Triple the Fun

by Maureen Child

  Maura King had been a sheep farmer when Jefferson, scouting a location for one of the movies King Studios made, met her for the first time. Since she still ran her farm and Jefferson worked from the manor house, Dina assumed that marrying one of the wealthiest men in the world hadn’t changed Maura Donohue King much.

  “Lovely?” Dina repeated, glancing back to where Connor, Jefferson and six children—Maura and Jefferson had three of their own and another on the way—raced madly around the yard alongside a galloping black-and-gray Irish wolfhound named King. Dina had thought his name to be an odd choice, but Maura had explained that she’d gotten the wolfhound when she and Jefferson were on the outs and that she had named the dog after him because, she said, like Jefferson, the dog was a “son of a bitch.”

  The sheer size of the dog had intimidated Dina at first. She’d never seen such a big animal. But as Maura promised, a wolfhound was the original gentle giant. In no time at all, the triplets were crawling across the big dog, pulling his ears and stepping on his huge feet, and King never made a sound. Rather, he acted like a nanny, herding the kids back into the center of things when they wandered too far on their own.

  “Yeah,” Dina said, smiling at Connor’s hoot of laughter as Jefferson’s oldest son, Jensen, sneaked up behind his father and gave him a swat. “I guess they are lovely. So’s your home, by the way,” she added, turning her face to look out across the pewter-colored waters of Lough Mask, spread out beneath gray skies.

  Trees bent in the ever-present wind and tiny whitecaps formed on the lake’s surface. Narrow roads lined with gorse bushes boasting tiny yellow flowers spilled through green fields dotted with rock walls like thread loosed from a spool. The farmhouse itself was big and old and behind it rose the Partry Mountains, looking like a purple smudge on the horizon.

  “Thank you,” Maura said, giving her house a quick glance over her shoulder. “I like it, too, just as it is, but Jefferson is forever adding this or changing that, until I’m never sure what I’ll find when I come in from the fields.”

  “But you don’t really mind.”

  “Not a’tall, but don’t tell him I said that.” She winked and smiled. “The man is too sure of himself already.”

  Dina laughed. “I think that’s a King thing.”

  “Perhaps,” Maura said, leaning on the fence that surrounded the front yard. “Since all of his brothers are exactly the same and the few cousins I’ve met as well. Still, I wouldn’t change him for the world. I find I like a man who angers me as often as he attracts me.”

  “In that, Connor and Jefferson are alike,” Dina mused, thinking of the many arguments she and Connor had had in the short time they’d known each other. And yes, like Maura, Dina was attracted even when she was furious with the man.

  “I’ve seen the way he looks at you and you at him.” Maura smiled and tapped her fingers against the top rail on the fence.

  Dina didn’t even comment on that—what could she say? That it wasn’t true? Hardly.

  “And the children are sweet.”

  “They are. But so are yours,” Dina said, turning to look at the kids as they raced around the yard in the sharp, cold wind.

  Maura chuckled. “Wild heathens they are, and treasures, each and every one of them. Jensen was the first—he’s four now—and then Julie came along a year or so later and then James.”

  Dina watched the kids playing and laughing and felt her heart turn over at the sight. How would it be, she wondered, to actually be a part of that group? Oh, she belonged, through the triplets. She was their aunt as well as their guardian and that would never end. But Maura, Jefferson and their children and Connor and the triplets were family, and that connection continued to elude Dina. It was simply ridiculous to wish to be more deeply involved with Connor when at the same time she was trying desperately to stay out of his bed just to protect her own heart.

  Even more ridiculous to admit that up until she’d met Connor, she had instinctively avoided anything remotely resembling a real relationship. Memories of her mother’s tumultuous life were too clear in Dina’s mind to allow for anything else. And yet, somehow Connor had slipped past her defenses.

  “And with three children, you’re pregnant again,” Dina said with a glance toward Maura’s rounded belly.

