Marking Time

by Marie Force

  He captured her mouth in a searing kiss. Molding himself to her, he left no doubt in her mind about how badly he wanted her.

  “Aidan,” she gasped. “Stop. Not here.”

  He wrapped his arms around her so she couldn’t escape and kissed her again like she hadn’t said a word.

  “Where am I sleeping?” Clare asked when she managed to extricate herself from his kiss.

  Groaning with frustration, Aidan leaned his forehead against hers. “If a man could die of want, I’d be stone cold dead right now, do you hear me?”

  “Soon,” she said with a nervous giggle. “I promise. But not here.”

  He released a tortured sigh. “Okay, come on. You can have Erin’s room. My mother will be totally in love with you when she hears about this. But you already know that, don’t you?”

  Clare smiled. “What was it you once said? Once a mom, always a mom?”

  He gave her a gentle push into Erin’s old room. “Get some sleep, smart mouth. When I get you alone again, you’ll need to be well rested. Very well rested.”

  Clare shivered with anticipation. Despite the fears that still gnawed at her, she couldn’t wait.

  After a full day with the O’Malleys, Clare felt like she’d known them forever. She was halfway in love with Aidan’s father, who made her laugh until she cried as he plotted his escape from the hospital. When she sneaked him a Snicker’s bar from the hallway vending machine, she earned a permanent place in his fragile heart.

  Colin and Declan were friendly and courteous in the short amount of time she spent with them, and Erin was frazzled as she dashed in and out of the hospital whenever she could find someone to stay with her children. Brandon disappeared for much of the day, and Clare heard rumblings that led her to believe he had a problem with alcohol. The family was anxious about where he had gone.

  Colleen took Clare under her wing, sending the message to the rest of her boisterous family that Clare had been accepted by the only one who mattered. As Aidan predicted, Clare won Colleen over forever by insisting on separate bedrooms. The two women sat up talking long after Aidan went to bed.

  “I almost had a heart attack myself when Aidan walked in holding your hand,” Colleen confessed. “I’ve been waiting for years to see that again.”

  “It might’ve never happened if Dennis hadn’t gotten sick.”

  “Oh, I think you’re wrong. I see the way my boy looks at you. He’d have brought you here before much longer.”

  Clare smiled. “Maybe.”

  “He’s fragile, you know. Life hasn’t been kind to him.”

  “I wouldn’t describe him as fragile. At least I wouldn’t want him to hear us using that word.”

  “I wouldn’t be his mother if I didn’t ask you to be good to him.”

  “I love him, Colleen. You don’t have to ask me to be good to him. He makes it easy.”

  Colleen blinked back tears. “Thank you for saying exactly what I needed to hear,” she said in her lilting Irish brogue. “Let me ask you, has he sung for you?”

  “He sings?” Clare asked with amazement.

  “Beautifully, but not since everything happened with Sarah and the baby. It’s something else in him that seemed to die along with them. He used to play the piano, too. You’ve seen the piano in his house?”

  “Yes, but I never thought to ask him about it.”

  “It was Sarah’s. She played, too. When I realized he had a talent, I insisted he take piano lessons when he was a boy. He pretended to hate it so his brothers wouldn’t tease him, but I knew he didn’t really. I keep hoping he’ll find his way back to it again.”

  Clare shook her head. “There’s so much to him. It astounds me sometimes.”

  Colleen smiled in agreement. “I love all my children, but I have a special place in my heart for that boy.”

  “So do I,” Clare said, returning her smile.

  “I’m going up to bed. Can I get you anything?”

  Clare had been fed to the point of explosion earlier. “Not a thing. I’m going up soon, too.”

  “Good night, love.” Colleen hugged her and went upstairs.

  Clare listened to the house settle as she thought about Aidan. She loved him even more after seeing him with his family. He’d carried on a wicked banter with his brothers and sister, let his nieces and nephews crawl all over him, and had such genuine affection for his parents that it touched her heart. All combined, it painted a more complete picture of him for Clare.

