The Mighty Quinns: Rourke (6 page)

“Yes,” she said. “This was supposed to be just sex.”

“Well, maybe I like you. Maybe I think you’re funny and beautiful and strange and inscrutable and—”

“I’m inscrutable?”

“You are...a bit difficult to figure out. But I enjoy the challenge. And I enjoy being with you. So, no, it isn’t just about the sex. At least not for me. And you know what? I don’t care what you think about that.”

“Gee, well, you certainly did tell me,” Annie said, her eyebrow arched, her words laced with sarcasm.

He heard the defensive young girl in her voice and knew he’d pushed her too far. But he didn’t care. “And I plan to keep telling you,” Rourke added, tossing the covers aside and crawling out of bed. He grabbed his jeans from the floor and tugged them on. “We need more wood.”

“No, we don’t,” she said.

“All right, I need to get more wood.” He turned to face her. “For a woman I barely know, you sure know how to push my buttons. You know, I really wish you had a television. Right now, I could use a good football game.”

Kit stood at the door, his tail wagging, his gaze expectant. Rourke grabbed his jacket and slipped his bare feet into his boots, then walked outside, slamming the door behind him. Rourke stood on the porch, the hard rain stinging his skin. The ice from the night before had already melted, but there was still a chill in the air.

He moved to grab some wood, then froze, his gaze fixed on a spot at the bottom of the porch steps. At first he thought it was some sort of debris, blown in by the storm. But then it blinked at him and he found himself staring into dark, liquid eyes. “Jaysus,” he muttered to the seal. “Where did you come from?”

Kit bounded out into the rain, not even bothering to stop and sniff at the seal. Rourke slowly backed up toward the door. The seal looked perfectly healthy. In truth, it looked as if it was just hanging around, waiting for someone to come outside.

He reached for the door and slipped back in the house. Annie had pulled on a sweater and jeans and was standing next to the hearth, poking at the embers.

“We have a visitor,” Rourke said.

“Is Sam back?”

“No. There’s a seal outside. Just sitting there at the bottom of the steps.”

A slow smile broke across her face. “She’s back!” Annie grabbed her jacket and tugged on her boots, then rushed past him to the door. Rourke followed her outside and found her, her hand outstretched to the animal.

“Be careful,” Rourke warned.

“Don’t worry,” Annie said. “We’re old friends. I’ve been waiting for her.”

The herring. That’s what she’d come to the hardware store to buy. He glanced around and saw a bucket sitting on the corner of the porch. He walked over and lifted the lid. The scent of fish wafted into the chilly air. He grabbed the handle and carried it down the steps, setting it beside her.

Annie plucked a fish from the bucket and held it up. The seal arched its neck and grabbed the herring from her hand, swallowing it in one gulp. As Rourke watched her, he barely even noticed the cold and the rain and the wind. For the first time since he had arrived on her doorstep, she seemed completely happy.

Rourke sat down beside her and pulled her hood up over her damp hair. Her hands were red with cold, yet she continued to hold herring out to the seal. She handed him a fish and he dropped it into the creature’s mouth. After about ten minutes and a half bucket of herring, the seal suddenly turned and flopped its way back toward the water.

Annie stood and watched it until it disappeared from view. Droplets of water trickled down her cheeks and Rourke knew that they were tears, not rain. He grabbed her cold hands and held them between his. “Will she be back?”

Annie nodded. “Tomorrow...I hope.” She turned and walked to the door, leaving it open behind her.

“Should we leave Kit out?” he called.

“Let him run,” she said. “He’ll scratch on the door when he wants to come in.”

The cabin seemed warm and cozy compared to the chill of the storm. “How do you know that seal?”

“Three years ago, I found her lying between the rocks. She was starving and maybe sick. And I nursed her back to health. Now every year, right about this time, she shows up to say hello. Just like clockwork. Always the first week in October. I buy herring and feed her. And then she disappears for another year. I wasn’t sure she’d come again. She should be old enough to have pups now. Once she does, I think she’ll stop coming.” She paused. “I know I shouldn’t have named her, but I call her Lady Gray.”

“Where does she go when she leaves?”

