Page 32 of Hot Irish Halloween

It was when Serena turned back to sports that her words pricked Penny’s ears.

“Can I call you Jack?” Serena asked him. He nodded once, and she continued, “I saw an interview with Derek La Roque last night on SportsZone. He says his team has been reaching out to you for a title fight. You’ve even been offered a new contract, but you haven’t confirmed. Is he telling the truth? Are you really considering getting back into the cage? I hope you are. I can’t stand that man, even if he is handsome. Somebody needs to beat hisass.”

Jack flushed while Penny looked between him and her new friend with her mouth parted. She couldn’t have heard that right. Jack, considering getting back in the octagon? When he’d told her fighting would be dangerous for him?

He wasn’t answering. Penny was about to ask who the hell was La Roque and what was Jack going to do about the offer, until the ring on her hand flashed into her eyes, and she remembered she was his “wife.” A wife would know about an offer like that. A wife would have been informed and would have already told him to forget about doing anything like that, ever.

Finally, Jack spoke. “There are a few other fighters I think could take him down. DeMonte Shaw from London, Diego Montoya of Mexico. Two Nigerian fighters coming up in the ranks. I’m far from the only game in town.”

Eyes shifting to his empty plate, Jack seemed more than ready to drop the topic.

“That’s a shame. You were phenomenal, Jack. I mean…don’t you miss it? People cheering your name…bein’ the best of the best…” Serena asked, her smile wistful.

Again, Jack was slow to answer, eyes still down on the table.

Penny jumped in. “Jack and I are both enjoying being out of the spotlight. His gym is his life now. He’s going to debut two excellent fighters, so keep your eyes peeled for someannouncements with that. And I admit I’m selfish. I prefer that handsome face just the way it is.”

With a grateful smile, Jack nodded. “My wife is right. I’m excited about my fighters. But she’s leaving out the best part of retirement. I get to come home to her. She’s my life now.”

That was taking the act too far. Jack’s direct gaze was too heavy and went too deep. Emotion flooded the most tender parts of herself, for him, for the sincerity in his voice that rolled through her.

“Wow,” Serena breathed with her hand to her chest, her golden-brown eyes misting. “Penny, does Jack have a brother? Maybe a cousin?” They laughed.

After the last few courses and the berry compote dessert, there was no offer of the usual coffee. Instead, there was tea, which Penny sniffed when it was poured.

“Mm, what’s in that?” she asked, taking a deeper whiff.

“Lavender, ma’am, with rose petals and other herbs, ma’am,” Diarmuid informed her.

“That smells good. Yes, please.” She noticed his dick through the opening of his robe. It hung long, but not erect.

Penny laughed. Jack’s nose flared. He swigged the tea he’d just been served, too, and blinked slowly. His face was flushing again like it had when he’d been lavishing attention on her pussy. Suddenly she wanted him to finish the job. Desperately needed to feel him again, his thick fingers, his tongue, any part of him. But even in this altered state, somewhere between drunk and stoned and a little bit over the rainbow, she resisted the pull of him, the satisfaction she knew he could give her.

This was too intense.Hewas too intense.

As if he knew what she was thinking, the corner of Jack’s lips curled with an almost cruel amusement. His eyes were dark tonight, nothing green-gold in them now, and narrowed to the point where she no longer saw white. He raised his cup to hislips and drank more spiced tea, then paused. He put the cup down, raised his hand to his face as if he’d caught the scent of something and inhaled. He inhaled it again, putting his fingers right up under his nose. It was the finger he’d used to fuck her earlier. Jack wouldn’t release her from his captive gaze as he sniffed that finger and her pussy flooded even as her face went aflame.

She was disgusted by him. She wanted him so badly she was going to incinerate from desire.

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing…” Simon was saying from his spot at the table. A guest was complaining to him in muted but agitated tones. The servers had cleared up the dishes and silverware and were now going down the rows, bending and murmuring in each guest’s ear. “It’s just a formality. Something we, unfortunately, in modern times, are obliged to address. You are more than welcome to adjourn to your room…”

The argumentative guest turned and gestured to his much younger companion. Both men left the room, the first angry with the second looking very sorry to go. People hardly noticed the dust-up, too busy polishing off the remnants of their drinks and dessert.

“Ma’am. Your clearance, ma’am.” Diarmuid was back, bending by her ear.

“Clearance for what?” Penny asked, weaving in her seat. The haze in the room wasn’t smoke from the fireplace; it was inside her head. She shook it, and the haze cleared a bit.

“A first-timer, huh?” Serena said with an amused grin. “He needs to see your health info, hon. To make sure you’re in the clear to participate in the festivities tonight. Do you have it on you somewhere?”

“My phone,” Penny said stupidly. “My phone.” She laughed, then went to dig her phone out of the secret pocket Aoife hadadded to the gown so she wouldn’t need a purse. “Yay for pockets in ball gowns!”

Unlocking the phone and finding the info was tricky with her fumbling, slow fingers, but finally, she managed.

Diarmuid checked it and bowed. “Very good, ma’am. If you please, turn off your mobile.” He held up a silk bag and waited for her to drop the phone inside. “Thank you, ma’am. This will be returned to you upon your departure. Have a wonderful evening.”

Across from her, Jack did the same. He was staring at her, ignoring the woman sitting next to him, who was dragging her finger along his arm. There was a look in his eyes that warned her, again, that maybe they should leave before lines were crossed that couldn’t be uncrossed.

She didn’t want to leave. She wanted to see what was there, at the event horizon, beyond which she just knew something momentous waited if she had the courage to go exploring.

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