AllFreeNovel
Share Us
to his business side even as it irked on a personal level. Since jealousy made him feel ridiculous, he concentrated on the business angle.
When the song was over, she reached over the bar to grab Shawn by the collar and haul him halfway across it for a loud kiss. “Moron,” she said, with obvious affection.
“Shrew.”
“Three fish and chips, two stews, and two portions of your porter cake. Now back into the kitchen where you belong.” She ran her hand absently across Trevor’s shoulder as she turned to Aidan. “Three pints each Guinness and Harp, a glass of Smithwick’s, and a pair of Cokes. The one Coke’s for Connor, so there’s no charge. Do you mind?” she said to Trevor, and picked up his pint for a small sip.
“So, do you take requests?”
“Hmm. I’m here to do nothing but.”
“Sing another.”
“Oh, it’s likely I will before the evening’s done.” She transferred the drinks that were poured onto her tray.
“No, now.” He pulled a twenty-pound note out of his pocket, held it up between two fingers. “A ballad this time.”
Her gaze shifted from his face to the bill, then back again. “That’s a considerable tip for a bit of a tune.”
“I’m rich, remember?”
“That’s something I haven’t forgotten.” She reached out for the twenty, narrowed her eyes when he jerked it away.
“Sing it first.”
She considered ignoring him on principle and perhaps a little spite. But it was twenty pounds, and singing wasn’t a trial to her. So she smiled at him, then lifted her voice as she lifted her tray.
Come all ye maidens young and fair / All you that are blooming in your prime / Always beware and keep your garden fair / Let no man steal away your thyme.
Connor picked up the melody, flushing a bit when she winked at him and served his soft drink. She served the others as well, singing as she did a song of regret and the loss of innocence. Conversations hushed, and more than a few hearts sighed. Because he was paying for it, she looked at Trevor as she walked back to the bar. She gave the last lines to him.
Satisfaction warmed her eyes when applause broke out. It gleamed there as she nipped the bill from his hand. “At twenty each, I’ll sing as many tunes as you like.” Then taking the Guinnesses Aidan had finished, she moved off to serve them.
“Hell, I’ll do one for half that,” someone called out, and over a roar of laughter, began on “Biddy Mulligan.”
“There’s formal music over the weekend,” Aidan told Trevor. “And Gallagher’s pays the band.”
“I’ll check it out.” He watched Darcy go back behind the bar, into the kitchen. “Do the three of you ever play together?”
“Shawn and Darcy and myself? At ceilis now and again, or in here for a bit of fun. I sang for my supper a time or two when I was traveling. It can be a hard life.”
“Depends on the booking.”
Trevor stayed another hour, nursing his pint, enjoying his stew, and listening to the apparently tireless Connor play tune after tune.
He got up once to open the door for a couple who each had a sleeping child over a shoulder. It was families, he noted, who left for home, and a couple of men with weather-beaten faces. Fishermen, he imagined, who would be up before dawn to head out to sea.
Food orders began to taper off after nine o’clock, but the taps ran steadily as he rose to go.
“Are you calling it a night, boss?” Brenna called out.
“Yeah. Until I find out what vitamins you’re taking that keep you going strong for fifteen hours’ work.”
“Ah, it’s not vitamins.” She leaned over to pat the gnarled hand of the old man who’d sat on the same stool for hours. “It’s being near my true love, Mr. Riley, here that keeps me going.”
Riley let out a cackle. “Come give us a last pint, then, my darling, and a kiss to go with it.”
“Well, the pint will cost you, but the kiss is free.” She glanced back at Trevor as she drew it. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I need to borrow your sister a minute,” Trevor told Aidan, then took Darcy’s hand before she could move past him. “It’s your turn to walk me out.”
“I suppose I can spare you a minute.” She set down her tray and, ignoring Aidan’s frown, strolled to the door.