“There’s a gray seal colony over on Hay Island.” Annie shrugged out of her jacket and hung it up. “That’s where the seal hunt takes place.” She shook her head. “I’m just glad when she shows up. Seals can live to be forty years old if a predator doesn’t get them first. Forty years.”

Rourke smiled. God, could she be any sweeter? Saving starving seals. He stepped toward her and pulled her into his arms, drawing her into a long, deep kiss. He cupped her face in his hands, then pulled back. “I smell like fish,” he said.

Annie giggled, then held her hand in front of his nose. “Me, too.”

A scratch sounded at the door and Rourke opened it. Kit bounded in, then jumped up, placing his paws on Rourke’s chest and licking his face.

“Down, Kit,” Annie commanded. “Get down.”

“Great,” Rourke muttered. “Now I smell like dead fish and dog drool. If you’d like to throw up on me, we’d have a hat trick.” He let his jacket drop to the floor. “I could use a shower.”

“Why don’t you put on the pot for tea and I’ll go out and turn the water heater on in the lighthouse. In another hour, you can have your shower.”

“You, too,” Rourke said. “You don’t smell like a rose.”

“The water heater is pretty small. Only enough for one shower.”

“Then we’ll just have to shower together,” he said, sending her his most charming grin.

“All right,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

“And I’ll be waiting,” Rourke said.

He stepped out onto the porch and watched her cross the windswept rise to the lighthouse. The wind had calmed a bit and didn’t threaten to blow her off her feet. When she reached the door of the lighthouse, he grabbed a few more logs from the pile on the porch, then stepped back into the warmth of the cabin.

The fire in the stove was almost out, but with a bit of tending, he managed to get it going again. He washed his hands in water from the pitcher sitting next to the sink, but no amount of soap would completely rid him of the fishy smell.

He stood at the sink and smiled to himself. This wasn’t such a bad life, he mused. A guy could get used to the quiet. And did he really need all his electronic toys? His iPod and laptop were in the car, but he certainly didn’t need them. Without the constant distraction, he had time to think. And his mind was surprisingly clear and focused.

He wasn’t foolish enough to believe that Annie wasn’t a part of this odd contentment he’d found. They’d known each other for a day and yet it seemed as if they’d been together for years. He knew her, completely and intimately. Not the silly, trivial facts, like her favorite color or her preferred brand of shampoo. He knew her heart: deep inside of her was a woman who wanted to be loved.

He’d told her she was inscrutable, and it might take longer than a day to figure out how her mind worked. In truth, that’s what he found so fascinating about her. She was one of a kind. And he’d always thought, when he found the right woman, that’s exactly what he wanted.

* * *

T
HE
HOT
WATER
washed over her and Annie felt his fingers in her hair, gently massaging the shampoo into her scalp. Though she’d tried to tell him to hurry, Rourke wasn’t hearing any of it. This wasn’t a big-city hotel with an endless supply of hot water. They had about ten minutes and that was it.

Annie leaned back against him, her backside brushing up against his growing erection. For the first time in a long time, she wished they were in the city, in some luxurious hotel with heat and running water and expensive bed linens. Oh, and room service. Food and drink delivered right to the door.

She turned and began to rinse her hair. “You’d better hurry,” she said. “We’ve got about three minutes left.”

He reached out and cupped her breast in his palm. “God, you are beautiful,” he murmured.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. “You can admire me later.” Bending over, she grabbed the bottle of shampoo and squeezed a bit into her hand. Then she reached up and rubbed it into his hair. Rourke grabbed her waist and pulled her against him, his shaft pressing into her belly.

She reached down to stroke him with her soapy hand. He moaned softly, arching into her touch. But as he came closer and closer to his release, the water from the shower began to cool. Finally, Annie was forced to step out from under the spray, leaving him on the edge.

“Quick, rinse your hair,” she said.

Cursing softly, Rourke leaned into the cold water and did as he was told. Annie held out a towel for him and, shuddering, he quickly dried his face. Annie turned, her hair still dripping. She slipped her feet into her wellies.

“Where are you going?” Rourke asked.

“Back to the cottage,” she said.

“Like that?”

