Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 104386 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104386 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
“Make a wish!” she demanded.
Closing my eyes, I made a wish and blew out the candle.
When I looked back to where Maebh had been standing, my heart sank. She was gone.
My wish had just walked out the door, and I couldn’t get up fast enough to go find her.
“Do you want to cut the cake, Cord?” my mother asked.
I shook my head. “You do it. I’ll be right back.”
I made my way into the kitchen and looked around. Out the window I saw Maebh walking toward the swings my father had put up last fall for Chloe and Gage.
When I reached for the door handle I had to laugh. So much for my wish of giving me strength to stay away from Maebh. I was drawn to her even more. A moth to a damn flame.
This birthday was really starting to suck ass.
I made my way over to her, trying to make noise since so I didn’t scare her.
She pushed lightly off the ground and swung, not hearing me approach. When she dropped her head and body back and lifted her legs, I stopped. I watched as she swung on the swing, and I had no idea why I thought that freedom, that joy on her face in that moment was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen in my life. She looked so carefree and relaxed. Like she didn’t have a worry in the world.
I knew that wasn’t true. I’d seen how tired and stressed she was. Her restaurant hadn’t been open long, and I overheard her telling my parents it was doing much better than she had anticipated. I was honest to God happy for her. And I hadn’t seen a dip in my own sales the entire time Aisling was open. As a matter of fact, our sales had increased. My guess was Maebh’s restaurant was bringing in new people for dinner and drinks, and they were ending the night at my bar.
“Maebh?” I said, making her sit up and stop swinging. She spun on the seat and looked at me.
“Cord? Is everything okay?” she asked.
With a nod, I made my way to the other swing and sat down. She was still sitting with the chains twisted.
“I never wished you a happy birthday,” she said.
“Thank you. And thank you for coming. I enjoyed having you here with the family.”
She gave me a sweet grin.
“Race to see who can get higher the fastest?”
She giggled. “I think you’ll win. Your legs are bigger and stronger.”
“Chicken?”
Her brow lifted. “Hardly, I simply know when I can’t win.”
My smile faltered at the double meaning behind her comment. I offered, “I’ll give you a head start. Ten seconds.”
“I guess that sounds fair.”
Maebh walked back as far as she could, took a running start. She jumped on the swing and started pumping her legs and pulling with her arms. She got high pretty fast.
“Ten!” I shouted as I pretty much did the same thing. We were neck and neck, and for some reason I couldn’t get any higher. Maybe I wasn’t trying harder because I didn’t want this to end. I hadn’t laughed this much in a long time. The last time I was on a swing, Savannah Hughes was wrapped around me, fucking the shit out of me.
The memory tainted the moment, and I started to slow down. Guilt ripped through my body.
Maebh laughed harder. “Giving up, Parker?”
“I guess my legs aren’t in the shape I thought they were.”
She scoffed. “I think you gave up to let me win.”
“Maybe,” I replied, seeing the blush on her cheeks even in the moonlight.
Fuck, I loved seeing her face flushed. I wanted to see it like that when I fucked her.
I closed my eyes and cursed myself. Maebh was the type of girl who deserved more than a one-night fucking. A man should make love to her. I don’t think I’d ever once made actual love to a woman. Hell, half the time I took them from behind just so I could fuck them as fast and as hard as I could.
Prick.
“What?” she asked.
My head jerked toward hers. Shit, did I say that out loud? “What?”
“Did you just call yourself a prick?”
I smiled big. “Maybe you thought it in your head.”
She frowned. “No, you said it.”
I shrugged, trying to blow off my blunder.
We sat for a few minutes in silence, barely swinging.
“So, you have a motorcycle?” Maebh asked.
“Yep,” I replied, giving her a sexy grin.
“I’ve always wanted to have sex on a motorcycle.”
My entire world stopped. My breathing stopped. My heartbeat stopped. My fucking brain stopped. The only goddamn thing that worked was my cock. And right about now it wanted to make that wish come true for her.
“W-what?”
She chuckled and shook her head. “Sorry. That wasn’t a very ladylike thing to say. I’ve just never met anyone with a bike before. Have you…you know?”