Mr. Match: The Boxed Set

by Delancey Stewart

  I froze, wondering if she'd just realized she'd made a mistake. I hoped not, I didn't have a bigger gesture up my sleeve than sheep and the pipes and my fierce little Mam. "Soph?"

  "His face," she said, pointing at me now. "He's wearing a different face!"

  "What—?" I had no idea what to make of this.

  "This is what Madame Anastasia was talking about!" She threw herself at me again, wrapping her arms around my waist and pressing her body into mine. I held her tight as my mind twirled around her words. I didn't know quite what she meant, but I knew for certain that I'd been right all along. Madame Anastasia was scary as hades.

  The crowd seemed to condense then, as I held Sophie in my arms in front of her little shop. After a moment, they began chanting, "Kiss, Kiss, Kiss," and we complied to the delight of everyone.

  The sheep remained penned in by the people around them, Mr. James watching them carefully as we had finished kissing and had begun talking to the people around us while the Sharks players signed autographs and took selfies with the crowd.

  "I got that one back on the bus," he said, but this gentleman here would like a word.

  A stern-faced policeman was at his back. "Who has the permit for this assembly?" The officer asked.

  "Hello, sir," Mam said, stepping forward. Sophie moved to the man's other side. "We're clearing this all out right now, Officer. I wonder though, have you ever tasted traditional Durnish Sticky Toffee Cake?" They walked him into the little bakery, and I watched, amazed at the strong Durnish women in my life.

  Soon, Mr. James had all the sheep back on the bus and the Sharks players had bid us goodbye, opting out of a second ride with livestock in close quarters. Before we got back on the bus, Mr. James asked if we might have a word inside the shop. The police officer had eaten cake until the sheep and most of the crowd were gone, and had agreed with Mam that maybe just a stern warning was in order this time. When he'd left, Mr. James looked between me and Sophie, my family standing just behind us. Anna had disappeared into the back of the bakery.

  "I doubt you expect I'm going to have a sudden change of heart and tell you all how wrong I've been," he began.

  "Not quite the apology I expected," Charlie said.

  "Well, it's been a lot of years," Mr. James said, his voice bitter. "But I will admit I was wrong about one thing. I shouldn't stand in the way of Sophie's wedding. I can see Hamish truly loves you, and for all the misery my life has held, I can assure you that the brightest moments were the ones filled with your mother Maggie, and her love for me. If you can have one ounce of the happiness we shared, you'll be blessed. And I won't stand in the way of that. You have my blessing."

  "Thank you," Sophie said softly, a tear running down her cheek.

  "I'm not a good father, and that probably won't change," Mr. James said, his voice still hard, but his eyes softer now.

  "Maybe we could just try to be friends, then," Sophie suggested, and my heart swelled at her ability to forgive, and to love. I squeezed her shoulder as she stepped close to her stepdad and pulled him into a hug. He was stiff and he looked uncomfortable, but Sophie hugged him tight and then released him. "Thank you," she said.

  We faced my family again, and Sophie looked at Mam. "Do we need to get back to finish the Feats?"

  Mam smiled. "We'll have to ask Mr. Peabody, but I'm guessing this has been feat enough to assure us all that this marriage will withstand the tests you face."

  "More cake and champagne?" Anna asked, coming out from the back with bottles in hand.

  Everyone seemed to like that idea, and soon we all had a glass in hand and the little shop was full of laughter and swelling with happiness.

  "Thank you for coming back for me, Hamish," Sophie said as we stood together in the corner of the bakery.

  I shook my head lightly. "I'll always come for you. I don't think I can live without you," I said.

  "Do you think you'd like to come over tonight? When this is all done here?" she asked, a hint of suggestion in her eye.

  There was only one right answer to that question. "How soon can we go?" I asked eagerly.

  "I just spoke to Da!" Charlie called out loudly, waving an arm to get everyone's attention. "He was at the Doom Line Conference, which is why he's not here."

  "We remember," Dane said, rolling his eyes. "What'd he say?"

  "I guess they're moving the line marker," Charlie said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Turns out putting it just outside the Wharfside Pub wasn't the best idea."