“Why put clothes on when you’re just going to take them off again?” She let her eyes drift down to his stiff shaft. She smiled. “Let’s see if you can handle it.”

“I’m not going out there naked,” he said.

Annie shrugged. “Then get dressed.” She went outside and the cold hit her skin like a million pinpricks. The rain had stopped and all that was left of the storm was a damp wind blowing off the water. She drew a deep breath and then ran across the rise to the house. Kit saw her and raced up to run beside her, jumping up in his excitement. When she reached the house, she turned back and saw Rourke following her, slipping on the muddy grass, dressed only in his boots.

She laughed as he took the porch steps two at a time and they both tumbled into the house. Kit scampered in behind them, getting tangled in their feet for a moment before Annie ordered him over to his spot in front of the fire.

His hands seemed to be everywhere, searching for favorite spots on her body, sending wild sensations coursing to her core. No matter what he did, it didn’t seem to be enough to satisfy her. Now that they’d shared the ultimate intimacy, that’s what she wanted—Rourke...moving inside her.

But to her dismay, he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get to that part of the seduction. Instead, he backed her up against the edge of the table, then drew her leg up along his hip until he was pressing temptingly close to the moist spot between her legs.

She moved against him, but he shifted, as if he knew that slipping inside her would be the end instead of the beginning. Taking some satisfaction in the fact that she was able to bring him to the edge so quickly and to tease him further, she reached down and wrapped her fingers around him.

“You’re a very dangerous lady,” he whispered. “I can’t seem to control myself when I touch you. Or when you touch me.”

“I think that’s a good thing,” Annie said.

“Not if we want to make this last all night long,” he said.

Annie gasped. “All night?”

“Why not? Do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

“No.”

He reached around her, then picked Annie up and set her on the edge of the old wooden table. “Good. Because I’m just getting started.”

Rourke tugged her boots off and threw them at the door, then kicked out of his own. Though the cottage was chilly, it didn’t matter. In truth, it seemed to heighten every sensation—the feel of his soft lips on her nipple, the warmth of his tongue, the scrape of his beard against her belly. It was almost too much to bear.

She felt so exposed, lying on her kitchen table, naked and open to his touch. But for the first time in her memory, she wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable. Though she hadn’t known Rourke long, she knew she could trust him. He seemed to genuinely care for her happiness—and for her sexual satisfaction.

He focused his attention on the spot between her legs and she felt wave after wave of pleasure wash over her. Her body pulsed with need and just when she thought he was ready to take her over the edge, he slowed his pace.

Frustrated, Annie decided to do the same to him. She pushed up on her elbows, then placed her bare foot on his shoulder, gently nudging him away. “Stop,” she murmured.

He looked up at her. “I’m just getting started.”

Annie slid to the edge of the table, then hopped down. “No,
I’m
just getting started.” She grabbed his arms and turned him around, pushing him up against the table.

She began with a touch, gentle at first, her fingers stroking his shaft slowly as she trailed kisses over his chest. Lingering over his nipple, Annie was rewarded with a gasp, then a groan, before he wove his fingers through the hair at her nape.

As she moved lower, he tried to stop her, pulling her back to kiss her once again. But Annie didn’t want to play by his rules all the time. She wanted a bit of control.

When her lips closed over him, she felt his body jerk, but she wasn’t deterred. She slowly seduced him with her tongue and her lips, taking him into her mouth in a deliberate rhythm. At some point, he gave up any resistance and allowed himself to submit. Annie felt as if she was learning what pleased him with every minute that passed. It felt so good to know a man so intimately. It made her feel like a powerful, attractive woman...not like the Annie that everyone thought they knew.

She wasn’t that shy, scared girl anymore. If she wanted this man, she could have him—any way she wanted him. And right now, Annie wanted him in her bed, his naked body stretched out on top of hers.

Slowly straightening, she kissed her way back to his lips, then wrapped her arms around his neck, her tongue teasing at his. Rourke chuckled softly as she rubbed up against him, continuing to torment him. But then he grabbed her hips and picked her up, and she locked her legs around his body.

“I guess that run through the cold night was exactly what I needed.”