Catch Him

by Doyle, S

  “Mary, we’ve had this discussion. We’re done with the blame. On both sides. The only bad actors in all of this are Huntley and his father. Now that we’re aware of their imminent arrival, we’ll plan accordingly.”

  “I can’t… see him again,” she whispered. “I wish I could be strong enough for some type of confrontation. I know I’m not.”

  “If we do this correctly you won’t have to.” Declan turned to Jillian. “You never answered my question. Did you do what I asked?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then there is nothing to do other than wait,” Declan said. “Jill, find a spare room. No sense in you leaving tonight when you’ll have to come back tomorrow. With the time change Flynn won’t be here until early morning. Dare I suggest we all put our jammies on and watch movies?”

  “You’re treating this like a game,” Mary said tightly. “This is my life.”

  “And mine and Sinead’s,” Declan said sternly. “Trust me when I tell you I will let no harm come to anyone because of Garrett Huntley or his father.”

  “I’m going to bed,” Mary said quietly. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  He watched her walk up the stairs, her shoulders back, her chin straight but inside he knew she was struggling. That she had to admit she couldn’t handle seeing him again. It cost her. In addition to being stubborn, Mary was also very proud.

  Declan looked to Jillian and she nodded. “I’ll talk to her.”

  “Thank you. She listens to you.”

  “Because I’m not her big brother.”

  When it was just the two of them, Sinead walked over to him.

  “You and the ex seem pretty friendly.”

  Declan closed his eyes. He really wished Jill would have stayed away for at least another day. He needed more time to fix Sinead’s impression of him, and no one was ever comfortable with an ex around while a new relationship was starting.

  “I need to explain her.”

  “You don’t. I’m not the jealous type.”

  “You need to understand we still work together. I met Jillian during an assignment. She got dragged into something as a civilian and the next thing I knew… well, she was hooked on the work. Our affair was brief because I thought for certain she was going to do something to get herself killed. Now that I’ve come to accept who she is, we manage well enough as co-workers.”

  “So you’re partners.”

  “Not exactly. I’m still considered the head of the firm. But yes, Flynn, who you will meet tomorrow, and Jillian are essentially my partners. Sometimes we work assignments together. Sometimes they take independent contracts.”

  “Garrett Huntley is an assignment for them, then.”

  “No. Huntley is personal. As I said, only three people know who I am really. As a result we’ve all become quite close. Mary and I are as much family to them as their own. They were not happy with how we left the Huntley situation. Flynn in particular will be more satisfied with the outcome tomorrow.”

  Sinead cupped his cheek and Declan instantly leaned into it. Jillian hadn’t been lying earlier. He had been in a foul mood for weeks and only now that she was here did he feel a sense of being centered. Something he needed to be if he was going to face off against Huntley and his people tomorrow.

  “You ground me,” he confessed to her.

  “That’s funny,” she replied. “Because you lift me.”

  He leaned forward and kissed her and then pulled away because he wanted to see the desire in her face. Wanted to stoke it a little before he gave her satisfaction.

  “Jammies and movies?” he asked her.

  “I don’t know. Are there rules to this particular event?”

  “Yes, at some point you need to make out with me. On my command.”

  She tilted her head as if considering it. “I’ll think about it while I go upstairs and change.”

  Declan smiled at the challenge. That was something Sinead had never been for him. She’d been open and honest from the moment they met about her interest in him. Her attraction. Even her feelings, although she was stubbornly refusing to admit them now.

  No, she’d never been a challenge, and he liked that about her. Their relationship had happened easily and naturally without any game playing. Now, things were different. He knew he was going to have to work to earn her trust back. Work to prove he was worthy of her love. Work to show her, her heart was safe in his possession.

  Declan couldn’t help it, but he sort of liked that too.

  * * *

  They were sitting on the couch in the game room with the explosions happening on the large sixty-inch screen TV. Sinead was cuddled up next to him on the couch munching on popcorn he’d made for her.

  “I can’t believe you picked a boy movie. You should be sucking up to me big time right now. We should be watching Beaches or something.”

  “First this is not a boy movie, it’s a man movie, and I’m simply trying to show you how things will be between us as we move forward with our relationship.”

  “You mean you’ll always get your way?”

  “Exactly.”

  “I hate you right now.”

  “No, you don’t. You love me. Now how about you say that with me. Declan, I love you.”

  “Tell me a story about you,” she said instead. “I mean a real one.”

  “All the stories I told you were real,” he said softly. “My father left us, my mother was an alcoholic, and I raised Mary. You more than anyone—you should know how true all that is, as it was those stories that led you here.”

  “Where did you grow up?”

  “Ireland, then here for that summer I told you about, then back to Ireland. My American grandfather met an Irish girl and moved to Ireland because she wouldn’t leave her family. They had my mother…”

  “Margaret,” Sinead answered. “That’s how I found the farm. Mary Gallagher, daughter of Margaret Gallagher, daughter of Jackson Tierney. Tierney Farms of Middleburg, Virginia is actually listed in an old phone book, which thankfully all that stuff is now archived on line. You know it makes me think, if I found her so easily how come Garrett couldn’t?”

