by Orla Bailey
Back at the family home, I dress casually, admiring the landscaped gardens from the back of the house and head downstairs in search of the others. Jack’s mother is in the kitchen carrying a basket of warm bread rolls and a jug of orange juice. She appears none the worse for her night either. I name it the Keogh Effect.
“Let me help you with those, Mrs Keogh.” I take the heavy jug from her hand and follow her.
“Would you listen to yourself? You’re family now. You call me Fi, pet. We’re outside in the sunshine having breakfast on the terrace. And I didn’t thank you for those marvellous blooms. They’re beautiful.”
“You’re so welcome. Jack chose them. He has good taste.”
Fionnoula stops, turns and strokes her free hand down my cheek. “He certainly does, darlin’ girl,” she tells me, warmly.
“Thank you for having me to stay in your lovely home.”
“We’re delighted to have Jack’s fiancée here.” Fionnoula’s genuine smile makes me feel truly welcome.
Everyone is already seated around a huge table laden with all manner of foods. The men stand when I approach which makes me feel like a princess.
“Please don’t get up.”
They sit down again except for Jack who shows me to the seat beside his and holds it while I settle.
“A gentleman always stands when a lady enters the room, in my household,” Liam announces from the head of the table.
Despite one questionably suggestive expression from Jack, and a kick under the table from me, Jack and I give each other heartfelt smiles. It’s lovely to know he was raised with traditional family values. Even if the second generation are hell-bent on subverting them.
“Did you have a good night?” Jack asks. The look of devilment on his face tells me exactly what he’s implying.
“Nothing disturbed my expectations.” We converse in code.
“Likewise. In my parent’s home I’m guaranteed a perfectly uninterrupted night’s sleep.”
I catch a couple of the younger members of the family glancing our way. I expect his sharp-minded siblings know exactly what we’re discussing, coded or otherwise.
He passes me the bacon and eggs his mother has piled onto a plate for me. “Load up. We have a busy day ahead of us.”
“Doing what?” I wonder what Jack does for fun when he’s home in Ireland.
“We’re going zip-wiring this morning. There’s a place in the forest not too far from here.”
“I’ve never tried that before.” I hope I won’t think twice about it when I’m halfway up a conifer. “Are we all going?”
Everyone is highly enthusiastic. They’re an active family. Aoife’s baby gurgles happily in his high-chair between his mother and grandmother, who fusses over him non-stop.
Fionnoula looks up from passing food around the table and making sure everyone is well fed. “Zipping on wires, indeed. You’ll not be getting me on any trunk.”
Diarmuid tries to persuade her but it’s all an act. I begin to notice when she digs her heels in there’s no moving her. I glance at Jack. Does he get his stubborn streak from his mother? I already think I know what trait he’s inherited from his father.
“And just what are you looking so amused about, kitten?”
I nearly choke but recover quickly. “Wondering what you’re planning on doing to me after lunch?” I don’t think that came out quite right but Jack schools his look of incredulity. Everything with this lot is innuendo. “Only joking. Zip-wiring sounds quite energetic enough.”
Not for this lot, though. Jack’s face is deadly serious. “A spot of white-water rafting. We’ve got great fast water here in Ireland and if we can get all of us into one big raft, it’ll be a blast.”
“For God’s sake, Liam, talk some sense into your eldest.”
Jack’s father puts down his newspaper and looks around the table contentedly at his extended family. “Now, now, Fi, our children have the sense of adventure, like their father. You can’t restrict it.”
Fionnoula scoffs at her husband then glares straight at Jack so I gather the whole thing is his idea. “Don’t drown anyone.”
He laughs. “I’ll try my best to return home with the same number I left with.”
“As long as they’re the same individuals too,” I jest.
Everyone’s eyes spin in my direction and they laugh.
“That girl of yours, Jack,” Con says. “She’ll fit in round here just fine.” He stuffs a hunk of toast into his mouth and chomps.
“Thanks,” I tell him, pleased to be so readily accepted.
