Shanahan's Revenge
Page 16
His black hair gleamed in the brilliant sunshine, and a small breeze whipped his curls into endearing disarray. He came to her door and opened it.
‘Hello, Kate,’ he said. His eyes were a deeper blue than she remembered—not really like hers at all. She touched her hand to her hair, which she wore in a loose cloud around her shoulders.
‘Spanish hair, not Scottish hair,’ she said, and laughed at his brief look of puzzlement. ‘I’ll tell you about it one day. Soon, but not now.’
He smiled, and the truth dawned.
‘You knew, didn’t you? You knew all the time!’
He sighed. ‘There weren’t many secrets my grandmother kept from my mother and I.’
He helped her down and held her hand as they walked across the airstrip. By the big old puriri tree, he pulled her close.
‘Do you remember? This is where we first kissed.’ He murmured the words as his mouth nuzzled against hers.
‘How could I forget?’ She leaned into him, her body delighting in the touch of his firm, strong flesh.
‘There’s something I have to tell you, Kate.’ His lips nibbled at hers.
‘Tell me,’ she murmured, nibbling back.
‘I love you.’
‘And I love you, Sam Shanahan.’ She laughed, for no particular reason; it was a happy, tinkling sound.
He took her mouth in earnest then. Presently she pulled away. ‘Is that why you came back? Why you didn’t go home to Sydney last Friday?’ she asked softly.
‘I couldn’t help myself. I drove to the airport—I even bought a ticket. But I couldn’t make myself get on the plane.’ He reached his hand up to trace her lips with his fingertips.
‘I knew I should stay away from you, but I couldn’t. I knew that until you knew the truth, all of the truth, nothing would be right between us.’ He raked his fingers through his hair. ‘I almost told you about the family connection, you know, right from the beginning.’
‘Why didn’t you?’ she whispered.
‘I couldn’t bear the thought of killing what I saw in your eyes,’ he answered honestly. ‘I sensed you felt as attracted to me as I was to you and … well, my reasons were purely selfish. I wanted you to go on feeling that way about me.’ He paused, dropping a tender kiss on her lips.
The other truth—the truth about your birth—was something only your father could tell you.’ Gently, he cradled her face in his hands. ‘Kate? How do you feel, now that you know?’
She shifted her gaze from the compassionate blue eyes which held her own, and stared instead for a long time over his shoulder, taking in the peaceful landscape of paddock and trees which rolled out below them. A slight frown creased her brow. Then she looked back up at him. ‘I feel … different, as if the world has shifted under me,’ she said slowly. ‘Yes, that’s it, I feel different. I don’t feel any differently about my parents, strange as that may seem—just about … me. It will take some getting used to.’ She paused, her eyes misting. ‘You’ll help me, won’t you, Sam?’
In answer, he crushed her to him, his arms encircling her body so tightly her ribs hurt. ‘Just let anybody try to stop me!’ he muttered, then he kissed her mouth with a fervour which left her in no doubt of his intentions. When eventually he relinquished her mouth, he looked down at her with a rueful smile.
‘Do you know what’s been the most difficult part of all this?’
‘What?’ She reached up to bestow a teasing kiss at each corner of his mouth.
‘I made a promise to myself to keep my hands off you, and by God, Kate McPherson, that was the most frustrating, most painful, difficult task I’ve ever set myself. Hell, I thought I was a mature man, way, way past barely controllable teenage lust. But oh, man … and the other night at the beach. I’m sorry, it wasn’t what I’d planned for our first time together, but my control was shattered.’
She laughed and teased with her fingers at his waistband. ‘I look forward to shattering your control again in the very near future, Mr Shanahan!’
‘Behave, woman.’ Laughing too, he grabbed at her hand, and pulled her hips even closer to his own. He was quiet for a moment, then he said seriously, ‘When we made love on the beach, it was different from anything I’d ever experienced. It wasn’t just good sex … I felt as though my emotions and my physical feelings were one and the same. I knew then I could never let you go.’
‘Oh Sam,’ was all she could say. She leaned her head into his shoulder and closed her eyes. Presently he stirred.
‘Time to go, my darling. The ladies will be waiting for us at the house.’
‘The ladies?’ She lifted her eyebrows in surprise.
‘The ladies. My mother and Maude and Justine.’
She froze in his arms.
‘Justine?’
‘My sister.’
‘Your sister?’ She felt a big silly grin growing on her face. And tears prickling in her eyes.
‘My sister. Oh, by the way, she wants to be bridesmaid. You won’t disappoint her, will you?’
‘Bridesmaid?’
‘You know, flowers and lace. At our wedding.’
Tears streamed down her cheeks now, and her smile grew even wider.
***
Later, much later, she snuggled into the crook of his arm in the big bed at the log cabin.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ she said.
‘Mm. What’s your overactive little brain cooking up now, my sweet?’
‘I thought it would be nice to have children, don’t you think? And not just one—we both know what it’s like to be an only child. We could have two, or three, maybe even four.’
‘Lovely. And I’ll stay home and look after them, and breed and train horses while you concentrate on the business.’ He was serious.
‘No.’
‘No?’
‘You love the forestry business, Sam. You’re good at it. I don’t want you to give it up, just like that.’
‘But you love your business too, Kate. You’ve helped build it in these last few years and you’ve got plans for its future. You’ve still got lots to give. There’s no way I’d be expecting you to quit your work and be at home all the time with the kids.’
‘Doesn’t have to be like that.’ She dragged in a deep breath. ‘Like I said, I’ve been thinking.’
‘Mmm.’
‘Well, I thought we could share the CEO’s job, you know, fifty-fifty. We can work together until babies come, then we could share—do half the week each, or do full weeks turnabout. While one’s at work, the other is looking after the kids. Sometimes we might both be needed at work, and we could have a nanny occasionally if that happened, but most of the time, they’d have one parent at home with them.’
‘Joint heads of the business?’
‘Something like that. We can adapt the model as we go along, according to need. As long as the directors were happy with the arrangement, and I’m sure they would be.’
‘You’d be okay with not being full-time in the business?’
‘It’s funny, but the business doesn’t seem quite so important to me any more. It’s part of life. It doesn’t have to be my whole life.’
‘It doesn’t?’ He eased himself onto his side and wound his hand into her hair. ‘Did I ever tell you I fell in love with this beautiful mop of hair of yours the very first time I saw you? And with your body, and those intelligent eyes and that sassy mouth of yours?’
He caressed her mouth with his.
‘I don’t believe you did. Tell me, that is.’ She traced the line of his jaw with her fingertips. ‘What do you think of my idea, Sam?’
‘Brilliant.’ He deepened the kiss. ‘Speaking of children, do you think now would be a good time to start making one?’
‘Oh absolutely.’
***
Much, much later, she murmured, ‘Sam, would you like to go to Spain for a holiday? There’s someone there I’d like to meet.’
Thanks for reading Shanahan’s Revenge. I hope you enjoyed it.
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ISBN: 9781760370398
Title: Julie Mac
Copyright © 2016 by SHANAHAN’S REVENGE
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