by Mia Malone
Then I stopped breathing.
“What?”
“What, what?”
“I, um, what?”
That sounded pretty stupid, but it felt as if something was squeezing my throat together so tightly I couldn’t get anything else out.
“Jenny?”
“I can’t put stuff in your drawers,” I blurted out.
“Why?”
“We’ve been… it’s been a few days. And we’re not, you know.”
“We’re not what?” he asked, and I saw the muscle work on his cheek, but chose to ignore it, mostly because I was still stunned.
“Serious?” I asked.
“We’re totally fucking serious.”
“But I thought we were just –”
“Would I clear out drawers if I just wanted to sleep with you? And except for Annie and a stray cat that crept in when I forgot to close the back door, you’re the first female being who ever spent any time in my bed. Ever.”
I'd started breathing, but I stopped again.
“Gossip didn’t tell you that?” he asked with a small smirk.
“What are we doing, Paddy?” I asked quietly.
“What do you think we’re doing,” he retorted, and he sounded frustrated, but I got mad.
“I don’t know what we’re doing, Paddy. I wouldn’t ask if I did,” I snapped.
He stared at me for a beat, and then he smiled. I felt like hitting him in the face, but he pulled me close to his chest and held me there.
“Right. Okay. I’ll tell you what we are doing. We started this on a dumb fucking note, but all that changed the second I had my fingers between your legs.” His face softened, and he leaned in so close I couldn't see anything but him. “I thought you got that we're building something here. And the way I see it; if we're building something it means your clothes in some of the drawers and your shit in the bathroom.”
I felt like crying, but it would be pathetic, so I swallowed and whispered, “Okay.”
“Okay,” he confirmed but narrowed his eyes a little as if to gauge my mood. He apparently liked what he saw, because he smiled again. “When I say shit in the bathroom, I mean shampoo and make-up and shit. If you leave any used feminine products on display, we’re gonna have to talk.”
“What?”
“I know you helped Annie buy what she needed, babe, and I’m eternally grateful for it. You did however not share the benefits of using a waste bin.”
I started laughing, and he tried to fake annoyance, but his eyes gave him away.
“Fucking hated walking into that,” he muttered.
Oh, God. The thought of the discussions he would have had with his teenage daughter made me laugh even harder.
“So, Jenny. Do you want to go home and pack up some things?”
“Maybe we should slow things down?” I suggested.
I didn't want to change anything, but things were moving fast, and I really liked what he was saying about building something, but I didn't get it. A week ago, we'd been friends, and now he was… I didn't even know what he was.
“Why?” he asked, looking more curious than angry.
“I don't get it,” I said. “We've been friends forever, and then Doug says some stupid things, and then you suddenly have your hand in my panties. And now you're cleaning out drawers and talking about building something. And in the middle of that, Annie got assaulted, moved back and is now staying with Callum Ward at his cabin. I –”
“Thank fuck,” he interrupted emphatically.
“What?”
“I thought it was just me,” he said. “It feels like we’re on a roller coaster right now, doesn’t it?”
“Exactly. So, me putting some of my things here –”
“Is the right thing to do, Jenny.”
That had not been what I planned to say, and I huffed, but he kept talking.
“Things are changing, and I want them to, but they’re also not changing. We’ve always been friends, and you’ve always been there for Annie. We’ve always had fun together. So yeah, we’ve added the sex-part which is beyond fantastic the way I see it, but who we are is still there. You know me, Jenny. And I know you. Not the running marathons and waxing your pussy parts, and I’m sure there’s more, but I know who you are.”
I watched him in silence and thought about what he was saying, knowing he was right and seriously liking what he was saying, but still afraid to believe him. I’d thought we’d have a fling and I’d tried so hard to not think beyond that when it had just been a week since he barged into my kitchen all worked up about Doug Hanes.
“I like having it waxed,” I whispered, and tried to smile. “But sometimes I shave, and then there’s a stubble after a while. And sometimes I let it grow.”
His eyes darkened in a way that made me think he might like either of those options.
“Don’t make this into a joke,” he murmured.
“I'm afraid,” I heard myself whisper and could have slapped myself for saying it. “What if we mess this up?”
“I know,” he murmured and pulled me to my feet. “I promise you, baby-girl, we'll always be friends. Whatever happens, we'll always, always have that.”
I leaned my cheek on his chest and thought that yeah. He got me.
“Let’s do like this,” he said. “I’ll empty a couple of drawers in my bedroom, and another few in the bathroom. When you feel ready, you put your things there. Doesn’t have to be tomorrow, but you’ll know they’re there.”
“Okay,” I whispered into his flannel.
“Let’s lock up the house and go to bed.”
“It’s eight-thirty.”
“What I have planned will take some time,” he retorted, and a shiver went down my spine. When he went on, the shiver changed to a small tremble. “You go ahead. I want you naked on your belly in my bed. Be with you in a sec.”
“Okay,” I repeated, and he kissed me briefly before turning me toward the bedroom and giving me a gentle shove.
