Page 55 of Beer & Broomsticks

“Well, you can find another eejit to fuck, because I’m not it.” He strode around her to the door, and just as he touched the knob, he heard her sigh.

“Please.”

He glanced over his shoulder, not truly expecting her to be contrite, but she was. “Please, what?”

“Please don’t go, Ruairí. Stay with me.”

Because he didn’t quite understand in what exact way she meant, he remained quiet.

“Here, at the Black Cat. Not here in my bed. You’ve already rejected me, and I’ll not ask again.”

“I didn’t reject you,mo ghrá.I rejected your reason.” He spun back and pointed at the rock-hard bulge in his pants. “No sane man is going to tell you no, as beautiful as you are. And before you say a word, I’ll be tellin’ ya true, I’m not sane. I never have been where you’re concerned, now have I?”

“If you want me, and I want you, and it could restore my family magic, then what’s the problem?”

Maybe hewasan eejit, because when she stated it that way, he couldn’t come up with a plausible explanation that didn’t make him sound like a girl. Whynotgive into his desire?

He wanted her to love him as madly as he loved her.

That was why. Anything less would leave him unfulfilled.

“I love you.”

A deep frown marred her lovely brow. “The problem is you love me? You make no sense, Ruairí O’Connor.”

“I love you, and I want more than a pity shag.”

“Who’s pitying you, you dammed fool? Certainly not me. I said I want you, and I meant it. Sure, maybe not as my husband, but enough that it’s not a pity shag.”

He’d never been more frustrated with her nor more aroused. Bridget, throwing about the wordshagand appearing as she was with the flush of desire on her cheeks and an appreciative look in her eye, turned him into a randy goat.

“Fine. You want to shag? We’ll shag,” he growled, ripping his henley over his head and tossing it to the ground. “Get undressed.”

Her triumphant smirk drove him mad.

CHAPTER23

Bridget knew she’d taunted him into the rash decision to have sex, but she didn’t care. First, she desired him, and she’d been fantasizing about this moment since he’d set her on the pub cooler and kissed her senseless. Probably longer, if she were honest with herself. And second, if he was the Enemy at the Gate as she suspected and as Isis hinted at, then sex with him would unlock the curse.

Unlocking the curse meant a drain of Loman’s power, and should he show up to challenge or hurt any of them, he’d be weaker than when he started. Whatever it took to protect her family and friends, and by extension, Ruairí, from Loman O’Connor’s brand of evil, she’d do. Even if it meant shagging the one man she’d never been able to forget after.

“What are you waiting for? Start strippin’,” Ruairí demanded, three-quarters of the way to naked.

She couldn’t help it; she giggled. A surly Ruairí tickled her fancy. Yeah, and she might be warped in her thinking, but ruffling his feathers and causing this normally unflappable male to lose all sense of reason made her happy. Could be she enjoyed the challenge. Or it could be that, like many a woman, she wanted her man to lose all sense of decorum and go caveman over her.

When she didn’t undress fast enough for his peace of mind, he snapped his fingers and had them both stripped bare in the blink of an eye. Such effortless magic always left her breathless, or perhaps she was simply breathless seeing him without a stitch of clothing after all this time. Either way, she had to struggle to inhale a proper lungful of air.

He was magnificent. Perfect in every way that mattered. Looks, a fit body… Her gazed dropped to his rampant erection. And yes, that too.

“You certainly filled out since we were last together,” she said.

“I could say the same for you, but then it was harder for you to hide your figure over the years, so I didn’t miss much.”

For as irritated as he’d been when she suggested sex, Ruairí approached her with great care as if afraid to spook a wild horse. And perhaps the description was fitting because her heart was pounding madly in her chest and, as much as she desired him, she suddenly felt ready to bolt.

“It’s all right if you’ve changed your mind, Bridget,” he said softly.

Her eyes snapped to his. Tenderness was what she saw there. A calm acceptance that she might say no. No pressure. No expectations. Nothing but love.

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