by Amy Olle
A stab of sympathy struck Mina in the breastbone. “There’s plenty of ice.” She looped her arm through Emily’s and led her from the ballroom.
Mina found an empty table on the patio and sank into a chair. Her feet screamed to be let out of the confining heels, but the mellow breeze and soft drone of contented partygoers went a long way to soothing her body’s aches.
A shadow fell across the table, and Mina peered up to find Shea filling the space in front of her, his shoulders blocking out the firelight from the torches lit around the patio’s perimeter.
Mina smiled and stood.
“The house is awesome. It’s like I stepped back in time.” A grin split his face. “A very rich, luxurious time.”
It was probably the nicest thing he could’ve said to her. Mina’s cheeks warmed with pleasure.
“Thanks for fitting us in for catering at the last minute. Your nachos are a universal favorite, by the way. I should’ve ordered twice the amount.”
Shea’s gentle laugh made him seem ten years younger. “I’m pretty sure they’re the perfect food. After pizza, of course.”
Their laughter died down, but he didn’t immediately turn to leave.
Awkwardly, she cleared her throat.
“Have you talked to him?”
Mina didn’t have to ask who “he” was.
“Only a couple of times. We text, mostly. It’s hard to get through, and with the time difference...” She stopped, knowing how lame her excuses sounded. “You?”
Shea shook his head, sniffed. “Nah.”
Mina folded her arms over her stomach. “Do you think he’ll come back?”
Shea scratched the bristle covering his square jaw. “Don’t know.”
Twin sighs drifted into the air between them.
“I was thinking,” Shea began. “Maybe, someone should go get him this time.”
The words struck her heart like a match to tinder. Her spine snapped straight, and her arms fell to her sides while her heart thumped painfully against her breastbone.
Maybe someone should go get him.
No one had tried to stop him. Not fifteen years ago, and not anytime in the last fourteen weeks.
No one had followed him. Not once, in all the years he’d been away, had anyone gone after him or tried to find him and bring him back.
She could. She could find him. She could tell him that she loved him—they all did—and they needed him to come home.
Yes. Yes! YES!
Her heart whirred with longing. Noah. He was the only one who’d ever truly known her, who she was, who she wasn’t, and who she wanted to be. She owed him this much, at least.
Doubt doused the flare of hope and she deflated a little. What if he said no? What if he didn’t want to come back? Or deal with her and all her baggage? What if—
Shea held out a small slip of paper.
With a curious glance, Mina took it and tilted it toward the light to peer down at the untidy, slanted handwriting. A phone number, the name of a business or, no, a hotel, with an address... She squinted... Clonbur?
“Fly into Shannon airport if you can, not Dublin,” Shea said. “From there, you’ll need to rent a car or catch the bus. The bus will take you from the airport into Galway, where you’ll have to catch another bus from Galway to Cong. That bus only runs once per day, so you’ll need to time your arrival.”
Mina stared up at him.
“In Cong, you’ll need to get a cab to take you to Clonbur.” He fell quiet. “What?”
“You sure know a lot about the geography of Ireland. Do you get back there often?”
“I’ve never been back.” He scratched the underside of his chin. “I, uh, did a little research.”
A warm tenderness squeezed her chest. “You were going to go get him, weren’t you?”
Shea rolled his shoulders. “I’m not the one he wants to see.”
Her feet started carrying her away, her mind racing with logistical details—Shannon not Dublin, to Clonbur, no, Cong then Clonbur. When could she leave? Would it be possible to catch a flight tomorrow? Had she reached the limit on her credit card this month? Where was her passport? She hadn’t used it in more than five years, not since traveling to St. Bart’s the year Vivian had decided to vacation there for Christmas.
She pivoted on her heel and headed in the opposite direction. First, she needed to talk to Emily and ask her if she’d housesit while Mina was away. How long would she be gone? Would Noah want her to stay with him?
Mina stumbled to a stop and spun around.
Shea stood alone in the center of the patio. He took a slow drink from his champagne flute and lowered the glass.
Mina pressed the note to her heart. “Thank you.”
A satisfied smile transformed his face. “Bring him home.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Moments before boarding a flight the next afternoon, Mina called Noah’s cell phone to warn him—er, to surprise him with the news she was coming to him. He didn’t pick up and her call went to voice mail. In Chicago for a layover, she would’ve tried him again, except it was three a.m. in Ireland. A flight delay compressed her layover in London to a mere forty minutes, leaving her with no time to try him before boarding her flight to Shannon.
Nineteen hours after leaving Thief Island, she set foot on Irish soil. She took a bus to Galway, another to Cong, and then caught a cab to take her into Clonbur. By the time the cab deposited Mina outside Noah’s hotel, it was well past dinner. The adrenaline that’d brought her this far threatened to abandon her.
A light mist dusted her hair and clothing as she rolled her suitcase into the inn lobby. The small cottage featured low-slung tiled ceilings and several large, recessed windows. A fire crackled in the stone fireplace and zapped the chill from Mina’s body.
