by Mari Carr
Emmy, who was sitting at the end of the bar, tapping away on her keyboard, paused and looked up at that. The woman was a master eavesdropper, though Colm could never quite figure out how she could write and listen to all the conversations happening at the pub at the same time.
Colm caught her eye. “She’s my Kelli,” he repeated for her benefit, feeling the need to stress that point to anyone and everyone.
Emmy just nodded and smiled and started typing again.
“So clue me in, Bro,” Padraig said, leaning on the counter. “I thought things between you and Kelli were good. Why would she be so resistant to the concept of dating you?”
“You know about her baby plans.” Kelli had pulled Padraig away after dessert at Thanksgiving, the two of them finally talking for ages about her hopes for the future and what she’d planned to do.
Padraig nodded. “She still planning to keep the sperm donor? And the timeline?”
Colm sighed. “Yeah. I told her it was time for us to figure some shit out since she’s set this damn holiday break as go time.”
“Did you ask for more time?”
Colm shook his head. “At first. But I knew she wouldn’t go for it. So I asked to be the father.”
“Wow.” Padraig’s amazement didn’t really match the huge-ass grin on his face. “Talk about taking an abrupt left turn. Weren’t you the guy who wasn’t tying himself down to just one woman until he was at least forty?”
“You and I both know that was me talking out my ass. Trying to make myself feel better because love was eluding me.”
“And Kelli rejected your offer?”
Colm shrugged. “Yeah. At first. Then…”
“Let me guess, you went full lawyer on her ass and started wearing her down with all your arguments.”
Colm leaned back in his chair, scowling. “I simply reminded her that there was precious little she didn’t know about me. I don’t know why she thinks we need any more time to,” Colm finger-quoted, “‘get to know each other.’ Jesus. We’ve known each other our whole lives. What else is there to learn?”
Padraig lifted his hands in surrender as Colm became more impassioned with each word. “Hey, Bro. Listen. I’m on your side. I think you and Kelli are perfect for each other. But the truth is she’s stubborn and headstrong, and once she’s made up her mind about something, it’s hard for her to back away from it. She’s had this single-mom plan swimming around in her brain for the better part of a year. She’s made the lists, the plans, studied the pros and cons. Then, the second she takes the leap and sets things in motion, you crawl in bed with her in the middle of a blackout and boom! Everything is tossed on its ear.”
“I’m not trying to talk her out of having a baby. I just want it to be our baby.” Colm finished his Guinness.
Padraig refilled it. “The thing is…Kelli is always waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
Colm recognized the truth in that statement. Especially when he recalled her comment that everyone leaves eventually.
He considered those words from her perspective because he’d never heard her say anything with such outright assurance, and such…pain.
That was when he realized it wasn’t everyone who had always walked away from her.
It was just one person.
Her dad hadn’t just left her mom. He’d left Kelli. The asshole had been in town a few months ago and hadn’t even bothered to call his daughter.
Colm had assumed that didn’t bother her because she’d never let on that it did. But he could see now that her pride wouldn’t let her reveal her feelings about the matter.
Her dad’s departure had hurt her, and he wasn’t sure Kelli had ever faced up to it.
“I’m not her dad,” Colm said. “I wouldn’t leave her. Wouldn’t leave our kids.”
“And I’m sure Kelli knows that. Deep down inside. But she’s had precious little luck with love, so I have no doubt you dropped those three little words on her and she freaked out.”
Colm froze. “Shit,” he muttered.
Padraig frowned. “Wait—you said them, right?”
Colm shook his head. “No. I…fuck…I said everything else.”
Emmy stopped typing and looked straight at him, one eyebrow raised in disbelief. “You did all that arguing for a relationship and babies and you didn’t tell her you loved her?”
“I should have told her,” Colm moaned, realizing he’d dropped the ball in closing arguments.
“Dude,” Padraig said. “You should have led with that.”
Emmy sighed. “Rookie mistake.”
