“I’m obnoxiously in love with you too.”
He kissed her, a hard, long, lots-of-tongue kiss.
When they parted, she grinned. “Guinness.”
“Paddy and Emmy spotted the flaw in my previous arguments. Said I left out the most important part.”
“They were right.”
“Well,” Colm said, turning toward the door. “I know you need time, so I guess I’ll just—”
She laughed. “Colm?”
“Yeah,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at her with a wicked gleam in his eye.
“I was on my way to the pub.”
“You were?” Kelli wasn’t sure when his cocky, know-it-all grin had become a turn-on, but damn if she didn’t go wet at the sight of it.
“Yeah. I don’t need time. At all.”
Colm crossed his arms. Bastard was going to make her work for it. “No? You sure?”
“Colm.”
“What?”
“My bedroom. Now.”
Chapter Fifteen
Colm grasped her hand and tugged her down the hallway. Mojo was hot on their heels, running ahead to jump on the bed when they entered Kelli’s room.
Colm chuckled. “Not this time, sweet girl,” he said, putting the cat back on the floor. Kelli’s cat liked to cuddle in between them each night after they went to sleep, he and Kelli jokingly knocking the other’s hand away when they petted her as she purred, fighting to be the favorite.
He turned back to Kelli, who was already unzipping her pants and pushing them and her panties down.
“Maybe you should leave that sweater on. It’s hot.”
Kelli rolled her eyes. “You got a thing for gingerbread?”
Colm wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Kelli owned a seemingly endless collection of cutesy sweaters, which was apparently Wardrobe 101 for elementary school teachers. The current holiday-themed one was adorned by gingerbread men and said, “My kindergartners are SMART COOKIES.”
“Nope. Just kindergarten teachers. They’re surprisingly kinky in bed.”
“You lucky bastard. Take off that suit and tie. You’re not fooling anybody with that buttoned-up conservative look.”
Colm loosened the knot in his tie, then pulled it free from the collar of his shirt. He wrapped it around his hand, fisting the silk. “Maybe I should hold on to this for later.”
“Fancy a little bondage? I don’t mind strapping you down and having my wicked way with you.”
He chuckled. “I think we both know who’s going to be on top, Kell.”
She tilted her head playfully. “Do we? Because I’m not sure you do.”
Colm stepped close to her and tugged her sweater over her head. Then he reached around her back and unhooked her bra with one quick flick. He looked down at her breasts and grinned. “God, I love your tits.”
Kelli slapped his cheek lightly. “Sweet talker. Take off your pants.”
“What about my shirt?”
“That’s not holding me back from what I really want.”
Colm shook his head as if disappointed. “I knew it. I’m just another sex toy, aren’t I?”
Kelli laughed, tapping her fingertips together like the worst of the world’s evil masterminds. “With you, my collection is complete,” she said darkly.
Colm stripped off his shirt and pants in record time, gripping her waist to twist and then toss her onto the bed.
“Open those legs and submit to me, woman,” he said in true caveman tone.
Kelli giggled, but it wasn’t lost on him that she scooted to the center of the bed and then obeyed.
Colm lost no time crawling over her on the bed, caging her beneath him. She lifted her head from the pillow, meeting him halfway, matching his hungry kiss with one of her own. He was reminded of Halloween as the two of them gave in to the kisses, without bothering to rush to the next part.
They’d had the talk. Said all the words that needed to be said.
She was his. He was hers. They were in love.
Life simply didn’t get any better than this.
Colm shifted lower, running his lips along the side of her neck down to her breasts. He took a nipple into his mouth, sucking, increasing the pressure until she gasped, her closed eyes flying open and meeting his.
“Making sure you’re still awake,” he teased.
“I’m not going to miss one second of this.”
Colm smiled. He loved sparring with Kelli, but more than that, he loved the times like now, when she spoke sincerely, from the heart.
“I love you,” he said, feeling the need to repeat those words to her a million times. Not because she needed to hear them but because he needed to say them.
Kelli ran her fingers over his cheek, stroking his beard. “Back atcha.”
He played with her breasts, alternating between sucking, licking, and nipping until she was squirming beneath him.
“Colm,” she breathed. “Please.”
“Not yet,” he murmured, moving even lower. He pressed on the insides of her knees, opening her more fully for him as he knelt between her outstretched legs. Her back arched when he placed his first open-mouthed kiss on her clit.
“Shit,” she said. “So good!”
He flattened his tongue against the tiny nub, pushing more firmly, loving the way Kelli slowly came apart.
“Oh God. Too good,” she gasped, her fists closed in his hair, pushing him away before pulling him closer again.
Colm increased the tempo of his tongue against her clit as he thrust inside her with two fingers, pumping faster with each return until Kelli stiffened for that one brief second, her mouth open in a silent scream, before her body trembled with her orgasm.
She cried out his name then, and he was sure he’d never heard a better sound in his life. There was nothing “peaceful” about the way Kelli yelled it, and he grinned to himself.
Dove, my ass, he thought with a grin as he felt the aftershocks of her climax, her inner muscles clenching against his fingers as he withdrew them.
Kelli was still struggling to catch her breath when he crawled back over her body to kiss her once more. Her face was flushed. She was hands down the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
It took everything he had not to thrust into her, to take her with all the passion and need she inspired, but tonight, this moment…
God, it was too
