by Marie Force
Erin had long, light brown hair that she wore in a ponytail that made her look younger than her age, which Maddie estimated to be in her mid-thirties. “So nice to meet you, Erin,” Maddie said.
“My dad is on the council,” Mac said. “I’ll tell him to be nice to you.”
“He’s nice to everyone,” Jenny said.
“That he is,” Mac said with a smile for Erin. “I’m sure if Jenny is recommending you, you’re a shoo-in.”
“I’m still not a hundred percent sold on this change Jenny insists I need,” Erin said, “but she can be hard to resist when she gets something in her head.”
“Don’t I know it,” Alex said drolly, winking at his fiancée.
“You love when I get something in my head,” Jenny said with a meaningful smile that made everyone laugh.
“TMI,” Erin said, covering her ears.
“I’m sorry,” Jenny said with a somberness that took Maddie by surprise. Jenny had obviously been joking around. Why would she feel the need to apologize to her friend?
Sensing Maddie’s confusion, Erin said, “I’m Toby’s twin sister. The original fiancé.”
“Oh,” Maddie said as the import settled in on her. Toby had been killed on 9/11. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“That’s very kind of you. It was a long time ago, and no one is more thrilled for Jenny than I am. Truly.”
Jenny gave her friend a one-armed hug. “Thanks.”
“I might be happier for Jenny than you are,” Alex said, which had them all laughing again.
“I like him,” Erin said.
“So do I,” Jenny replied. “And the best part? He has a brother who’s almost as handsome as he is.”
“He is nowhere near as handsome as I am,” Alex said. To Erin, he added, “I’d hate to see you get your hopes up only to have them dashed.”
“Oh my God,” Jenny said. “You’re insufferable. Paul is every bit as gorgeous as you are, isn’t he, ladies?”
“Absolutely,” Lizzie said.
Her new husband glared at her playfully.
“What? He is. Just because I’m married now doesn’t mean I’m suddenly blind.”
Maddie giggled behind her hand.
“What’s so funny over there, Mrs. McCarthy?” her husband asked.
“That you all think we get hysterical blindness or something once you put a ring on our fingers. My eyes still work just fine, and Paul Martinez is hot.”
Alex cringed as Mac glowered.
“You’ll pay for that later,” Mac said.
“I’m not afraid of you. I have things that you want.”
“Damn straight you do.”
“And that,” Jared said, “is our cue to move along, people.”
They got up and gathered the empty bottles and glasses.
“Was it something I said?” Mac asked.
“You know it was.” Maddie rolled her eyes at her husband, who was never shy about his desire to spend time alone with her. She loved that about him, not that she’d ever tell him that.
They said good night and thank you to Daisy and David for babysitting and saw them out the door.
Mac locked up and turned off the outside lights once they were safely in their cars.
“You didn’t have to run them off,” Maddie said as they went upstairs together.
“I can tell you’re about to fall over, but you’d never say so.”
“Don’t act like you know me so well.”
“I know you better than anyone, and I also know this pregnancy is kicking your ass big-time.”
“Yes,” she said with a sigh, “it is. I’ve never been so tired in my entire life. I can’t figure out why this time is so different than the last two times.”
“Um, maybe the fact that you have two other kids to contend with while you’re pregnant might have something to do with it?”
“Could be.”
“I need to be doing a better job of helping you out around here.”
“This is your busy season at the marina. You’re doing what you can.”
“I could spend more time at home. We’re not that busy, and I have partners who can help me so I can help you.”
“You don’t have to do that, Mac. So I’m a little tired. I’ll get through it. Taking care of the kids and the house is my job.”
He came to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “It’s our job, and I don’t mind taking on more around here while you’re busy growing Malcolm the third in there.”
She raised a brow. “Malcolm the third? First of all, how do you know it’s a boy, and second of all, Malcolm? Really?”
“Is this your way of saying you don’t like my name?”
“I like Mac a lot better than Malcolm.”
“So do I. So we’ll call him Mac.”
“There’re already too many Macs in this family, and Janey still wants to name a kid McCarthy and call him Mac. That’ll be mayhem.”
“Then we’ll call him M.J.”
“Along with P.J?” she asked, reminding him of his new nephew.
“We have to come up with something. I grew up hating my name, but now that I’m older, I love that I was named after my dad. I love being the oldest son and the one who got to carry on the tradition. I want the same for this guy, even if he’s not my oldest son.”
“You have no idea what it does to me when you talk about Thomas that way.”
“How else would I talk about him? He is my son. He’s been my son since the day I met the two of you.”
She bit her lip and shook her head.
“What?”
“I should be used to it by now.”
His brows knitted with confusion. “Used to what?”
“You and the amazing way you love us. Almost two years married, and you’re still taking my breath away.”
He put his arms around her. “You do the same to me. Every damned day.”
She slipped her arms around his waist and held on tight to him.
“Let’s get you in bed.”
