a little less messed up. I would see this as utterly toxic and not at all as romantic as I find it. I love you, you fool. If you had just asked me, you would have had me.”

“I had to make sure, no point of return. You would be mine forever and ever. The same way I’m yours.”

“I love the sound of that. But I’m going to need for you to show me, dear husband.”

“Everything you want, my dear wife. Anything at all, as long as it’s not letting you go.”

EPILOGUE

"Oh Declan, isn't he beautiful?" I run a hand over my son's perfectly round head already full of black hair. I'm sure his blue eyes are going to stay blue. A little miniature of his father.

"He's all right," Declan murmurs with a smile.

I roll my eyes. "Declan, your son is not, "all right" he's perfect."

He chuckles. "I'll get my girl next time, love?"

"Declan, I have no control of you getting a girl this time or the next. But since we're having at least four, I'm sure a girl will be in there somewhere."

"Four? I don't remember agreeing to four. I'm to battle with four critters for my wife's attention." His frown is deep on his forehead.

Laughing, I shake my head. "You're not competing with critters. They're our children. And we've discussed this. I'm giving in on a nanny and date night once a week and one weekend away from the house a month. What more could you possibly need?"

His hand is around my throat. Like it does every time, it causes me to melt into him. The wicked grin is back. How can he turn my body into one throbbing nerve for him when I'm still tired and aching from the cesarian? "Everything,m’fhiorghra, every single minute of your day and every inch of your body."

"And if you don't get it?" I tease.

"Hm, then a spanking might be in order."

"Oh no, not a spanking." I exhale the words into his mouth.

Ten YearsLater

"Finally, my girl," Declan murmurs as he runs a finger along her cheek.

"After three boys, I was beginning to get worried," I admit.

An evil eyebrow is up. "That's because your sons are heathens."

"Excuse me, they are heathens because they take after their father. In looks as well as temperament." I remind him.

I adore our sons, but god, they were often heathens who tested every last nerve I have in my body. Thankfully, they behaved like little angels in public. At home, I often wondered why I hadn't stopped at two.

In the last few years, I’ve taken over the accounting for the two pubs and Declan appreciated it—and made sure I knew it daily. The world I feared for so long is nowhere near as scary as I once made it out to be in my mind. There have been a few issues over the years, but thankfully, Declan and his cousins and friends were nothing more than side characters who had no part to play.

I’m grateful every day for the life I have now. With my overprotective husband, who watched over me and ensured my happiness in ways I didn’t even know I needed.

We went back and forth on more children. My pregnancy with Sam was easy, but he also didn’t want to turn, and in the end, Whitney decided another cesarian was safer for me and the baby. When it came to my last pregnancy, it was decided two cesareans meant it was also safer to do another rather than have any surprises. Declan hated how hard recuperating was for me after a cesarian and decided no girl was needed.

Eleven months ago, I decided I wanted my girl and stopped taking my birth control without telling him. When I admitted to him what I did when I flashed the pregnancy test he needed to take with me, boy, was he mad. He was pissed for three whole hours. One of those hours was spent with me tied up.

"If you weren't such a softie with them, they might not be so bad."

"Says the man who was the cause of two nannies quitting because you kept going against her moderate punishment of loss of television and things they wanted to play with." It took five years and three nannies before we found Celeste. Once we were warned if Killian caused one more disturbance in his private preschool, we would need to find him somewhere else, Declan finally gave in to hard limits on discipline. It hasn't been easy on any of us—especially their granny Aoife who loathed getting after them—but Killian and Sam were no longer uncontrollable for their teachers.

"And don't even think of spoiling her either. If you do, we're all going to pay for it." I warn him.

"Of course not." He reassures me. "I'm going to leave that to her brothers.

"Heaven help us," I sigh.

---