Colm ran his hand through his hair. “I’m an idiot.”
“So tell her,” Padraig said.
Colm nodded, then glanced at Emmy. She was a romance writer, though she’d never told any of them her pen name. Not even Padraig, who was chomping at the bit to read one of her books.
“She asked for time to think, but she doesn’t have all the facts. So…I should go back tonight, right?”
“What do you think?” Emmy asked.
“I’m going back.”
She laughed softly. “Good call. I think it’s safe to say you’ve hit the point in this romance where the hero tells the heroine he loves her, and they live happily ever after.”
“Oh damn. Yeah. This is an important turning point. So set me up with a plot. Are you a fan of a big gesture?”
Emmy rolled her eyes. “No. I’m a fan of the words. Just go, you big fool.”
Colm stood, walking to the end of the bar to give her a hug. “Thanks for the advice.”
He didn’t miss the tiniest glimmer in Padraig’s eyes—jealousy?—as he did so.
“Good luck,” Padraig called out as Colm headed back out the door he’d only entered twenty minutes earlier.
* * *
Kelli had returned to the couch two seconds after Colm left, wishing she could channel her previous zombie state. That was an easier state of mind than her present one.
Too many things were bombarding her.
She hadn’t realized how much her dad’s departure had bothered until her argument with Colm. She’d been pissed off ever since learning he’d been in Baltimore recently and he hadn’t visited, hadn’t called to see if she wanted to do something with him. She would have met him for a lousy ten-minute chat over a cup of coffee…if he’d asked.
But he hadn’t. And as much as it bugged her to admit it, that hurt.
Kelli leaned her head back. She really thought she’d gotten to a point where her parents couldn’t hurt her anymore. Annoy her? Yes. Embarrass her? Absolutely. But hurt her? No.
She was suddenly awash in feelings she had no clue how to deal with—and it occurred to her that what she really wanted was to talk to Colm about it.
Colm. Who wanted a relationship with her. A long-term, let’s-make-babies relationship.
No one had ever wanted that with her.
Like, no one.
Ever.
She’d dated so many here-one-day-gone-the-next guys, she hadn’t even known how to respond to Colm’s suggestion. Because it had taken her slightly off guard and surprised her. Even when it shouldn’t have.
“God, I’m the world’s biggest idiot,” she muttered.
Mojo, who’d been curled up in a ball in her lap, glanced up as she spoke, then promptly went right back to sleep.
Colm said she knew him…and he was right. She did.
Which meant she knew he was perfect for her.
Colm Collins, her lifelong frenemy, was the man of her dreams. And instead of telling him that, she’d been a complete tool and told him she needed time.
Time for what?
She picked up Mojo, placing her on the cushion next to her and standing up, looking around the living room for her shoes. She was going over to the pub and she was going to—
She heard a key in the door of her apartment and immediately fought to school her features, to hide the smile fighting to erupt.
Colm was here. He’d come bac
k.
He stepped inside, pausing when he found her standing there.
“Jesus, Colm. It hasn’t even been an hour,” she joked, so happy it was taking everything she had not to run across the room and leap into his arms.
She expected him to smile, but he didn’t. In fact, he looked far too serious.
Shit. Had she screwed things up by asking for time? Had she hurt his feelings by rebuffing him?
“Colm—” She started to apologize, anxious to set things straight as quickly as possible.
He raised his hand to cut her off. “No. Wait. I had to come back because I realized there was something you don’t know about me. Something I didn’t tell you.”
Oh God. Here it was. She should have known better, should have realized this was all too good to be true. She’d pushed Colm away and he’d wised up already, discovered a reason why this wouldn’t work.
Her heart thudded painfully in her chest. If he told her he didn’t want to see her anymore, she wasn’t sure she could take it. She’d thought her heart had been broken a few times over the years, but she knew now her heart had never even been bruised.
“What is it?” she asked, hating how thin her voice was, how panicked she sounded.
