Page 34 of Beer & Broomsticks
“No need to do anything but be yourself,mo ghrá.I’d follow you to hell and back for one taste of your lips, I would.”
Chest heaving with exertion and laughter, Bridget once again tried to break free of his hold, albeit not hard. “I’ve said it before; you’re a silver-tongued devil out to seduce a woman to the dark side.”
Laughing, he wrapped both arms around her waist and lifted her until they were eye level. “It’s not a bad plan if the woman I want desires to be seduced by me. Do you?”
Yes.
Yes, she did, but she couldn’t tell him.
Not yet.
She had a job to do and a family curse to break first. But then… Oh, he wouldn’t leave her room for a good week or more if she had her way.
He must’ve recognized the deep regret in her eyes, because the teasing left him, and he loosened his grip to slowly lower her to the ground. As each of her soft body parts came in contact with the hard planes of his, her desire to tell Practical Bridget to feck off increased. When was the last time she’d been spontaneous? Just now, when she’d started a game of chase by throwing coasters at Ruairí?
“It’s not that I don’t want you,” she said past her suddenly dry throat. “Because I do, and I’d be a liar to say otherwise, but I need more time.”
“I’ve waited seventeen years for you, Bridget. I can wait until you’re ready to give us another try.”
Unexpected tears stung her eyes at his tenderness. Cupping his cheek, she nodded. She, Bridget Abigail O’Malley, was for once at a loss for words.
He turned his head and placed a gentle, lingering kiss against her palm then used his hand to press hers into the side of his face, leaning his head into her. Their gazes locked, and in his eyes was all the love she could ever wish for. All the promise. All she had to do was be brave and trust him this time.
But she wasn’t brave. Not truly.
“Maybe I would’ve given you a second chance that day if I’d have been stronger,” she said achingly. “Or at least, I should’ve heard you out.”
His sad smile caused her heart to ping. “Magical trickery and a ginger’s temper were working against us.” Ruairí shifted to press his forehead to hers as he held her lightly within his embrace. “Let the two of us make a pact, here and now, Bridg. Let us promise, no matter how angry, no matter how betrayed we feel at the time, we’ll always hear the other out.”
Call it premonition, call it the Goddess giving her a warning, but all the hair on the back of Bridget’s neck rose on end as a chill caused a slight shudder. “And why would we be betraying one another?”
He drew back with a black frown. “That’s not what I said. You’ve a suspicious mind, is all.”
“You said—”
“I know what I said, and you don’t need to be parroting it back,” he snapped.
With narrowed eyes, she watched as a flush climbed his neck. He wouldn’t look directly at her, which was Ruairí’s standard tell when he was being dishonest or didn’t want to tell her the entire truth.
Disappointed in his behavior and with another potential lie, she pulled away. “I’ve things to see to before tonight.”
“What about the quest for the sword?” he asked, almost frantically.
“It’ll have to wait another day. I need—”
“It can’t!”
Hands on hips, she glared, irritated with this whole line of conversation. “What aren’t you telling me? You’d better give me the truth of it, right here, right now.”
Ruairí couldn’t.If he did, he faced catastrophic consequences. She wasn’t softened up enough to forgive him his little scavenger hunt ruse. “I want to spend time with you,” he finally blurted. It was as close to the truth as he could come. “If we hunt for your sword together, we could find it. I’m sure of it.”
He felt like a science experiment as she studied him through narrowed eyes, and he fought not to squirm. Bridget would come to a decision all on her own without help from him.
“Okay, I’ll do it.”
Elation ran a close second to his first reaction of relief. He needed her to spend time with him to see how he’d changed. How he could be the man she needed him to be.
“When do we leave?”
