Always (9 page)

As if he’d summoned her like magic, his cell rang.

“Hello, Cat, it’s awfully late for you, darlin’,” he said without preamble when he answered.

She laughed and he heard the weariness.

“I was just about to go to sleep, but I figured you’d be awake by now and I wanted to catch up with you. With all your jet setting, it’s hard.”

“I wanted to ring you, but I’m afraid to wake you up. Selfishly, I’m glad you stayed up to call. I’ve been up a few hours now. You could have woken
me
up you know. I’m just packing my bags. The cab will be here in a few hours to run me to Heathrow. I’ll have a meal with Hannah and Billy before I go.” He tossed himself on the bed. “You sound knackered.”

“I am but it’s worth it to talk to you. I don’t have to be in school tomorrow until eleven so I have some time to sleep in.”

He knew she wouldn’t. That was her way.

“I got an interview with the AG’s office,” she told him excitedly, following up with the details. He smiled, knowing it was what she wanted, knowing it made her so happy.

“That’s great news, Cat! I’m proud of you. I know how hard you’ve worked for it.” What a feather in her cap this would be if she got the job. God knew she deserved it, she spent every waking moment working for it.

“Thank you. And how did your work go?”

“I did two classes that were totally sold out. Shot two weddings, a lot of commercial stuff I hadn’t even planned on, as well as my other jobs. Some portraiture, that sort of thing.”

“Nudes?” she teased.

“A few.” And not a one of them even tantalized him. Sure he appreciated the beauty of a woman’s body. He worked with many young, nubile and fit women, many of them scantily clad or naked. But it was his memory of Caitlin, her hair in a messy topknot, glasses slipping down her nose as she sat curled up somewhere reading that made him want to reach for his zipper.

“Mmm hmm. You sound so casual.”

“It’s a job. Pretty women, sure. But you’re the one I want to get naked for lascivious reasons. Although if you’d let me photograph you naked, you’d make my entire year.”

“Pffft. So you’ll be in New York for a few days and then back to LA?”

“Indeed. I’m meeting with a guy from NYU who’s interested in setting up some classes back and forth between the coasts using photographers from a wide array of styles and voices. He’s the person I’m writing the grant with. I’ve got some miles stored up, by the way. Seattle isn’t too far afield if you have the time? Like say, over Thanksgiving?”

“As a matter of fact, I’m done with school by the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. I have a few exams the second week in December but I could totally use a visit from a friend. I’ll make you turkey if you like. That is, if you’re sure you want to be away from your family.”

“Thanksgiving is an American holiday, Cat. I’m happy to spend some time with you. It’s been months and months since I’ve had you last. You smell good and you’re quite the cook. I’ll look into a flight and my work schedule and I’ll get back to you.”

They spoke for a few more minutes. He wanted more, loving the sound of her voice but she was so tired, he wanted her to rest even more so he rang off, promising to call her when he got to NY.

His sister, Hannah, and her oldest son Billy had come over to London two days prior and he was due to meet them for a meal before they went their separate ways home.

Hannah reminded Eamon of his mother, the same quiet but implacable will, merry eyes, both of them excellent mothers. While Eamon was similar to Michael in personality, he was closest to his sister, despite the distance. He’d shared some of his situation with Caitlin but Hannah knew he wasn’t telling him everything so she simply turned to him when he arrived at the café near the hotel and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Now you’ll be telling me why you aren’t getting serious about this girl. I’m done playing with you and your evasions. Your face changes when you talk about your Caitlin. Your world weariness falls away. Laura says she’s a fine woman, strong, intelligent. Ma says she’s a vivacious girl, she said Da thought the world of her when she worked in the pub. Irish blood, Irish name, that’s a sign. Why are you wasting your time playing in Los Angeles when you could just as easily be in Seattle with her? You’re too old to be chasing skirts.” One of her eyebrows rose imperiously and he resisted the urge to dig his toe into the linoleum below his feet and stammer an apology.

“Playing? I’m not playing, I’m trying to build a damned business! I’m
busy
, Hannah. She’s busy. She’s finishing up law school, taking extra courses to finish early as it happens. On top of that the girl works as well. I’m not chasing any skirts but hers, for the record. We may not be engaged but she’s the only woman I’m seeing and it’s been that way for nearly a year. Even with the distance. Surely I get some credit for that?”

“What credit? That you’re not shoving your lad into every betty you see?”

He burst out laughing at her use of slang. “I’ll have you know, I never shoved my lad into bettys indiscriminately. Thank you very much. She’s special. Ma is right about that, Laura too. She’s the kind of girl you’d bring home. But she’s not interested in it and neither am I. I didn’t move halfway across the world to tie myself to anyone. I have a business, a career to build. I’m not ready to settle down.”

“Not ready to settle down? What will it take then? You’re being stubborn for no reason at all. You’ve been playing at house with this girl, well, sort of. And she’s only going to take so much. If she’s the kind of girl you’d bring home, why aren’t you? Because if you don’t, what’s to say one of those men she works with won’t? You’re going to look up and she’ll be gone, Eamon, and then what? You’ll move on? You two found each other again after four years. In another country by total happenstance. What if this is meant to be? Can you be so cavalier about something when it just might be the most right thing to ever happen to you? If she’s as special as you say, how can you be sure there’ll be another like her when this one moves on? Hmm?”

“Much as I love you, Hannah, you don’t know what you’re on about. I won’t rip up my life like Michael did. He gave up everything for Laura. I’m too old and set in my ways to let anyone lead me by the nose.”

Her brows flew up and he knew he’d gone very close to the edge of the ice with that one.

“Michael had what here? A job and some friends. A flat. What does he have now? A great job, a home with his wife, friends and a life. A real life. You can take pictures anywhere, boyo, why feck around with this he-man bullshite? Rip up your life?” She made a sound of derision and he suddenly felt all of fifteen years old. “Yes, poor Michael the victim. He’s clearly lost sooo much in making the sacrifice to move to where Laura was. Sometimes, Eamon, one of the people in a couple has to make choices, choices that benefit the relationship as a whole. If all you want is a quick fuck, don’t mess around with nice girls like your Caitlin. You’re so much smarter than this.”

Billy wandered in, saw the look on his mother’s face and laughed at Eamon.

Eamon re-thought the skateboard he planned to send to his nephew for Christmas. “Go ahead and laugh. I’m getting on a plane to New York, you’ve got to go back home with her in this mood.”

Billy just continued to laugh and his mother shook her head. “I want you to be happy, Eamon. And that’s worth more than just a job. You’re meant to share your life with someone. Love is a good thing. Stop running from it. Stop or you’ll lose her.”

He wasn’t running from love, damn it. He enjoyed Caitlin, never denied it. He invited himself to her place next month hadn’t he? It didn’t all have to be marriage and having three kiddies. He had time. He wasn’t yet forty years old. He had time and there was nothing wrong with putting his work first.

They shared a taxi to Heathrow, his nephew and sister going one way, he the other.

New York was cold. It had started to snow and Eamon remembered what Caitlin had looked like with her fuzzy hat and coat on. He remembered making love to her slowly, licking every part of her on the rug in front of her fireplace as the golden light caressed her bare skin.

He realized, even as he mixed and smiled at the party his host had invited him to, that he was lonely without her. He could have gone back home or to his hotel with several women he’d met during the evening but he didn’t. Briefly, he thought about what his sister had said, knew Caitlin must have been hit on, asked out, crushed on by multiple men all the time. She was beautiful, magnetic, she had a certain something that made a man take notice.

The thought of another man wanting her burned in his gut, even as he smiled and nodded at something someone had said. He wanted to get to Seattle, to bury himself in her, to smell her skin and know she was his, even if just for the time he was there.

She smiled, so obviously happy and he hugged her tighter, adding a kiss.

“Thank you. It doesn’t seem real. I’m done with school. I have a job offer contingent on bar passage and wow, you’re here. I’ve missed you so much.”

God she felt good, warm and squirmy against him.

“Let’s get my bag and go back to your house. I have other ways to show you how proud I am of you.”

She laughed and he realized his hand had found hers without his even thinking about it.

“I’ve got a huge dinner planned for tomorrow and Anh and Vittorio have invited us for Thanksgiving. I told them I’d see how tired you were.”

“Which is a very adorable way of giving me an out. Thank you.” He kissed the top of her head and grabbed his suitcase when it finally arrived. “Of course we’ll go. You speak of them so often, I’d like to meet them and I’m sure they’ll want to assure themselves I’m not out to rob you of your maidenhood.”

Her laugh was one of a thoroughly debauched woman. So sexy a group of men standing nearby turned to look at her with appreciation.

“Too late for that.”

“Come along now. I have plans to continue your wicked, downward spiral once I get you alone.”

He realized, as they drove back to her building, just how much he loved Seattle. Loved the cool green of it, loved the moisture and the color against all the gray of the sky. There were many comparisons to be made with his beloved Ireland, he had to admit. He found himself relaxing, breathing deep and slow, even in the truly heinous traffic.

Part of that, a large part of that, was being with her again. With having her in his reach. He reached out and curled the softness of that ginger hair around a finger. Her lips curled up into a smile as he did it.

“So it’s all over then? School?”

“I have four finals left to take, but I’m not worried about them. I had a final paper to finish. That’s done. I’ll walk in June with the rest of the class but yes, other than the finals, I’m finished. I’ll start my bar prep class in January. Enough about me! How was Las Vegas?”

He’d just returned from a trade show in Vegas the week before.

“It was warm, colorful, larger than life. I ate a lot of great food. Took some great shots. Missed you. You would love it in Vegas. Maybe after you take the bar we can head down for a weekend or something. You need to lie out by the pool and be waited on a bit.”

“I might just take you up on that. I have some time after the bar where I have absolutely no obligations.”

“How long has it been, then? Since you’ve had no obligations?”

“Eamon, don’t put me on a pedestal. To be honest, most of my life was when I had no obligations. I was spoiled as a child and into my teens and early adulthood. There’s a price to pay to be independent. I’ll gladly pay it. It’s been a hard few years but it’s all worth it.”

“Spoiled,” he nearly growled the word. In reality, he’d pieced together from her comments that while she’d been surrounded by things, she hadn’t been paid much attention to. Children should be adored and cherished. You didn’t need to shove things at them, you needed to give them attention. “I don’t have you on a pedestal. I just know how hard you work.”

She smiled again and he slid the backs of his fingers down the curve of her cheek.

Back at her building they went straight to her apartment.

“I don’t suppose you want a cup of tea first?” she teased.

“After.”

He tossed off his sweater and T-shirt while she turned on the fireplace. The mid-day late autumn sun fell across the surfaces in the room, making pretty shadows but none as alluring as the one tossing off her clothes in front of him.

The high, proud and not-quite-big curves of her breasts, the hardened nipples, the pale, sweeping indent and then flare of belly and hips—all parts of her he dreamed of. Her toes were painted a whimsical shade of purple. It made him smile, that concession to whimsy.

“You look so shy there.” He opened his arms and she stepped into them. Her scent, clean, warm and a bit spicy, greeted him as he lowered his face to her neck, breathing her in.

“I’ve missed you. Missed the way you smell. Come to bed then, so I can show you how much.”

But it was Caitlin who did the showing, pushing him back to the mattress and scrambling over him, kissing him from ankle to the top of his head. His favorite parts were the bits in the middle.

He looked up at her as she rose above him, reaching back to angle his cock. Her face lost its tension as she sank down, surrounding him with her snug heat.

“Ride me then, Cat. Fuck me.”

Her half-lidded eyes lit as she caught her lip between her teeth.

She rose, leaving just the tip of his cock inside her. And then fell with a swivel, nearly blinding him with pleasure.

Her hands gripped his biceps as she leaned forward to adjust his entry. Her nipples swept over his chest and she swallowed his groan as she bent to kiss him.

Home. He was home again.

She padded back into the room, drying her hair, still smiling. Sex, regular, mindblowing sex, was the best tension reliever she knew of. Holy smokes was Eamon hot.

He sauntered out of the bathroom behind her, whistling.

“I’m surprised your mouth works enough to whistle after the way you just used it in there.”

He caught her from behind, hauling her against him. “Your shower head did most of the work, I just licked a bit here and there.”

His breath against her ear sent a shiver through her. “Just when I think there’s no way I’m going to be ready for sex again after you leave me all boneless, you do it again. It’s like magic.”

He laughed and kissed her temple. “You do say the nicest things. A man could get used to the flattery.”

“Mmm. Incentive then.” She moved away, toward the kitchen. “I’m starving. How about something to eat?”