Page 56 of Beneath Pearly Irish Skies
Chapter Thirteen
She hadn’t expected a thatched cottage.
“I love your house,” she exclaimed as they reached the end of a path lined with large Monterey pines and ash trees.
The grassy knoll in front of them seemed to be cushioning the white cottage with the red door. Three small latticed windows lined in red graced the front. A small chimney peeked out of the brown thatch, and rose hips and old vines trailed up the concrete front.
He squeezed her hand, which he’d held as they’d walked through the quiet grove of trees. “I’m glad. It belonged to my grandparents, and before my granny died a couple years ago, she invited me to live here after she passed on. It’s been good to be on my own. I was living with my parents in the main house before and finding it a little constricting. Come inside.”
Duke raced ahead, barking, and then disappeared around the right corner. Kade opened the door—which she noted wasn’t locked—and stopped in the doorway. He traced her cheek, a smile lighting up his gorgeous face. She didn’t want to let go of his hand, so she just smiled up at him. He lowered his head and kissed her again, slow and achingly sexy.
“Welcome to my home, love. Do you want a cup of tea while I change?”
“I can make it,” she said, patting his chest. “Do you want one?”
Another kiss was brushed on her lips before he said, “No, I’m going to shower. Make yourself at home.”
He disappeared through the main room, and since she knew Irish cottage floorplans were fairly standard, she made her way to the doorway past the hearth and the single settee. Sure enough, there was a small kitchen. She filled the kettle with water and opened the cupboards looking for tea—she found Lyons—and then chose a simple white mug.
Alone, she touched her lips, savoring their recent kisses. She hugged herself. This feeling coursing through her was unlike anything she’d previously experienced. She felt happy. Excited. Warm. Hopeful.
At the beginning of her relationship with Tyson, she’d been both excited and afraid. It wasn’t like that with Kade. She simply wanted to wrap her arms around him and never let go. When the water boiled, she made her tea and went back into the main room, taking a seat on the antique settee. Like the one in her cottage, it wasn’t comfortable, but she didn’t care. She leaned back against it with the mug on the small table by her side and enjoyed the quiet sounds of the shower running.
Her mind went to Kade again, her mind giving her a tantalizing fantasy of the water running over his naked body. Her belly tightened, and her breasts tingled.
She wanted him.
And she wasn’t afraid of that either. What a revelation!
She sipped her tea and let her eyes wander. A trio of photos of him with his family and his ponies graced the bookshelves alongside volumes of Yeats and Swift. She wondered if the books had been chosen by him or his grandparents. The small table in the corner only held a white sugar bowl, suggesting he rarely sat there except to drink tea. She wondered where he usually ate. Perhaps up at the main house? She knew he grabbed lunch there during the day, as he’d made her a ham and cheddar sandwich before. But it was the silver tray holding a cocktail shaker and a collection of liquor as well as a few smaller bottles in the front whose labels she couldn’t make out that captivated her curiosity. The Irishmen she’d met usually drank beer or whiskey.
The shower went silent. She had a fantasy of him pulling on his clothes, making her body warm. She shifted on the settee, making it squeak. The sound of his boots coming down the hall reached her, and she looked over to the doorway. When he appeared, happiness and outright arousal rushed through her.
His brown hair was damp and ruffled from a towel. He’d changed into dark jeans and a navy pullover, and he looked good. Really good.
“You look beautiful sitting there,” he said, crossing over to her. “Mind if I have a taste of your tea?”
She lifted her mug, and he brushed a caress over her hand before he took the tea from her and brought it to his lips. As he drank, he kept his gaze on her, rendering her breathless.
“Are you ready to go?”
In that moment, she didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything but kiss him. Still, she gathered herself and stood up. His smile grew, his eyes crinkling at the corners, and he set the mug on the table and opened his arms to her. She wrapped herself around him, savoring the warm, hard muscles of his chest and the tender way he held her.
“I didn’t imagine ever feeling like this again,” she whispered. “But honestly, it was never this wonderful with Tyson. Is that terrible of me to say?”
His hand tangled in her short hair, cupping her head. “Honesty is never terrible. I was with Mary Kathleen, my childhood sweetheart, for ten years, and I never felt like this.”
She darted back. “Ten years?”
He must have heard the surprise in her voice because he chuckled. “We were fifteen when we started dating. Growing up around here, you know everyone. Mary Kathleen was my first kiss—and I hers. Everyone thought we’d marry, and it would have been good. She’s a nice woman. We enjoyed each other. We even had passion for each other some of the time.”
Some of the time.“I understand that.” When Tyson had come home, she hadn’t always wanted him. Ollie was right. Sometimes she’d struggled for what to say to him, and he her. Undressing with him in a bedroom he rarely slept in had filled her with tension, and not the sweet kind. She remembered one homecoming, when he’d taken her quickly, his eyes closed the whole time, and then rolled onto his side away from her while she lay awake, unable to sleep.
Kade rubbed her back soothingly. “In the end, I knew we both had someone else out there. When I broke things off, I told her so. Because she knew I had the gift, she believed me. Four months later, she met Padraig Teskey. Before she married him, she thanked me and said she’d never been happier. They have four children now.”
“That’s an incredible story.” She touched his chest. “How is it you know these things?”
“I simply do,” he said, shrugging. “My father isn’t much for that answer even though his mother was the same way. He said it drove him mad growing up. Well, shall we go?”