“If I lose one, I’ll make sure it’s only Con.” Jack glances up at Darla. “Sorry, D, but I’ll find a replacement, I promise.”
“Make sure he’s as good with his hands.”
“Darla Keogh! You’re at the breakfast table. Outside. Where the neighbours can hear us.”
“Sorry, Fi,” Darla says, looking anything but.
Everyone suddenly finds their plate very interesting as shoulders shake and eating noises grow very animal-like. I hear someone whisper the word eejit.
We head off in two SUVs, driven by Jack and Con. I love listening to the easy banter that flies back and forth as we drive along but wonder if I’m ever going to get Jack to myself for the rest of the day. Family life definitely means sharing almost everything.
“When you said dirty weekend,” I jokingly whisper, getting in the spirit, “I didn’t think you meant I’d be spending it on farms, up trees and in rivers.” I decide to enjoy the trip, get to know his world and just see what happens.
“Last night not filthy enough for you? I’ll have to see what I can do to rectify that.”
It’s a relief to feel so free yet so secure. I never understood the safety net of having a large family who loves you, before. It makes me pleased to be part of Jack’s world more than ever.
In a few hours we go off road. While the others, who are clearly experienced at this sort of stuff make their first zip-wire run, Jack stays behind and patiently gets me harnessed up while he explains how everything works.
“You look cute in a hard hat,” he says, rapping it twice with his knuckles.
“You say the nicest things. Actually, I feel a dork but you look cute in a family.”
“That’s my girl. You have to roll with the punches when you’re around my guys.”
“I happen to like your guys.”
“All of them?” His blue eyes gleam.
“There’s one I’m still not too sure about…” I catch the tip of my tongue between my teeth. Jack leans over and sucks it into his mouth. I feel the charge run straight up my spine.
“What can I do to persuade you to change your mind about him?”
“I’ll let you know later. If he makes sure I walk away from this, alive.”
“Nervous?”
My legs are shaking. I nod.
“Want to make the first run together?”
“Yes please.” My heart pounds. “It looks easy until you have to step off the platform.” Stupidly, I glance down through the tree canopy to the ground far below me, which seems to rush up to meet me and recede again. I cling to an amused Jack, wondering at the speed the others took off at, screaming and whooping in delight.
He attaches our lines together and nudges me to the edge of the void. “I want all your excitement to be with me.” He launches before I have a chance to change my mind.
I scream all the way down as Jack laughs his head off.
When we finally land and are standing safely on the next platform, my legs have turned to jelly.
“Wasn’t that the most amazing thing you’ve ever done?” His excitement is infectious. I suppose a great CEO needs to be an adrenaline junkie too.
I look up at him, delighting in his joy. “Second most amazing thing.”
He stills. Lust flares in his eyes. “Why do you always choose the most inconvenient moments to get me all throttled up?”
“Monkeys can manage all sorts of act
ivities up trees.”
“Oh, you are so flying solo for that one.” He organises my line to make the next run on my own while I wish I’d kept my mouth shut.
Just to even the score I place my hand discretely over his trousers as he works and caress him until he moans. “Perhaps I like living on the edge.” I take a deep breath, shut my eyes and launch just as he reaches out to me for more.
I scream all the way down again.
Jack follows but kicks his body upside down and swings towards me looking like a monkey and making monkey sounds until I’m weak with laughter.
By the time lunch-time arrives I’m starving and I’m hooked. I can’t get enough of that zip-wire. I’m also more aware of Jack’s place in the family as oldest sibling. The others naturally defer to his easy authority and he assumes the lead readily. All without imposing his will to the detriment of anyone else’s.
They want to follow him and listen to him because they trust him completely. It’s a sobering lesson for me about my earlier lack of trust. Perhaps families are where you learn to trust, too. Jack is a good man who cares deeply about those he loves and I’m the luckiest woman alive that he loves me.