  "What do you mean?" Mam asked, worry creasing her face.

  Charlie chuckled. "The Line's been moving up and down for years, and everyone's been looking for a scientific explanation. Turns out the old-timers who come in on their boats after fishing all day have been having a bit of fun with us, shifting it up and down as they pass."

  "What?" Sophie said. "So is the sea rising or not?"

  "Aye, it is," Charlie said. "But at a slow and steady rate. Da says they've firmed up plans to move the town center to higher land in the next ten years, and resettle some of the folks in the low-lying areas. But Durnland's not going anywhere anytime soon."

  A cheer broke out in the bakery, and I went to make my excuses to Mam, who smiled knowingly as Sophie and I slipped away.

  Back at Sophie's place, I was suddenly nervous, the excessive stress of the last twenty-four hours finally pressing down on me like a ton of Durnish Salmon dropped from a net. My hands were sweating as we stepped inside, and I found it was hard for me to look at the woman I loved, the woman I wanted. What was wrong with me?

  "A drink?" Sophie asked, taking my hand and guiding me through the doorway and then swishing past me to the little kitchen.

  "Aye," I said, rubbing a hand across the back of my neck, wishing I was as gallant and self-assured as half the lads on my team seemed to be. "I don't know what's come over me really, I'm..."

  Sophie was bent over, reaching back into the refrigerator, her little round bottom aimed right at me. She paused and looked at me over one shoulder.

  The nerves evaporated, and so did the fatigue. Tension coiled in my stomach and I felt my heart rate tick up a notch.

  "Are you feeling all right, love?" she asked, straightening with two beers in her hand, her beautiful face frowning with concern.

  I pushed down the desire to take her roughly, pull her into me, let my body guide me where my mind was uncertain. There'd be time for that. Now that I had Sophie back, I'd make sure there was plenty of time for it. "Nay," I whispered, stepping nearer and accepting a beer from her small soft hand. "Everything's fine, lass."

  "You looked worried for a moment, or...?" She tilted her head, wrinkling her brows as she looked for the word.

  I took her hand and guided her toward the couch, pulling her onto my lap as I sat. She laughed, but didn't resist, and after a moment she was settled in the circle of my arms, her warm body close and soft and warm. "Nothing's wrong," I said. "But it's been a couple long days, and I think I'm only just realizing how close I came to losing everything I've ever wanted."

  She dropped my gaze and giggled, minimizing the statement, or trying to. "You've got soccer, you've got your family, the crown..."

  "I've only ever really wanted you," I told her. "And Soph, without you, none of it means a thing. You've got to know that."

  She looked at me again, narrowing her eyes before her expression cleared. "I like hearing you say it," she said, her voice slow and thoughtful. "And I'm getting accustomed to the idea that you might be telling the truth."

  "Might be?" I growled, tightening my grip on her waist.

  "Hamish," she said, leaning back to look at me. "You have to understand. I'm not like the women here, I knew that when I first arrived. And I thought that was just fine with me. But these last six years, since I saw you in that bar and thought that maybe they were closer to what you really wanted...it's been hard to accept. And I've spent those years coming to terms with who I am, who I'll always be—without you."

&nb
sp; "But you have me," I said, confusion coloring my voice, making it slower.

  "Yes," she agreed, smiling. "But it will take a little while for my mind to catch up, for me to really understand that what I saw all those years ago was a mirage of sorts."

  "Soph," I breathed. "You're all I want, all I've ever wanted. You're absolutely perfect." I put my beer bottle down on the table and took hers from her hand, putting it down next to mine. "I'll prove it to you. For the rest of my life if I have to." I began kissing along her neck then, working my way down around the v-line of her collar.

  Sophie leaned into me, her hands finding the back of my neck, playing in my hair. She met my mouth with hers and after moments that stretched and grew with my desire, I picked her up and lay her down on her back.

  My hands moved to her waist, pushing the hem of her shirt up as I traced velvet skin around the top of her skirt, bending my neck to kiss her navel. Sophie gasped and I felt the length in my kilt turning to steel as my limbs began to ache with wanting her. I let my hands slide up her soft sides, pushing the shirt with them, and Sophie pulled it off, her perfect chest heaving slightly as she lay beneath me, her breathing short and shallow.