The rain was a fine mist that drenched the air. Smoky drifts of fog crept in from the sea to crawl along the ground. Through it came the steady beat of the water,and the far-off call of a horn as a boat passed in the night.
“Ah, it’s cool.” Closing her eyes, Darcy lifted her face to the thin rain. “It gets stuffy in there by this time of night.”
“Your feet must be killing you.”
“I won’t deny they could use a good hard rub.”
“Come back with me, and I’ll give them my attention.”
She opened her eyes at that. “Now, sure and that’s a tempting offer, but I’ve work yet, then I need my sleep.”
He lifted her hand to his lips as he had once before. “Come to the window in the morning.”
She didn’t mind the way her heart gave one hard thud, or the tingle low in her belly. She was a woman who believed in enjoying sensations, in savoring every one of them. But she had to think past that and remember how the game was played.
“I might.” Slowly, she ran a fingertip along his jaw. “If the thought of you comes into my mind.”
“Let’s make sure it does.” His arms slid around her, but the forward motion stopped when she laid a hand against his chest.
Her pulse was beating fast, an exciting feeling of anticipation. She liked the smell of the rain, and wet skin, the strong band of his arms around her. It had been some time since she’d allowed a man to put his arms around her.
That was the key, after all. The allowing. Her choice, her move, her mood. It was important, always, to stay in charge of those parts, and of the man she allowed to touch her.
Once you turned the reins over, you could forget that sensations, however lovely, were only fleeting after all.
It was safe enough here to have a sample of him, she decided. And to see if she really wanted more. So she slid her hand up his chest, around the back of his neck, and with her eyes open brought his mouth down to hers.
He took his time, she had to give him that, and didn’t go grabbing and fumbling and trying to extract her tonsils with his tongue. He had a nice style about him, firm,confident, with just a hint of bite. Not so dangerous as she’d thought, which was rather a shame all in all.
Then he shifted the angle of his body, his hands running up her back, his lips slanting over hers.
The edges of her mind blurred, and she thought, Oh, God! Then didn’t think at all.
He wanted to eat her alive, in fast, greedy bites. And imagined that was just what she expected from a man.Greed and heat and desperation. She had them all churning inside him. He’d seen it in a kind of mild disdain in her eyes when he’d reached for her.
So he moved slow, watched as he tasted, seen the shift to approval, even pleasure. Along with a measuring that annoyed him even as the flavor of her poured into him. Then he needed more, just needed more, and took it.
He felt the change register dimly in some far corner of his mind. A tension in her mixed with a soft and slow yielding that was as quiet as the rain around him.
His eyes closed even as hers did, and all calculation between them was lost.
The hand at his neck skimmed into his hair. Her body lifted, pressed against his, seemed to flow into him as he moved until her back was pressed to the stone wall of the pub. Heart thundered against heart.
He drew back, wanting to clear his head, catch his breath. Think. She stayed against the wall, then gave one long, feline sigh and opened her eyes.
“I liked that.” A little more, she was sure, than was good for her. Still, she ran her tongue over her bottom lip, as if to steal a bit more taste, and had his blood swimming again. “Why don’t you do it aga
in?”
“Why don’t I?”
This time he framed her face in his hands, combed his fingers through her hair until they fisted in it. Then hesitated, waited, suffered, with his mouth a whisper from hers until her breath, and his, quickened.
“We’ll drive each other crazy.”
The sound she made was more gasp than laugh. “I’ve come to the same conclusion. Let’s start right now.” She closed the distance by catching his bottom lip between her teeth, tugging lightly, then not so lightly before soothing the nip with her tongue.
“Good start,” he managed and crushed his mouth to hers.
Her head went spinning, quick, dancing circles that left her giddy and dizzy and delighted. Every sensation was a burst through her system—the taste, the hard lines of him, the damp stone at her back, the shimmer of rain on her skin.
She wanted to push him to urgency, to make him weak, to hear him beg—before she did. She threw herself into the kiss, into the moment, and as a result gave him more than she’d intended.
