Juice: The O'Malleys Book 1, contemporary Adult Romance (30 page)

“No! Cass that’s what real friends are about. It doesn’t always have to be even. You needed me more than I needed you. I had Mark. Anyway, I’m going to need your help in six months anyway. Babysitting duties!” Marie smiled at Cass who was staring wide eyed at her and then jumped up and stared at her open-mouthed.

“Oh Marie, I’m going to be an auntie. You’re going to be a mum. Oh my God! You’re going to be a mum. Are you okay? Have you been sick? How far gone are you? What about work? You can take as much time off as you need!”

“Calm down Cass, Mark had a phone call from Rory two nights ago He’s taking him on as head accountant for the O’Malley Resorts. His current accountant is as old as t hell and he’s retiring in two months. So Mark got the job. Excellent package, apartment, car, the whole works. We couldn’t believe it when he called. It means I will have to give up work though. Well, realistically I don’t have to but I want to. All I ever wanted was to be a mum and now with the money from the new job I can stay at home. I mean if you are stuck, I can always help out. Do you mind?”

“Of course I don’t mind, silly. You are more than entitled to quit work and become a Stepford wife.” Cass laughed and put her arm around her friends shoulder.

“Good. I hoped you would be okay with it, Cass. Now, where’s the toilet, my flipping bladder can’t stand to be idle for longer than ten minutes.” Cass waited outside the toilet door for Marie, she leaned back against the wall and hugged her arms around her body. Her heart filled with joy for her two friends. Marie opened the door and smiled at her. “I know Cass; it seems too good to be true doesn’t it. But, it is. It’s true and it’s wonderful and it’s everything I always wanted for you. Harry would be so happy for you too. This is home for you Cass. Not just in Ireland, but with Rory. He’s your forever person. This is where you should be, with this great guy and this funny, beautiful and a bit crazy family.” Cass laughed loudly. “Yeah, yeah I feel it too, I’m happy Marie. I mean really happy.” They hugged and strolled back into the kitchen arm in arm.

Rory stood to pull out a chair for Cass, she smiled at him and he was suddenly filled with warmth and comfort. He looked around the table at the crowd of family and new friends that were chatting loudly and he knew he had lucked out. These were his people, this was his life and he couldn’t imagine being happier than he was at that moment.

Louisa, Alice and Aoife, were laughing hysterically at Annie and Rian, who were doing their usual Christmas carol medley, badly. Annie’s voice was a cross between a little girl whine and an old Irish hag. Rian, sung with a serious look on his face in a deep baritone, using animated hand gestures. Brian and his dad, were sharing a glass of thirty year old whiskey his father had been saving for a special occasion. Darragh and granny O’Malley, were explaining hurling and their love of the game to a bemused Marie and Mark.

His eyes landed on the empty seats at the table. Two empty dinner places were set in the finest of his grandmothers’ china. He had watched his mother setting the table that morning; the seats for the absent members of the family were as always given the most attention, the most care. One for his granddad O’Malley, and now one for Harry. The special seats, reserved for the most important of guests. As was their tradition. Harry would always have a place at the table on special occasions, as a reminder of his place within the family. And then it hit him, right in the gut. This was home. This was where he had experienced every bit of real love in his life. This was where he wanted to be, safe and protected in a cocoon of acceptance and warmth with family and friends.

His eyes found Cass. His beautiful Cass was sitting in the middle of them all smiling up at him with love in her eyes. His heart felt like bursting out of his chest. He had felt happy before, but realised it was a muted kind of happiness. A happiness filled with work and just surviving day to day. His work and the power and money that went with it, the manic need to win had consumed him. Until there was little room for anything else. Anything real.

Now he was living and loving and it felt damn good. He had been scared of allowing someone into his heart. Afraid that with love came the potential for loss. As he looked at Cass, her beautiful face so open, so giving, he was hit with the realisation that love was the only thing that was eternal. The money and the power were all transitory. Sure, they made life easier, on a comfort level, but they were only things. It was people that were the real key to fulfilment. It was love that gave all the answers, love that made all emotions real. The anger and regret, the loss and pain. They were all necessary in order to feel the joy and the happiness.

Their love was new, but felt like it had been there forever. The feelings were the same, for everyone. Everyone who has ever loved has felt the same passion and pain, through time infinite. We are all connected through our capacity to accept love and to give it. Love has no time frame, no number and no limit to when or how it happens. It just does. It just is. But, when it happens, you need to make it for keeps. And he was keeping Cass, if she would have him. He would ask her to marry him later. He would ask her to spend her life with him. He looked at Harry’s seat, empty but for a memory of what once was. Life was short and he wanted to live his with Cass.

“Jaysus Rory, will you come on and carve the bloody turkey for feck sake.”

Rory looked up to find Annie and the rest of the family looking at him.

“Half-wit,” Annie laughed and punched him on the arm. The group laughed and clapped Annie.