  The simple pink bra she wore matched the tone of her skin, and I could have lived right there in that instant forever—Sophie looking up at me with darkening eyes as her breasts stood out just within my reach. I let my hands slide up to cup them, my body responding immediately as my palms filled with their round firmness.

  "Perfect," I breathed. "God, Soph. You're perfect."

  Sophie took one of my hands then, pulling me back to my feet, and guided me to her bed.

  Her eyes stayed on my face as her hands found the release on my kilt and went to work unfastening it. I stood, partially paralyzed. This was what I'd dreamed so many times. This was everything I'd wanted since that night before I'd boarded the plane and left. And it was happening.

  Sophie released my kilt and pushed it from me, gasping slightly as she bent down to find my gleeful penis, waiting eagerly for her attention.

  "Hamish," she said softly. "You're not wearing any shorts."

  "Nay," I managed, words escaping me as Sophie took me in her small firm hand. My knees threatened to buckle at her first touch and I let out a shuddering breath.

  I unfastened a button and then pulled my shirt off over my head, my hands throwing it aside and then reaching for Sophie like she was the air I needed to breath, the food I needed to survive.

  She kept a firm grasp on me, sliding her hand up and down as her other hand found my back, slipping down low to pull me near her.

  My hands cupped her perfect breasts again as I took her mouth, my lips and tongue devouring hers.

  I stepped back, forcing myself to break contact so I didn't embarrass myself, and I watched, fascinated as she stepped from her shoes and pushed off her skirt, standing before me in her panties, the rest of her skin aglow with the faint light coming in from the streetlight through the window.

  "This is about when you left last time," she said, giving me a fierce look.

  "I'm not going anywhere," I told her, trying to control my voice and keep it calm. "Ever."

  She put her hands on my shoulders and pushed me backwards, then climbed over me as I scooted up until I was laying against the pillows. She straddled me, and as she bent down to kiss me, her hair fell around us in teasing tendrils, and the heat of her center was throbbing where I was trapped against my stomach. It was the most delicious teasing I'd ever known, her eager tongue testing my own as heat flooded me, radiating from the soft core of her pressed against me.

  A soft groan escaped her, and the pressure against my length increased as Sophie began to move, grinding herself against me. My hands found the globes of her perfect ass and I pulled her down harder, needing every bit of contact I could get. It was a delicious torture, trapped as I was beneath the girl I'd wanted my whole life. I was seconds, maybe minutes, from every fantasy I'd ever had being realized, and part of me wondered if I'd actually survive the experience. Every cell in my body was a knife's edge. Every part of me was fire.

  After a moment that swelled and lengthened into years, but snapped tight like the blink of an eye, Sophie moved off of me, her absence like a cold wind shivering over my fevered skin. I rolled with her, helping her remove the silken panties she wore, and dropping them to the side of the bed as I leaned down into her, taking her mouth again as my hand explored her body. My knee opened over her legs, pinning her lightly beneath me and allowing me to feel her hip against me. And my hand traced a path from her breasts down her stomach, wrapping her curvy waist before slipping down to cup her heat, radiating against my palm.

  "Every inch of you is more perfect than I ever imagined," I told her, grasping for the words to tell her what this was to me, how it felt.

  Sophie responded with a soft cry as my fingers slid through her slickness, pulsing with the rhythm of our breath, our kiss, our hearts.

  When we were each panting, rolling into one another, she lifted her head to my ear. "If you want a condom, we can use one. But I'm on the pill and I'm clean."

  I pulled my head back to look at her, wanting to be sure I understood.

  "It's fine," she breathed. "And you said you haven't..."

  "Nay." I shuddered just at the thought of it, and when her hand found me again, stroking and gripping me until I thought that would be the end of it all, I moved to where she was guiding me. I positioned myself just at the heart of that heat, and let Sophie guide me, moving herself beneath me as I pressed little by little until I was surrounded by a devastating warm, wet heat that I thought might be heaven itself.

  "Jesus, Mary, and..."

