They’d changed for the better.
“There’s no need for that.” He cupped her face with one hand and traced his thumb across her cheek. “You can do a lot better than me.”
“Oh, right.” She rolled her eyes. “Because hot guys who respect me, care about my well-being, and fuck me like I’m a porn star and they’re my top subscriber are just a dime a dozen.”
“And if they were, would you choose the guy with the fucked-up family issues?”
Lily worked her jaw and mulled over her words as she searched Kieran’s face for a hint of this newfound self-deprecation. Was this what he saw in the aura of his father’s abuse? A fuckup?
“You aren’t your father, Kieran.”
He shrugged. “Some days I am. I was an ass to you the first day we met. That’s definitely something I learned from dear ol’ Dad.”
“Okay, and?” She found his hands and threaded their fingers together. “You’ve more than made up for it. You’re the guy I wanna test run all my fantasies with, remember?”
“I want that, too.” He squeezed her hands in his.
“What I’m trying to say is…you’re better than Brennan. You’re a good man, and you deserve a good life. And, well.” She swallowed then blew out a breath, shaking off her doubts. “One of my many fantasies about you includes a good life.”
The corner of his mouth twitched upward. “Really? When you think about your future, I’m still there?”
“Of course.” Lily stood straight and schooled her face into a mask of seriousness. “Twenty years from now, you’re my baby daddy.”
He groaned and dropped his forehead onto her shoulder. “No can do, Princess.” He freed his hands from her grasp and found the zipper at the back of her dress. He dragged it down with agonizing slowness, his knuckles trailing in the zipper’s wake, and kissed across her shoulder, nudging the straps out of his way. “I’m Catholic. Can’t be having any bastards.”
Lily shivered and stepped out of her dress. “Fine,” she huffed, exaggerating theiinfine. “I’ll marry you.”
Kieran stilled. The upward trace of his fingers along her bare abdomen halted at her ribs. Something fierce flashed inhis eyes, and his gaze volleyed between her eyes and her lips. “Say it again.”
Butterflies shuddered in her belly, and Lily settled herself with her palms against Kieran’s chest. His gaze still held hers—as dark as the night and as powerful as the tide. If she’d known when she met him how much he’d wreck her twelve-month plan, maybe she would have walked away. But here she was—caught in his rip current and drowning in him.
Yes, she wanted to protect him. Share a life with him. Marry him if that was what he wanted.
“I’ll marry you, Kieran.”
He had her in his arms faster than she could exhale. One hand was under her thigh, tugging her up against his waist. The other was in her hair, bending her closer as he captured her lips with his. They parted only for seconds—slipping off his undershirt and her bra—shedding their clothing until he pinned her to the bed and nudged her legs apart with his knee.
His breath was hot against her skin, leaving a trail of goose bumps as he kissed from her neck to her breasts. “Tell me about our life in twenty years.”
A shiver rolled through Lily, and she bucked her hips upward, desperate to touch as much of him as possible. “We’ll live off the lake. Somewhere with lots of trees so we can watch the leaves change in the fall. Outside of the city but not so far you can’t take a train in for work. We’ll have a beautiful old home. Victorian, maybe, and we’ll restore it with Danny and our kids.”
“We’re having multiple kids, are we?”
“Siblings are important, right?”
“Hmm, well, I’ll make sure our bedroom has a deck overlooking the water.” He took his time between sentences and rolled her nipple under his tongue, working her belly into a tighter and tighter knot with every pass of his tongue andpromise from his lips. “I’ll bend you over the railing every morning and make love to you while we watch the sunrise.”
Lily giggled and snuck a hand between them. Her grip closed around his length, and she flicked her thumb over his tip, making him groan. “That sounds a little graphic for lovemaking. Maybe fucking.”
“Sex isn’t dirty, Princess.” Kieran sat back on his knees and caressed the underside of her thighs. “I could drill you right in this tight little ass of yours—it wouldn’t change how I feel about you.”
Anticipation swam in her veins. “And how do you feel about me?”
He grinned and bent forward, dusting kisses over her abdomen. “Like I’d fix up an old Victorian home with you.”
Each searing kiss up through the valley of her breasts left her more breathless than the last. When he settled between her legs, his cock hung heavily against her inner thigh. The heat of his chest was tantalizing against her bare skin. He held himself up with his left hand and with his right he swept her hair away from her face. He traced her jawline slowly, deliberately, as if committing the shape to memory, before brushing his thumb across her bottom lip. “Tell me what you want, Lily.”
He must have asked her a hundred times that summer, but for once anxiety didn’t swallow down her words. She took his free hand and laced their fingers together, bringing his hand to rest atop hers on the bed. “I do wanna make love. Not fuck.”