We eat lunch in a great restaurant which Jack booked earlier. In spite of being a busy boss, he’s micro managed the entire weekend and I wonder what else he has in store. Everyone sits around discussing previous experiences of white-water rafting, concentrating on the horrific until I begin to feel a little bit sick with fear and definitely left out.
“Have you never tried it before, Tabitha?” Eimear asks.
“Never.”
“So what do you do for fun?”
I look blank. What do I? Very little really. Work. Drink. For a woman my age I’ve hardly lived.
Jack comes to my rescue. “She likes to dance.”
I glance at him warily but he’s smiling. Sort of. The last time I went dancing, I ended up with Luc, in Brittany, which led to all sorts of trouble. But it seems he’s understood. I simply like to dance.
Jack continues to sing my praises. “You should hear her play the violin. She’s a fantastic musician.”
“What can you play?” Aiden asks.
I shrug. “Anything.” Jack nods his agreement.
They all look at each other. “Let’s go to a shindig, tonight.”
“Ceilidh.”
“Music bar.”
They seem to come to some agreement about the evening’s entertainment in few words.
“Have you all forgotten my girl’s shy?” Jack reminds them when I realise what they’ve got in store for me.
They turn to stare.
So I take a deep breath and step up to the plate. I have to get used to it sometime. I belong to a family now. “If it’ll provide incentive for Jack not to drown me this afternoon, I’ll do it. I can’t play the fiddle if I disappear over the side, can I?”
I’m slapped on the back heartily. “There you are then. Settled.”
Jack questions my impulsive decision with a raised eyebrow but I nod in agreement to their plans. How could I disappoint these guys? He smiles benignly. “This lot’d have you dancing a jig on the tables with your fiddle if you gave them half a chance.”
“Sure, but only after a few pints of the black stuff,” Diarmuid insists.
“The black stuff?” I enquire.
They all react to my complete ignorance. “Guinness,” Aoife explains, pulling a face.
“I’ll try anything once.”
“That’s how you ended up with Jack, I expect.”
“And look how lucky she got.” Jack’s arm drifts round my waist and he draws me close to his side. He kisses me as his family cheer him on until my face grows red hot with embarrassment. His family are certain to cure me of shyness, if anyone can.
We get kitted out for rafting too but life-preservers do nothing for my confidence. If I found zip-wiring scary, this is something else. The rest of them take it in their stride and I tell myself I’m fortunate to be in a raft with so many strong capable hands. Mine, cling on for dear life.
I don’t need to go over the side to get half-drowned, it seems; the water seeks me out inside the raft. By the time we reach the bottom of the first run of the rapids, I feel like someone has tossed a dozen buckets of cold water straight over my head. And I love it. We’re all on an absolute high by the time we call it a day and I finally understand the meaning of adrenaline rush.
We pour back into the house making enough noise to wake the dead.
“All back present and accounted for, as requested,” Jack announces. “And we no longer have an extreme sports virgin in our midst.” He waggles his eyebrows at me as I cringe.
“Jack Keogh! Watch that language.” Fi emerges carrying Aoife’s baby. “There are ladies present.”
All the guys look around them trying to see if they can spot any, but I’ve started to anticipate their behaviour already. I’m thumping a laughing Jack in outrage, as heartily as all the other girls are walloping their guys for the insult.
We travel upstairs to prepare for dinner. I’m exhausted but in a truly spectacular way.
Hot water works magic for my aching muscles. I suspect they’re knotted more from holding myself ramrod straight in fear while I screamed rather than from any workload they’ve endured. I laugh at all the happy memories.
“Having fun without me, kitten?” Jack steps naked into the steamy shower cubicle behind me. “That will have to stop.”
I gasp in surprise. “What if your mother finds out you’re here?”
“She won’t. Besides, you’re going to be my wife.”
I smirk up at him. “Yes, I am, aren’t I? When?”
“Soon.” His mouth fits itself snugly to mine and urges me to open up for him. He suckles the lower swell of my lip, nipping and dragging his teeth gently over my flesh as I mould my body into his and blossom with arousal.
