Page 53 of Stolen Mafia Vows
“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask.
“Not really.” She rests her cheek on her knees and looks at me as if unsure where to begin.
“They’re not happy about us.” I begin for her.
Her eyes grow huge with tears. “He … Kyle … thinks I married you to spite them.”
“Why would he think that?”What else isn’t she telling me?
“Eoghan…” Her voice hitches, and I lean closer to catch the tears as they spill. “I have a confession to make. I didn’t tell my family about us before. I’m so sorry. I tried, and they wouldn’t listen, and I was so sick of being treated like a kid that I thought…”
“Hey, it doesn’t matter, Emily.” Because I’d already figured this out.
Emily’s desperation to keep running away. The way she avoided conversations about them, and the constant chasing new experiences as if lingering on the edge of reality for too long would tip her back over the edge.
“But I lied to you, Eoghan.”
Her words are like a knife twisting inside my gut. She isn’t the only one who has been lying, but I can’t tell her about the rivalry between our families. Not now. Not when my father had to transport Ruairi’s body back to Ireland because of her brother Caleb.
The mental image of Caleb Murray starting a war while his wife and baby are oblivious raises a niggling itch at the back of my skull again. Something about this still doesn’t sit right with me, but I compartmentalize it so that I can focus on Emily. I never wanted to have secrets, but it seems that her family has other ideas about that.
“You did what you thought was right, Emily.”Am I consoling the woman I love or myself?
“You’re not angry with me?”
“How can I possibly be angry with you? You’re everything to me, mo chroi. I thought you might’ve figured that out when I asked you to marry me.”
She scrunches up her face, trying to hide her smile. “If I remember rightly, you didn’t ask me to marry you. You just stuck a ring on my finger and said, ‘I do.’”
“That’show you remember it?” I don’t bother trying to hide my amusement.
“Uh-huh. You were forceful.”
“Forceful?”
“Demanding.” She blinks innocently, her eyes wide, but at least the tears have dried up. “You didn’t give me a chance to think about it.”
“Wow.” I sit back and pull grass stalks out of the ground, feigning hurt. “Is it too late to ask you now?”
“Ooh, I don’t know.” She pauses. “Why don’t you try me?”
Rolling onto one knee, I take her hand in mine and gaze into her eyes, with what I hope is a serious expression on my face. “Emily, will you marry me?”
She grips my fingers tightly. “Hmm, maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Well, it all depends.”
“On?” My playful Emily is back, and I wish that I could walk away from my legacy and spend the rest of my life making this woman happy.
“On your next move.”
Without warning, I slide one arm behind her back and lower her onto the blanket, stretching my body out alongside her. My tongue is in her mouth, while my fingers sneak under her T-shirt and find her nipples. They harden instantly, the information sending signals directly to my cock.
“This move?” I mutter, nibbling her bottom lip between my teeth. Leaving her nipples, I slide my hand inside her pants and between her legs. She’s drenched. “Or this one?”
“Hmm…”
