Irish Crown

by Nashoda Rose

  He grunted. “But I can rock your fuckin’ world, baby.”

  A rabble of butterflies fluttered and between my legs throbbed. Because he could. He did. “We should go.”

  “Mmm,” he murmured.

  We quickly said goodbye, and with his hand in mine, he led me outside to his bike. That was illegally parked. “Do you have an issue with legal parking spaces?”

  He laughed. “I believe in getting to you as fast as I can.”

  I snorted. “That’s bullshit, but a good answer.”

  He plopped a helmet on my head and adjusted the chin strap so it was snug. “Good?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” I was getting on a motorcycle and it was probably a stupid thing to do because I knew the danger of motorcycles. But Deaglan was Deaglan and he was super protective. He also had confidence in spades, which meant he didn’t need to show off.

  He undid a satchel on the side of his bike and pulled out a black leather jacket. “I don’t have anything for your legs, but this will help.”

  He helped me tug on the leather jacket, and it was obviously too big, but it covered my bare arms and offered padding and warmth for my upper body. He zipped it up.

  “Sexy as hell in my leather and helmet, Eva.”

  I laughed. “I feel like I have a bowling ball on my head.”

  He grinned. “If you like riding with me, I’ll get you a helmet.”

  My breath stilled because his words were as if he’d be here longer.

  He put on his helmet, then threw a leg over the seat and started the engine. It rumbled to life and settled into a deep purr.

  I was nervous, but it was overridden by excitement.

  He patted the seat behind him. “Hop on, baby.”

  I climbed on behind him and he pressed his hand to the small of my back, sliding me closer to him, so my pelvis was snug to his ass.

  Okay, I really liked being on a bike with him.

  And I felt as if I was tossing aside my safety net as the thrill of danger rose.

  I was so not a thrill-seeking person, but I could see why people did things that scared them. Why they pushed their boundaries. It was blood pumping and belly flipping.

  He showed me where to put my feet, and once my arms were tight around his waist, he eased onto the road.

  And Deaglan rode just as I expected him to, carefully. He was cautious taking the corners, and when we stopped at red lights, he put his hand on my thigh and checked in on me.

  It was sweet, and I loved that he did that.

  And I loved the vibration of the bike underneath me. The feel of the wind against my skin. The freedom of nothing between me and the road. Me and him.

  The bike slowed and he stopped. I glanced up at my house.

  He shut off the bike and I climbed off. “Why are we here?” I asked, frowning.

  He snagged my hand and drew me close to him, then he undid the chin strap of my helmet. “Eva, you own a house you don’t live in. And you love this house.” I did. I totally loved this house. “I saw it when you sat on your porch swing, pink and yellow pillows with little-beaded shit all over them surrounding you.”

  I scrunched my nose. “I love those pillows.”

  He chuckled. “I know you do. They’re all over your bed, too.” Deaglan gently removed my helmet and hung it on the handlebars. “That day I drove up here, you sat in that swing looking comfortable, proud and protective as hell about your territory.”

  I laughed. “You can’t be protective of a house.”

  “It means something to you. Your dad knows it, too.” He cupped my chin. “It’s more than a house, Eva. You’re building something. Every repair you make. Every new light that’s hung or damn fridge that’s installed, it’s you. You’re repairing, baby. You’re building you. And one day, you’ll help other women find the strength to build what’s in them.”

  I melted into a liquid pool of goo at his feet. Tears pooled in the rims of my eyes and my throat tightened. He was right. I didn’t know it until he said the words, but I felt it. When the fridge arrived. When the toilet was installed. When I finished sanding the bannister and painted the foyer.

  They were all building blocks to repairing myself. To finding my strength again.

  He lightly kissed my quivering lips. “I want to be part of that, Eva. And it’s time to get out of that shit rental. Your landlord is a fuckin’ dick.”

  My eyes widened. “You talked to my landlord?”

  “Yeah. Didn’t want you to deal with that asshole. And he’s an asshole, babe.”

  “I can’t stay here without running water, Deaglan. The pipes are old and made of lead so they all need replacing.”

