I wince. “It turned out alright.”
Her fingers slide to my shoulders as her expression turns pensive, and I give a half-hearted thought to taking her in my mouth again, but brush it away with no small amount of regret.
“So he’s working with someone. And Dad is trying to cover up what happened. Whatever it is.”
“When we get back to New Orleans, we’ll figure it out. But for tonight, I need my wife by my side. You understand? There are some things I haven’t told you about how this goes.”
“I’m sure,” she says. She takes a step back, and her panties drop to the floor, leaving her beautiful body completely bare to me. I study the shadowed heaven between her legs, and she’s fucking dripping.
“You’re a cruel, cruel woman,” I say, unable to look away.
“I take it I don’t have time to clean up?” she asks, and I can hear the smile in her voice.
All I can do is shake my head. The cave dweller part of my brain is delighted at the thought of her walking around still wet from wanting me.
We spend the ride to Cian’s place in silence, our earlier ardor cooled by the growing threats looming ahead of us. The muscles along my back and neck twitch with repressed energy mingling with excitement. As much as I’m dreading being back here with Cian and having Catriona so close to him, I get to see my mother again. Introduce her to my wife. It almost doesn’t feel real.
As though I called her with my thoughts, the front door to Cian’s home opens to reveal her standing in the doorway. I freeze as emotion assails me, my lungs seizing, my muscles tightening.
“Ma,” I say, my voice a ragged, boyish croak.
She’s the same as I remember, yet altogether not. Or maybe it’s because I’ve grown that she seems so small and vulnerable. Even more than I remember when I’d been forced to leave her. Her light brown hair is still the same, just long enough tobrush her shoulders and frame an elfin face. Blue eyes a couple of shades darker than mine. A wide smile that flickers before wobbling with happy tears. If I also notice the lines carved into her skin, the missing ring finger she tries to hide, and the way she’s thin, too thin, I conceal them so I can have this moment. Just one, where I get to feel relief.
I draw her against my body and wrap my arms around her for a protracted moment. It’s been so long. So long that there was a point when I began to accept I may never see her again. It feels like this is the first time since I lost her when oxygen finally reaches my brain.
“Aiden,” she says, breathing heavily into my shirt. “My boy, I’ve missed you very much. I’m so glad to see you.”
She squeezes me tight, and I breathe in the floral scent of her so deeply, I want to draw it into my marrow. Her hands tug at my clothes trying to pull me closer.
“It’s good to see you, too. I thought I wouldn’t see you until dinner.”
I hold her until she starts laughing and pulls away. “I’ve missed you, too, my boy. There was no way I was going to wait to see you again. God, you look just like your father. So handsome.” She squeezes me with bird-like hands. Dainty and easily broken. She presses her mouth against my cheek. “Please. Don’t worry anymore. Everything is going to be okay.” And then she turns to Catriona, and I wonder if I misunderstood her. “And you. I’ve been waiting to meet you.” She releases my hands and steps around me to give Catriona the same treatment. “Aiden’s told me so much about you.”
Is it me, or is she not able to look at me?
Catriona stills, her eyes going wide and flying to mine as Ma wraps her in a hug I know must be boa-constrictor tight. She’s stiff for a long moment, and I see the second she gives in, relaxes, and hugs Ma back. It’s almost like she’s forgotten thefeeling, and I realize maybe she has. Her mother died nearly a year ago.
I turn away from them and study my surroundings blindly so I don’t let myself think about it for too long. The last thing I need to be tonight is distracted. And thinking about Catriona lost and alone after the death of her mother hits a little bit too close to home.
“I’m Catriona. It’s lovely to meet you, Mary. Aiden has missed you so much.” Her voice ends on a choked sound.
“Catriona,” Ma says warmly, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard her so… happy. The light, carefree tone in her voice is happiness. Has it really been so long that I’d forgotten what it sounded like? The thought guts me so completely I go still as a standing stone. “Please, come with me. We have a bit of time before we’ll have to be at dinner. I would love to show you my gardens, if you’d like.”
“I’d love that,” and Catriona sounds so sincere, even I believe her.
Ten minutes later, I have my hands in my pockets as I trail behind the two of them. Ma has both of her arms clutched around Catriona, but my wife doesn’t seem to mind. Their heads are bent close together as Catriona replays our wedding ceremony for her benefit. It’s then that it occurs to me she didn’t get to see it. She’ll never attend my wedding. Just another thing Cian has stolen from us.
I look away, jaw flexing, as I study the perfectly pruned flowers to get myself back under control. Only, the sight of them doesn’t give me the respite I’d hoped for. It only reminds me of the gilded cage she’s endured in my absence.
With effort, I’m able to rejoin them in the rows and rows of my mother’s most prized possessions: her flowers. It eases something in me to see them together. For my mother to have a moment of respite from Cian’s dominion.
“I couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet the woman who bested my son. I don’t know whether to tell you congratulations or offer my condolences.”
She’d be well within her rights to disparage me to hell and back for what I’ve done since we said our vows. I wouldn’t blame her. Being near my mother strips me of all my defenses in a way that nothing else can. I’m a sitting duck for her here, easy pickings.
But instead of listing all of my many faults, Catriona smiles kindly. “You have a lovely garden here, Mrs. Lynch. And you should be proud. Aiden is remarkable. The charity work he does, how fast his business has grown. I wish you could have made it to the wedding. I would love to show you around if you ever make it to New Orleans.”
Mom’s smile crinkles her eyes, and at that moment, I know I’d give Catriona whatever she asked. I’d turn her father’s house into ruins. I’d bare my throat for her. Because she didn’t have to be nice to my mother. She didn’t have to give her the impression our union was anything other than fifty ways of fucked until now.