  “My Jefferson is mad for children, wants as many as we can handle.” Maura ran one hand over her belly as if soothing the restive child within. “And as I agree and find I love being a mother more every day, I’m thrilled to be having another. Even if it does mean Jefferson is adding another wing onto the house, crazy man that he is.”

  Dina laughed but felt a tug of envy for the relationship Maura and Jefferson shared. He ran his movie studio from right here with the occasional trip to the States. Maura remained her own person and operated her sheep farm just as she always had, and yet the two of them together were a team that was only enhanced by the kids they shared. Who wouldn’t be envious?

  Dina’s gaze locked on Connor, pretend wrestling with Jefferson and the kids. Squeals of laughter from the children were swept up by the cold Irish wind and carried away like dreams. She smiled to herself and if that smile was a little wistful, who could blame her?

  “King men are difficult even at the best of times,” Maura told her suddenly, as if deciding to skip the polite niceties and just get to the meat of the matter. “But I can tell you from personal experience that they’re worth the trouble.”

  “It’s not like that with us, Maura,” Dina said quickly.

  Maura laughed. “Ah, yes. I remember fighting it myself. Jefferson was forever tossing his money about, waving it in my face. Did you know that he actually bought me a lorry without even speaking to me about it?” Shaking her head as she remembered, she continued. “Red it was, and as shiny as a promise, and though I shouted and raged at him for buying the bloody thing, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. I still drive it now and it’s as lovely as ever it was.”

  Dina laughed and shook her head. “He bought you a truck.”

  “Aye. Because he said I needed it whether I wanted to admit it or not. And he was right, though I was loath to admit to it. My old beast was on its last wheels, so to speak. But that’s who the Kings are, you see. They make a decision they feel is right and good luck to you trying to convince them otherwise.”

  “I don’t like being managed,” Dina said.

  “And who does? But that’s not saying you can’t do some managing of your own, is it?”

  Dina smiled at the other woman. “You know, I think you and I are going to be great friends.”

  “I feel it already,” Maura said with a matching grin. “And, as Jefferson has decided that we must all fly to California next month to take the heathens to Disneyland before this one is born, I’ll be seeing you again soon. You can tell me all about how the managing of Connor King is coming along.”

  Next month. Dina didn’t even know if she’d still be at Connor’s house in a month.

  “Maybe we could all go to the amusement park together. That would be lovely.” Maura turned her face into the wind. “I’ll call my sister, Cara, and make sure she’s available for it as well. As busy as she is, she does love to see the children when we’re in the States.”

  “Cara.” Dina thought about that for a moment. The sign at the front of Maura’s farm still read Donohue Sheep Farm, despite the fact that the owner was a King now. So...Cara Donohue. “Your sister is Cara Donohue?”

  Maura’s features lit up. “You’ve seen her films then?”

  “I have. She’s wonderful.” And she’d had no idea that Hollywood’s favorite young actress was related to the King family.

  “She is that,” Maura said proudly. “It was the film Jefferson shot here on the farm that gave her the big break. She’d done some soaps in London, but after this small film here, Jefferson signed he
r to do—”

  “O’Malley’s Bride,” Dina finished for her.

  “The very one.” Maura practically beamed with pride. “She was nominated for best actress for the role. She didn’t win, of course, but the nomination itself was a wonder.”

  This whole trip was a wonder, Dina told herself. Maura was kind and friendly, Jefferson was warm and funny, and Connor...she looked at him, and as if he felt her watching him, he caught her gaze and gave her the smile that made her knees weak and her insides nearly purr.

  “Oh, yes,” Maura whispered, giving her a little elbow nudge. “There’s plenty there to be managed, Dina. Up to you, of course, but a King, as I said, is more than worth the trouble.”

