Instead, I kissed her softly.
“Ye are so fucking perfect, Annabelle.”
Then I stepped back, thanked God that my keys were still in my pocket and retreated.
“Connell?” she asked, all soft and welcoming.
“I’m leaving, lass. I have to. If I don’t walk out that door right now, I’ll fuck you on that counter. That’s how far gone I am for ye.”
She blinked rapidly as her brow puckered. “Okay?”
“I know ye better than you think I do. You’ll regret it in the morning. So I’m leaving. I have a week left of my service, and you can follow all the damned rules ye like. Once that week is over, you’d better be ready, because I’ll be servicing ye.”
Her lips parted, and before she could say something that would fuck over all my good intentions, I walked out of her house.
Without my shirt.
My hands shook the entire drive home.
6
Annabelle
Saturday mornings were the only mornings I allowed myself to sleep past seven—a simple luxury I looked forward to each week.
I slipped my white cotton robe over my green silk shorts pajama set and poured myself a generous cup of coffee. The early morning sun shot golden rays through my kitchen window, illuminating the counters in a relaxing glow.
A warm shiver raced down my spine, the red-hot memory of Connell’s hands sliding up my skirts, his fingers coaxing my body to the edge of pleasure, his kiss pushing me over with sweet tendrils of ecstasy. I blew out a breath, heat pooling between my thighs at just the thought.
Then my heart swelled—he’d left. For me. Because he knew me. Knew I’d been ready to invite him into my bed and that I’d regret it. Because he still worked for me, and I wouldn’t dare be accused of taking advantage of him. And yet, he’d made me shatter for him with the mere use of his fingers. He truly held the power.
Taking a steadying breath, I settled at my kitchen table, today’s paper open and ready for devouring. Work far from my mind, my muscles relaxed as I sank into my routine. Normally, I’d dive straight into the local news section, but lord help me, I fanned through the pages right to the sports section. I sighed, shoulders sinking—the feature story centered around Reaper Cannon Price and how he’d cooled his bad-boy antics for over two weeks, a feat in the press’s opinion.
It’s not that I’d wanted the press to intrude on Connell’s life, but I couldn’t help my desire for…more.
And more is what he’d given me at my barbecue.
A warmth fluttered in my core again, and I couldn’t stop thinking about his hands, his lips, his smell. Sweet mercy, I wanted to drown in that man.
We’d kept our distance for the last six days as the construction finished up on the bare bones of the reserve, but I couldn’t tell if it was out of a sense of self-preservation, or if he’d had the regrets he’d tried to save me from having.
Don’t go down this road.
Right.
We weren’t in a relationship or...any type of ship, really. Besides, he was an NHL star. Traveled more than he stayed put. Pranked more than he took things seriously. And he…
Made me feel alive.
Awake.
Desired and vibrant and I’d never laughed like I did with him.
He’s temporary.
True. I knew Connell’s interest in me was a temporary thing, a curiosity he wanted to satisfy before returning to his one and only true love—hockey. And I couldn’t blame him. I loved my job as well, had found it to be my passion in life. I never knew another living soul could match that passion, set it ablaze, and burn brighter than the sun, though. Not like Connell had.
I took another sip of my coffee, letting the hot liquid soothe my mind of its churning.
A low, deep cooing-like sound hummed from my backyard, stopping me mid-second-sip.
I set down my mug, pushing back from the table, my brow furrowed. Had an animal gotten trapped in my yard again? Last summer, I had the unfortunate experience of finding a large skunk pacing the lining of my fence—clearly, the poor creature had forgotten how he’d managed to get into my yard in order to get out of it again. Luckily, I knew the best humane animal control man in Sweet Water, who came in minutes to handle it.
I grabbed my cell from the kitchen counter on the way to my back patio, just in case I had to make the same call again.
Again, that deep, nearly muted cooing sounded as I slid open my sliding glass door and stepped onto my back patio.
My phone slipped from my grasp, clattering against the navy-blue rug covering my patio.
“What in the world?” I gasped as I stared at not one or two but four fully grown ostriches.
In. My. Back. Yard.
Two of them had to be at least seven feet tall, the other two not far behind. Each was gorgeous in its own right, their black feathers inky in the morning sun.
But…they were in my backyard.
I slowly knelt, scooping up my phone. I skipped my humane animal guy’s number and dialed the one and only number that would make sense of this…situation.
“Morning,” Connell answered after one ring. “I thought I might be hearing from—”
“Get. Over. Here. Now,” I whispered into the phone, my heart racing as I watched the giant creatures strut this way and that, mere feet away from me.
“I’m already almost there,” he said, a laugh in his tone. “I thought you said you sleep in on Saturdays?”
“I do,” I whispered. “I did.”
“Seven-thirty is sleeping in to you?”
“Connell MacDhuibh,” I whisper-hissed.
“Oh no,” he said, and I could hear a car rumbling down my street. “Full name? I’m in trouble.”
“You have no idea.”
“I’m here.” The line went dead, but I heard a car door open and shut.
The sound triggered one of the larger ostriches because he went from mildly strutting to full out running.
At me.
