“I was just thinking how our worlds aren’t all that different. Somehow I thought they would be, but looking out there at the green, I could just as easily be looking at the neighborhood park in my hometown outside of Dublin.”
“Then you already feel at home here?” he asked.
She turned to face him, so close she could almost feel his breath on her cheek, the heat from his body pulling her. “At this moment, I do,” she said. “But that’s because of you, Luke, not the scenery.”
It was the most daring admission she’d ever made to anyone, letting someone see into her heart.
He smiled at her words. “I’m glad about that.”
Filled with reluctance, she said, “You should probably go back to work. You’ve still got a lot to accomplish this afternoon.”
“Or I could stay here with you,” he offered yet again. “That appeals to me more.”
“And the work? I don’t want to be a distraction, Luke.”
“You were a distraction before you ever arrived,” he admitted.
She regarded him with delight. “How so?”
“I couldn’t get you out of my head,” he admitted with a shrug. “Maybe it will be easier now that you’re here. I won’t be wondering all the time where you are and who you’re with.”
“Surely you weren’t jealous?” she said, genuinely shocked.
“Not jealous exactly,” he corrected. “Just missing you and arguing with myself about it.”
She laughed. “I was doing the same thing. I’d vowed not to, but I couldn’t help it. It was pitiful, actually. Even my grandfather felt sorry for me. I think that’s why he invited me along.”
“Or perhaps, like Mick and Gram, he enjoys a bit of matchmaking.”
Moira thought about that, then laughed. “You know, I think he might. I was never around him much before, so I wouldn’t have seen that side of him, but I can see it now. Do you know he’s even been trying to stir up interest between Peter and my mum.”
“Kiera and Peter?” Luke asked, clearly startled. “No way!”
Moira nodded. “I was as shocked as you are, but I saw signs of his success with my own eyes the night before we left Dublin. I think Peter’s been on board for years, if Grandfather is to be believed. My mum is less eager. I doubt she’ll give in easily, but she may finally be more open to it.”
“I’d never in a million years have seen it,” Luke said. “I think the whole matchmaking gene skipped right over me. Even Susie and Mack, who were dancing around each other for years, could have kept at it for a dozen more before I caught on that they just needed a nudge to get over the hurdle.”
“Maybe you’ll be better at it now,” Moira suggested.
“Why?”
“Because of us,” she said. “It’s as if I needed the experience of falling wildly in love before I saw the possibilities all around me.”
“Wildly in love?” Luke said.
Though he didn’t sound terrified by her choice of words, Moira blushed furiously. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have put it that way.”
“Was it the truth?” he asked.
She nodded, her breath caught in her throat.
“Then it wasn’t a mistake to say it,” he said, pulling her into his arms and sealing his mouth over hers.
Instantly, Moira was wide-awake, her blood humming through her veins. When he pulled away and studied her with a questioning look, she swore under her breath. “I promised myself it was too soon for this,” she murmured.
He smiled. “Is it a promise you’re thinking of breaking?”
She nodded slowly. “It’s a promise I’ve already forgotten,” she told him as she wrapped her legs around his waist and let him take her into his bedroom.
As they fell into his bed together, she thought that this might not be the reason she’d come all the way across the ocean to Chesapeake Shores, but it was definitely at the top of the list of reasons that could keep her here.
8
Luke had been wrong. Having Moira here was going to be an even bigger distraction than he could possibly have imagined. Now that she was back in his bed, responding to his every touch, he was remembering just what it felt like to make love to her. He didn’t want to stop—not this afternoon, not ever!
Though he knew it was an inappropriate guy thing to make comparisons, he couldn’t helping thinking how different it was to be with her than it had been with Kristen. Kristen might have been more knowledgeable, more cleverly inventive and less inhibited, but there was something so practiced about it all.
With Moira each time felt like an adventure of new discoveries. She was delighted with every sensation he aroused, curious about what effect she might have on him with this touch or that. She could drive him over the edge with her innocent explorations. He knew he wasn’t her first, and yet he felt as if he were.
Still trying to catch his breath, he fell back on the bed, pulling her on top of him. “Do you have any idea how amazing you are?” he asked when he could finally speak.
“Me?” she asked, looking genuinely surprised and pleased.
“Yes, you. I don’t know what it is, but you completely take my breath away.”
She beamed at his compliment. “Then isn’t it lovely that you do the same for me? I never expected to feel like this about anyone, Luke. Never.” Her expression turned serious. “I think it’s because I was far too successful at keeping most people at arm’s length with that nasty temper of mine.”
He smiled at the understatement. She’d been a tyrant, no question about it. “I can see how that might happen,” he said. “It’s a wonder I looked beyond it myself.”
“It’s what drew you to me,” she corrected. “You’d