“I tried but I couldn’t wait any longer. I really can’t get enough of you.”
“I don’t want to have to wait for you any longer, either.”
He plants the flat of his palm on the slope of my lower back and presses my body hard against his, tilting his hips into mine. His erection pulses with need.
“Christ, Tabitha.” His hand reaches up and slams off the shower. He lifts and carries me through to the bedroom, dropping me onto my back on the bed and falling on top of me. I note his discarded clothing littering the floor.
His hand strokes firmly down my body, dipping questing fingers straight between my thighs to seek out my condition. I sense his impatience.
“You’re wet already.” His breathing sounds hard and shallow.
“I’ve been taking a shower.”
“Cute.” There’s no humour in his reply. Rather, his features stay taut with lust.
I laugh but he swallows it, closing in on me, his mouth pressing hard against mine. His mood is not for amusement but for action. Satisfaction. He claims me.
Like a floodgate opening we lose any pretence of damning the surge. We’re clawing, biting, pulling hair as if we wish to consume one another. I’m on top. Then he is. A writhing mass of liquid limbs flailing and grasping at whatever flesh they can possess. His arms twist round my hips lifting me to his need. My legs hook through his and hang on tight. We roll again and nearly topple off the edge of the bed. Jack heaves my body more securely beneath his.
His hands roughly push my thighs apart and I feel him nudging at me. He penetrates in one claiming lunge of ownership. I arch my back and my tight muscles give to take all of him with one hot groan of ecstasy.
He steals an erect nipple between his teeth and pulls hard. As my muscles shiver round his thrusting as I moan aloud in pleasure but he muffles my sounds by kissing me again, his tongue invading the hot cavern of my mouth. He pulls back and watches the effect in my eyes as he pounds into me hard, fast and more possessively than he’s ever done before.
“Don’t cry out.”
I shake my head. I’ll try not
to. Really try not to… but it’s so hard. He’s so hard.
“I might scream.”
“Screaming’s what got you into this mess in the first place. I’ve been thinking about doing this all day.”
I break then and come. He smothers my unrepentant sounds with his mouth as he thrusts again and shoots his jet of wanton heat inside me, biting back his own grunt of release. I rake my nails viciously down his back as my muscles contract and draw him up inside me while he groans long and low into my shoulder.
We ride the recovery together. This is the part I missed after phone sex. Jack to hold me. I’ll never need to miss him like that again. He withdraws so soon, I whimper. He scrabbles to get into his jeans and t-shirt then comes back to the bed to hug and kiss me affectionately.
“Next time, I’ll be gentler, I promise. My need for you is too fierce. You should never tease a gorilla up a tree.”
“I liked it. I’ve liked plenty about today.”
He smirks down at me. “I knew you’d like rafting.”
“Who says I liked that bit?” He gives me an incredulous stare. “Okay. I do. Because it’s wild.”
“Wild,” he repeats.
“Wild, like you, crazy Irish boy.”
“Crazy girl. I haven’t even started being wild with you, yet.”
He kisses me swiftly and heads to the door, opens it a crack and listens. “Hurry up and get dressed. My mother will kill you if she knows you’ve lured her precious son to your bedroom.”
I yank the pillow from under my head and fling it at him. He escapes laughing.
I’m the last one down to meet up with the family in the drawing room for drinks before dinner. Jack fetches me a vodka. Not neat. Not teasing the rim of the glass. But who cares? When Aoife brings the baby round to say goodnight before bedtime, she offers him to me to kiss, exactly the same as the others, as if she’s known me all her life.
I cuddle baby Liam and kiss his soft, warm little head. The trust he and his mother places in me brings tears to my eyes. I glance up to see Jack watching me intently. He offers me an encouraging smile as if he knows exactly what I might be feeling. I’m not even sure why it makes me want to weep. Perhaps it’s because I know this precious little child will never be alone or feel unloved growing up with this great family around him.
