“I look ridiculous.” Gabriella gestured to the outfit, flipping a metal accent with her fingers.
“You look powerful.”
Without lifting her head, Gabriella glared up at me from under her dark brows. “So…. When did you hack my phone and see the pinterest board? Hmm?”
Unable to take it any longer, I strode forward and closed the distance. I captured her, wrapping my arms around the metal-studded leather corset.
“I want to know what you like, Gabriella.” I leaned in, my lips inches from hers. “I want to know your tastes, your preferences. If that means scrolling your phone, then shoot me. I’m a sinner.”
Her breath caught in a soft, stilted sound, and that was it.
I couldn’t take it any longer. I bent and captured her lips in a searing kiss, rougher than I meant to be. She tasted like wine and temptation and something unmistakably hers. Warm. Familiar. My hands slid into her hair, felt the weight of it between my fingers. Soft and fine, not something I had any business tainting with my touch. But I would be damned if I let it go.
Gabriella leaned into me. She kissed me back hard, mouth opening, breath mixing with mine. The scrape of her teeth, the press of her body against my chest, the heat of her hands gripping my shirt drove me to the edge. It made everything else fall away. With her in my arms, there wasn’t death or crowns,enemies or threats. I was alive. Captured in this moment where I could just be a man who held his woman.
“You look like a warrior queen, come from the land of the fair folk to bring your enemies to their knees,” I rasped, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. “You look like mine.”
Gabriella gazed at me, wonder shimmering in those whiskey pools. “Well, when you put it like that.”
I smirked. “Now go.” I gave her arse a firm pat, though she probably didn’t feel it through the layers of wispy, gauzy material. “Get in the car. I’m right behind you.”
Bringing one of the dainty pillows she’d bought and the folded blanket from the foot of the bed, I followed her to the car. She raised a questioning brow as I tossed them on the back seat.
“Planning a slumber party?” she quipped.
I took the belt from her fingers, drew it snug across her body, and clipped it in place. “You might get tired on the way back. It’s over an hour drive.”
She captured my hand as I pulled away. “Thank you, Liam. That’s…thoughtful of you.”
Something passed between us. She wasn’t pulling back. She looked directly through me.
“You’re welcome, cailín.” I cleared my throat and gently untangled myself. “Get comfy, we have to get there fast.”
“Outside of Boston,” Gabriella sighed and leaned back in the seat, staring out the window.
“Aye.”
“Finally,” she breathed.
I almost didn’t catch it. “What?”
She laughed softly, almost like she didn’t believe it. “I’ve never been.”
“You’ve never left the city?” Granted, I didn’t get away much, but our family’s farm was a haven away from the chaos, war, and blood.
“No.” She yawned and reached back for the blanket. “Never left the city. Twenty-two years.”
I was about to tease her but stopped. Not because I wanted whatever this familiarity—this stolen moment—was to end. But because there was something scratching on the inside of my skull. That wasn’t right. There was a detail hidden in her admission. I just couldn’t place a bloody finger on it.
Chapter 34 – Gabriella
The McDonagh estate was something out of a fairytale. Calling it a farmhouse was like calling a castle a single-family home. It was huge. The Georgian Colonial architecture was stunning. But it was the pastures, with sleek wooden fences that stretched as far as the eye could see that made me pause. The moon bathed everything in a silver light, and I shivered with excitement, caught up in the vivid dreamscape.
“Are those horses?” I breathed, following Liam around the house where two equally large structures were lit by floodlights.
“And cows,” Liam agreed.
I wanted to run into the fields, spin around, and just…breathe.