  His warm hand linked with mine as he led me up the path to the door. The cobblestone path was the second feature that made me fall in love with this house. It meandered. It was wide in places, narrow in others. It was the imperfect perfection. And I couldn’t wait to plant pink and yellow tulip bulbs in the fall and watch them bloom next spring.

  “Keys?” he asked, holding out his hand.

  I dug through my purse and found the keys and handed them to Deaglan. He opened the door and the alarm Vic installed beeped. Deaglan pressed the four-digit code and the sound stopped.

  I lifted my brows because I had no idea he knew the code of this house, too. “I’ve decided Vic isn’t good at keeping secrets.”

  He smirked. “Your dad either.”

  My jaw dropped. “My dad? My dad told you the code?” I jolted. “Wait, you spoke to my dad? You have his phone number? You talk?”

  He didn’t say anything as he closed and locked the door, then reset the perimeter alarm.

  I tossed my purse on the floor in the foyer and he flicked on the light.

  “Do you want something to drink?” I asked, stepping toward the kitchen. “I have a fridge now.”

  Deaglan laughed as he snagged my hand and I yo-yoed backward into him. “Upstairs, baby.”

  “Upstairs? I don’t have anything up there yet.” He didn’t say anything as he herded me up the stairs in front of him.

  “Have you seen the showerhead? It’s really cool. Well, it will be when it’s working.”

  His arm hooked my waist and he leaned in, kissing my neck. “I’d love to see your showerhead, Eva.”

  Why that sounded sexual, I had no idea why, but it did, and my body quivered.

  “Okay,” I said.

  He trailed a path of kisses up my neck to my ear where he nibbled on the lobe.

  Tingles. Shudders. Goosebumps. Everywhere.

  At the top of the landing, I pointed to the right. “There are two bedrooms down there. And a washroom, but the washroom doesn’t look like one right now because there is nothing in it. I think it used to be a nursery, but I’m turning it into another bathroom for when guests stay over.”

  He didn’t say anything and I turned left toward my bedroom. The oak floors were worn, scraped and creaked, but I liked them that way because worn, scraped, and creaked said they were old, and had a story. It was one of the reasons I fell in love with this house.

  “My bedroom is in here—”

  My heart hit the roof of my mouth and my belly landed smack on the floor as I stared at my bedroom.

  “I… how…? Deaglan.”

  Words lodged in my throat as I stared at my furnished bedroom.

  My king-size bed sat near the window dressed with the green comforter and all my throw pillows from my bedroom at the other house.

  My antique dresser with the oval mirror stood across from it and there was a gray, fake fur rug on the floor at the end of the bed that I’d never seen before, but loved immediately.

  “I don’t understand.” I peered at Deaglan. “How… did you…? Oh my God, did you do this?”

  “I spoke to your dad. He met me here. The excavators and plumbers met us here, too. Vic and Tyler brought your bed and dresser over. Barstools are downstairs too for something to sit on until you get the movers organized. Ally swung by to put all tha
t frilly shit on your bed, because as much as it’s you and I like that you love it, I can’t put that shit on the bed how you like it.”

  Tears filled the rims of my eyes. “You spoke to my dad,” I repeated in a barely audible whisper as my eyes swung back to my bed. “Ally came by. Vic and Tyler.” Then, “That’s why you arrived late tonight?” A tear escaped and slid down my cheek. “You did this,” I whispered.

  He tucked strands of hair behind my ear. “I can’t give you all of me, Eva. But I’ll give you the best pieces I have.”

  My breath caught in my throat and another tear fell. He wiped that one away, too, before he bent and his lips claimed mine. It was gentle and sweet, but still, Deaglan in that moment when he kissed me, he kissed all of me.

  He trailed kisses down my neck and I ran my hands up his corded back, fingers weaving into his hair.

  “We can stay here? There’s running water?”

  He nibbled on my chin with a low, “Mmm.”

  “But they couldn’t replace the pipes for weeks.”

  He kissed either side of my mouth. “I’m persuasive, babe.”

  He did this. I couldn’t believe he did this, and my dad and Ally knew. Ally knew tonight when I saw her, and she never said anything.

  I looked up at Deaglan and I finally stepped off the cliff.

  I had no idea where it led, or when I’d land, but right now it was in the arms of Deaglan Kane.

  His hands cupped my butt as he picked me up off the floor and I wrapped my legs around his waist. We crashed into the wall, mouths starved as we entwined in a frenzy of need.

  Rough. Heated. Abandoned.

  His hand skimmed up my back and his fingers bunched in my hair, gripping tight as he kissed me.

  His groan vibrated against my mouth. “Eva. Christ. I can’t give you up.”

  My lips tingled and face burned from his stubble as I panted in his arms. “I don’t want you to, Deaglan.”

  “My past isn’t pretty, baby.”

  “But it made you into the man standing in front of me. And that’s the man I want.”

  “Fuck,” he rasped, before his mouth claimed mine again. “You on anything?”

  “Yeah.” I’d been on the pill since I was nineteen to control ovulation cramps.

  “You good with my bare cock inside you?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “I’m fucking you in every single room in this house, so our story is engraved in the walls.”

  Oh God.

  “But first, I’m going to take my sweet ass time and fuck you in your kickass bed with the frilly pink pillows under your ass.”

  “Okay.”

  He grinned before he picked me up in his arms and walked across the room to the bed. “Keep the heels on Eva.”

  I licked my lips as he lowered us. “Okay,” I whispered.

  He tossed me on the bed and I bounced twice before his hands were on me and my little black dress was off and on the floor. He stood at the end of the bed, and my heart fluttered.

  “Un-fuckin’-expected,” he said in a low raspy voice as he stared at me.

  But it was Deaglan Kane who was unexpected. And I was going to hold onto the unexpected for as long as we had together.

  I stood in the wooden box staring at the roaring crowd all around me. The smell of cigarette smoke and whiskey pungent in the air.

  I’d learned to block out the sounds.

  The slap of skin meeting skin. The crushing blow of bone and the spray of blood.

  The thump.

  That fuckin’ thump of a body hitting the floor.

  The cries. The screams. They were silenced here.

  “Okay, kid. You’re next.” A slap on the back. A kid? Was I a kid anymore? I didn’t know. I couldn’t see myself. I didn’t know who I was.

  The lid opened. The fake gems scattered to the cement floor and the crowd cheered and roared.

  I stared at the cage. My opponent salivating like a rabid dog as he waited for me.

  Blood dripped from his fists as his eyes gleamed with excitement.

  Hatred blurred survival. Survival crushed morals. Morals suffocated under revenge.

  I climbed out of the trunk and into the cage.

  They chanted my name. “Crown. Crown. Crown.”

  I stepped into the cage and the door clanged shut behind me.

  My eyes flew open. It took a second before the nightmare I’d had for years slowly faded into the dark corners of my mind.

  I tightened my hold on the soft warm body that was curled into me.

  Eva. I gazed down at her and the tension slowly eased from my body.

  This woman. Fuck. I didn’t deserve her. My past was stained with so much hatred and filth. And yet I couldn’t let her go.

  This wasn’t about just protecting her and it hadn’t been for a long time. Fuck, maybe I knew before I took her back to my place the first time. No, not maybe. I knew Eva was more and I took her anyway.

  She sighed in her sleep, her full lips parting slightly.

  I’d never had a relationship. Never wanted to settle with anyone. But more than that, I never wanted the attachment. To need anyone and yet, Eva… fuck. I had no choice in her. She was the hinge that opened the trunk and let me breathe.

  But my past was filled with more than a little boy wearing a crown hiding in a trunk. It was the boy seeking revenge. It was the teenager fighting to destroy. It was the man unable to find the silence.

  I carefully unwound my arms so as not to wake her and slid from bed. I snagged my jeans off the floor and tugged them on before padding barefoot across the room to the dresser. I grabbed my cell and quietly left the room.

