Page 81 of Ciaran
“Score,” I say, laughing.
Ciaran shakes the snow from his hair. “Oh, you are so dead.”
He makes a snowball of his own, and I set off running, but because I’m laughing so hard, my legs won’t work properly. I haven’t gotten very far when the snowball hits my left shoulder.
As we have a good old-fashioned snowball fight, happiness erupts within me. I’m so content, so free, and so happy. Panting, I hold my hand in the air.
“I call a draw,” I say, trying to catch my breath.
Ciaran playfully bumps my shoulder. “Mm-hmm. If that’s what you want to believe, Mia. We both know I won.”
I cock an eyebrow at him while dusting snow off my gloves. “If it makes you feel better, darling, you go ahead and think that.”
He laughs at my sarcastic retort and pulls me into his arms for a lingering kiss. It’s far too cold to stand around for long, although being surrounded by Ciaran’s big body takes my mind off my frozen feet.
About a mile from the cottage is a small grocery store, and next door to that, a cozy diner. We stop off to get some provisions for dinner, and have a hot chocolate at the diner to warm us up.
The second we walk through the door of the cottage my pulse speeds up, and a tingling sensation spreads to my limbs. We have nowhere else to go now, nothing else to do, apart from each other.
Ciaran puts our groceries away and opens a bottle of wine. He pours two glasses and heads into the bedroom. I follow, with my legs as weak as a newborn foal, watching as he places the glasses of wine on the nightstand and turns around.
The look in his eyes scorches me, and I exhale a shuddering breath. He steps forward. His fingers are sure and steady as he unbuttons my shirt and slips it off my shoulders, his eyes lowering to my chest. With the lightest of touches, he grazes the skin between my breasts, then dips his forefinger inside the cup of my bra. The tip of his nail grazes my nipple, and I close my eyes and tilt back my head, allowing a soft sigh to fall from my lips. Ciaran undresses me, his touch setting me alight, and he takes his time, savoring every brush of skin against skin. Once I’m naked, he removes his own clothes.
His palm skims my jaw. The way he’s looking at me, as though I’m the most precious thing in the world… I swear my heart skips a beat. That I have the love of this man, after everything I’ve been through, and everything I put him through, humbles me.
Before I have a chance to prepare myself, he’s everywhere at once. The heat from his mouth burns my skin, his urgency and need rivaling my own. It’s as if we’ve been apart for months rather than a few days. He devours me.
“Oh, God,” I mutter, arching into him when he pushes two fingers inside me while his tongue sweeps over my nipple. He pulls one erect nub into his mouth and sucks, hard. It borders on painful, but I don’t care. My body doesn’t care. The wetness flooding between my legs is testament to that.
He kisses down my body. Sinking to his knees, he pushes my thighs apart and drives his tongue inside me. I let out a long, drawn-out moan. A delicious agony I can’t get enough of sweeps through me, and I thrust my hands into his thick hair, tugging, pulling, torturing him the way he’s torturing me.
“Don’t stop, please, don’t stop,” I cry.
And then I’m coming—coming so hard, with groans of pleasure tumbling from my lips, my muscles contracting over and over again, and my thighs trembling until I think I might fall.
Ciaran picks me up and sets me on top of the comforter, then settles between my parted thighs before his mouth crashes down on mine and he drives inside me with one deep thrust. The bed creaks with every rocking movement of his hips. Maybe in another time, another moment, the intrusion would have made me giggle. But with my eyes firmly locked on Ciaran’s, watching the desire grow in their forest-green depths, laughter is the furthest thing from my mind.
Sweat beads on his forehead as he continues to move. Our bodies rub against each other, the friction causing a familiar swell to grow in my belly. I force myself to keep my eyes open. I want to look into Ciaran’s eyes when he comes. But when my orgasm sweeps through me, I fail spectacularly. My lids close, and gold and silver flecks burst behind my eyes in a firework display made for one.
Ciaran stills, groans, then mutters, “God, I love you,” in my ear.
It’s that declaration which tips my emotions over the edge. Tears spill down my cheeks, the enormity of what I almost lost crushing me. How easily I could have lost my freedom when I’d only just found it. How I could have spent the next several years living in anger and desperation while I waited for Tanner to give up and let me go.
Ciaran draws back. “Jesus, Mia, you’re crying.” He wipes my tears with his thumbs. “What’s the matter?”
I wrap my arms around his neck and crush him to me. “I love you,” I whisper, “so very much, and I almost lost you.”
He brushes my lips with his, then rolls to the side, curling an arm around me. As I rest my head on his shoulder, he strokes my hair so tenderly, fresh tears fall.
“Cry all you want to, baby. Let it out. I’m here. I’ll always be here.”
After a few minutes, I pull myself together. Sniffing, I wipe my nose with the back of my hand, then chuckle. “Classy.”
Without a word, he gets out of bed and fetches me a box of tissues. I wipe my face, then snuggle into his side once more.
“I’m sorry about the way I left. I couldn’t see another way out, and the look on your face is something that will haunt me for years. Then you came for me…”
He grazes his knuckles down my cheek. “I’d go to the ends of the earth to keep you safe. I’d fight to the death for you. You’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted, my strong, beautiful, brave Mia. You’re a survivor. A fighter. I’m humbled by your courage and your selflessness. Please say you’ll be by my side forever.”