  She was jolted out of her thoughts by a crash in the kitchen and got up to investigate.

  Brandon stumbled around in the dark.

  Clare flipped on the light, and he turned to her, startled.

  “Scared the shit out of me,” he slurred.

  Clare took a step back. She could smell him from across the room.

  He opened the fridge to get a beer.

  When Clare turned to leave the room, he lunged at her and grabbed her arm. “Don’t leave me to drink alone.”

  Clare tried to pull her arm out of his grip, but he tightened his hold on her.

  “Let go of me,” she said as her heart began to pound.

  “Too good for me?” He leered at her. “Saving it all for big brother?”

  “I said to let go of me, Brandon. Now. Before I scream my head off and wake up the whole house.”

  But instead of letting go, he backed her against the counter and held her prisoner with the weight of his body. “I’ll bet you’re a screamer. Does my brother make you scream?”

  Clare couldn’t breathe, and the dots floating in front of her eyes reminded her of the other time a man had held her captive. This could not be happening again. “Please,” she whispered. “Let me go.”

  She almost fell to the floor when Brandon suddenly released her as Aidan’s fist connected with his face.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Aidan gathered Clare into his arms. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

  Blood poured from Brandon’s nose.

  Colleen appeared at the kitchen door. “What’s going on?” She gasped when she saw Brandon on the floor covered in blood and Clare shaking in Aidan’s arms. “Aidan, take her upstairs,” Colleen said with a look of disgust for Brandon. “Now.”

  Aidan picked Clare up and carried her upstairs to his room.

  “God, Clare, I’m so sorry.” He curled around her on his bed.

  “I can’t stop shaking.”

  “I’m going to kill him.”

  “No.” Clare clung to him. “Don’t leave me.”

  “Never.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “You hit your brother. Because of me.”

  “He’s lucky that’s all I did to him. I’d kill him before I’d let him hurt you. You know that, don’t you? I don’t care who he is.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  Colleen came to the door. “How is she?”

  “How do you think she is?” Aidan was clearly trying to contain his rage. “He practically attacked her right there in the kitchen. He’s totally out of control, Mum.”

  “I know,” she said, her cheeks wet with tears. “Colin’s coming to get him.”

  “He needs help,” Aidan said.

  “Yes.” Colleen brushed the hair off Clare’s forehead. “I’m so sorry, love. That’s not our Brandon. We don’t know what’s happened to him lately. Are you all right?”

  “I will be,” Clare said as the trembling gave way to chills.

  “I want you to stay right there with her tonight, do you hear me, Aidan?”

  “You don’t have to tell me that, Mum.”

  “I’m sorry, Clare.” Colleen closed the door behind her when she left the room.

  Thinking about what might’ve happened if Aidan hadn’t shown up when he did, Clare began to cry. Five minutes of fear had brought back all the horror she thought she’d put behind her forever. But she refused to let it ruin what she had with Aidan. She wouldn’t be afraid of
him.

  “Please don’t cry, honey. I’m right here with you.” Aidan kissed her hair, her face, her neck. “I’m right here, and I love you. I’m so sorry.”

  When she could talk again, she looked up at him. “Aidan?”

  “What, honey?”

  “How did you know I needed you?”

  “I don’t know. Something woke me up, and I was downstairs before I knew it.”

  “I was so glad to see you.” She tilted her face up to kiss him. “I love you.”

  “I don’t ever want you to be afraid like that again.”

  “Kiss me, Aidan. I need you.”

  He crushed his lips to hers, and she kissed him back with everything she had.

  Aidan awoke at dawn and left Clare sleeping in his bed. Downstairs, he found his mother having a solitary cup of coffee in the kitchen. She seemed to have aged overnight.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  He pulled on his coat. “I’ve got something I need to take care of. Please don’t leave for the hospital until I get back. I don’t want Clare here alone.”

  “Aidan… What are you going to do?”

