Catch Him

by Doyle, S

  “You’re a dick,” she said tightly as she approached him.

  “And you shouldn’t have come. But we’ll get to that. Now if you would follow me.”

  He led her to a back game room in the house. It was large and open and sprawling, but he knew Mary well enough to know she wouldn’t attempt to eavesdrop. She wouldn’t consider it polite. No doubt she was taking herself upstairs to retreat into her bedroom.

  A strategic move on her part.

  Dec walked to the bar and poured himself an Irish whiskey neat. He held the crystal decanter in offer to her.

  “Sure.”

  It was another thing he’d liked about her. She didn’t always drink, but when she did she could hold her own with him. And she didn’t mind occasionally really letting go. Their drunk sex after the day at the vineyard had been epic.

  Only he couldn’t think about that now. Any of that. This was business with Sinead, because she’d crossed the line and entered his sister’s home.

  Mary was at risk of further pain.

  Declan’s function in life was to make sure Mary was not at risk. Something he’d failed spectacularly at recently.

  He handed Sinead the drink and thought about how to approach this conversation. With lies? With truth? Then he decided this was not his decision. He was not the one who had been deceived.

  She was looking around the room. “Yeah, this is some shack you’re stuck with here.”

  He didn’t bother to explain he’d made… improvements to his grandfather’s place. Instead he wanted to get to the point.

  “What do you want?” he asked her quietly.

  “What?”

  She seemed not to expect the question.

  “What do you want? You did this thing. You found Mary and you discovered her connection to me. Why?”

  “Garrett Huntley is going to pay me twenty-five percent of whatever I recover.”

  Declan shook his head. He didn’t think of the ramifications of what her in league with Huntley meant. He had to deal with the first problem.

  “That’s not what you want. You made a deal with him, an inauspicious one I might add, but that’s not why you came looking for me. I’ll ask it again. What do you want? To hit me? To kill me?” He paused. “To fuck me? What do you want?”

  She’d always been genuine, his lovely Sinead, and she wasn’t any different now. The rage in her expression was real. Nearly frightening.

  “I want you to feel pain.”

  It shouldn’t have hurt as bad as it did. It should have been expected. Of course she would want that. He’d inflicted pain, she would want to avenge that. Still, the idea of her wanting to hurt him… he sighed.

  Then quickly ducked as she hurled the glass of whiskey she’d been holding at his head.

  “No! You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to be sad.”

  He charged at her, sweeping her up and pinning her to the wall. His face inches from hers. He saw her green eyes and her full lips and her cherub-like Irish skin. He smelled her hair. He’d thought he would never have this again. He’d never have her in his arms again, but here she was.

  Because she’d been smart and clever and realized that everything he’d told her hadn’t been lie. And he was so fucking grateful for his mistake because here she was. He could tell her he was sorry. He could beg for forgiveness. He could win her back.

  All of this was in play now, because she found him.

  Thank god, she found him.

  That was the truth. There was risk, yes, but he would manage the risk. He always managed the risk. There was his sister too, but he would protect her. He would protect them both.

  This, now, was for him.

  She struggled against him but he’d pinned her with his body. His hands pressing hers against the wall. His thighs pinning her thighs so she couldn’t kick him. His dick, hard now, keeping her core pressed against the wall.

  “What do you want, Sinead?”

  “Don’t say my name,” she spat at him. It was there. All the hurt. All the anguish. Everything he’d done to her on her face. It crushed him. It didn’t, however, cow him.

  “My name is Declan,” he said. “Say it.”

  She pushed against him but he was an immovable force. “Never.”

  He grinned at that. “Oh my lovely. You’ve issued a challenge then for me. Because now the first time you’re going to say my name is when you are begging for me to make you come.”

  “You touch me and I will kill you,” she growled.

  It was awful, he thought. Awful that he should be turned on by what essentially was a hissing cat. She was in pain. Her claws were out. She wanted to inflict serious damage.

  All he’d wanted to do was save her. Even if it was from himself.

  But he was just that selfish.

  “I love you,” he said, because it was the truest thing in his life.

  That was when she really got angry.

  Chapter 13

  She pushed against him with renewed strength, but she wasn’t strong enough and he reveled in that. That she was at his mercy. That he had her here now and he didn’t have to let her go.

  “I hate you!” she spat.

  It was a lie. He knew this despite her red face and angry words. Or at least he wouldn’t believe it. Because there were only two possible reasons why she was here: She loved him, or she truly despised him.

  Of those two, there was only one possibility he would accept.

  He wondered if she realized tears were streaming down her cheeks. He dipped his head and kissed away one of those tears.

  She tried to bite him.

  “You’re going to give in to this,” he said as he tilted his head to kiss her other cheek.

  She howled like some lunatic wolf. He took the opportunity to kiss her exposed neck.

  “Why would you do this to me?” she said, her voice cracking. “How could anyone be so cruel?”

  “I love you,” he said roughly. “I never lied about that. You are under my skin like a parasite, and there are days I wish I could take a knife and cut you out of me. Except then you would be gone and I don’t know how I would live.”