  * * *

  Whatever the two women had been talking about earlier had put Dina in an odd mood. Though she’d been patient with the triplets as always, it was as if her body was there, but her mind somewhere else. Back at the castle, with the babies asleep, Connor joined Dina at the open window in the living room. A cold wind rushed inside, but she made no move to shut it. Her long black hair lifted and twisted in that breeze and flew about her face in a dark halo. Her hands gripped the windowsill and her face was turned into the wind, the night.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I don’t know,” she said softly.

  He took her arm and pulled her around to face him. Studying her eyes, he tried to read what she was thinking, feeling, but though those chocolate depths called to him as always, he couldn’t make out what she was hiding from him. The only way to find out was to dig beneath the surface.

  Exactly what he’d been aching to do for too long.

  He’d never known this kind of overpowering desire. Usually when he wanted a woman, he had her. But for too long all he’d been able to do was ache for Dina. Most of the women he’d come across in his life had leapt at the chance to climb into his bed. The problem had always been getting them to leave again.

  Naturally, Dina was different. And he liked that. In fact, everything about her appealed to him. Her gentleness with the babies, her willingness to stand up to him for what she believed was right—the fact that she didn’t want anything from him except what he owed the babies. She had even been insulted at the thought of him buying her off. She was damned fascinating in every way and he hadn’t expected that. Con wasn’t interested in feeling anything other than the desire that pounded inside him. He wasn’t interested in depth. Wasn’t looking for forever. What he wanted was her.

  “You’re thinking,” he said, in a quiet, teasing tone. “That can’t be good for me.”

  Reluctantly, she smiled. “Might not be good for me, either,” she admitted. “Look, Connor, I think we have to figure out what we’re doing here. I can’t continue to stay at your house with the trips indefinitely. I have a life and a business to run. I can’t just walk away from that.”

  “Who’s stopping you from running your business from my house?”

  “That only solves one issue,” she said, clearly frustrated. “I can’t stay with you, Connor, just because you think it’s more convenient.”

  “You’ll be with me, Dina,” he said, “because you won’t lose the triplets and I’m not giving them up.”

  “So where does that leave us, exactly?” She shook her hair back from her face and looked up into his eyes. “Neither one of us is willing to give in, so we just live with a stalemate?”

  He couldn’t give her an answer because he didn’t have one. On this trip, it had felt almost as if they were a family. He’d allowed the castle manager, Sean, to assume Con and Dina were married—he’d considered it expedient earlier, but maybe the truth was that he hadn’t minded the assumption as much as he would have expected.

  And that realization was staggering, so he put it aside to look at later. Maybe. Right now there was only one thing he was interested in and he was done waiting.

  “Why worry about any of this tonight, Dina?”

  “We have to—”

  “Right now, all we have to do is this.” He cupped her face in his palms, bent his head and touched his mouth to hers. Soft, gentle, barely a brush of lips to lips before he pulled back and looked down into her eyes.

  “I want you, Dina,” he said, his voice as quiet as his kiss. “I have from the first moment I saw you.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “Me, too.”

  He smiled and bent his forehead to hers. The knots inside him loosened and his body went hard and ready in a heartbeat. “Then what’re we waiting for?”

  Eight

  Taking her hand, Connor grabbed the baby monitor from a nearby table before stalking to his bedroom while Dina hurried to keep up. Once inside, he closed the door, set the monitor down and drew Dina into the circle of his arms. He indulged himself with a long, deep kiss, savoring the taste of her, the feel of her, the sweet surrender she offered to the fires burning between them.

  Moonlight slanted through the windows and lay across her face and hair like molten silver. She shimmered with beauty that had haunted him from the first. His mouth went dry as he pulled back to fill his gaze with her.

  The room was dark but for that pale wash of moonlight. A four-poster spindle bed took up most of the space but there were tables, chairs and a blue tiled hearth that lay dark and cold.

  “This is probably a mistake,” she said and Connor’s heart stopped for a second.

  “That mean you want to stop?” He’d stop if she’d changed her mind, but he was pretty sure it would kill him.

  “No,” she said with a small shake of her head.