  As I walked downstairs, I tapped on my phone then placed it to my ear. It rang five times before I heard it click and Ronan’s heavy breathing. “Fuck, bro, this better be good.”

  No doubt, he was with a chick. Cocky. Confident. And a famous football player was a lure for girls, and my brother took full advantage. “Need a favour.”

  “Shit,” he grumbled. “I hate your favours.”

  I put the phone on speaker and tossed it on the counter as I filled the coffee carafe with water. “I’ve never asked you for a favour, asshole.”

  “Yeah, that’s why I know I’m going to hate it,” he replied.

  Smartass. Ronan had been two when I moved in with the Kane’s. I was an angry, sarcastic and seriously fucked-up twelve-year-old. The kid immediately clung to me like a soothing blanket and I tried to push him away like I did everyone else, but it didn’t do any good. Ronan was a badger. Even when I came home bloody and bruised from fighting, he wasn’t scared of me.

  Instead, Ronan barreled right through my cement walls. It may have taken years, but he was the reason pieces of me remained intact and I was able to fight the path of destruction I’d been on.

  “I need you to do an interview,” I said.

  “Jesus Christ.” I heard the phone crackle as if he was pulling a shirt over his head. “Why the hell would you ask me to do that? You know I hate talking to the fuckin’ media whores.”

  I snorted. I didn’t know Eva’s friend Kendra very well, but I knew enough that she’d sock him one if she’d heard him say that and he’d deserve it. “And I need you to do it over here.”

  “You’re kidding. You want me to do an interview and fly there? No chance.”

  “Those charges were dropped,” I said. The charges that would’ve landed him in juvie and gotten him expelled from school, which would’ve ended his chances to make it in football. I called in a favor, or some might call it blackmail, with a dirty politician and the charges dropped.

  Silence then, “You’re really going there.”

  I scooped coffee granules into the basket. “Yeah. I am.”

  “It’s for her. This chick you’re fucking.”

  I didn’t like his word choice, but I didn’t call him out on it. “Yeah.” Kendra had every intention of flying to Ireland for the exclusive, but I wanted Ronan here so he cou
ld meet Eva.

  “Shit.” There was a bang like a door slamming, then a steady stream as if he was taking a piss, which no doubt he was. “My fist is in his face if he asks me about the charges.”

  I heard Eva walking down the stairs and picked up the phone taking it off speaker. “I’ll tell her it’s off limits.”

  “What? Her? It’s a fuckin’ chick? This better not be for some women’s magazine.”

  “Need to go. I’ll let you know when.” I pressed END.

  I peered over my shoulder at Eva as she padded into the kitchen looking cute as fuck wearing my gray shirt hanging mid-thigh, sleeves pushed up to the crook in her elbows.

  “Morning,” she said in a husky, sleepy voice.

  “Morning, babe.”

  She nodded to the new coffee maker. “You bought a new one?”

  I poured coffee into the two mugs I’d bought, along with the coffee maker, and then scooped half sugar into hers. The china sugar jar was the one from her rental house. I thought it meant something because she kept it, despite the chip in the lid, so I packed it with her frilly pillows.

  “Selfish reasons. I knew we’d want coffee and I didn’t want to go pick up coffee.”

  “My coffee maker at the rental works.”

  “Your coffee maker sucks, Eva. Half the time there are granules floating in the coffee. Its next stop is the bin.”

  When she reached me, she slid her arms around my waist from behind and tugged me in close, her cheek pressed against my back.

  My cock jerked. Fuck, I loved that she did that.

  It had been a long time since I allowed anyone besides Ronan to get close and I forgot what it felt like. I forgot how consuming it was. And, yeah, I sure as fuck forgot how dangerous, especially when I had my past knocking at my door and it put Eva at risk.

  She squeezed me. “Thank you. For everything last night.”

  I slowly turned in her arms and her hands settled on my chest. “Your mouth around my cock wearing those heels was fuckin’ perfection, babe.”

  But the truth was, all I needed was to see the expression on her face when she saw her bedroom.

  To see the spark in her eyes.