  Sophie moaned beneath me, her arms pulling me in tighter, deeper, and for a long moment I just held myself still. I actually feared I might cry, the feeling was so overwhelming, but as Sophie began to move beneath me, it became something else, something like a climb.

  With each thrust, I felt the tension in my spine tighten, ratchet up into an impossible coil, and I began to worry what might happen when it released. I'd had plenty of orgasms in my life—every man has by the time he reaches a certain age, especially if he's never actually done the deed. But I'd never felt myself at the brink of this abyss, I'd never felt the world might explode or that I might scream out, unable to stop myself. I was going to lose control, and a kernel of fear mixed into the engulfing mad desire I felt.

  Sophie didn't stop, her body arching up into mine, driving me on as her voice lifted, saying my name softly.

  That's what did it finally, hearing her cry out my name, hearing her voice shift from soft and breathy to something more desperate, more urgent. I stared down at her as she unraveled, her eyes squeezed shut tight and the most delicious little "o" on her lips. Every part of her tightened around me—her arms, her legs, and the tight hot channel where I was buried, where I thought I might lose myself. And when I felt her contract and pulse, when Sophie cried out my name over and over, I let go and flung myself to meet her in the void.

  Bright light pulsed against my eyelids as my mind and body released as one. Years of tension flooded out of me, exploding and radiating in all directions. I worried I might be shouting, that somehow whatever was releasing would shatter the glass panes of the window, might shake loose something in the foundations of the building. But when the waves of incredible pleasure began to wane, fading to a gentle radiating comfort that left me breathless, shuddering as I held myself above the woman I loved, I realized we were still just us, the two of us atop her bed in her apartment. And the place appeared to be still intact, despite my belief that my release had shattered the world as I knew it.

  "Come here, love," Sophie said, pulling me down next to her. My arms were shaking as I'd tried to hold myself above her, to keep from crushing her, and I collapsed at her side now, unable to speak.

  Sophie stroked my face, tracing my lips with a fingertip. "Was it worth the wait?" she asked. But I could see in the glow of her eye
s that she already knew the answer.

  Chapter 113

  Brunching with Durns

  Hamish

  Since Sophie had technically taken time off for the Feats, we were able to stay in bed late Sunday morning, where I explored every inch of her body several more times. Now that this door had been opened, now that I'd done the thing all boys dream about since their earliest understanding of what that organ between their legs was meant for, I found I'd have been happy to spend most of my time doing exactly that.

  With Sophie.

  But truth be told, there was a whole family of Durns waiting for us at a hotel in Alpine, and Mam had invited Mrs. Fuerte and half the Sharks to come out for brunch.

  "Seems fitting," Sophie said, as I toweled her off after we'd spent a little time in the shower together once she'd finally talked me out of bed.

  "What does?" I wiped the drops of water from her pink shoulders, still marveling at how perfect she was, how lucky I was to be the man who got to see her, touch her.

  "That the Durns and the Sharks would end up together—your two worlds all at one table."

  "I wish Anna could have come," I told her, knowing how important Anna was to Sophie.

  She shrugged and smiled, slipping away from the towel I held to dress, but I saw a glint of sadness in her eyes. I put my kilt back on, watching her out of the corner of my eyes, and realizing something. As certainly as I knew anything in my life, I knew that I would spend every day doing everything in my power to make Sophie MacMartin happy, to banish that glint of sadness forever if I could.

  Sophie drove us back out to the lodge, and when we strolled into the massive dining room, hand in hand, the room erupted in cheers and shouts.

  "There they are!" called Charlie, rising from where he sat at one of many round tables scattered around the open sunlit room.

  We went to greet my brother, and spent the next half hour exchanging fond greetings, getting hugged and clapped on the back, and laughing. Erica and Fuerte sat with Mrs. Fuerte across from Mam, Penny and Charlie. At another table, Trace and Magalie sat with the Isleys, who were being subjected to whatever distillery talk James and Dane had decided to explore this morning, though they actually all looked quite happy. Magalie and Oscar sat with Mr. Peabody and Mr. James, along with Max, Erick Evans and Hoss. And just when we'd gotten a moment to pick up plates and find seats ourselves, Sophie made a little sound of surprise, her gaze on the doorway.