Colm walked over to her, grasping her hands in his. “I…” She watched as he took a deep breath. “I’m going to say something to you that, well, I might have said it to other women in the past, but…I realize now I lied.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“I love you, Kelli.”
She gasped, but he wasn’t finished.
“No. It’s more than that. I’m in love with you. Completely, ridiculously, aggressively, obnoxiously in love with you.”
Her heart, which had previously been thudding so hard she’d had trouble hearing, suddenly stopped beating. “Obnoxiously?”
He nodded. “It would appear…you’re my curse.”
She laughed. “You know, if any other man said that to me, I’d kick him out on his ass. But…” Her words got wobbly, and she felt tears forming in her eyes. “But with you…God. I’m your curse,” she said, repeating the words she simply couldn’t believe.
He stepped closer to her, reaching up to cup her face, to wipe away the tears with his thumbs. “Kelli,” he whispered.
“I’m obnoxiously in love with you too.”
He kissed her, a hard, long, lots-of-tongue kiss.
When they parted, she grinned. “Guinness.”
“Paddy and Emmy spotted the flaw in my previous arguments. Said I left out the most important part.”
“They were right.”
“Well,” Colm said, turning toward the door. “I know you need time, so I guess I’ll just—”
She laughed. “Colm?”
“Yeah,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at her with a wicked gleam in his eye.
“I was on my way to the pub.”
“You were?” Kelli wasn’t sure when his cocky, know-it-all grin had become a turn-on, but damn if she didn’t go wet at the sight of it.
“Yeah. I don’t need time. At all.”
Colm crossed his arms. Bastard was going to make her work for it. “No? You sure?”
“Colm.”
“What?”
“My bedroom. Now.”
Chapter Fifteen
Colm grasped her hand and tugged her down the hallway. Mojo was hot on their heels, running ahead to jump on the bed when they entered Kelli’s room.
Colm chuckled. “Not this time, sweet girl,” he said, putting the cat back on the floor. Kelli’s cat liked to cuddle in between them each night after they went to sleep, he and Kelli jokingly knocking the other’s hand away when they petted her as she purred, fighting to be the favorite.
He turned back to Kelli, who was already unzipping her pants and pushing them and her panties down.
“Maybe you should leave that sweater on. It’s hot.”
Kelli rolled her eyes. “You got a thing for gingerbread?”
Colm wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Kelli owned a seemingly endless collection of cutesy sweaters, which was apparently Wardrobe 101 for elementary school teachers. The current holiday-themed one was adorned by gingerbread men and said, “My kindergartners are SMART COOKIES.”
“Nope. Just kindergarten teachers. They’re surprisingly kinky in bed.”
“You lucky bastard. Take off that suit and tie. You’re not fooling anybody with that buttoned-up conservative look.”
Colm loosened the knot in his tie, then pulled it free from the collar of his shirt. He wrapped it around his hand, fisting the silk. “Maybe I should hold on to this for later.”
“Fancy a little bondage? I don’t mind strapping you down and having my wicked way with you.”
He chuckled. “I think we both know who’s going to be on top, Kell.”
She tilted her head playfully. “Do we? Because I’m not sure you do.”
Colm stepped close to her and tugged her sweater over her head. Then he reached around her back and unhooked her bra with one quick flick. He looked down at her breasts and grinned. “God, I love your tits.”
Kelli slapped his cheek lightly. “Sweet talker. Take off your pants.”
“What about my shirt?”
“That’s not holding me back from what I really want.”
Colm shook his head as if disappointed. “I knew it. I’m just another sex toy, aren’t I?”
Kelli laughed, tapping her fingertips together like the worst of the world’s evil masterminds. “With you, my collection is complete,” she said darkly.
Colm stripped off his shirt and pants in record time, gripping her waist to twist and then toss her onto the bed.
“Open those legs and submit to me, woman,” he said in true caveman tone.
