He was falling for her. She should have been jumping for joy, shouting to the rooftops that the man she wanted felt the same way about her. But the revelation was bittersweet. It didn’t make things simpler. It only made them more difficult.


DANNY GLANCED AT THE CLOCK on the bedside table. It was nearly eleven and he’d made no attempt to crawl out of bed and get the day started. After the show last night, he and Jordan had hit the town, finding a pub near the hotel and spending the night dancing and laughing and having more fun than he’d ever had with a woman.

He loved introducing her to the wonders of Ireland. Last night it was Irish art and Guinness. Today it would be a decent Irish breakfast and a stroll along the Liffey.

He drew a deep breath and closed his eyes, snuggling into her warm, naked body. From the moment he’d met Jordan, there’d been an undeniable attraction between them, a connection that seemed to be strengthened with each moment they spent in bed. They’d been so wrapped up in each other, he’d forgotten that she wasn’t completely his.

Was this what Riley had gone through with Nan? His brother had fallen in love with an American tourist with a life and a career in the States. But he’d made it work, he’d convinced her to stay. How had he made that happen?

When they’d begun, Danny was happy just being with Jordan. He’d never thought about anything beyond the next time they found themselves in bed. But somewhere along the line, he’d forgotten about immediate gratification and begun thinking about the future.

She was an incredibly seductive woman. And though she claimed that he was the only one who thought so, Danny suspected the American men she’d known had seen the beauty beneath the businesslike facade. She was his inspiration, his muse, his temptress. Danny couldn’t think of anything more he wanted from a woman than what he had with Jordan.

Rolling to his side, Danny wrapped his arm around her waist and gently brushed a strand of hair from her temple. She sighed softly as he pressed his lips to her forehead. And when his mouth found hers, Jordan stirred and opened her eyes.

“What time is it?” she murmured.

“Almost eleven,” he whispered.

Jordan groaned. “Why did you let me sleep so late?”

“It’s Sunday. Unless you want to go to church, there isn’t much else to do in Dublin. Besides, I kept you up too late last night.”

“I’m going to need a vacation from my vacation,” she said. “I think I’ve had more sex in the past month than I’ve had in my whole entire life. In fact, I’m quite certain of that.”

“Well, now there’s an accomplishment I can boast about.”

“Don’t you dare. Your brothers don’t need to know about our sex life.”

“I’m sure they’ve already speculated. You don’t know what it’s like when they get bored at the Hound.” He yawned, stretching his arms over his head. “Speaking of the Hound, Riley and Nan’s engagement party is coming up. Would you like to go?”

“Wow. Two dates. I don’t know,” she teased. “Don’t you think we’re moving a bit fast?”

“Yes,” he said, his voice serious. “But I don’t have a problem with that. Do you?”

She frowned, staring into his eyes. “No,” she said softly. “Are you angry with me?”

“No,” Danny said. “I’m just trying to be honest. I don’t want to think about you leaving, Jordan. I’m not going to think about it. I’m just going to go on as if we’re going to be together as long as we want to be together. Just like any other couple.”

“But we aren’t any other couple,” she said. “I live across the ocean.”

“Not now, you don’t. Right now, you live in Ireland.”

She snuggled closer to his naked body. “Yes, I suppose I do.”

“We have the whole day ahead of us. What would you like to do?”

“I’ll let you be the tour guide,” she said, sliding her hand down his belly. She wrapped her fingers around his shaft, now hard and ready. It always amazed him how quickly that happened with Jordan. All he had to do was think about her and the blood rushed to his crotch.

Danny groaned softly as she began to stroke him, aroused by the prospect of another lazy morning in bed. “I swear to God, you do have fairy blood running through your veins,” he murmured. “There’s pure magic in the way you touch me.”

“Maybe I do,” Jordan replied, her touch now playfully teasing. “Since the fairy circle I have been feeling a bit different.”

“You’re not human,” he said, groaning as his pleasure grew. “I’m beginning to believe that I can’t live without this.” Danny’s breath caught in his throat. “I’ve never been with a woman who makes me feel the way you do.”

“I can make you feel even better,” she said.

“I’m not sure that’s possible,” Danny replied.

Jordan slid down along his body, drawing the sheet back, inch by inch. When she reached his waist, she traced a line of kisses across his belly, then moved lower still.