  She stilled then, and he braved touching his mouth to hers. Quickly so she couldn’t strike. He pressed his hips into hers and he heard it. A small gasp. A sound that said yes.

  “Say my name. I want to hear it from you.”

  “Fucking dickhead.”

  He chuckled and nuzzled her neck again. Taking her earlobe between his teeth and biting down with just enough pressure to make her feel it.

  “Let me have you,” he whispered into her ear.

  “No.”

  “Let me fuck you then. You can take all your anger out on me by riding my cock. Have you ever had angry sex? I bet you haven’t. Just like everything else I’ve shown you, you’ll love it. I bet you’ve never felt anything like what’s running through your blood right now. Are you wet? If I pushed my hand into your jeans and touched your pussy, would you be slick?”

  She squirmed against him, which he knew was a yes.

  “Sinead, please.”

  He kissed her then and she allowed it. Opened her mouth and accepted his tongue. Then he let her hands go and they were wrapped around his head and he was taking them to the floor because the large leather couch seemed like an infinity away.

  He rolled them so she was on top.

  “Hit me if you have to, love, but please ride me just as hard.”

  And she did. Made a fist and slammed it into his jaw. So hard he saw stars and quickly realized he would have to stop her next attack, because she was strong. Except she wasn’t hitting him anymore. Instead she was unbuttoning her jeans, pushing them and her panties over her hips, kicking off the red heels and flinging them aside. Then she reached for his pants.

  In seconds she had the material down around his thighs and his cock in her hand and he thought, this could be it. This could be the pain she intended to inflict. It might even be deserved. She could crippl
e him, but instead she shuffled her body and went down on him.

  “Suck the head… I remember that command,” she told him.

  Then she sucked the head into her mouth and he pushed his head against the hardwood floor, wishing he’d had the forethought to pull her down on the rug.

  “Lick the slit. Is that what you told me?”

  “Yes,” he hissed and she did. Her tongue wiggled against him. His precum happening against any control.

  “What next, Fucking Dickhead?”

  “Declan,” he told her. “Take me deep, love.”

  She reared up and slapped his face. “Don’t call me love.”

  He sat up and grabbed her hands so she couldn’t take another swing at him. Then he kissed her again and bit her bottom lip hard enough it would swell.

  “Yes, love. Now swallow my cock please,” he said even as he was pushing her head back down his body.

  She was ravenous. Her lips and tongue doing wicked things. Teasing him, only to then satisfy him by taking his cock deep until it felt like she had in fact swallowed him.

  “Now ride me,” he barked because he knew he couldn’t hold out and he knew it was what she needed.

  Taking all her rage and all her fury and releasing it on his body in a way that was going to make her explode with pleasure.

  She released him from her mouth, crawled over him and took his cock in her hand and put him where he needed to be. She sank down on him and he thought how fucking amazing it was without a condom. It made him feel primal. She was wet and hot and he was going to pump his come so deep inside her he hoped he gave her triplets.

  She was bouncing on him and screaming at the same time, her hands behind her back on his thighs, her nails digging in, and he was there with her in every sense. He never thought he would have this again with her. He told himself she was better off without him in her world.

  All of it lies.

  “Say my name,” he told her. “God, I want to hear my name on your lips.” Every time she called him David, every time she whimpered David, it cut a little. Because she was meant to be his, and he wanted her to call him by his real damn name.

  “Declan!”

  Yes. The rush of it was palpable, made more powerful by the feel of her coming around his cock, squeezing him in a way that made him feel like he belonged to her. Then he was holding her hips in his hands, thrusting up into her like he could lose himself inside her. He came, and with each delicious spurt of come he thought of his children. Their children.

  She collapsed on his chest, and he worked to pull the blouse she was still wearing over her head. Then he was taking off her bra.

  “Lift up, love.”

  “Stop calling me that,” she snarled.

  “Yes, love. Now lift up. I want you naked on top of me.”

  “We’re in your damn living room.”

  “Technically it’s a game room and it’s Mary’s, but trust me, she knew how this was going to end and has no doubt removed herself from hearing range.”

  “This doesn’t change anything,” she told him.

  “It changes everything, love.”

  She lifted herself up and glared at him. Then shook her head like she was disgusted with herself and pulled away from him, disengaging their bodies. He wondered how long it was going to take for her to realize…

  “You fucking dickhead. You didn’t use a condom.”

  “I’m clean,” he told her without apologizing.

  “Swell.”

  “Are you on birth control?”

  “No,” she snapped.

  He smiled.

  “What the fuck are you smiling at?” she asked in pure astonishment.

  “You. I’ve missed you. Have you missed me?”

  “Angry sex,” she muttered to herself as she picked up her clothes.

  “I just got you out of those.”

  “Yeah, well I’m putting them back on.” She pulled up her jeans and got back into her bra. He liked that she’d lost her shyness around him. They had been together long enough they were comfortable in their nudity. Then she was stepping into those shoes that had captured his attention. That screamed powerful Sinead.