Kelli giggled, but it wasn’t lost on him that she scooted to the center of the bed and then obeyed.
Colm lost no time crawling over her on the bed, caging her beneath him. She lifted her head from the pillow, meeting him halfway, matching his hungry kiss with one of her own. He was reminded of Halloween as the two of them gave in to the kisses, without bothering to rush to the next part.
They’d had the talk. Said all the words that needed to be said.
She was his. He was hers. They were in love.
Life simply didn’t get any better than this.
Colm shifted lower, running his lips along the side of her neck down to her breasts. He took a nipple into his mouth, sucking, increasing the pressure until she gasped, her closed eyes flying open and meeting his.
“Making sure you’re still awake,” he teased.
“I’m not going to miss one second of this.”
Colm smiled. He loved sparring with Kelli, but more than that, he loved the times like now, when she spoke sincerely, from the heart.
“I love you,” he said, feeling the need to repeat those words to her a million times. Not because she needed to hear them but because he needed to say them.
Kelli ran her fingers over his cheek, stroking his beard. “Back atcha.”
He played with her breasts, alternating between sucking, licking, and nipping until she was squirming beneath him.
“Colm,” she breathed. “Please.”
“Not yet,” he murmured, moving even lower. He pressed on the insides of her knees, opening her more fully for him as he knelt between her outstretched legs. Her back arched when he placed his first open-mouthed kiss on her clit.
“Shit,” she said. “So good!”
He flattened his tongue against the tiny nub, pushing more firmly, loving the way Kelli slowly came apart.
“Oh God. Too good,” she gasped, her fists closed in his hair, pushing him away before pulling him closer again.
Colm increased the tempo of his tongue against her clit as he thrust inside her with two fingers, pumping faster with each return until Kelli stiffened for that one brief second, her mouth open in a silent scream, before her body trembled with her orgasm.
&nbs
p; She cried out his name then, and he was sure he’d never heard a better sound in his life. There was nothing “peaceful” about the way Kelli yelled it, and he grinned to himself.
Dove, my ass, he thought with a grin as he felt the aftershocks of her climax, her inner muscles clenching against his fingers as he withdrew them.
Kelli was still struggling to catch her breath when he crawled back over her body to kiss her once more. Her face was flushed. She was hands down the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
It took everything he had not to thrust into her, to take her with all the passion and need she inspired, but tonight, this moment…
God, it was too important. Too special.
After several minutes of kissing, of sharing the same sweet air, Colm forced his lips away from hers. His erection lay thick and hard against her stomach. He looked at her, waiting until Kelli’s eyes slowly drifted open, and then even longer, until she was able to focus, her wits returning.
Colm brushed her cheek with his thumb, the other hand moving lower, gripping his cock until he’d placed the head of it at her body.
He didn’t move, waiting.
Kelli was still. Too still.
Both of them were cognizant of the fact he wasn’t wearing a condom, that what happened next would change both of their lives forever.
“Breathe,” he whispered.
She gave him an adorable little grin, accompanied by one of those amused eyerolls she seemed to reserve just for him. “Need instructions?” she teased when he made no move to push inside.
He chuckled. “Are you ready to—”
“I swear to sweet Jesus,” she interjected, “if you say ‘transfer the funds’ or some other ridiculous shit like that, I will cut your penis off right now.”
Colm was holding himself above her on his elbows, his laughter shaking both of them as they lay chest to breasts on the bed. “I was going to say, are you ready to make our baby? I want a little girl, Kell. A carrot-top like you.” Her eyes narrowed, hating when he referred to her hair as carrot-colored. “With my good looks, of course.”
She gave him a sweet smile he instantly distrusted. “And I want a little boy who looks just like…Paddy.”
“I think I can do that,” he joked. They laughed briefly…until he pressed inside just an inch. Then, once again, he was overwhelmed by all the emotions this beautiful, intelligent, headstrong, smart-ass of a woman inspired in him.
