The O'Malley Brides (2 page)

Mason took his seat beside Rebecca, with Jason next to him.  It was hard
to believe he had a nephew.  Good Lord, did he have to be hit
over the head with it? 
Jason was the spitting image of his brother Nick and he’d never put two and two together.  He sure hop
ed he was going to be a better f
ather than he’d been as an
uncle.

Finally the organ music changed and Tess recognized it was time.
Father Donovan had entered through a side door and was standing at the
altar
. 
Slapping a smile on her face
,
she whispered to Caitlin who took off like a shot out of a gun.  Great clumps of flow
ers were thrown onto the carpet as she ran halfway down the aisle before remembering her instructions.  Slowing to a crawl
,
Caitie began to drop an individual petal for every step she took. 
Eventually
she made it to the front pew where
Maeve O’Malley pulled her
granddaughter
onto he
r lap assuring her
that
she had done a fine job. 
Colle
e
n, Noah
,
and Bridget were in the pew behind Maeve minding the younger members of the O’Malley clan and Caitie wiggled around until she could grin at Lilly and Rose in triumph.

Tess came down the aisle next, with
Molly
a good distance behind, eye
s
twinkling as she winked at her handsome husband, Patrick
.  Taking their places to
the right of the alta
r, the congregation stood and
turned to
watch
the bride and her father. 

Sean O’Malley was a big man and he
dwarfed
the woman beside him
.  He was proud to be walking
his
daughter down the aisle and relieved to be delivering her to such a man as Nick Kord.  Maggie had been widowed
leaving
her with three children to care for
.  Nick was the father of
Maggie’s
oldest son
,
Jason, but no one had
known
it until recently as she had guarded her secret well.  It was quite a
hullabal
oo
when Nick
found out
and
he immediately bega
n to co
urt the high-spirited widow.  In
Sean’s
opinion, Nick was exactly the kind of
man
his daughter needed.  Loving and generous, Nick was also firm and provided the stable environment his Maggie needed.  Sean was a firm believer that the man was the head of his house and he had no doubt Nick would never abdicate that position.

Maggie O’Malley Cassidy, soon to be Maggie Kord
, looked lovely as she walked down the aisle with her father.  Tess loved Maggie’s ivory satin dress accented with rum pink cutout
s
along the hem.  The vintage style suited her perfectly as did the short
veil
.  All eyes were on the bride and her fathe
r as
Tess took
a
moment to glance at Rory O’Malley.  He too was watching his si
ster and Da approaching the alta
r.  Damn
,
why did he have to be so
good look
ing
,
Tess thought.  Six foot four
of
mouthwatering sex appeal,
with
his black hair and clear blue
eyes
,
Rory affected her like no one else ever had.
A detective on the police force, Rory was a
no-no
nsense
kind of man.  Several years in
Special Forces
had given him an appreciation for rules and structure that served him well in his chosen profession. 

Feeling her scrutiny
,
Rory looked at Tess and wasn’t surprised to see her quickly stick out her
tongue
.  Despite trying to hide a grin
,
his look scolded her without uttering a single word and she quickly turned her eyes back to the bride. 

Tess tried to pay attention to the ceremony.  She loved Maggie, Nick and their three children, Jason, Todd and Caitie
,
and was very happy for them.  The heat coming from her bottom was distracting though, and several times she glared
reproachfully at Rory who simply
raised his eyebrow in response.  His expression clearly said,
well
you asked for it,
and
she wondered how she had come t
o understand him so well in
a
few
short
months.

T
oday
wasn’t the first time Rory had spanked her.  When he’d found her sleeping on a park bench for the third time in one week, Rory had
put his foot on said bench,
pulled her over his knee and smacked her p
oor defenseless bottom until she
was a weeping mass of contrite female.  The fact that he had absolutely no right to administer such a
punishment
hadn’t deterred him in the least. 
Along with a stern lecture about the dangers of a w
oman sleeping in a park where he’d
s
een multiple crimes lately, he
had her car impounded
.  I
nstead of arresting her for vagrancy, which he certainly could have being that she was homeless
with no job and no shelter except her little car, he deposited her at his mother’s doorstep.  Although she had been terrified, the
O’Malley’s
had taken her in with no questions asked.  It wasn’t long before she found herself embedded in a big Irish family with all the love and baggage that entailed. 