I yelped and dashed out of the way just before he would’ve plowed me over. Squealing, I kept running the second I realized he wasn’t the least bit deterred by my attempt at escape.
The other three ruffled their feathers, but remained huddled in the corner of my backyard, near where my marigolds were in full bloom.
The grass was cold and wet against my bare feet, the morning’s condensation doing nothing to help me gain traction. Desperately, I tried to circle back, hoping to zoom back inside my house to safety, but the damn bird was clever and blocked my every attempt. All the while he rumbled that odd, throaty sound and fluffed his feathers at me.
Laughter echoed in the distance, and I spared a glance to find Connell outside my fence, his phone pointed at me.
“Connell!” I yelled, dodging the bird by only an inch.
“Uh oh,” he said, pocketing his phone at the clear desperation in my voice.
He hopped the fence in one leap, made it two me in a few strides, and then…
I was over his shoulder.
And we were back over the fence in no time flat.
Connell shifted me until he cradled me against his chest, his muscled arms warm against the bare skin of my legs. I clutched his neck, breathing rapidly from the chase.
“You all right?” He asked after I hadn’t made a move to unbury my face from his neck.
I finally pulled back, sighing as I realized the bird hadn’t followed us over the fence. He’d gone back to his strutting as if he already owned the entirety of my backyard. I wiggled against Connell, and he immediately set me on my feet.
I shoved against his hard chest, but the motion barely phased him.
“If you ever, ever post that video anywhere, I will kill you.”
Connell grinned. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said. “I know you hate to be embarrassed.”
“Embarrassed?” I snapped. “I was terrified!”
He pursed his lips in a faux-pout. “I thought you’d be excited.”
I raised my brows.
“I bought them for you…for your reserve.” He motioned to the exotic birds.
The tension in my shoulders dropped, and my lips parted as my heart swelled. “You bought them.” Adult ostriches were insanely expensive. Like... purchase a car expensive.
He nodded.
I opened and shut my mouth several times.
“Why?”
He stepped closer to me, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. “It’s important to you.”
I glared up at him, gently punching his hard stomach. “This doesn’t get you out of your community hours, you know. You still have four days.”
A deep, glorious laugh tumbled from his lips, the sound so delicious, so infectious. I had to join in.
“I honestly thought I’d beat you over here,” he said. “I never dreamed you’d wake up so early on your day off. Forgive me?” he asked, the picture of pure innocence on his face.
I glanced back at the gorgeous birds, finally realizing what their presence meant.
My reserve would happen.
I’d bring back the glory of the ostrich to Sweet Water, with Connell’s help.
I turned back to him and smiled before throwing my arms around his neck.
Connell caught me easily, my feet hovering off the ground.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I squeezed him hard, happy tears coating my eyes. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”
His arms held me to him, his mouth at my ear. “I have a feeling I do.”
I relaxed my hold on him, leaning back enough to meet his gaze, a weight in my chest. “I’ll never be able to repay you for this,” I said, the feeling sinking like a stone in my stomach. I wouldn’t. Ever. Never in my lifetime would I make enough money to pay him back. Just another vast difference in the lives we led.
He cocked an eyebrow at me, a chiding look in his eyes. “This is a gift,” he said. “An investment, actually. In the town I live in.”
I smiled softly.
“Someone told me that bringing these birds back would put Sweet Water on the map again, and since I’m a loyal citizen of Sweet Water, I’ll be damned if I don’t do my part.”
I melted. Completely. Entirely. Melted.
He continued to hold me there, no hint of him wanting to let me go as I stared into those mischievous, wonderful blue eyes.
That rumbling sound happened again behind us, louder and longer this time.
“What…are they doing?” Connell asked and turned us so I could see.
One of the larger birds was making the sound and flapping his wings in wave-like motions while one of the smaller birds bobbed its head up and down while kneeling on the ground.
My mouth dropped.
“Sweet tea on a hot day, Connell,” I said, eyes snapping back to Connell’s. “Did you get breeding birds?”
Connell sucked his teeth. “Eh, the breeder I purchased them from might’ve said something about a female in heat.”
I gaped at him, then at the birds, and back to him.
“Sorry?” He flashed me an honestly apologetic look. “I can call him back, see if we can—”
A laugh burst from my chest, cutting off his words.
Connell joined me, setting me back on my feet.
“They’re perfect,” I said once I could breathe again. “Now come on,” I said, motioning for him to follow me around to the front of my house.
“Inviting me in, are you?” He asked, trailing behind me.
“Not like that,” I said, a slight tease in my voice as I ushered him inside. “You and I have to find a corn supplier fast.”
“Corn?”
“Can’t have my birds starving, now can we?” I grinned at him.
“No, we can’t have that,” he said, his eyes trailing my short cotton robe as he followed me into the kitchen.
“Right,” I said, eyeing my lazy morning attire. “You get to Googling,” I said, situating him at my kitchen table. “Help yourself to coffee. I’ll go change.” I spun on my bare feet, prepared to bolt upstairs, but Connell gently caught my wrist, stopping me.
“I think you look perfect,” he said, and I swear my heart leaped for him, for the honesty in his words, his eyes.