  Once he was on his feet, his pants properly fastened, he rolled his shoulders.

  “Next time we do that we’ll make sure we’re in a proper bed.”

  “There isn’t going to be a next time. I’m not sure what that was, but you need to hear me. I came here… to end you.”

  Declan tilted his head. “I’m sure you did. However, then you met Mary, who is sweet and kind and the victim of an abusive asshole, and you changed your mind I’m sure.”

  She flinched and found a spot to stare at just over his shoulder. “I can’t let your sister play a part in my plans. You used me, you cost me my career and then you dumped me with an I’m-sorry-go-fuck-yourself letter. You mess with an O’Hara and an O’Hara messes back.”

  “Your father teach you that?”

  “Yes. He also told me that when something is too good to be true… remember that bit of wisdom I shared? I should have listened more closely.”

  “You can’t tell Garrett where she is,” he said tightly. In his heart of hearts he didn’t truly believe she would, but he also knew she didn’t understand the scope of what was at stake.

  Sinead crossed her arms over her chest. “All I have to give him is an address. Who is here when he sends his goons—that’s your problem.”

  “Then why haven’t you already done it? Why did you show up here instead?”

  “Because I knew you would come charging in, and I wanted to tell you fuck you in person,” she said, storming away from him.

  “That’s not why you came,” he said, following her. “Tell me what you want.”

  “I already told you. I wanted you to know it was me who made this happen. Me who set the dogs on you.”

  “Even though Mary no doubt told you her story.”

  “Not my problem.”

  He grabbed her around the arms and turned her. “You are so full of shit.”

  Her eyes shot up. “I’m full of shit? You’ve got a fucking Irish accent now. Is that real or do you just pick how you want to sound every day?”

  He winced. “You don’t understand.”

  “I’m done listening to you. I’m out.”

  He laughed at that, considering he was still holding her. “You’re not leaving this house. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I was a cop. I can take care of myself.”

  “Yes, because we’ve seen ample proof of that.”

  She glared at him, and using the heel he thought was so sexy, she tried to bring it down on his instep. He turned her again and pulled her back into his chest, her arms crossed in front of her. His legs pinning hers together.

  “You don’t understand. You can’t leave this house for your own damn safety. You were most likely followed here. Now I’m going to need a plan to get us all out of trouble.”

  “I wasn’t followed here,” she snarled.

  “Listen to me. This is bigger than you understand.”

  “No, you listen to me. I know I wasn’t followed here because I lost my tail back in California. I also sure as hell know that tail wasn’t Garrett Huntley. Because Garrett Huntley is soft, an idiot and a really bad liar. Your sister has crappy taste in men. So yeah, maybe I did come all this way to ask you something.”

  “Then do it.”

  “What was really in the damn safe?”

  His clever girl. He released her and she stumbled out of this arms. When she turned and faced him, he knew. If he had any hope of salvaging his relationship with her, he had to do something he’d rarely done before with the people in his life.

  He was going to have to tell her the truth.

  Chapter 14

  “I don’t know why I’m even bothering to ask. I doubt I’ll believe anything you say.”

  “Sinead, sit down and I’ll tell you everything.”

  She hated that she loved his voice
. Maybe even more than before. She hated that at the first hint of temptation she’d caved like a sexual lunatic. He was right, she’d never had angry sex before and it was pretty damn hot.

  But mostly she hated the fact that she was still standing here, when she should have already left.

  Of course he was right. She’d been bluffing about turning over this address to Huntley. She doubted she would have done it anyway. She certainly wasn’t letting that creep get anywhere near Mary after hearing what he’d done to her. That fight that Garrett had casually mentioned, as if it was a debate over what color to paint the living room…

  That fight put Mary in the hospital.

  No, she wasn’t giving Huntley anything, but she’d wanted Declan to think she might. She wanted him to have a moment of panic and fear caused by her.

  A sense that for the first time in their relationship, she had the upper hand.

  She walked over to the large leather couch facing what appeared to be a sixty-inch TV and sat down.

  He sat down next to her and even that, his thigh rubbing against hers, was enough to annoy her so she inched away from him, only to have him inch closer still.

  “I’ll not let you have any space between us.”

  “Fucking Dickhead…”

  “No, we’ve corrected that problem. It’s Declan.”

  Sinead huffed. “Tell your story and let’s see if I buy it. Which I probably won’t because you’re a liar.”

  He sighed. “What did Huntley tell you was in the safe? You’re getting twenty-five percent of what exactly?”

  “Pharmaceuticals.”

  “Well, it wasn’t that.”

  She glared at him. “Yeah. I caught that. Like I said, he’s a really bad liar.”

  Declan looked down at his hands instead of at her. “This isn’t easy for me. I’ve never had to actually tell someone the truth.”

  She snorted. “There’s a shock.”

  He frowned. “I don’t imagine we could do this without the sidebar?”

  “Doubtful.”

  Then he smiled and she refused to be charmed by it. “When you showed up at the house that night, I showed you a picture of me and Garrett at the wedding.”