Danny knew what was coming and he wasn’t about to stop her. Instead, he stretched his arms over his head and arched his back, waiting for the warmth of her mouth to surround him. When she finally took him between her lips, he was forced to look away. Watching her made it almost impossible to control his release.

There were many things that Jordan was good at, but she excelled at this particular activity. In fact, there were times when he wondered if it could get any better.

But it wasn’t just about him. It was about the two of them sharing something so intimate that a touch replaced a word, a sigh replaced a glance. When real life was pushed aside, they had this pleasure between them and it was a powerful drug that he found himself craving constantly.

“Do you know what this does to me?” he whispered.

“Yes,” she said. “But isn’t that the intended result?”

“No. I’m not talking about an orgasm,” he said.

She looked up at him, her hair tumbled around her face, her lips damp. “What?”

“I can’t resist you,” he murmured. “I don’t want to anymore. You’ve stolen my ability to think for myself.”

“That’s not true.”

He ran his fingers through her hair. “Ask me anything. I’ll be your knight in shining armor. I’ll slay dragons for you and rescue you from the tower. I’ll lay down my life for you. That’s what I feel when you touch me.”

“Well, the next time I run into a dragon, I’ll give you a call,” she said, smiling. She moved back to her task, her tongue soft and warm against his shaft.

She thought he was joking. And for a moment, Danny almost let it slide. But he wanted her to understand what she meant to him, how deeply he cared about her. “It’s not funny,” he said. “I’m tired of dancing around it, playing like it doesn’t really matter. You do matter to me, Jordan.”

She stared at him. “Don’t do this,” she murmured. “Don’t make it more difficult than it already is.”

“I don’t give a feck if it is difficult. It should be. It should feel like a knife to the heart, like falling off a cliff onto sharp rocks. It should make your soul bleed. I want it to be hard.”

She sat up, pulling the sheet up around her body. “Why? It doesn’t have to be.”

“It’s the only way we’re going to know it was real,” Danny said.

He reached out and grabbed her waist, then pulled her on top of him. She watched him, warily, all of her insecurities reflected in her expression. He shifted and then he was inside her, in the sweet warmth that had become home to him.

As he moved, Danny felt his need rise, a knot tightening deep inside of him until the ache was too much to bear. He reached between them and touched her, so that he could make her come right along with him.

Danny waited until her face grew flushed with desire, until her breath came in quick, desperate gasps. And then, when he felt her swell around him, he came. The intensity of his release was enough to make his body jerk and his muscles tense. He opened his eyes and watched her dissolve into her own orgasm, her fingers digging into his chest as she rocked above him.

And when she grew still, he pulled her down on top of him, holding her close. “Don’t you dare tell me it’s going to be easy,” he whispered. Danny drew a ragged breath. “I’m going to do everything I can to convince you to stay.”

“Please don’t do that,” Jordan said.

“I don’t have any choice.”

She fell back asleep stretched out on top of him, her thighs straddling his hips, her head resting on his shoulder. But Danny couldn’t sleep. His mind was filled with desperate thoughts.

It was clear she didn’t feel the same way about him as he did about her. Every time he brought up the future, she deflected the conversation. He only had two choices-convince her of his point of view or prepare to let her go. But he wasn’t going to give up without a fight. He had a chance to change the course of his life, to make Jordan a part of it. And he’d do anything to make that happen.

7

JORDAN CAREFULLY LAID the tape measure down on the floor, measuring the width of the library. She scribbled the number on a pad of paper, then slowly measured in the opposite direction. Kellan had said that if there was a secret entrance into the house, they’d find it this way.

Drawing a ragged breath, she walked out into the foyer. What difference did it make? In a few weeks, the new owners could worry about it. They could afford to hire someone to come in and draw a new floorplan. She glanced down at her watch.

She was already an hour late for Nan and Riley’s engagement party and though she was dressed and ready to go, she couldn’t bring herself to walk out the front door. Everything was such a mess. The closer she got to finishing, the more confused she became. She’d put off talking to her father for fear that it might force her into a decision she wasn’t ready to make. Whenever Danny spoke of the future, she deftly changed the subject. And now, she was quickly losing interest in finally finishing the house.