Determined to fight through the powerful exhaustion so she could spend some more time with her husband, Maddie changed into one of the silky nightgowns he loved, brushed her hair and teeth and got into bed with him.
“Come here,” he said, reaching for her.
She curled up to him and relaxed into his embrace. “I can’t remember what it was like to sleep alone.”
“Neither can I, but I suspect it was kind of boring and lonely.”
“Compared to this, anything else would be.”
“Mmm, so true.” He rubbed her back in small circles. “Go to sleep, honey.”
“You don’t want to…”
“Not tonight. You need the sleep more than you need me.”
“That is never true.”
“Shh. Go to sleep. We’ve got millions of nights when we can do all sorts of naughty things.”
“Like what? Tell me about them.”
“Well, first…”
Maddie fell asleep to the familiar, comforting sound of his voice.
Chapter 10
“A bride should not ever, ever, ever do dishes on her wedding night,” Seamus declared as he came into the house after seeing off the last of their guests. He shut the door, locked it, turned off the outside lights and then leaned against the door.
Tomorrow, they would face a frightful mess in the yard, and Carolina had decided to try to make a dent on the equally frightful mess in the kitchen sink, but apparently her new husband wasn’t having it.
Husband… She hadn’t had one of those in more than thirty years. How odd it was to use that word again so long after her dear husband Pete had been killed in an accident. Carolina dried her hands on a dishtowel and turned to him. “Where did you hear of this rule?”
“It’s in the marriage bible under part B subsection two point two: a bride should never, ever, ever do dishes on her wedding night. Rather, it reads, she should service her husband in any way he sees fit and show him
how truly grateful she is to have had the good fortune to marry him.”
If they each lived to be a hundred years old—of course she’d get there way before he did—he’d probably never stop making her laugh. “You just made that up.”
“I had to do something. I thought you were in here making yourself ready for me, and I find you doing the dishes. This called for drastic measures and rulebooks.”
“How were you expecting me to ‘make myself ready’ for you?”
“By getting naked, for one thing.”
“So you expected me to be standing naked in the kitchen, waiting for you to tell me how best I can service you?”
“That would’ve been an excellent way to begin our marriage.”
“Let me know when you wake up from this dream you’re having and are ready for a dose of reality.”
“I never want to wake up from this dream I’ve been having, even when you don’t honor and obey me with your nakedness in the kitchen.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re incorrigible and delusional?”
He pushed off the door and started toward her, his green-eyed gaze fixed on her. “You have. Many times.”
Carolina felt like prey caught in the crosshairs. “And yet you still come back for more.”
He stopped when he was merely an inch away from her. “I’m a glutton for punishment.”
“Today you signed on for a lifetime’s worth of punishment.”
“Yes, and thank Christ for that.” Wrapping his arms around her neck, he kissed her as if he’d been dying to for days, weeks, months, a lifetime, completely losing himself in the kiss.
Surrounded by him, Carolina could only hold on and go along for the ride the way she had since the last of her defenses had fallen, allowing him into her heart and soul where he was now so firmly entrenched, she couldn’t picture a day without him at the center of it.
Carolina had no idea how much time had passed when he finally withdrew from the kiss in small increments, keeping his lips touching hers as he gazed into her eyes. “God, I’ve needed that since Judge McCarthy said I could kiss my bride.”
“You behaved very admirably all afternoon.”
“Which means I should be rewarded for my good behavior.” He slid his hands from her shoulders to her hands and tugged her along behind him as he left the kitchen and headed for their bedroom. “We should’ve gone somewhere tonight. Somewhere special.”
“This is somewhere special. It’s our home, and it’s become much more special to me since you moved in.”
He stopped, dropped her hands and turned to face her. “Do you really mean that?”
“Yes,” she said with exasperation. “Of course I mean it.” He was much better at speaking about his feelings, which was something she needed to work on if he was honestly asking if she meant what she’d said. “I was thinking earlier today that I had no idea how lonely or bereft my adequate existence was until you came along and showed me.”
“Carolina…”
“I don’t know if I’ve said it often enough or shown you…”
“Shown me what?”
“How much I love you.”
“God, yes, I know, love. I know. How could I not know?”
“Maybe because half the time, including during our wedding, I’m threatening to murder you.”
His loud bark of laughter made her laugh, too.
“Sorry about that today. I wasn’t planning to include that in the vows.”
“I loved that you included it. I drive you to it, love. I know I do. And I do it on purpose because I love the way you look at me when I vex you.”
“You vex me, all right. But now that I know you’re doing it on purpose…”
“You have to still give me that look.” As he spoke, he worked on buttons and snaps and hooks. When he had fully revealed her, he stared at her, his gaze hungry and heated. “You’re so very lovely. I look at you,” he said, with his lips close to her ear, “and I want. I want you, Caro, and I’m so bloody grateful you agreed to marry me.”
“You didn’t give me much choice,” she said, filled with pleasure at knowing he was so happy.
