Wild Chance (Wild Irish Universe)(28)

Killian nodded. “I can dig it.”

“Now you’re here.” Aedan rubbed his palms against his thighs. “I actually think I would have fallen apart if you weren’t.”

“I think that woman is good for you,” Killian said. “Mona, I mean. She wants to protect you and as your brother that’s the best I could hope for you.”

“You barely know her.”

“I know.” Killian said. “But from all the stuff you’ve been through—with your aunt and in the military—that would bring down most men. Most of us wouldn’t be able to stand up after that with the weight of it all. But here you are. You’re smiling. You’re happy. And I’m being good at not mentioning the hickey on your neck…”

Aedan rubbed his neck self-consciously then laughed. “I know they say you need time to get to know someone. And, we’re not going to run out and get married today or even tomorrow. But Mona wears her heart on her sleeve. Whatever she’s thinking I can see it in her eyes. Kil, she treats me like I’m still a man.”

“You are a man.”

“You know what I mean.” Aedan glanced at the run-down house that used to be his address. There was a time when the building was Bronagh’s pride and joy. She’d spend hours and thousands of dollars trying to make it better than all the other houses on the street. Now, it sat there like broken dreams and regret.

“Some women see me, and they immediately think disabled. They think limitations—like I’m unable to do the things every other man can—willing to do. Mona challenges me. She still wants me to reach the thing on the top shelf or open a bottle she can’t. She still gives herself to me with a freedom that I’ve never experienced before. Do you know what it’s like to have your woman just—without reservations—wants you as much as you desire her?”

Killian laughed. “Yes.”

“I mean, the way she is around me, I don’t think she even considers the fact that I may not have been able to help her swing from the chandelier.”

Killian chuckled.

“I’m serious.”

“I know you are, Cal.”

“She tells me when I’m full of shit. And whereas the two women I’ve dated since getting my leg damaged ran for the hills when things got a little sketchy, Mona was different.”

“Different how?”

Aedan smiled. He couldn’t help it. “She got down on her knees, demanded I show her how to take the prosthetic off. Once she was done that, she rubbed ointment on my stump because it was sore. When she was finished, she kissed me and that was that.”

“You can’t fall for this woman because she takes care of you. There has to be more.”

“I know that. Believe me, I get it. But aren’t the small things the best things in this case?”

Killian said nothing.

“There is a realness in the way she is around me and I appreciate that almost as much as I appreciate other things.” Aedan sighed. “In my bed she’s wild and slutty—and I know that may sound like a bad thing but, Jesus, she brings it out in me.” Aedan shifted to look at Killian. “She isn’t afraid of my—um—nature. Hell, I think she loses control under a heavy hand. She matches me emotionally, physically, sexually…”

“I remember the times we’d sit around talking about girls.” Killian dragged his fingers through his hair. “Of all the women you described, Mona wasn’t the type of woman you’d imagined yourself with.”

Aedan turned his gaze back out the window, remembering their numerous talks on what they wanted in a girlfriend. “True. But we were kids back them. A woman’s tits and ass were the most important thing to us. And, you never imagined yourself in the kind of relationship you’re in either. We grow up, Kil. We change. We learn what’s important and to me, skin colour isn’t, or the size of her body—though those curves makes me melt. I feel for her what I’ve always wanted to feel for a woman—helplessness when she looks at me, hot when she takes her clothes off, my heart fluttering when she enters a room.”

“Gawd, you sound like a romance novel.”

“Tell me you don’t get that way when Lilly enters a room.”

Killian smirked. “I admit nothing.”

“You’re an ass.” Aedan laughed. “You don’t have to admit it. I see it in your eyes every time you talk about her—every time I bring her up.”

With a deep breath, Aedan reached for the door handle. “Let’s do this. The sooner I can rip the band aide off, the faster I can go back to Mona and have her put me back together again.”

“It shouldn’t be that bad.”

“You’ve never met Bronagh.”

“I really wish we’d known what was happening to you, Cal. I’m positive the entire family would have wanted to help. When it comes to you, blood means nothing. You were—are—family.”

“I know. But I kinda thought I could fight that battle on my own.”

“You shouldn’t have had to.” Killian paused but continued before Aedan could speak. “I can’t help feeling you leaving was partly my fault. I considered you a brother. I should have sensed something was wrong.”

“Word of advice? For years I carried the weight of not telling you guys. I felt as if I’d alienated those who cared for me and it’s a mother-fucker.”