Page 34 of Stolen Mafia Vows
“I missed you too.” Her breath is warm on my face.
“Where do you want to go?” I sit back and start the engine. “Anywhere you like.”
“The beach?” She chews her bottom lip to hide her smile. “Only because I want to see Bodhi again, you understand.”
“Oh, I understand. You missed my horse more than you missed me.”
“It was close.” Emily scrunches up her face, pretending to think about it. “But Bodhi didn’t abandon me to go to Liverpool.”
“Hey, I didn’t abandon you.” I try hard to feign hurt; it’s difficult when our bodies are so close. “It was family business.”
“I believe you.” She wraps her hand around the back of my neck and her tongue finds my earlobe. “Feel free to make it up to me whenever you’re ready.”
I take her other hand and place it over the bulge inside my pants. “Oh, I’m ready, but I’m not giving Sienna a reason to hate me when we’ve only just met.”
Emily’s smile is wicked. “Drive then, and I’ll make it up to you first.”
She lowers my zipper, as I slide the gear stick into reverse, and navigate the car back to the road and home.
7
EMILY
“Morning, mo chroi.”
Eoghan sneaks up behind me and nuzzles my neck, wrapping his arms around my chest. Goose bumps pop on my skin, and my nipples immediately stand to attention. I didn’t even hear him get out of bed.
I don’t know if it will always be like this, so electric that I feel myself fizzing and crackling beneath his touch. I hope it is. The thought that it might fade makes me sad, although I guess I should look at it positively: if it fades, it means that we’ve been together long enough to mellow at the same pace, for the fireworks to melt into a gentle mutual glow.
We’ve been on the road again for a couple of weeks. I think. If I haven’t lost another couple of days in Eoghan’s arms.
Everywhere we go, I seem to see old couples holding hands, or smiling at each other as if there is nowhere else they would rather be and no one else they would rather be with, and I’m filled with envy. Not the spiteful green-eyed type of envy thatturns people into monsters and demons, but the gentle kind that hopes we’ll be so lucky.
“What are you thinking?” Eoghan’s breath on my earlobe sends shivers down my spine.
I’ve been peering out of the window of our hotel room, at the sea that’s alternating between moody-gray and happy-blue as the wispy clouds pass in front of the sun. I can’t make up my mind which I prefer. The gray, foam-tipped waves make me feel strangely peaceful and calm, while the polished blue makes me want to run outside and raise my arms towards the sky. Naked and unashamed and totally free.
The day before, we visited the Giant’s Causeway, which is a series of huge steppingstones supposedly dropped into the sea by a giant who wanted to cross the water to Scotland to beat up his enemy. And crossed a rope bridge to an island inhabited by birds and wildlife. It would be the perfect place to build an animal sanctuary, far away from people and real life, if only there was an easier way to reach it.
I haven’t said this out loud to Eoghan, but the reason I want to see everything there is to see in Ireland is because I have a horrible sense of foreboding that I can’t shake.
Something is going to come between us.
That something being my family once they find out that I’m road-tripping my way around the country with a man instead of sitting in a cozy cottage by the sea watching my sister-in-law rub her belly and paint.
Which is why I’m stopping Eoghan from going home even though I want nothing more than to make our own home together. I want to ride horses with him. I want to wake upbeside him and make eggs for breakfast. I want to walk down to the beach and paddle in the sea, which is freezing even in the summer, and make plans for our animal sanctuary.
I realize that Eoghan is still waiting for me to answer the question.
“I’ve been watching the ferries.” I peer at the hazy land in the distance. “Where is that?”
“Scotland.” His fingers find my nipples and tweak them, not that they need much encouragement to swell. They were already waiting for his touch. “Shall we go there?”
“Seriously?” Our eyes meet, our mingled breaths creating a filmy white cloud on the window.
“Why not? I want to show you the world, Emily. I would give you the world if I could.”
I don’t know when this transition happened, but Eoghan’s voice has become my haven. My safe place. My cozy blanket in which to wrap myself and forget that anything else exists outside of this.
