Wild Chance (Wild Irish Universe)(27)

“That sounds like a marriage proposal, a stórín.”

Mona frowned at him. “If not me then one of the Collins. Take someone with you. I don’t like the idea of you walking back into that darkness on your own.” Mona took his hand in her own. “I know you’re strong, Aedan. I could see it the very first moment I looked into your eyes. And I know, I know we’ve only just started dating but the thought of anyone hurting you like that again makes me…”

“Makes you?” His breath caught in his throat, his words cracked.

“It makes me want to—it makes me angry.”

“Sort of the same way I get when I think of another man touching you.”

She met his gaze. “You get mad thinking of me with someone else? Tell me why?”

“The same way you view my body as yours, a stórín.” Aedan dragged a finger up her forearm. “I see your body as mine. The thought any other man seeing you the way I see you drives me crazy.”

“Just to put your mind at ease.” Mona met his gaze, shyness written all over her face. “As long as we’re together, another man will never see anything that belongs to you. As long as we’re together, another man will never touch me the way only you should.”

Aedan shook at that promise. Each word she spoke made him hotter than he ever thought he could without imploding. His eyes drifted to her lips, her beautiful, plump lips that had given him so much pleasure sexually and emotionally. Helplessly, he lifted his hand to trace her mouth with a thumb.

“As long as we’re together.” Her voice a mere whisper now. “All the treasures of my body, belong to you.”

A soft sigh escaped Aedan’s lips before he could stop it. The only woman who’d ever managed to make him contemplate his sanity has been Mona. Everything about her was perfection to him and he couldn’t believe she was real. He clung to her, pulling her into his chest to feel the heat of her breath against, the pulse of her body against his frame. He dug his fingers into her hair, to cradle her face against his neck.

“God, please be real.” Aedan whispered. “I couldn’t take it if you weren’t.”

Never before had he showed that much emotion to any woman. And it seemed strange he would show Mona it so quickly in their relationship. But she made it hard to hold back what surged through his heart.

She didn’t reply with words. Instead, Mona gave him her mouth.

He drank from her lips, soothing himself.

“I need you with me, Mona Lisa Frye.” Aedan confessed. “Whatever I have to do to be worthy of you, I’ll do.”

“Aedan.”

“A man must be worthy of you, a stórín. Even if I’m not the man you chose, whoever you do, must worthy of you. Don’t settle for less.”

“Is that how you think I see you? As less?”

Aedan had no words. She was pulling him closer, caressing the back of his neck with the balls of her fingers.

“Aedan, if a woman ever sees you as less, you walk away. But you won’t have to worry about that. I intend on keeping you here—in my arms for as long as I can.”

“You should be careful with that.” Aedan sighed, melting into her strength. “You just might get what you wish for.”

Mona said nothing. She simply climbed into his lap and tangled her arms about his neck. As their eyes met, she tilted her head. “I don’t think my wish would be a bad thing, Aedan. It would bring you into my bed and arms every night for the rest of our lives.”

He grinned, quite proudly. “That, a stórín, sounds very much like a proposal.”

“Maybe.”

She then silenced his questions and his teasing with a kiss.





Chapter Ten


The day seemed brighter than it should have been. Aedan couldn’t help feeling as if nature was mocking him. The idea of having to do something so dark on such a beautiful day irritated him. A few stolen kisses from Mona before she left to run some errands should have been enough to give him the strength to do this. He’d busted down the doors of some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists without even batting a lash. But walking into his past when he’d left it behind so long ago, terrified him.

“Thanks for coming with me,” Aedan said, seated in the front seat of Killian’s car. “I was going to do this alone. But Mona insisted on me taking someone with me—not just anyone one. She wanted one of the Collins if I didn’t want to take her.”

“Why wouldn’t you want her to be by your side? Men fight for years to find someone to stand by them like this.”

Aedan shook his head. “It’s not that I didn’t want her to be by myside. The scary thing is, even though I haven’t known her all that long, I can’t see any other woman by me. I just—I never want her to see me like this.”

“Like this?”

“I feel broken, Kil. You see that, right? Here I am, sitting here, going to see a woman who’d made me feel like I was nothing. Years later, sometimes, I find myself reverting to that dark place where I deserve nothing.”

“Cal.”

“I know.” Aedan rubbed the back of his neck. “I do. It’s—seeing Bronagh will no doubt bring up some feelings and I don’t know if I can handle them like a logical person.”