  “Something that should’ve been done a year ago.”

  On the way to Colin’s house, he worked on getting his rage under control. Of all the people Brandon could’ve pinned into a corner in a drunken stupor, why did it have to be Clare? And just when she was starting to make some progress in putting the past behind her. Aidan banged his sore hand on the steering wheel in frustration. His knuckles were black and blue from where he’d connected with his brother’s face.

  He walked into Colin’s house through a back door that was never locked. Colin had been the first of them to buy his own house, a six-room cottage with a view of Oyster Pond that had been falling down when he found it. Aidan didn’t stop on this morning to admire the gleaming hardwood floors or comfortable furnishings. He was a man on a mission.

  In the spare bedroom, he found Brandon sleeping facedown wearing the same clothes he’d had on yesterday. Aidan punched his brother in the ribs.

  “What the fuck?” Brandon said with a groan.

  “Get up.”

  “What do you want?”

  Aidan grabbed Brandon’s shirt. “Get on your feet. Right now.”

  Holding his head in his hands, Brandon slowly sat up to face his seething brother. “What crawled up your ass and died?”

  Taking in the double shiner and the crusted blood on his brother’s face, Aidan realized Brandon had no memory of what’d happened the night before.

  Colin came into the room.

  “He doesn’t remember,” Aidan said to Colin.

  “He never does.”

  “Remember what?” Brandon sounded like his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. He touched his nose and winced.

  Aidan grabbed his brother’s shirt and pulled him to his feet. “Let me give you an update, little brother. Last night you stumbled into Mum’s kitchen and backed the woman I love into a corner, where you scared her so badly that she shook for two hours afterward.”

  Brandon gasped. “What?”

  “It might also interest you to know that she’s already been raped once in her life, so I’ll see you or any man dead before that happens to her again, you got me?”

  “Jesus Christ,” Colin muttered.

  “Yeah, Jesus Christ is right.” Aidan released Brandon so suddenly he fell back onto the bed. “I want you to listen to me, because I’m only going to say this once. The only reason you’re not sitting in a jail cell right now is because you’re sick. You have until five o’clock this afternoon to check yourself into a program—nothing less than thirty days. If I hear you so much as lip off to those people while you’re there, I’ll see to it she presses charges, and I’ll happily testify against you. Am I clear?”

  “Yeah,” Brandon said in a strangled voice as tears filled his eyes. “I’m sorry, Aid.”

  “So am I. She’s the first woman who’s meant anything to me since Sarah died. Hell of a way to initiate her into the family.”

  Brandon shook with sobs. “I’m so sorry.”

  As tears coursed down his brother’s bruised, bloodied face, Aidan felt himself soften but only slightly. “Get some help, Brandon. This isn’t an idle threat I’m making.”

  “I’ll get him there,” Colin said. “I know of a place.”

  Surprised, Aidan glanced at him.

  “I’ve been looking into it.”

  Aidan turned back to Brandon, who was crying on the bed. “Since Da’s fine, I’m taking Clare and getting out of here today. But I’ll be checking to make sure you do what I’ve said. I won’t hesitate to call the cops.”

  “You won’t have to,” Brandon said.

  After a quick stop at the hospital to see Dennis, Aidan and Clare left Chatham.

  “He looks much better,” Clare said on the way out of town. “Your mother was delighted that he’s coming home later today.”

  Aidan grunted in agreement.

  “Are we back to that?”

  That got his attention. “What?”

  “Grunting.”

  “Did I grunt?”

  She nodded. “Are you okay?”

  “I will be. I’m sorry. This whole thing with Brandon has me really upset. I hope you’ll come back here again.”

  “Of course I will. He needs help, and you’re making sure he gets it. It’s over and done with. Can we move on? Please?”

  “I guess if you can, I can.”

  “I was wondering, are you in a big rush to get back to Stowe?”

  “I need to get back to work on your brother’s house, but otherwise, no. Why?”

