Page 43 of Kieran's Light


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Liv took her cup and moved off to chat with the nurses, and to give Addy and Kieran space, no doubt.

Kieran sat on a padded bench along the wall and pulled Addy down beside him. While she sipped her lousy coffee and let its warmth infuse her exhausted body, he massaged her tense neck muscles, which melted like butter under his firm touch.

“You were amazing tonight, Addy. You could do a lot of good here, you know.”

She groaned with pleasure and a tinge of regret. “I wish it were that simple.”

“I suppose your friend is staying at your place?”

“Afraid so.” She leaned onto his shoulder.

“I like her.” He nuzzled her hair. “Smart. Kind. We talked a lot tonight. She gave me a different perspective.”

“Yeah?” She took a big bite of bland, sugary pastry.

“Tonight was the kick in the arse I needed.” He swiveled to face her. “Addy, I’m going back to therapy. I can’t let myself get like old Dave, haunted and brittle and ready to snap.” He seized her icing-smeared hand and kissed her knuckles. “I want to be strong enough to deserve you.”

Tears stung her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “Kieran, it’s not a question of deserving. You’re a wonderful man, kind and wise and so sexy you make my knees weak.” She stroked his jaw, his beard scratchy-soft under her palm. “I love you, my handsome pirate. You’re helping me face my demons in a way even Liv couldn’t.”

“I am?” His smile glowed with joy and hope, so sweet and beautiful she had to kiss him in front of the ER staff, something she’d never have done before meeting this dear, brave man.

But saying ‘I love you’ was the easy part. Building a love strong enough to last? That would take time, courage, honesty…and she had a lot of baggage to unload before she could make herself fully available to him. He deserved her full attention, and right now, she couldn’t give it.

“I’ve been stupidly prideful,” she admitted, “thinking I could handle my PTSD on my own. Now I see how important it is to accept help—and not just from sympathetic friends.” She smooched his lips again. “But I’ll never heal until I close out some ugly unfinished business. Will you wait for me?”

“Until the tides still, Doc.” He pulled her onto his lap. “Until the world stops spinning.”

Giggling, she wound her arms around his neck. “It won’t take that long, love. And I’ll miss you every second I’m away.” She rained kisses over his beaming face. “Think you can sleep tonight?”

“Without you? Probably not much.”

“Hey Liv,” she called, and her tactful friend turned to face them.

“Here.” She tossed her keys. “Make yourself at home. I’m going to Kieran’s tonight.”

Liv grinned widely. “Don’t you want to pack a bag first?”

“Nope.” She kissed Kieran’s forehead. “I’ve got all I need.”

Chapter Seventeen

WhileSnootsnufflednervouslyaround her feet, Addy packed the last of her things into a shopping bag. Poor pup. He sensed change in the wind, and change made him nervous.

She gave his ears a scratch. “Me too, buddy.”

After the Halloween brawl and subsequent surgery, Kieran had soothed her to sleep with gentle kisses and Irish-lilted declarations of love. Yesterday, after shooing the last tourists through the lighthouse doors, he’d rushed to her rental cottage for another night of lovemaking that started slow and sweet and ended hot and fierce, followed by cuddles, laughter, and talk until neither could keep their lids from falling.

But Saturdays were Kieran’s busiest day at the lighthouse, so Addy had plenty of solo time to think, and stew, and cogitate. Slowly, one painful clunk at a time, the pieces of her new life were falling into place.

Colonel Okafor had taken the news well. “We’ll miss you, Addy. You’re a fine surgeon and an outstanding officer. But if it’s time to go, well—you’ve earned a respite. I wish you all the best in your next chapter.”

Just what form that next chapter would take depended on a job search that would last weeks, maybe months, and a mountain of paperwork she was dreading. Kieran said he’d wait, but the bureaucracy involved in job hunting would try the patience of a saint, and they were just two flawed, haunted mortals trying to help each other out of a dark place. It was going to be a long, hard climb.

Starting tonight.

While it was easy to fall in love with someone she was wildly attracted to, someone kind and funny and gorgeous, if they were going to create something lasting, they had to find enough common ground to build on.

After the past two nights in Kieran’s arms, after soul-quaking sex and talking into the wee hours, her heart had no doubts. Her head, though? That stubborn organ needed more persuading.