In the Arms of the Wind (15 page)

Moirrey smiled. “Neither would you, John-o. I can promise you it would not be a good thing if anythin’ happened to your little brother.” Her accent deepened as her words came stronger.

He dropped his pen into the crease of the puzzle book and closed it, laid it beside the glass of whiskey then took up the liquor to take a long sip before considering his wife. “Is that a warning of sorts,
leanabh
?” he inquired.

“Of sorts,” she agreed. Her legs were tucked beneath her and the fiery red gleam of her toenail polish caught and held his attention. She wriggled her toes and his gaze returned to hers. “I like your little brother.”

He took another sip then arched a dark brow. “You’re in love with my little brother,” Johnny corrected.

“Never said otherwise to you, John-o,” she told him. “I’ll not deny it.”

“Too bad you got me instead of him,” Johnny snapped.

She held his angry glower. “I’ll not deny that either,” she replied sweetly. “He’s a better man on his worst day than you’ll ever be on your best.” She tilted her head to one side. “And your grandfather knows it even if you fail to.”

Johnny downed the remains of his whiskey in two gulps then set the glass on the table. “Fuck you, Moirrey,” he growled as he got to his feet.

“Not a chance, John-o,” she returned. “Better one of them dockside whores you keep at the Villas than me.”

Johnny flinched, his eyes widening. It was obvious from his stunned look that he had no idea she knew of his extracurricular activities.

“Run along, John-o,” she said. “You go to your whores and I’ll sit here and dream about what it would be like to have Danny as my lover.”

Hissing a filthy word under his breath, Johnny Gallagher turned his back on her. She watched him storm out of the room and laughed, her laughter following him all the way up the stairs.

Chapter Six

“I can guarantee you will be bored witless throughout the entire dinner, but I’ll be there so anytime the questioning gets too intense, just scratch your nose and I’ll change the subject,” Danny told Kaycee as they lay in bed together two nights later. Her head was on his shoulder, her arm draped over his naked chest.

Though he never wore underwear, he always slept in a pair of black boxer shorts and she was twining a loose thread at the waistband ’round and ’round her finger. She was nervous about having supper at his grandfather’s house. When he’d told her of the invitation and had explained that each of his immediate family would be in attendance, she felt panic crawling up her spine. He had counted them off on his fingers, starting with his thumb.

“Grandfather, my mother, Uncle Mike and Aunt Maureen, my uncle Liam, the monsignor, Johnny and his wife Moirrey, and Father Sean. That’s what—ten of us?”

“I think so,” she’d replied in a small voice.

“Then he’ll also invite Seamus and his wife Bridget, so we’ll have a full table. He has this thing about odd numbers and empty chairs.”

“Seamus? That’s the lawyer?”

“Yeah,” he said, stroking her bare arm. “You’ll like Bridie. She’s quiet like you.”

“Intimidated is more like it,” Kaycee said. She drew her fingertips over the wiry pelt between his pectorals. “I don’t know if I’m ready to meet your family yet.”

“Might as well get it over with,” he said.

“I guess,” she muttered.

Danny crooked a finger under her chin and tilted her face up to his. “Hey, there’s nothing to be afraid of. They don’t bite.” He leaned over her to kiss the tip of her nose.

“I hope not,” she said.

“I know what will take your mind off that damned meal,” he said. He turned, easing her head from his shoulder onto his pillow then tossed the covers aside, leaning over her. His hand went down her hip and thigh and he began to inch the skirt of her nightgown up her legs.

“You’re a bad man, Danny Gallagher,” she said.

“You have no idea,” he said then scooted down in the bed, pushing the gown up to her hips as he moved over her, bracketing his body with her legs. His hands went under her and he lifted her lower body.

“Danny!” she gasped, realizing what he was about to do. No man had ever performed oral sex on her and she wasn’t sure she wanted…

The moment his warm breath fanned over her labia, Kaycee stopped breathing, stopped moving. His kiss against the triangle at the apex of her thighs sent goose bumps dancing along her lower body, and when his tongue touched her on a spot that sent wild chills racing through her, she grabbed handfuls of the sheet and held on to the bed for all she was worth.

“Easy, doll,” he whispered, and the vibration of his voice made her squirm. He looked up at her through a lock of dark hair. “Is this new to you?”

She could only nod, her face flaming. Her belly was quivering.

“Oh baby,” he said softly, and something wicked—maybe even evil—entered his amber eyes.

He lowered his head, turning his lips to her inner thigh to plant soft, gentle little kisses all along the sensitive flesh from just below the crease to the tender expanse behind her knee. He flicked his tongue up the inside of her thigh—licked the crease—then placed fleeting kisses through the fleecy curls over her mons to her other thigh and worked his way down to her knee with kisses, up along with the drag of his tongue.

Kaycee was drawing in quick breaths with each kiss, ceasing to breathe with each lick. She dug her fingernails into the sheet and twisted it as he placed little nibbles on her inner thigh, edging his way ever closer to the juncture of her legs.

He blew a hot breath over the center of her as he returned to the other thigh and began the same nibbling journey along her shivering flesh. With each pass of his tongue, each clamp of his teeth, her heels drove into the mattress as she unconsciously offered her hips to him.

Danny moved his hands so he could put his thumbs and index fingers to the outer lips of her labia. He began a slow, gentle, mesmerizing massage of those delicate folds. All the while he looked up past her trembling belly to watch her. She seemed unable to take her eyes from him and that was exactly what he wanted. After a moment or two of plying her flesh with his fingers, he slowly and tenderly separated the folds with his thumbs and blew a light breath across the inner labia.

“Danny!” she hissed, eyes widening.

He smiled, arched one dark brow then put his mouth to her.

