“I need you,” I interjected.
And you need me if you intend to live.
“Where are you going?”
“We, Anamchara. We’re going wherever you want to go as long as it’s not here.”
“Cillian, this is crazy.”
“You make me crazy. You make me want to do crazy things. Let’s just say fuck it to everything and everyone. We can elope, then spend the rest of our lives together. Don’t you want to fall asleep in my arms each night, and wake up in them in the morning?”
“We can marry, but it doesn’t have to be tonight.”
“It does!” I watched her mouth open, but before she could speak, I slammed my lips over hers to swallow her words.
It worked momentarily because she surrendered to me. My mouth slanted persistently over hers, especially once I thrust my tongue between her parted lips. As hers moved against mine, I drew her tongue into my mouth. I held her against me with one hand on her back, while I ran the other through her long, thick locks. Once I gave it a sharp pull, she pressed her hands against my chest once more.
“I know it sounds crazy, but I’m so in love with you. Being apart in Ireland has only shown me that I don’t want to do it anymore. We’re young, free, and in love. We should be able to be together without fear or worry.”
“It sounds so nice, but?—”
“Take a leap with me. We’ll run off and have the wild adventure we both deserve.”
“I don’t know...” she hedged, but I knew I was weakening her down.
“I love you, Anamchara. I’d give up everything in my life to be with you. Can you honestly say that you don’t feel the same way about me?”
There were unshed tears in her eyes, and as she looked around, I began to pray that I wouldn’t have to actually kidnap her. When she turned back toward me, I saw her soft smile, and I nearly staggered over in relief.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” I asked to be sure.
She nodded. “Let’s do this. We can meet each other in the morn?—”
“We have to leave now.”
“Why?”
“We just do. Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course, I do.”
My head was spinning at not only what I had agreed to, but also due to something else I couldn’t quite describe. Cillian Brannington had always been spontaneously wild, but there was something he wasn’t saying, which scared me. Whatever it was had to have scared him, too. I could see a fear I’d never seen before in his eyes.
Without even knowing what had him so spooked, I let out a breath before answering him. “We’ll go now.” Cillian pulled me back into his arms for the briefest of moments before stepping back. He bent down to grab his bag, and I remembered that I had nothing. “Can I at least go back to get a bag?”
He hesitated. “Hurry up and meet me at my car in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be back soon,” I said, and knowing how little time was left, I hurried back to my cottage. Both my mother and sister were sleeping, so I made sure to stay as quiet as I could as I stuffed as much clothing into my own backpack, then grabbed my purse and cell phone. Slipping back out of the house as quietly as I had entered, I raced back toward the parking lot.When in front of Cillian’s sports car, he turned on the headlights, and I froze.
He then motioned for me to get in, so I did. Once seated beside him, I looked at the cramped confines of the car, which seemed much too small for his long legs, and a sudden thought crossed my mind.
What could he possibly want with the poor daughter of his school’s headmistress?
Whatever it was, he smiled at me and all insecurity disappeared. I loved Cillian. It didn’t matter that he was way out of my league. There was something between us, and it was more than simply sex. Granted, he’d been my first and only lover, but I knew he loved me as he claimed.
I held onto that as he sped away from the only life and home I had ever known. The two of us would build a new one together, and I leaned back in the bucket seat. Closing my eyes and smiling, I could already imagine actually going to sleep in his arms tonight as promised. Only once had we ever been able to do so, but we’d gotten caught the next morning by a groundskeeper. He’d naturally ratted us out to not only my mother, but Cillian’s grandfather.