  “Well, since we’re this close, would you mind if we went to Newport for a day or two? I’d like to see Maggie.”

  He looked over at her. “You know what? I’d love to go to Newport.”

  Part IV: About Face

  A one-hundred-and-eighty-degree change in direction.

  Chapter 28

  The morning after the blowup with Ashton, Kate’s eyes were gritty from crying. As Reid came out of the bathroom with a tie hanging loosely around the collar of his crisp white shirt, Kate lay in bed still feeling sick over the horrific scene.

  “I wish you didn’t have to work today.” Even though it was Saturday, he was due in the city for an important meeting with potential investors in his next Nashville development.

  “I’m hardly in the mood for this today. I’d cancel it if I could, but they’re coming in from out of state.”

  “Can you give me fifteen minutes?” She got out of bed. “I want to hitch a ride into town with you so I can do a few things at home.”

  He stood in front of the mirror to knot his tie. “Sure, baby, take your time. My meeting isn’t until ten.”

  She walked over to him, massaged his shoulders, and rested her face against his back. “Did you sleep at all?” she asked, wrapping her arms around him.

  He reached down for her hands. “Not really.”

  “Are you going to try to see Ashton today?”

  “He needs a day or two to cool off.”

  “What if he doesn’t cool off?”

  “He will. We’ve never had any problems between us. This’ll blow over.”

  “Maybe we should take a break for a while until he gets used to the idea.” Kate’s stomach knotted with anxiety at the very thought of being without Reid, even temporarily.

  He turned to her. “No. We have to stay strong together, or what’s the point? We’re out on a limb here. We have been since day one. I don’t want to be out there alone.”

  Kate wound her arms around his neck to draw him down to her. “You’re not. We’re in this together. If you were all I ever had, you’d be enough. That’s how much I love you.”

  “Me, too,” he said, kissing her as he ran his hands down her ribs.

  When he cupped her bottom to lift her to him, she tugged at his tie. “You said you have until ten?” she asked with a sl
y grin.

  “Uh-huh.” He leaned in to kiss her, but she dodged him. Groaning, he said, “What are you up to?”

  “Put me down.”

  He let her slide slowly down the front of him.

  With her eyes fixed on his, she unbuckled his belt.

  “Kate…”

  She freed his erection and urged him down onto the bed and knelt before him. Closing her hand around his throbbing shaft and running her tongue over the tip, she smiled at the groan that rumbled through him.

  He reached for her. “Baby, come here.”

  “In a minute.” She slid her tongue over the hard length of him before she took him deep into her mouth the way he liked it.

  “Oh, God, Kate.” He sighed. “God.”

  His obvious pleasure fueled her enthusiasm as she worked him over with her hand and mouth.

  “That’s enough,” he said through gritted teeth. “Kate, come on. Stop.”

  The excitement of yet another new experience kept her going until he moaned and came with a surge of his hips.

  “Christ almighty,” he whispered when she crawled up to rest on top of him.

  “Is that a good thing?”

  “Yes,” he said with a chuckle as he tightened his arms around her. “Definitely a good thing. You are the most amazing woman, and I love you so much.”

  Pleased with herself, Kate touched her lips to his and was startled when he suddenly flipped her over.

  “Your turn,” he said with a gleam in his eye.

  Reid drove like a race-car driver on the way into town. He took the Green Hills exit and looked over at her with an amused expression. “How did I go from being early to running late?”

  “Well, first I kissed you right here,” she said, reaching over to him.

  The car swerved. “Kate!” he gasped. “Quit that.”

  She laughed. “You’re so jumpy.”

  “Keep your hands to yourself,” he said as he pulled into the lot at her apartment complex and parked.

  “You don’t really want me to keep my hands to myself.” She ran her hand up his leg and nibbled on his ear. “I know better.”

  “Katherine, I’ve turned you into a regular sex fiend. I already let you have your way with me, and now I’m going to be hideously late.”