A young woman with dark hair and eyes smiled at Mina from beyond the reception desk. With another obsessive glance at her cell phone to confirm Noah still hadn’t returned her call, Mina approached.
“I’m here to visit a guest,” she said. “His name is Noah Nolan.”
The woman consulted the computer and reached for the desk phone. “I’ll ring the room. Your name, please?”
Heart lodged in her throat, Mina managed to squeak out her name. Soon, the muffled sound of the first ring carried over the line. The gang of butterflies banged around in her stomach.
The woman replaced the receiver in the phone’s cradle. “I’m sorry, no one’s answering.”
Mina chewed her bottom lip. “Is it okay if I wait?”
The woman’s smile seemed to stiffen. “Be our guest,” she said, gesturing toward the love seat and armchairs bracketing the fireplace.
Mina propped her suitcase against the stone hearth and collapsed into an armchair. Outside, rainclouds darkened the night sky to black, and a steady wind banged against the picture window. She was in a foreign country, with nowhere to go, or sleep, and the one person she knew in the entire country—hell, on the entire continent—wasn’t returning her calls.
Noah waited until his research team was well into their cups before he slipped off his barstool and made for the exit. At the door, he waved, and a raucous cheer went up from the group for no particular reason other than they were drunk and it was the end of another long workday.
The misty rain had let up, and the humid night air wrapped its warmth around him as he made the short walk back to the inn. With a quick glance in either direction, Noah crossed the darkened street at a clipped pace. Tonight, he was more anxious than usual to get away from the revelry and back to his room.
To his cell phone.
He’d left it charging on the nightstand, and now his anxiety threatened to destroy his composure. He didn’t like being without it, even for short periods. What if she tried to call? What if she needed, or wanted, him?
Noah yanked open the glass-paned door of his hotel and hustled across the quiet lobby toward the guest suites. This late, the place was deserted, and only one smal
l table lamp remained lit. Near the hearth, his toe caught an edge and he stumbled.
He bit out a curse and bent to right the compact suitcase that had fallen across his path when his foot had knocked into it. Who had left the blasted thing—?
He froze. A woman lay curled up on the lobby love seat. Her back was to him, and her hair spilled over the settee. Rich gold and deep ginger shimmered amidst chestnut brown in the firelight.
His insides clenched and his heart gave a sickening wrench. It’d been fourteen weeks since he’d seen her last. The longest fourteen weeks of his life.
Fourteen weeks, two days, and eleven hours.
Now, his mind played tricks on him, bringing to life that which he most wanted and could not have. It wasn’t her. It couldn’t be her. Not here.
With a soft sigh, she rolled to face him. Her eyes blinked open.
Then she bolted upright and scrambled to her feet.
He stared, trying to remember a time when he’d ever really existed outside of her heart, her heat, or the sound of her laugh. The color had returned to her cheeks, and the fullness of her curves was restored.
His pulse pounded in his ears and air whistled through his lungs. He accepted it all as the soundtrack of her smile.
Her true smile.
She whispered his name.
The breath left his body in a rush. God, how he’d longed to hear her say his name again.
He put down the urge to snatch her to him.
The smile fell from her face and uncertainty filled her sapphire eyes. She tugged on the sleeve of her blouse.
Still, he didn’t reach for her.
Chapter Forty
He remained standing at a distance. He didn’t smile or speak. He didn’t reach for her or give any indication he was happy to see her. Sorrow clung to him.
Her heart sank. What if there was a reason he hadn’t returned her calls?
He’d cut his hair and was dressed in a clean T-shirt and blue jeans, but the remnants of his work lingered on his face as the faded remains of a sunburn kissed his brow, cheekbones, and the bridge of his nose.
“Hi,” she said.
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Hi.”
“I’m sorry if I surprised you,” she said. “I tried to call.”
His throat worked as though he might speak. His brown-black eyes glittered behind thick black lashes.
The lobby door burst open, and a trio stumbled into the small room, shattering the solitude. Noah stooped to retrieve her suitcase and slipped his hand around hers.
She let him lead her down a dimly lit hallway to a door at the far end, where he pulled a hotel key card from his back pocket and let them inside.
He shut the door and plunged them into darkness. He left her side. With a soft click, dim lighting from a desk lamp trickled into the room. Noah stood in a ribbon of shadow.
A tangle of fears and insecurities rose up to steal the resolve that’d brought her this far.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
Fear kicked in her chest. “I came to... I wanted to...”
He hung back in silence, and she moved so a strand of light fell over his face. His features remained set, inscrutable.
Muffled sounds of other hotel guests carried to them through the walls.
She forced a lungful of air through her lips. “Noah, I want you, and if you say you want me to—”
Tender disbelief slashed across his face.
He snatched her to him and buried his face in her neck. “I want you, too,” he croaked.
She shoved her fingers through the soft waves of his hair. “I wanted you to stay, but I was afraid to ask for so much.”
He held her to him. “Ah, Mina.”
At the warm, buttery sound of her name on his tongue, a flutter brushed low in her belly, lower, like soft fingers between her legs.
With it, the old fear surged.
