date. Raff is an organized man.
Heading to my rented BMW, I call over my shoulder, “This could be good for us.”
“I got out of the real estate investment game a long time ago.”
Unable to help myself, I laugh. “Might be time to get back in. Unless you’re aiming for poverty now, to get little Ms. Nikki in bed.”
He shakes his head, annoyed. “Remind me, Becks. When are you heading back to Ireland?”
“Oh, did I forget to mention? I’ll be sticking around—indefinitely.”
I watch from the bedroom window as she parks on the side of the street. Before exiting the vehicle—which she’s already made two payments toward into the account Alfred set up for that very purpose—she looks in the vanity mirror and fixes her hair.
“Unnecessary, Lass. I’m going to make a mess of it.”
As soon as I see her cross the street, I quickly make my way down the stairs to meet her at the back door of Blizzards bar.
When she rounds the corner, I exhale a held breath, one I’d not known I’d even been holding.
She looks from her phone and startles when she sees me. I grab her and pull her into a tight hold and inhale the scent of fresh, clean air, ocean mist, and the sweetness of Sarah.
“You smell divine.”
She says nothing, but within seconds, her body that melded into mine stiffens.
“Let’s get inside.”
“Beckett.” She pulls back. “I can’t do this.”
“No training necessary, you need but lie down and let me have my way. It’ll be like riding a bike.”
“Oh my God, that’s not what—”
“Save the fussing for inside, then.”
She grumbles but follows me in and up the stairs to the tiny studio above the bar that Raff keeps unoccupied for drunks who can’t make it home and wayward Irishman traveling abroad.
Once inside, she steps a good six feet from me and holds out her hand like it’s a stop sign. “I’m angry at you for so many reasons that I can barely keep them straight.”
I walk over and sit on the chair I plan to fuck her in first, cross my arms, and nod. “Let’s start with one and work our way down so we can get to enjoying ourselves.”
“You’re infuriating.”
“I’m a man who knows what he wants fighting a woman who won’t admit what she not only wants but needs.”
She stops pacing and turns to face me. “You left without even a goodbye!”
Shocked by her outburst, I start to stand, and she yells again, “No! I’m talking, and you’re listening.”
Flexing my hands I tell her, “That’s one.”
“Don’t you dare,” she snaps.
“You’re asking me to go against who I am. I will dare. But as you know, I always let you finish first. Proceed, Sarah.”
She throws her hands up and brings them down on her hips. “You were supposed to stay away, and you did one hell of a job doing just that. The texts slowly stopped as if you were weaning both of us from…” She snaps her mouth closed and begins pacing and carrying on again. “I can’t do this with you. Not with feelings involved. I can’t sit idly by and wonder how many women you’ve taken to bed, or—”
“I’ve given you your opportunity to speak, and nothing but allegations, all false, might I add, have come out of your pretty little mouth. Now you'll listen to me and you'll do it sitting down because you're making me dizzy and hard all at the same time.”
“You can't tell me what to do! You don’t own me. You don’t get to—”
In one fell swoop I have her in my arms and on my lap, sitting in the chair.
“Now you listen to me, Sarah, while I crush every damn lie you've told yourself. I did not leave without a goodbye. I said my piece while you were sleeping. Had you been awake, looking at me with those pretty brown eyes filled with tears, I never would have been able to leave.”
She wiggles on my lap, I’m not sure if she’s trying to get up or get me up, but the latter of the two is what's actually occurring.
“I never said I would stay away,” I continue. “I stopped texting because your responses were short, and I was trying to give you time, time to miss me, miss what we have. Time to think about how your life would be without me. Me? I didn’t need to take the time to think about it, I already know what my life was without you, and I know