Nothing could have prepared Kaycee for the ecstasy of that very intimate, very heated kiss. She jerked on the sheets, squeezed her eyes shut and stopped breathing. He was licking around the lips of the inner labia, flicking it with his tongue, swirling it around the vaginal opening, and the heat from his breath was heavenly. His thumbs were spreading her for his amorous assault and she felt helpless, unable to do anything except pant. He licked her—dragging his tongue from her opening to her clit—over and over again as though she were a lollipop and he was savoring the taste. A low growl deep in his throat made her tense, open her eyes, and it was at the moment he once again touched the wondrous spot where pure pleasure dwelled, the tip of his tongue stabbing firmly at it a second before he clamped his lips around it.

“Mother of God!” Kaycee screeched, and writhed as though she were a serpent. She tore at the sheets, buried the side of her face against the pillow and moaned.

“Too much?” he asked.

“Yes!” she groaned then wildly shook her head. “No! Don’t stop!”

She heard the low chuckle that came from him and wanted to slap him silly, but then he was doing something with his hand to her clit—pushing against it lightly and then flicking a fingertip across it.

“Danny!” she screamed, and the spasms began in her cunt so strong she could feel the pulsing of fluid oozing from her.

Danny slipped two fingers inside her as she climaxed and she bore down hard on his hand, the undulations so strong they tugged at his fingers. Unable to resist, he licked her clit and she came again so violently he felt the bed beneath them shudder. He covered that hard little nub with his mouth and suckled her hard, wincing as her hands clutched at his hair.

“No more!” she yelled. “Danny, no more! No more!”

He released her and lifted his head, sliding up her body and covering her.

“No more?” he questioned.

She tugged at his boxers. “Do it.”

“No condom this time?” he inquired as he flipped to his side, shoved the boxers from his body then lay atop her, pushing his hard erection against her core.

She lifted her legs and encircled his waist, pulling him to her. “Do it!” she ordered, and he slid into her with one fierce thrust that moved her up in the bed.

With her arms around his shoulders, her legs around his waist, he pumped hard into her—once, twice, three times—then came powerfully with a roar of release, his head thrown back as his cock pulsed until it was drained.

Danny was gasping for breath as he half rolled from her, pulling her with him so they lay belly to belly with his forehead pressed against her shoulder. He’d never had such a violent orgasm and it had stunned him. He felt weak, depleted and utterly defenseless.

They lay silent for a long time until they had their erratic breathing and heartbeats under control. He was barely awake and she was stroking his arms in a soothing sweep from shoulder to elbow and back again. When the phone rang, he jumped, cursed and rose up to reach past her to grab his cell.

“This had fucking better be an emergency!” he barked into the phone.

In the soft sky glow coming from the window Kaycee saw him blink and watched the anger flow out of him.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m all right.”

She studied his face as he spoke. Whoever had called him was speaking so softly she couldn’t hear the words, but from the softness of his tone, she suspected he was speaking to a female.

“No, it wasn’t anything. Just a small cut. Uncle Mike took care of it.”

Kaycee saw his gaze flick to her then away and sensed the caller had asked about her.

“Yeah.”

His lips tightened and irritation flowed over his still face as he listened to whatever was being said. He sighed heavily once or twice, keeping his gaze diverted.

“Yeah, you too. Thanks.”

He terminated the call and turned so he could put the phone on the nightstand beside him.

For the first time in Kaycee’s life she felt territorial.

“Who was that?”

She didn’t think he was going to answer, but then he drew in a long breath, exhaled and met her eyes.

“My brother Johnny’s wife Moirrey,” he said. “She called to see how I was.”

Kaycee heard more in his words than he was saying.

“She do that a lot?”

“More than she should,” he answered then exhaled another long breath. “She’s part of the problem I have with my brother and has been for a very long time.”

“Are you lovers?”

“Not anymore,” he admitted. “We were a long, long time ago. Before she and Johnny tied the knot.”

“But she can’t let it go.”

“She can’t let me go,” he told her.

“She knows I’m here with you.”

“Yeah, she knows.” He drew her into his arms. “I don’t want to talk about her.”

Kaycee put a hand on his chest, her head on his shoulder, pressed tight to his side.

“Is she going to be a problem, Danny?” she asked.

“Not if I can help it,” he answered. “Just so you know, there is nothing between us as far as I’m concerned. It’s been over for years.”

As he fell asleep, Kaycee lay awake staring across the room. Instinct told her she had an enemy in Moirrey Gallagher.

* * * * *

Beautiful didn’t begin to describe Johnny Gallagher’s wife. The only thing that marred the exquisite loveliness that came striding gracefully into the parlor of Xavier Gallagher’s mansion were the light dusting of freckles upon the woman’s porcelain complexion. She wore her bright red hair in a thick braid wound elegantly into a flawless chignon in which a spray of pale green tea roses rested. Long legs were encased in a shimmering copper gown that clung to a shapely body and lush breasts. Bare shoulders gleamed in the low lighting and the scent of very expensive cologne followed in her wake. Her full lips gleamed with a dark dusky shade of lip gloss and when they parted, white, even teeth were revealed. To add insult to injury, when she greeted those already present in the room, her voice held the sweet lilt of Irish mists dancing over the crests of verdant green mountains.

“How are you,
Daideo
?” she asked Xavier as Danny’s grandfather hobbled into the room on a cane.

“As good as I’m going to get,” the old man grumbled as he accepted the air kiss to his right cheek. He waved her away and took a seat in a large easy chair.

The tall, statuesque beauty laughed and even her laughter was lovely. She swept her dark green gaze around the room and when it found Danny, it stopped. Although she greeted the others before she wound her way sensually to the place where the object of her rapt attention was standing, her intense gaze barely wavered.

“And how is my favorite brother-in-law?” she asked, smiling coyly.