“Food! Food! Food!” Annie started banging her cutlery on the table to the delight of Kate and Junie who eagerly joined in.

“The stuffing’s on the counter Cass will you get it for me,” Louisa asked placing her small warm palm over Cass’ hand

“Of course,” Cass smiled at her. She was fast becoming a fan of Rory’s mum. A quiet woman who loved her family fiercely.

Rory rolled his eyes at Annie and began to carve. Cass walked over to the counter to get the stuffing and whispered into Rory’s ear as she passed.

“I forgot to tell you. I have no underwear on. Maybe you can take a look later.”

Rory dropped the carving life on the floor and stared at Cass as she sashayed back to her seat. Damn that girl she was going to be the death of him and he would enjoy every minute of it. He spent the whole of the dinner with a hard on and shot Cass little longing looks until it was over.

After the clean-up, which was made even longer by Rian and Annie grumbling the whole way through it, Cass and Rory went outside for a walk. They wandered through the fields for an hour and stopped for a rest in a wooded area a few miles from the farm house. Cass lay down on the grass and Rory lay with his legs across hers. He ran his fingers through her hair and moved his face above hers. He leaned in and kissed her nipping at her lips.

“Will you stay with me, Cass?”

Cass moved him off her and stood up. He followed her until her back was against a big old beech tree. He put his hands on either side of her head and forced her to meet his eyes.

“I need more time, Rory. I have to make things right in my head. You hurt me Rory, you lied to me.”

  “Look, I'm gonna level with you here, Cass. Every part of my body comes alive when you are around. I want to fuck you, Jesus, that's no surprise! I want to be inside you all the time. I've spent the last few months as hard as a rock,” he licked his lips and bent his head, cocked it sideways and moved in toward her. His gaze rested on her lips which suddenly felt exposed, and were still swollen from his last kiss. Cass raised up her hand and rested her palm on his chest feeling the thump, thump, of his heart. He spoke softly to her.

“I want you Cass, and I know you can feel that want and energy building up inside me, when you are around. But more than that, I want to feel every pulse and quiver, here.” He mirrored her gesture and rested his palm flat against her heart.

“Every time your breath catches in your throat, I want to feel it.” 
He pressed his lips to her neck and she felt the blood rush to the spot where their skin touched.

“I need you Cass, all of you. I want your body and soul. Not for a day, or a week or a year. I want your life and mine to be one entity. One kiss and one fleeting moment in time.” He put his other hand on her knee and with a feather-like touch ran his forefinger and thumb, up the length of her inner thigh. Cass felt her breath hitch in her throat. “And that,” he said.

“That sound, that passion, I want that too. You were mine, from the moment my eyes saw your face. You were mine. Before that. Before we met, before and before and before. I can't even explain it. You were born for me Cass, created just for me. A precious gift of one good thing in my life, to make up for all the bad. A salve, a life-line. I thought I would be alone forever, that the darkness and pain inside me was all I could cling to and control. Then, you came into my life and something shifted, you know, something changed in me. You have my heart and my soul and for the first time in my life, I am laid bare and it terrifies me. You terrify me. But, damn it! I am willing to let you fuck with me, and fuck me up, if that's what it takes to get close to you. To be with you.”

Cass turned her face to his and looked into his eyes; they shone brightly with love and something else. Vulnerability and emotions buried so deep that they made the ice around her heart crack and fracture. She felt each piece of it fall away and rocked backward on her feet with the brutal force of it. Rory dropped his hands and put them through his hair lacing them together on his head. Her eyes followed the end of his t-shirt as it rose up above his belt. Cass couldn't stop looking at the tautness of his belly where his tattoo dropped into his jeans. She focused on the colours of it to stop herself from breaking down.

“Talk to me Cassidy. I need you to say it, if you want me to walk away, say it. I need to hear it now. Because if you don't, I will take it that you want this as much as I do. When that happens, 
mo stóirín
, my darlin’, you are mine. Forever and always. I will hurt anyone or anything that tries to come between us. So, think hard on it, my love. I want you to be really sure that these lips are the only ones you will ever want, that all this is yours and yours alone. I play for keeps Cass, and I play hard. Are you ready to take me? To take all of me?”

She shook her head and looked away from him. He rubbed his hands through his black hair again and backed away from her, walking backwards and shaking his head as if it had drained him to say it. Cass felt the hot tears that were burning the backs of her eyes and refused to let them fall. When he had gone from her view, she crumpled to the ground and sat cross legged and cried. It was too much, too hard to let him in. She loved him, there was no doubt about that, her heart was full of him. Every part of her body responded to him as though it had been made only for his touch, his caress, his lips, his body and soul. He would not lie down and give in easily. It was a matter of pride and ownership for him. Cass felt as though her mind was exploding with all he had said, all he had bled out from his very soul. She sat and thought about it, and knew what her answer would be; she knew that she would always be his. There was no other direction for her heart but to make a home for itself beside his, forever.

(Cass)

A man loves his sweetheart the most,