Rory was the oldest and by far the mos
t serious.  Patrick, the second son,
was funny and warm.  Married to the ethereal Molly, they had two boys
,
Ryan and
Michael
,
who were fifteen and thirteen
. Colleen and her husband Noah had three children, Devlin
,
who was eight
and twin
six year old
girls
,
R
ose and Lilly,
who
were
identical
almost down to the last freckle.  Maggie was marrying the love of her life this very day.  Their oldest son
,
Jason
,
was
fifteen now and Todd just turned nine.  Little Caitie was four years
old going on sixteen.  Bridget
was the youngest
O’Malley
and still somewhat of a wild child despite being a full-time
college
student.  All in all
,
they were quite a surprise to Tess who had grown up wi
th just one sister.  After their
parents had been killed
in a car accident
,
her
older
sister
,
Maria
,
had taken her in
until she turned eighteen. 
A week later,
Maria had swiftly packed up and moved to California, wishing Theresa well but clearly glad to have no further responsibility for her care.  Tess had used what little money she’d saved to find a small efficiency
apartment
in a seedy part of town.  Working as many hours as she could, she took whatever
college
courses she could afford and still be able to eat. 
For several years Tess had been able to
eke
out a living in this fashion although some would have called it simply surviving and miserable to boot. 
Unfortunately
,
the restaurant she worked at had been forced to close and she quickly found herself not only out of a job, but homeless as she could
no longer
afford the rent.  At this point she sti
ll wasn’t sure if Rory was angel
or devil.  While she was
grateful
to have the support of the
O’Malleys
, she certainly wasn’t feeling
too
charitable to
ward
one
O’Malley in
particular today. 

The whole hair debacle had started innocently enough.  A week ago
,
Tess
gathered
around Maeve’s
kitchen table with the O’Malley women discussing hairstyles for
the wedding.  Just as Bridget
jumped up and gathered Tess’s hair high on her head, showing her how wonderful she would look in a bob,
Rory
walked in the back door. 

Rory got a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter, wat
ching with
keen inter
est as his family raved
over how nice Tess would look with short hair.

“I forbid it,” fell out of Rory’s mouth before he could stop it.

Tess’s head might have been on a swivel,
so fast did she turn her around. 
“Excuse me?” she asked,
not sure she had actually heard him
right.  He couldn’t possibly be talking to her.

“You heard me.  But on the chance that any of you misunderstood, I’ll repeat myself.  You may not cut your hair under any circumstances.”

Jaws dropped around the table and complete silence ensued until Tess rose slowly and faced him.  “Who are you to tell me I may not cut my hair?” she demanded, trying to hang onto her temper.  “It is my hair and I shall do with it as I please.”

“Do not defy me on this
,
Theresa
.  I mean what I say and believe me you won’t like the
consequences
,” he informed her dryly as he calmly sipped his coffee.

“Rory,” Maeve began, stunned at the uncompromising attitude of her son.

The table erupted and suddenly Tess was defended by multiple female voices each trying to be heard above the next. 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,”
Bridget
shouted
.

“
What
the hell
?”
Colleen
added.

“
Rory
, this is too much even for you,” Maggie interjected

“Hush,”
Rory
ordered.  “I have my reasons and please don’t encourage Tess to misbehave.  She
finds enough trouble on her own,
” he continued as he calmly rinsed out his cup and put it in the sink.

The only one to remain quiet was Molly
whose
crystal blue eyes met and held Rory’s for
a second before she dropped her gaze, blushing furiously.

Rory
barely
made it out the door before Tess was surrounded by irate females offering comfort and advice.

At the salon the day before the wedding
, Molly
tried her best to convince Tess her hair would look lovely with the
pillbox
hat in a French twist, but Tess was having none of it. 
Rory issued
a challenge
and she
was
not backing down.  Yes
,
he
helped her immeasurably when she was at the lowest point in her life, but that did
no
t
mean he could take over her life
.  It was her hair and as Molly sank into her salon chair in defeat, Tess brazenly to
ld the stylist to “chop it off.”
  It was for a good cause after all.  The stylist
groaned
as she cut off over two feet of Tess’s silky black hair. 

The style
itself
was attractive
,
Tess thought this
morning
,
as she put the finishing touches on her make-up.  Already dressed, she leaned
over
the antique vanity, trying to get as close to the huge oval mirror as she could.  The bedroom door opened
,
closed with a click
,
and she turned.

“I am
almost ready, but…
”
her voice fell away as Rory flipped the lock into place.

He studied her in silence as her
heart rate
rose rapidly. 
Incredibly handsome in his black tux,
Tess
tre
mbled as fear wrestled with desire within
her.  Swallowing with difficulty, she forced herself to turn back to the mirror and her shaking hand picked up her mascara.