***
I was still on my belly, and Paddy was on top of me in a way that made it feel like he was all I could think of. He’d started by lighting a few candles. Then he murmured that I was supposed to relax and started touching me. It hadn’t been a massage, or not like any kind of massage I’d ever gotten. His fingers had trailed up and down my body, moving around but barely touching me as heat slowly built. My breath hitched when he blew softly along my spine, and I started to turn, but he stopped me.
“This is for you, Jen. Stay where you are and relax every muscle in your body. Just breathe with me and let it happen.”
Then he stretched out on top of me, holding his weight on his knees and elbows but still pressing me into the bed.
“Spread your legs a little,” he murmured into my ear. “That’s it,” he added, and I felt his hard cock against me. “We have all the time in the world, so just relax.”
Slowly he started rocking his hips, not coming inside but nudging my entrance, hitting the clit gently with every move. Murmuring sexy words and moving his mouth along my neck. And the heat kept building so slowly I felt like screaming with frustration. I wanted to spread my legs and beg him to take me, fast and hard.
“Keep breathing, Jenny,” he whispered, and the way his breaths slid over my ear sent shivers down my spine. “I can feel how wet you are, how you want me inside.”
His voice was hoarse and a little strained, and then he nudged my legs apart, just a little bit more, so on the next soft movement of his hips, he slid inside. The way he was positioned, he wasn't deep, and the way the tip of his cock was teasing my entrance made me whimper.
“Feel me, Jen,” he rasped. “I’m all around you.” He pushed a little further inside and kept rocking slowly. “Just relax and let it build, baby-girl.”
“Padraig,” I breathed, and felt his smile against my cheek.
“That’s right, Jenny,” he murmured. “That’s who’s holding you close. Sliding inside you. Making love to you.”
It felt like it went on forever and I lost track of everything except his warm body, the way he slowly moved in and out, and how we somehow breathed with the rhythm. I’d started whimpering, softly and quietly, with each breath, and he pushed deeper.
“Squeeze me, Jen,” he murmured. “Each time I pull out, hold me there with you sweet, warm pussy.”
I did, and it felt like I was slowly dragging him back in.
“Feels so good,” I moaned.
“Come for me, sweetheart.”
“Padraig…”
With that simple word, it rushed over me. It wasn’t the sharp, exquisite pleasure from when he took me hard and fast. It rolled over me in long waves, and it kept coming. All I could think about was him, and I whispered his name again.
“Oh, Jenny,” he groaned and moved just a little bit to push deeper. “It feels so good. You’re coming around me and it –”
He cut himself off, and I felt his cock jerk.
“Paddy,” I moaned because it was happening again, or perhaps it had never ended.
“Can’t hold back, Jenny. I’m gonna come.”
With a long, hoarse groan he planted himself deeper and came.
When our breaths were back to normal, and my pulse had slowed down again, he was still on top of me. Still inside me.
“Ah, Jenny,” he murmured. “Hard and fast is hot as hell, but this? That sweetness? Coming so hard it almost hurts, hearing you moan underneath me and feeling your pussy quiver around my cock until I can’t hold back, even a second… God, Jen. Better than anything.”
My insides quivered, and he pushed deeper inside.
“You like?” he murmured.
“Yeah, Padraig,” I murmured. “I like.”
I didn’t know what else to say when the only thing I felt was the love I’d held on to for so many years. I’d told myself it would never happen, that he didn’t want me and I should be content with what we had. And there he was, surrounding me, holding me and making love to me in ways I hadn’t known was even possible.
So, I didn’t know what to say, and I felt like crying.
I would have to tell him. Not yet because what we had right then was good too, and if I were going to risk it all by blurting out I'd been a ridiculous fool my whole life, I'd make sure I got some time with him first. If he didn't want everything I felt for him, then I'd have my memories to hold on to when whatever came after began.
Chapter Eleven
Padraig
He heard them as soon as he opened the door to the diner, and the thought of turning around and getting himself something else for lunch flew through his mind. Then he sighed, walked up to the counter and grinned at Mae who looked like she didn’t know if she should laugh or cry.
“How close are they to killing each other?” he asked.
She giggled so he assumed both his woman and daughter would be at his dinner table that evening and neither would stop breathing for any length of time just yet.
“Cal went back to calm them down.”
Paddy laughed loudly then.
“Brave,” he said with a grin. “BLT for me, Mae, and Gib’s on his way, so whatever's today's special for him.”
She looked at the door to the kitchen, sighed, and walked through it to give the order to one of the shouting women. Or possibly to Lee, if she had any self-preservation, Paddy thought.
“Jesus,” Cal grunted and sat down next to him.
“What are they fighting about?”
“Kale.”
Paddy blinked.
“Say again?”
“Annie wants to add a kale-smoothie to the menu.”
Oh, God.
“Yikes,” Paddy muttered, wondering what his daughter was thinking.
“Uh-huh,” Cal said and started eating.
Today’s special was apparently crispy fried chicken with mashed potatoes and a side of sweet corn. Cal cut into the chicken which seemed to be stuffed with ham and cheese, and he wondered if it was too late to change his order.
“Dad, she’s impossible,” Annie suddenly wailed in front of him.
Oh, shit. Cal bent deeper over his plate and kept eating, which seemed like a wise choice, except he didn’t have any food in front of him.