I stood there, highly contemplating jumping the man right then and there in my kitchen, but I heard that deep cooing outside and came right back to reality. “I’ll be right back,” I said, flashing him a look of deep thanks.
He released me, winked, and then fished out his cell, fingers flying.
Once inside the safety of my room, I debated taking an ice-cold shower before getting dressed. Because sweet mercy Connell was doing everything in his power to set every inch of me on fire.
And I’d never felt a burn so sweet.
7
Connell
I ran a towel over my hair then threw it into the laundry basket on my way downstairs. As a Thursday night in the offseason went, it was all pretty normal. Workout done. Shower done. All there was left to do was make myself something to eat and relax.
But it wasn’t really a typical Thursday, seeing that I’d finished my community service hours today. With the Saturday I’d put in about four weeks back, I’d completed all six weeks, and now I was...what? Free? It was the weirdest feeling, as though I’d adjusted to a normal life and a normal job in the short six weeks it had taken me to work off the ire of Sweet Water.
Well, that and the eleven thousand dollar check it had taken to repair the pedestal and carve the names of the first race winners back into it.
Last week, I would have been showering for a whole other reason. I would have been on my way to Annabelle’s to ask her out for real. But she’d avoided me at all costs this week, going so far as leaving me a list of tasks to work on every day and then making herself scarce. She was either embarrassed over what had happened in her kitchen or pissed for the same reason. But that didn’t add up to the small smiles she’d give me when we ran into each other at the reserve, so I was at a complete loss.
It wasn’t like I had a lot of experience pursuing a woman.
The hardwood was cool but not cold on my bare feet as I came down the stairs and headed for the kitchen. Nothing was cold in August down here.
The doorbell rang, and I changed mid-course, turning to answer it. I was fully prepared to tell Logan that I didn’t want to hang out with him and his social media savvy girlfriend as I opened the heavy door, but it wasn’t Logan.
It was Annabelle, holding a frosted cake on a crystal cake stand.
Her hair fell in a riot of dark curls down her shoulders, and she wore a white sundress that showed off just how much her skin loved the sun. Her lips were glossed pink, and her eyes were locked on mine with almost an air of...panic?
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing? Why?” She tilted her head in question.
“Because ye look like you did after Arnie chased you across your yard. Like you’re not quite over the scare.” Not that I would have been too. That wee beastie took us three hours to get him out of her yard so we could transport him to the reserve.
“Oh, really? Sorry. And you know Arnie didn’t mean to scare me. He was just having fun.” A corner of her mouth lifted.
“Right. Ye should have named him Lucifer. I have that video if ye need to be reminded of his lack of manners.”
Pink crept up her cheeks. “Sweet merciful heavens, no. I never want to see that video! Delete it already!”
That was never going to happen. Mostly because she’d had an incredible smile before Arnie had decided to chase her out. “So then what has you flustered, lass?”
“Well, to start with, this cake is kind of heavy.” She nodded toward the confection.
“Och, sorry. My manners are as bad as Arnie’s. Give that over and get in here.” I took the cake from her and stepped back so she could come in.
“Thank you,” she muttered as she stepped through the threshold, already glancing about my house.<
br />
“I’m the one to say thank ye. Ye brought me a cake?” I walked past her, taking the bit of sugar to the kitchen.
“I made it,” she answered, her eyes darting this way and that as she looked over the pictures that lined my walls.
“Ye made it?” I looked at it with a whole new appreciation as I set it carefully on the gray granite counter.
“Yep. It’s lemon and raspberry. Nothing big, just something I whipped up after work.” She leaned forward, examining a picture.
“Lass, it’s only eight o’clock. You made that in three hours?” What other hidden talents did the woman have?
“It only took about two,” she said with a shrug. “Is this your mom?”
I joined her at the wall that ran the length of the hall from the entry to the family room and took a closer look at which picture she’d taken an interest in.
“Aye,” I answered with a smile. “That’s the summer before I graduated college.” The summer we’d taken a few weeks in the highlands so I could get to know my new siblings.
“She’s beautiful.”
“She is.”
“Everyone is so...happy,” she mused as she walked down the hall with slow steps, looking at all the pictures.
“Well, I wasn’t going to hang pictures of sad friends.” I laughed, and she rolled her eyes.
“I’m not sure you have sad friends. It’s like you either attract happy people or you make the people around you happy.” She paused at another photo. “When is this?”
“Last fall. It was our first month of practice.” I grinned at the shot, where Axel was full cringe as a bucket of ice water fell on him from where I’d set it on the locker room door. Lukas, Logan, Hudson, and Nathan were all open mouth in shock and laughter. Even Cannon had deigned to smirk. “It was the first time I felt like I’d found a team where I belonged. Not that I didn’t love Miami, but we were a team of skaters there. Here, we’re more like a family.”
“Wasn’t he mad at you?”
“Axel? No. He cursed at me and then got me back with itching powder in my pads. Fucker ruined about five hundred bucks in gear, but damn if it wasn’t funny—looking back, of course.” I shrugged.
Connell (Carolina Reapers Book 3) Page 7
