My Life in Shambles - Karina Halle Page 0,121

diseases right? They eat vermin.”

“The owl has a clean bill of health,” I assure her, just as Padraig walks over and gestures to the photoshoot. Sandra has the gauntlet on and is posing with Hemi and Hooter McGavin.

“They need the parents,” Padraig says. “I’ll go get Nan.”

“I’m right here, for feck’s sake,” Agnes says, appearing before us and dressed like the Queen of England, complete with pink pillbox hat. “I’ve been here the whole time, what’s wrong with ye?”

“You look so marvelous,” my mother says to her sweetly.

Agnes frowns at her. “I know I do.”

Padraig comes to me and kisses me on the cheek and takes my hand. “Come on.” He leads me across the lawn where we take pictures with everyone until Hooter has decided he’s had enough and lands on Agnes’s hat where he refuses to leave. She has to walk with him on her like that all the way to the mews to put him away.

By the time the sun is setting and dinner has been served and the reception is in full-swing, with everyone is drunk and happy and dancing, the magic of the evening is finally settling in.

I’m married.

I can’t believe it.

“Is this wedding everything you thought it would be?” Padraig murmurs into my ear as we sway to the music, slow dancing.

“Yes,” I tell him. I pull back and smile up at his handsome face. My husband. “It was everything and more. The wedding I dreamed of when I was a kid, complete with the owl.”

“Really?”

I shrug. “I was a big fan of the movie Labyrinth and I’d often pretend I was going to marry the Goblin King, who was part owl.”

“Big Bowie fan, huh.”

“No, just a fan of the bad boy,” I tell him. “Until I realized what I really needed was a good man. Just like you.”

The song then changes to Sinead O’ Connor’s “Nothing Compares To You.” It’s Sandra’s favorite song. Like, growing up, she was obsessed with it and often threatened my mother by saying she wanted to shave her head like Sinead. I automatically look through the crowd for her and spot her talking with Angie, clapping her hands together excitedly.

Then Angie points to Hemi and says something to Sandra. Sandra nods, throws her shoulders back and her tits out and marches across the floor to where Hemi is standing with his teammates. Next thing you know, the two of them are heading onto the dancefloor.

“She sure works fast,” Padraig says with a chuckle, watching the scene along with me.

“She knows what she wants and I don’t think poor Hemi is going to have a say in it,” I laugh.

“Judging from the way he’s holding her, I really don’t think the bugger minds.” He nods at them and I notice Hemi’s grip is very tight around her and very close to her ass.

I smirk. “Well, I’m placing bets on those two. Thank god they aren’t staying here tonight, I’m sure we’d find them screwing all over the place.”

“Speaking of screwing,” Padraig says with a cheeky grin. “I’ve been telling my cock to behave from the moment I saw ye in that dress. Don’t think I can control him anymore.”

He presses his very large, hard erection against me, practically grinding it against my dress.

A flush of heat simultaneously flares up on my cheeks and between my legs.

“You tease,” I tell him, pressing my body back against his.

“Not teasing, darlin’,” he whispers into my ear. “I just want to get my cock inside ye as your husband. I want to fuck my wife for the first time and I want to fuck her good.”

Oh, sweet Jesus, am I ever turned on right now. We haven’t had sex for a few days because of the wedding and the stress of it all but now I can hardly contain myself. His words stroked my desire from embers into flames.

His hands slip down over my ass, giving it a hefty squeeze.

“Padraig,” I chide him but I’m giggling. “My parents probably saw that.”

He looks up over my shoulder. “No, your father is dancing with Angie and your mother is dancing with the Major. And us, well, I think we need to quit dancing and find a quiet place where I can make you scream my name.”

I gulp. Okay. This is totally happening.

“What do ye say?” he asks, pulling back to look at me with so much love and lust and want in his eyes.

“You know I’ll say yes,” I tell him. “I’ll always say yes to you. To new adventures and beyond.”

He kisses me and then grabs my hand.

“Okay then, come on,” he says.

He leads me away from the tents of the dance floor and into the woods behind the field.

“You know we have a bed in the cottage, right?” I whisper as we disappear from the crowd and into the shadows of the trees. The ends of my dress are gathered in my hands but at least I’m wearing white Converse on my feet.

“Which is used as a staging area and has people milling about in it.” He stops and presses me back against the smooth bark of a birch tree. “Besides, this is where we first told each other that we loved each other. Seems only right to consummate that love here. And maybe I’ll tell ye again.”

He brushes a strand of hair of my face, the red catching the gold of the sunset beyond the trees. “I love ye, Valerie. I’ll love ye till the end and beyond.”

I swallow the lump in my throat. “I love you, too.”

I wrap my hands behind his neck and he places a searing kiss on my lips. “Ye don’t mind if your dress gets a little roughed up, do ye?” he murmurs.

“You know I’ll take anything you can give me,” I tell him as he starts kissing my neck, sending flutters down my back, while he bunches up my dress around my waist.

“Then I’ll give ye everything I’ve got,” he says. “Always.”

“And forever?”

“Always and forever, mo chuisle mo chroi.”

The pulse of his heart.

THE END