Her muscles tensed. They hadn’t been intimate since she’d recovered her memory. What if she froze? What if he saw her fear and misunderstood its source? He’d blame himself. For a while, but eventually—
No!
Mina took control of her racing thoughts.
Noah pulled back and searched her face.
She slid her hand across his cheek, to the back of his neck, and drew him toward her. Her mouth met his in a tentative kiss. She touched her tongue to one corner of his full bottom lip.
A delicious tension tightened her body and settled at her core. Liquid warmth pooled there, and she let her head fall back so Noah’s warm mouth might explore. She arched toward him, inviting his touch.
He did not.
She opened her eyes, expecting to glimpse on his face a reflection of the slippery warmth sloping through her.
She did not.
Lines bracketed his mouth, and his dark eyes shimmered with a pained hesitancy, as though the effort to hold back cost him greatly. At first confused, Mina soon understood.
He waited for her. He needed to know she wanted this as much as he did. He needed her permission, and the fear he wouldn’t receive it showed on his face, naked and raw.
Her heart contracted. That he worried so made her feel cherished. Loved.
The fear vanished like the stars at dawn.
She held out her wrist and pointed to the spot at her pulse.
Warm molasses sparked with heat. He dropped his head and brushed his mouth over her skin. She trailed her fingers over the hollow at the base of her throat. His mouth covered the mark.
Her hand slipped lower to pop the buttons on her blouse and brush over the rounded swell of one breast. A look of secret wonder stole across his face, and his mouth followed the path her fingers forged. She cast the blouse and her bra to the floor.
Noah hooked his fingers under the waistbands of her jeans and panties, and cool air kissed her skin as they fell away. Her hands trembled as she grasped a handful of his T-shirt and tugged it over the wide expanse of his shoulders.
She pressed her lips to his chest, above his pounding heart. It quickened beneath her touch.
They found the bed, and Noah moved over her. His struggle played out for her to see on his face, where passion warred with restraint and worry.
In that moment, Mina discovered a place deep within her that had remained untouched by the pain and betrayal of rape. A tiny corner of her soul that hadn’t been violated along with her body. It was to that place she went when the memories returned.
It was love, and Noah lived there, inside her heart.
She parted her legs for him.
He found her wet heat and teased her with soothing, languid strokes.
She took him deep, gasping in sweet agony as the fire between her legs spread to her heart. Together they moved, their bodies seeking and finding the exquisite rhythm. With each push inside, her arousal intensified, elongated, until the first ripples of orgasm shuddered through her.
Until he became a part of her. Inseparable. Whole.
Wholesome.
She cried out his name, and he took her face between his hands. He stared into her eyes and continued to pump into her with long, unhurried thrusts, until the ecstasy crashed over him, too.
In time, the sounds of their heavy breathing faded. The slick moisture dried on their skin.
Still inside her, Noah lifted his head and peered down at her with dark, compelling eyes. “You’re not alone, a mhuirnín. Not anymore.”
A frisson of fear rattled through her at his words.
He dropped a kiss on her nose. “Don’t fret. I only wanted you to know you don’t have to carry it alone. I’m here for you if you need me, and I love you.”
She stilled.
He cocked his head to one side. “What? That surprises you?”
“It’s just... You never said that to me before.”
“Said what? I love you?” He cupped her face, stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “I’m sure I did. You probably just forgot.”
Mina shook her he
ad. “I don’t think I’d forget something like that. Although... I can’t understand what you’re saying half the time.”
“See, there you go.” He toyed with the hair at her temple. “I told you it couldn’t be true.”
She closed her eyes and tilted her head toward the soft brush of his fingers on her cheek.
“Marry me,” he said.
Her eyes flew open. The cocky grin might’ve fooled her, but the glimmer of vulnerability in his eyes told her his aim was not to tease. She licked her suddenly dry lips. “Are you sure?”
He gave her a disapproving frown. “Have you ever known me to be unsure of what I want?”
“Well, no, but...”
“Marry me.”
“Even though I...? I’m...?”
He nuzzled the spot below her ear. “Marry me, Mina.”
She moistened her dry lips. “Even after...?”
He pulled back.
She grappled with the ugly words on her tongue. “Even though?”
His features softened with a heartbreaking gentleness. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, toyed with the lobe of her damaged ear. “Even though.”
Tears blurred her vision and she inhaled a sharp sob full of relief and joy.
“I hate that someone hurt you,” he said. “But I love you. All of you, and there isn’t a single thing about you I want changed.”
A watery laugh escaped her. “Now I know you’re lying.”
“I want to call you my wife. Say yes.”
“Of course I’ll marry you.”
On a whoosh of air, he dropped his forehead to her shoulder. “Geez, you had me worried there for a second. I thought I was going to have to resort to the nuclear option.”
“The nuclear option?”
“I was going to promise to live on that God-forsaken island, if that’s what you wanted. Lucky for me, you caved.”
“We don’t have to live in Thief Island. I’ll go wherever you go.”
He rolled to lie beside her on the bed. “It’s okay. I’ve resigned myself to it. It’s a ridiculously big house, though. You don’t expect me to clean, do you?”