“Annie,” he said slowly.
“You would have a kale-smoothie, wouldn’t you?” she asked. “It’s healthy and you do yoga.”
How the hell did his yoga sessions relate to drinking what he assumed would be some kind of green slush?
“Sweetie, if you served me a kale-smoothie, I’d drink it,” he murmured and heard Cal chuckle around a huge forkful of potatoes. “I’d hate it, but I would drink it because you gave it to me.” He speared his daughter with a look he hoped would convey the message in the kindest possible way. “Not one single soul else would, but I’m your father, so I’d smile and pretend I liked it. Just like I ate those brownies when you were ten, even though I thought my teeth would pop right out of my mouth.”
She made a hoarse sound, but then she turned to Callum.
“You’d have one too, Cal, right?”
“Fuck, no,” Cal said with a grin.
“What?”
Cal just circled his hand over the plate in front of him and raised his brows.
“We have tourists coming in, and they'd love to have one,” Annie said.
“No, they won’t,” Cal said.
“Yes, they –”
“Excuse me,” a man two chairs away said apologetically. “I couldn’t help overhearing.”
The man had too clean and too expensive clothes to be even remotely local, so Paddy sighed and resigned himself to having to calm Jenny down. And to drink kale-smoothies.
“I’m from Boston,” the man shared. “We come to the area every year.”
Annie opened her mouth, and Cal had straightened, probably to defend his choice of food, but the man indicated the plate in front of him which had traces of mashed potatoes and a few stray pieces of corn on it.
“You’re cute as a button, my dear, but we don’t travel all the way from the east coast to have kale in any shape. And we come specifically to this place for the kind of food my grandmother used to make.”
Annie closed her mouth with a snap.
“I might order a smoothie if you had it on the menu,” the young man next to him said, but added quickly, “Not kale, though. Banana and strawberry? Vanilla bean? Mango perhaps?” He grinned at Annie, and said calmly, “I hate kale.”
Annie turned to look at Paddy, and he felt his mouth quiver but held back his laughter.
“I love you, sweetie,” he murmured. “Do you want me to check the status in the kitchen before you go back to apologize and reach some sort of compromise which does not involve kale?”
She sighed, gave Cal a look that told him the boy would hear about this later and walked away.
“Thanks,” Paddy said to the man. “That closed down what would have been a long and ugly argument a lot quicker than I could have hoped for.”
“My pleasure,” the man said, and grinned. “Kale,” he added and shook his head a little.
“They’ll compromise,” Paddy promised. “Jenny likes to experiment, but she also inherited this place from her grandmother, so she knows what works for the crowd here.”
“That she does,” the man agreed.
Lee came out with two plates at the same time as Gibson walked in and she was grinning.
“They killed each other?” Cal asked.
“They moved on,” Lee giggled. “They’re debating asparagus versus Jerusalem artichokes right now.”
“Jesus,” Gibson grunted. “What did I miss?”
“Kale,” Cal said.
“Ouch,” Gib said, sat down and looked at his plate. “Maybe we should send Annie back to New York?”
“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Cal countered.
There was no way they ever would, Paddy thought. Annie had been back a little more than a week, and he’d take being in the middle
of stupid fights in a heartbeat because what he suddenly had in his life was so damned beautiful he sometimes had to stop and remind himself it wasn’t a dream. His daughter was back in Wilhelmine, and from what she was saying, for good. Jenny was in his life, and the way they were together was just right. She still had a bag in the corner of his bedroom, though, and he didn't want to push her about it, so he hadn't asked.
He'd also been alone in his house the evening and night before, and he'd fucking hated it. Annie had told him he didn't need to have his daughter in his face around the clock, which he knew was mostly a thinly veiled excuse for her to spend the night with Cal. Then Jenny had told him she'd spend some time with Lee, and sleep at her place.
“You've in essence been a bachelor your whole life, Paddy,” she said when he protested. “You could use some alone time.”
He’d protested, she insisted, and he gave in, wondering if she was the one needing the alone time. The evening had been okay. He’d worked for a few hours, wondering again where the hell he’d find the time to hire an office manager, and then sat on the back porch with a beer. Joke had joined him and then Gibson and Mac. They’d talked and laughed, and it had been a nice evening, much like so many others like it had been.
His bed had felt like a damned wasteland, something he’d shared with Jenny in a text. She’d replied with a smiley, and he promptly spent thirty miserable minutes trying to figure out what that meant. Then he threw his phone on the floor and spent the night tossing and turning.
And there he was, staring at the opening to the kitchen like a moron, wondering why she didn’t come out to give him a kiss.
“Paddy,” Gibson murmured. “Do us all a favor.”
“What?”
“Go on back and tell Lee I need to talk to her, and Cal would like a word with Annie.”
“Why –”
When he saw the smirk on both Ward men's faces, he got why neither of them was moving.
“Exactly,” Gib grunted. “Get going.”
He felt like a fool, but it didn’t stop him from moving, and he kept walking into the kitchen even when both Lee and Annie clearly laughed at his expense. Jenny looked tired and unhappy.