  “I told you, he’s not nearly as clever as you are. He might have known Mary’s last name, but in general she would have never have talked about our mother. Only to say what she was and that she died. And she was too young to remember that summer we spent on the farm or our grandfather. Only you would have been able to make the connection to this farm. Which still makes me wonder… if I didn’t tell you all of it on purpose.”

  “You wanted me to find you.”

  Declan looked down at her, and the truth of it seemed fairly obvious. “Yes, my love. I do think I wanted you to find me.”

  “Tell me the rest of the story,” she insisted.

  “Yes, well my grandparents raised my mum in Ireland. Happy, I think for a time. Then my grandmother passed. My mum was only twenty. It must have shook them both. That’s when my grandfather came back to the States. I asked him why. He said it was too painful to be in a place he knew his wife would never come home to him again. I remembered thinking how things could be different between a man and a woman. All I remember of my father was yelling and shouting. Anger and bitterness. Then he was gone and I thought that was better. But it wasn’t.”

  “How did you get out? I mean how did you manage to build an empire?”

  Declan considered that. “I suppose I was willing to do the things no one else was. My skills were singular focus, fierce determination and a lack of fear. Once I set an objective for myself I couldn’t be stopped. That included making money.”

  “You’re also really good at faking accents.”

  “Also that. Determination and accents. That’s how I did it.”

  Sinead rested her head on his shoulder. He thought that was a good sign. A level of trust she must have felt.

  “Did you do bad stuff?”

  “Illegal stuff, yes. Are you going to arrest me?”

  S
he threw up her hands. “I can’t. I’m not a cop anymore.”

  “They fired you then,” he said regretfully.

  “No, I quit.” She turned and tilted her face up to him. “I think I knew that having met you my life had changed. I knew nothing was going to be the same. Going back to my old job, my old life… wasn’t possible.”

  “And what did your new life look like?”

  “Well, first there was my evil plot to destroy you and take you down by any means necessary…”

  Declan chuckled. “Yes, well that didn’t work out quite like you planned.”

  “After that I’m not sure what I was going to do next. I guess I’m still not.”

  “You can do whatever you like, or nothing at all as far as I’m concerned. As long as you do it with me.”

  Her expression was intense then. “Is that what you really want? I know you said the whole forever thing. But I think you were being a little dramatic. Three weeks is still just three weeks. And yes, maybe we know each other but don’t you think that’s moving too fast?”

  No. He didn’t. He wanted her tied to him now. If he thought he’d have enough time before Huntley showed up tomorrow, he already would have had a judge out to the farm to marry them. He could see though that might be shocking to her, so he kept those thoughts to himself and instead took another approach.

  “How did you feel when we were together?”

  “Amazing. Like I was capable of anything because I was with you.”

  “How did you feel when we were apart?”

  Sinead considered that for a moment as if searching for the right emotion.

  “Anxious.”

  He nodded. The word was a perfect fit for what he’d been feeling too. “Like a part of you was missing. A part you instinctively knew you were going to get back, but you wanted to speed up its arrival.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s exactly how I felt too. Those first days where I was convinced I would never see you again.. during that time I felt despair. As if I had lost that piece of me forever. I didn’t like that feeling, so much I knew something had to change. That’s when despair changed into anxiousness. As if I was waiting. Now ask me again if I want you with me. Always.”

  She didn’t have to ask. It was there on his face for her to see.

  “Tell me you love me, Sinead.”

  She turned back to the TV. “We should rewind. I think we missed a few explosions and a car chase.”

  He sighed and accepted his challenge was not over. “I’ll pay you one million dollars if you say it.”

  She smiled at him and patted his cheek. “Do you have any ice cream? I could really use some after that salty popcorn.”

  She got up off the couch and made her way across the room.

  “Fine, two million,” he shouted after her.

  Her only answer was a lingering giggle.

  Slightly frustrated but hopeful that she was at least thinking about a future that involved him, Declan rewound the movie to find they had in fact missed a few more explosions and a car chase.

  Chapter 17

  “Oh that’s it,” Dec said as she sank down on his erection. Her tight hot body squeezing him just the way he liked. He reached for her breasts and twisted her nipples, and the harder he was on them the harder she slammed down on his cock.

  “More,” she whimpered.

  “Yes, love. I know how much you like that. That little edge of pain. Don’t you?” he asked. Wanting to hear her say it. Wanting her to acknowledge that she had a little dark in her too. A taste for taking things to the edge.

  “Yes.”

  He thrust up hard into her as a reward. Then suddenly it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to watch her ride him, it wasn’t enough to tease her and enjoy the sounds of her pleasure. Feeling that dark inside him emerge, he knew he needed to possess her. To claim her. To take her in a way that she would forever understand she was his. Not as his property. As his partner.

  “Off,” he barked.

  But she shook her head and rolled her hips against him.

  He reached around and slapped her ass hard. “Off.”

