Page 17 of A Very Grumpy Father's Day
“Okay! I gotta bounce!” Piper said. “Thanks fer savin’ us, laddie. Chat soon.” And off she went, leaving her hot relatives to get a room, or a big tree probably, since they couldn’t wait long enough to get back to their castle.
* * *
Maclan did, indeed, hustle over to a large tree in the darkening woods.
They held hands as they ran and laughed and stopped to kiss each other and then ran again, stumbling ahead like teenagers in love, until they found a spot that they knew would be secluded. It wasn’t the empty deck of the Staten Island Ferry on a cold winter’s night, but it would have to do.
They would have todoeach other here.
Declan cupped Maddie’s face in his beautiful, strong hands. “How I’ve missed ye, wife.”
Tears formed in the corners of Maddie’s eyes. “And I you, husband.”
He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed the ink-stained skin on the palms and on her fingertips. It was getting dark, yes, but there was moonlight. “I have seen these stains,” he said. “The marks of a dedicated servant of the law. The marks of a woman who’s married to her work.”
Her body stiffened. The fire that always burned beneath the surface was stoked as only Declan Cannavale could stoke it. “You knew who I was before you married me. I told you I would not stop working and that I could no longer work for you.”
“Aye.” He gently shushed her and caressed her hair. “Aye. I ken who ye are, Maddie Cooper Cannavale, and I love every piece of ye. That was not a complaint, Leannán.”Leannánmeantsweetheartorlover. “Put down yer sword. This is not a battle.”
She grinned. “Take out your sword, Scotsman. That’s an order.”
His grin did not fade as he kissed her, but he shook his head. And then he lifted up her heavy, long skirt and placed his fingers inside her lady cave. She gasped. He watched her face and her ever-heaving bosom as her pleasure took over.
“I want you inside me,” she whispered. “I want to climb you like the Devil’s Staircase.”
He shook his head. “I want to watch you.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and gasped again. And again. And again.
He watched and he watched and he watched, until his wife was spent from gasping.
And then, he pushed her up against that big tree trunk and ravaged her lady cave with consent, just as she’d desperately wanted him to.
Ten minutes later, after their drought had been sufficiently ended, they aided each other in straightening up their clothes, as married couples do.
Declan stroked his wife’s face. It was glowing in the moonlight. He held back a wistful sigh. “Ye must return to work?”
Maddie’s lower lip quivered, and her eyes filled with tears. She nodded. “Yes.”
Declan nodded once. “Aye. I will accompany ye to the office, to keep you safe.”
Maddie was torn. She stared down at her ink-stained fingers. She wanted to help her boss and the wrongly accused lasses, but she also wanted to go home with her husband and to pick up their baby. Now was definitely not the time to explain to Declan that she had been born two hundred forty-nine years in the future and had somehow time traveled after touching a large rock. “No,” she said, resolutely. “I shall awaken early in the morning and spend the rest of the night with you and Ciara. My clothes and hands may be stained from overwork, but that can be washed off. My heart has the names Declan and Ciara inked on it permanently. It is forever marked by love. I promised my favorite niece, Piper, years ago…” Or was it centuries ahead?“That I would from that time on follow my heart. Lead the way, husband. Take me home.”
Declan kissed her deeply and then carried her to their HEA home.
THE END
P.S. Yes, Mother, I have been watchingOutlanderon Netflix while babysitting, and yes, I’ve heard you talking to Maddie about their Staten Island Ferry sexytimes.
P.P.S. Sorry I called you “basic.”