  “Thank God.” They’d waited long enough. Too long. This tension between them had been building since that first day when she’d faced him down in her tiny kitchen. They’d been headed here, to this moment, ever since. Con knew she was right—this probably was a mistake—they still had so much to work out between them, sex would only complicate things. But he’d figure that out later. Right now, they’d waited long enough.

  He backed her up to the bed, lifting the hem of her sweater to help her tug it off. Connor couldn’t wait to get his hands on her. He wanted to feel her skin beneath his hands. Wanted to touch and explore every tempting curve he’d been dreaming about for days.

  Her hands worked at his sweater just as feverishly, her eagerness feeding his own. And yet, even in the rush to get her naked, Connor felt a driving need to take his time, to savor this moment that had been so long coming.

  Deliberately, he slowed things down, forcing himself to strangle the urge to toss her onto the bed and bury himself inside her. He unbuttoned her shirt and carefully slid it down her arms to drop to the floor. She shivered as she stood before him wearing only her bra and a pair of blue jeans.

  “Are you cold?”

  “No,” she said. “The way I feel right now, I may never be cold again.”

  One corner of his mouth lifted. “Good. That’s good.” He trailed his fingers down her sides, sliding over her rib cage, down to her abdomen and up again to the front clasp of the black bra that looked devastatingly sexy against her smooth, honey-colored skin.

  He thumbed the clasp open and let her breasts spill into his hands. He cupped their weight and rubbed his thumbs across the tips of her hardened nipples. In response, she sucked in a gulp of air and swayed unsteadily. Connor knew how she felt. His insides were twisted together in heavy, hungry knots. He’d never known such overpowering desire for anyone. Never experienced such pleasure from a simple touch. Maybe it was because of the growing connection they shared because of the triplets. Maybe, he told himself, it was because they’d waited so long to satisfy their shared hunger. Maybe his own dreams were feeding the reactions scuttling through his body like skyrockets.

  But the why didn’t really matter. All that did matter now was her and the smooth, silky feel of her.

  He
bent his head to taste her, taking first one nipple, then the other into his mouth. Her breath raced in and out of her lungs. She arched into him, silently asking for more. His heartbeat galloped when she responded by lifting her hands to his shoulders and holding him to her with a nearly desperate grip.

  But she couldn’t keep him still, not when he wanted to explore all of her. He was a man on a mission now, with nothing more on his mind than fulfilling all of the fantasies he’d indulged in over the last week or more. He slid down her length, his hands moving to release the snap of her jeans and then the zipper. Slowly, he pushed the denim, along with the black panties they’d been hiding, down her legs, following their trail with his mouth. Her legs went weak until she locked them in place. He pulled her jeans off, stroking every inch of her skin as he did, then he stood up again slowly, sliding his hands over her body, reveling in the sweet feel of her. This was so much more than he’d imagined it would be. Her desire fed his, fanning the flames within until he was a walking inferno, ready to combust.

  When he straightened again, Con took her mouth in a hungry kiss while allowing his right hand to shift to the sweet spot between her thighs. A muffled groan tore from her throat when he touched her so intimately for the first time. Then she pulled him closer as their mouths fused and their tongues tangled in nearly frantic desperation.

  She was hot and slick and so ready for him, Connor could hardly breathe. He tore his mouth from hers so he could look down into her passion-glazed eyes as he worked her body into a frenzy. His fingers stroked and delved deep. His thumb slid across that hard nubbin of sensation at her core until she whimpered with the crashing need consuming her.

  His hand cupped the back of her neck, holding her steady as their gazes locked. She was helpless to hide her response from him and didn’t try. Her hips rocked into his hand as he pushed her higher, faster. Caressing her inside and out, he drove her to the edge of completion then pulled her back, refusing to allow her to find release too quickly. He wanted...needed to keep touching her. To hear her sighs, her whispered pleas. He wanted to stare into her eyes and watch as passion flared.