  Dec had her attention now. She let him slide out of her body and then she was moving off him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Say my name,” he said as he got up on his knees. Then he was moving her in front of him. Pushing her down on to her elbows. Keeping her ass high. He pressed himself between her knees.

  “Dec?”

  He slapped her ass again. “No. Say my name.”

  Her head dipped and then came up. “Declan.”

  “That’s right.” He thrust into her from behind and listened as she gasped. Then he held himself still inside her. Just pushing against her so that he was as deep as he could be. So that they were as connected as any two bodies could be connected.

  “Please,” she said, pushing back against him. Needing him to move for her to get to that place. Except that would be his decision, not hers. He wrapped his hands around her hips and held her still.

  “No, my lovely. I’ll let you know when it’s time for you to come. For now you’re going to say what I want to hear.”

  “Declan,” she said. Except it was almost an angry tone. As if she was willing to give him what he wanted but resented him for it.

  He pulled out and thrust again and she cried out. Then his fingers moved from her hip to her soft wet pussy, lightly stroking her, feeling her arousal against his fingers.

  “Yes, that’s very good,” he said, pumping into her with shallow thrusts. Giving her something but not everything. In many ways just like she’d done with him. “Now you’re going to give me the other words I want to hear.”

  She pushed back against him, and for a moment he allowed that. Staying still, he just watched as she fucked herself against him. Then he pulled out and she screamed. Actually screamed her frustration.

  “You fucking dickhead,” she cried out, pressing her face into the covers of the bed.

  He smoothed his hand over her beautiful ass, while he let his fingers play with her pussy. Teasing, but offering no satisfaction. Not until he had what he wanted. Which was total capitulation.

  “You’re right. I am. Except you love me and I want to hear you say it.”

  “Ugh! Fine. I love you, you fucking dickhead. Now fuck me and make me come.”

  Declan smiled in the darkened bedroom. Satisfaction filling his whole body, making his cock swell even more. “My lovely, you know what I’ve come to realize? You’ve got quite the potty mouth.”

  That said he thrust into her again, this time with purpose. This time ready to take her where she needed to go. Where he needed to go. He held back nothing, thrusting into her hard, snapping his hips against her even as he reached for her hair, pulling it just enough that she had to lift her head, so he could hear her panting.

  Her body shook under his, her tits jiggled and he took glee in knowing she was his. That she’d come for him. Claimed him in a way he’d never thought was possible.

  “Ahhhh,” she cried and he could feel her body closing around him. Milking him for everything that he was. He came in a rush, thrusting into her as if he could impregnate her despite the condom she made him wear.

  When it was over she collapsed underneath him and he came down on top of her. Holding his weight off her back, but maintaining their connection because he didn’t want to lose it.

  He lowered his head and kissed the center of her back between her shoulder blades. “I love you,” he said quietly. So that she would hear it and feel it and know it was the truest thing he’d ever said.

  “I love you too.”

  That was it. No profanity. No anger. Just a realization that her feelings hadn’t changed no matter what he’d done to try and destroy them. Emotion overcame him and for the first time since he’d buried his mother, he wanted to cry. Just hold her to him and cry.

  Of course he didn’t. Because he was big bad baddy and all of that. He slid out of her and left the bed.r />
  “Dec?”

  “I need to take a piss. I’ll be back.”

  He discarded the condom, used the toilet and then turned the water on in the sink. Looking into the mirror, he thought how hard he worked to avoid being seen by cameras. It wasn’t that there weren’t pictures of him. As David Whitmore, he often attended events with paparazzi and press. But it was always the turn of a head. A hand in front of his face. The only time he’d actually been at risk had been on a damn kiss cam at a ball game when he’d had his tongue down Sinead’s throat.

  Footage he had to recover himself from AT&T park.

  When people asked for selfies, he refused with his standard line about how the camera steals the soul. The truth was Dec had always been glad that there were no pictures of him out there to see. Because when he looked at himself, he tended to only see the dark. He imagined any picture would show the same.

  He splashed water on his face a few times and looked again. This time something was different. It was as if he’d been broken and put back together again, and somehow everything didn’t line up as smoothly as it should have. As if he had all these open gaps in him that he feared Sinead was the only one who could fill.

  He looked in the mirror and could see her coming up behind him. He realized then he’d been standing at the sink for some time with his thoughts.

  She slid her arms around his waist and repeated the gesture he’d given her and placed a soft kiss in the center spot between his shoulders.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m sorry I did that,” he said, the words rushing from him.

  “Got me off?”

  “Forced you to say it. I should have been patient. I should have waited until you were ready. I just…”

  She pressed her cheek against his back. He thought he could feel her smiling, which was truly a lovely thing. “You are just a softy who needs to hear the words. Like anyone in love. And you didn’t force me to say anything. If I hadn’t wanted to say it, I wouldn’t have said it. I wasn’t joking about how stubborn O’Haras can be.”

  Their eyes met in the mirror. “Please don’t break my heart,” he begged her.