“Aye, I didn’t. Left to your own devices, you’d still be deciding to let me back into your bed after you kicked me out the first time.”
“What you didn’t know then, and I probably shouldn’t tell you now, is all you had to do is talk to me in that insanely sexy Irish accent, and I would’ve given you anything you wanted.”
“Now you tell me! This is grounds for an annulment!”
“Shut up about annulments and make love to your wife, will you please?”
“Gladly, my love.” He removed his clothes as if the hounds of hell were chasing him and dragged her into bed with him.
“Finesse. Where’s the finesse?”
“I ain’t got none tonight. I’m like a randy goat on the prowl.”
Carolina cracked up laughing and couldn’t stop no matter how hard he tried to distract her—and he tried very hard to distract her before dropping his head to her chest in utter defeat.
“All this laughter isn’t good for a man’s fragile ego.”
“You’re not a man. You’re a randy goat, remember?”
“Poor choice of words. Are you done laughing at me now?”
“I might be until you say something equally hilarious.”
“I love to listen to you laugh, especially when I make it happen.”
“Which is all the time. You have no idea how funny you are.”
“I’m funny because I like to make you laugh. I’ve never been funny before you.”
“I find that very hard to believe.”
“’Tis true. My life was hardly anything much to laugh about until I found you. Losing my brothers the way I did… There was a lot of sadness. You make me want to laugh again, Caro.”
Touched to hear him speak of losses he rarely mentioned, she combed her fingers through his thick auburn hair, hoping to provide comfort. “We’ve both had more than our share of sadness.”
“Indeed, which is why we’re now due a lifetime’s worth of happiness.”
“I’m down for that.”
He kissed a path from her throat to her chest and belly. “You know what I’m down for?”
“I’m starting to get an idea.”
The deep rumble of his laughter made her skin tingle with goose bumps. She had learned over the last year not to fight him when he set out to overwhelm her senses, which was exactly what he was doing right now. As he made love to her with his mouth and tongue, Carolina tried to remember who she’d been before this sexy, charming, larger-than-life Irishman came bombing into her life and turned her entire world upside down.
“I want to do this every single day of our lives,” he said as he kissed her inner thigh and pushed his fingers into her. “It’s my favorite thing to do in the whole world.”
“Is it better than when I do that to you?”
“Well, now… It might be tied for first place with that.”
“Thought you might say that.”
How was it possible that he amused her even when he was doing that to her? “Seamus…”
“Yes, love?”
“Let’s change places.”
“Not tonight. I’d never last. I want to make love to my wife, and it’s been a very, very long day. I bet the person who decided there ought to be a huge party after the wedding wasn’t a guy.” This was said as he thrust his fingers into her again and made her gasp from the pleasure that shot through her.
“Please. Come up here. I need you.”
Those words always worked with him, and tonight was no different. Keeping his fingers tucked deep inside her, he used his other arm to move up the bed so he was lying next to her. “What do you need?”
She laid her hand on his face. “You.”
He kissed her with lips and a tongue that tasted of her, which didn’t surprise her. He was an earthy, erotic lover with an endlessly creative imagination.
Carolina had done things with him that she wouldn’t have thought possible before him. Tonight, however, he didn’t seem interested in showing her how creative he could be. Rather, he was all about the love as he looked down at her.
“Tell me I didn’t dream this day,” he said in a gruff whisper as he withdrew his fingers and replaced them with his cock.
“It wasn’t a dream.”
He pressed against her, entering her in small increments before retreating to do it again. “I keep feeling like it has to be, because nothing that’s real could ever feel this good.”
“It’s real, and it’s good, and it’s going to stay that way.” He was driving her crazy, but that was nothing new. In bed or out, he took an almost perverse pleasure in testing her limits.
But she’d learned a few things in the time she’d spent with him and knew how to mess with his plans. So the next time he pushed into her, she clamped down on him, making him gasp. At the same time, she gripped his ass and pulled, taking him deeper.
“Holy Christ, woman! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“Not at all,” she said with an innocent smile. “Just trying to move things along a bit.”
“You almost moved things right past the finish line with that maneuver.”
Carolina laughed at his indignant expression. Her laughter—and the squeeze of internal muscles that went with it—made him groan.
“Ahhh, love, you’d try the patience of a saint.”
“Good thing you’re the exact opposite of a saint.”
“Good thing indeed.” He began to move faster. “Is this what my demanding wife wants?”
“Yes,” she said with a satisfied sigh. “It’s exactly what she wants.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong,” Joe said, clearly despondent by his body’s failure to understand his pressing need to make love to his wife.
“Nothing is wrong,” Janey said. She laid her hand flat against his stomach, thrilled to be close to him even if things weren’t going according to plan.
“I don’t get it. This has never happened. Ever.”
“It’s no big deal, babe. Just relax. We can try again tomorrow.”
“I don’t want to try again tomorrow, and don’t tell me to relax. If your equipment wasn’t working right, would you be able to relax?”
