Page 69 of Tempting Irish

We lay together, panting, and I cling to him, his forehead pressed against the side of myface.

I don’t want to move. Can’t move. Just want to stay hereforever.

After a few minutes, he peels himself away, and shifts his legs over the side of the bed, discarding the condom, then lays back beside me, raking back the hair from his dampforehead.

He lifts his arm for me to slide closer. “Ye allright?”

Better than all right, and yet utterly destroyed at the sametime.

I nod, placing my cheek on his chest. “You?” Warmth wraps around me as tight as the arms that anchor me tohim.

“Ye’re incredible, ye know that?” His knuckles graze my shoulder, and he murmurs, “Sobeautiful.”

Hope flutters in my chest. And with it, the warning bells reminding me that this is nothing, just a fling. I’d made a promise to never let another man wreck me, to never be like my mother. But laying here in his arms, I understand why it’s called falling in love. I can feel my heart tumbling, out of control, into an abyss with no one to catch me. And no one to blame except myself when I finally land on solidground.

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