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Fast forward to hours later. We’d talked, mingled, ate, and danced ourselves silly. The representatives from the other Irish families all expressed their surprise to me privately. They were amazed that ours was a love match. It was rarely the case in our type of family, even though it had been so for my parents. I assured them we wouldn’t settle for anything less than our anamcharas. I was confident Sean and Cormac would be the same. Any hopes of alliances between our families through arranged, loveless marriages were dashed.
There were more than one pair of hungry eyes looking at her. I made sure to stick close and to warn them off with a look. No one would ever take her from me. I’d kill for this woman. As the party continued to go on, which could be all night with us Irish when there was music and good alcohol, I stole her away. I knew she was exhausted, and I didn’t want her to overdo it.
Yesterday, we found out that even though we’d only been together intimately for a month, she was pregnant with our first child. It was the best wedding present in the world. The family promised to keep it secret for now, not that I cared if the baby had been conceived out of wedlock or who knew it. We just wanted to celebrate our wedding. However, I would make sure she rested and took care of herself. Whisking her off after we said goodbye to our mams, I took her home. We were leaving in the morning for our honeymoon. Her mam had settled in nicely with us. She was the happiest Maeve had ever seen her, and she was overjoyed to be a seanmháthair, grandmother.
My gift to my bride was a new house, but not just any house. It was one big enough to house not only our family but my brothers’ families one day and our mams. It was her dream to have a huge, loving family around us. What my banríon, my queen, wanted, she received. As I unbuttoned her wedding dress, I dreamed of what our future would bring. How many children? How many grandchildren? I knew it wouldn’t always be easy, but it would be filled with love.
EPILOGUE
MAEVE
Forty Years Later
Watching our family laugh and have a great time around us as they helped us celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary filled me with joy. Our life so far had been great, but it hadn’t always been without pain, like when I lost our first baby. When Darragh was born a couple of years later, we celebrated him and, each time after that, we prayed not to lose another.
Now Patrick had handed the reins over to Darragh and he was the head of the family. I wanted all my children to find true love like I had with their father, but I especially wanted it for Darragh. He needed someone strong to be at his side and help him guide the family. He was only a few years from forty and not a single woman had caught his eye that I knew of. The same for his three brothers. Their baby sister was still young, and I wasn’t ready yet to lose her. Although they all were independent and lived in their own homes on the family estate, they were close but not smothered.
As I watched them dance and chat, I sent up a prayer. Patrick would say I was casting a spell. Please, God, help guide the right soulmate to my children. Let them experience everything beyond the temptation, to have love and laughter in their lives that outweighs the pain and hardships. Let them have the families they desire and deserve. Let them have the happiness I have with their father. Amen.
Strong arms wrapping around me made me sigh as I sank back against the still-hard chest of my soulmate. I’d been blessed and continued to be blessed. How thankful I was that I let myself follow the temptation that was Patrick O’Sheeran, mo ghrá, mo shaol, my love, my life. I’d never regretted it.
AFTERWARD
If you want to find out how Patrick and Maeve’s children, nephews and nieces find their happily ever after stories, then read my new Irish Mafia series, Covenant of Ascent: O’Sheerans. It starts in Darragh’s Dilemma.
THE KISSING BET
BY KIMBERLY KNIGHT
CHAPTER ONE
LOGAN
The soft glow of holiday lights hung around my room as I lay in my bed, wrapped in a velvety blanket, watching Christmas movies. The one I was watching was about a modern-day screenwriter who traveled back to 1947 and onto a classic holiday movie set at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina.
Just as the female lead told the male lead she had to go, and rushed off to find the magical hourglass that would take her back to the present day, my phone buzzed with a message from my friend from medical school.
Taylor:
What are you doing?
Me:
Watching Christmas movies. What are you up to?
Taylor:
Get dressed. We’re going clubbing
Me:
Clubbing? Really?
Taylor:
Come on. Everyone’s going
Me:
