8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Moira

I t’s late, but I’m still at the hospital, tending to my patient that delivered her bairn early. She’s not doing well and her bairn isn’t, either. We’ve got the bairn in an incubator, and mama under watch for hemorrhaging and infection. She had an emergency caesarean section and isn’t healing well from it. It’s not something that I anticipated, either, since this wasn’t a high-risk pregnancy. But it does happen occasionally. I’ve been here for nearly thirty-six hours without any sleep other than a quick cat nap while the nurse helped her with a sponge bath. I don’t suspect that I’ll have to be here for much longer, as both are stable at least for the night. But I’ll have to come back first thing in the morning to check on at least mama.

I’m exhausted to say the least, but I have to go back to the office to sort some things out, so that I can go back to the hospital tomorrow. I don’t recall what day of the week it is, and Shana, my assistant, reminds me that I have a stack of mail that she’s opened for me, but one package that says ‘Confidential’, which I disregard. I get so many of those from pharmaceutical companies that want me to display their products or advertisements, and since I ignore spam email, they snail mail me, making it look like the package is more than garbage. “Put it in the pile. I’ll take it all home and go through it when I’m trying to go to sleep.” I chuckle.

“I’m heading out. It’s after six.” Shana states.

“Oh, shoot. You go.” I tell her, knowing that when I work late, she usually does, too. I don’t know what I would do without her, frankly.

It’s another two hours before I leave the office. When I do, I pull up to the parking garage, and I see a familiar truck in the visitor’s lot. I can’t be sure that it’s him, until the security guard tells me that I have a visitor waiting upstairs for me. And I wonder how much he paid him off this time, not only for allowing entry for an unannounced visitor, but also for letting him wait in the hallway, which is strictly prohibited. “You’re like a guard dog that runs from spiders.” I mutter distastefully as I walk past him.

He doesn't overhear, and frankly, I couldn't care less if he does. As I board the elevator, surprisingly, my belly does a flip, thinking that Declan is upstairs waiting for me. As much as I miss him, I'm not sure what to expect. The wad of mail sticks out of the back of my laptop bag as I turn out of the elevator. The look on his face as our gazes make contact is unreadable, and that twinge of excitement I felt a moment ago disappears.

He raises a hand defensively. “I haven't been here all night.” He explains, as though that would matter. He slides my laptop bag off my shoulder as I fish my keys out of my purse.

“Is everything okay?”

He sidesteps the question. “I should have called first.”

The door opens and we both step inside my small apartment. He sets my laptop bag on the kitchen table as I set my purse down next to it.

“I wasn't sure if I would see you again, after you left unannounced and then not a word from you since.” My words aren't angry, they're simply concerned.

“Just like you, Moira, I've been busy. I swear it was nothing personal. My da called me in the middle of the night. He was angrier than I've heard him in a long time, so I had no choice but to leave.”

“You don't have to explain, Declan. I'm just... Glad that you came back.”

My comment seems to give him permission to come closer, and as his hands reach my waist, the contact instantly awakens me. It's like I just woke up from two days of rest. I couldn't want him more, and from the fire in his eyes, I'd say that he feels the same. Eyes on his lips, both my hands comb through his hair, and his lips envelop mine. The soft, needy whimper from my throat, is unavoidable. Suddenly, it feels like it's been years since I've seen him. Both his hands skate down to my behind, and it sets the pulse between my thighs too high.

His tongue touches mine and it’s game on. He is putty in my hands and I’m the same in his. All is forgiven and forgotten, not that anything needed to be forgiven, anyhow. I don’t care about anything else right now, other than being with him. Although I haven’t slept in days, the last thing I want to do right now is sleep. With his body pressed up against mine, I can feel him already hardening, and it sets me on fire. “I don’t know what it is about you, Moira.” He breathes into my ear, as his lips graze my neck, giving me shivers. “But I can’t seem to stay away from you.”

“Then don’t.” I whisper to him, undoing his pants, as I stare into his eyes.

He doesn’t put up a fight. His gaze is intense as his trousers drop to the floor, and he reciprocates, removing my pants, eyes still on mine. Our tongues are entangled as he removes my shirt, and I remove his, desperate for his touch, lips teasing his. When his hands are at my breasts, I can’t wait for him to be inside me. Something comes over me, and I’m impatient. Recalling his reaction the last time I dropped to my knees for him, suddenly I’m hungry for that again. After I pull my bra off, making him desperate to touch me, I lower my gaze and kneel.

“God, Moira.” He says with a soft chuckle, his tone almost asking me to be merciful. Something about the power, the vulnerability of this man, when I fuck him with my mouth, it does things to me, and makes me feel things I’ve never felt before. And as I suck the juicy tip, feeling the bulging veins, the pulsing shaft, it makes me so wet, my clit is nearly vibrating with need.

“Fuuuuuuck.” He breathes as I suck the shaft, feeling the salty head at the back of my throat. Even his grunts are so sexy I want to make him do it more and more. Hands grasping his thickness while my mouth fucks him so good, he rears his head back, panting, wincing, making all sorts of sexy noises, until he can’t stand it anymore. “I want to fuck you so hard, Moira.” He says in his oh-so-sexy Scottish drawl, driving me nuts, and I rise, as he grabs me, lifting my ass onto the kitchen counter. “Hard, deep, and slow, baby.” He says as he enters me, pulling my ass toward him.

Pelvis moving forward and backward, cock so hard it feels like it could burst, he enters me fully, hitting every cell, making my eyes roll backward into the sockets. I lean back, placing my hands behind me, flat on the counter, as he sucks my nipples, bringing me close to the edge so fucking fast it takes me by surprise. “Declan!” I hiss loudly, as I come so violently, he has to slide his hands under my back, so I don’t fall onto the counter. But his cock doesn’t stop. His thrusts become faster, as his balls slap against my ass, and he has purpose to his mission. He rides on the coattails of my orgasm, bringing on another, with ease.

“God, Declan!” I scream, as my second orgasm comes faster than the first. That’s when he slows, pulling back slightly, and reaches one hand down to my clit, circling it, fucking me slower, while I breathlessly kiss him with tongue, feeding his need, bringing him to the edge with me. I suck his lip, down his neck, and then his nipple, his thumb still circling my clit.

His voice is winded, sultry. “You’re destined to take me with you this time, aren’t you, lass.” He says as more of a statement than a question.

I answer by grasping his other nipple, feeling his cock twitch, fully engorged, and as he cries out, pace changing, and I know that he’s coming, it sets me on fire a third time, and we climax together, in stereo, each of us making inhuman noises, until he pulls me close to him, and I collapse into his arms. I’m so exhausted I’m half asleep with my head resting on his shoulder. He takes the hint, lifting me off the counter, not bothering to remove himself from me until we reach the bedroom, where he lies me in bed and crawls in next to me. “Sleep, lass.” He whispers, spooning me from behind, kissing my ear.

When I wake up, it’s nearly six o’clock in the morning, and I get up with a start. Declan, surprising me, is still sleeping in my bed with me. He raises his head, one eye open, and says. “What’s up, lass? Are you sick?”

“No, I’m...I was supposed to go through the mail last night.”

“The mail?”

I nod. “Aye. Shana gave me it before she left yesterday. I promised her I’d go through it.”

He rests his head on his hand, leaning up on his elbow. “No offence, Moira, but are you the boss, or is she?”

“You don’t understand, Declan. Shana is like gold to me. I don’t know what I would do without her. She literally is my hero. I pay her well and she’s worth every penny. The simple, quick things that she asks me to do are nothing compared to the feats she pulls off for me.” I explain, grabbing my pajamas off the bedside table, tossing them over my head. “I worked thirty-six hours between yesterday and the day before. Shana kept the office impeccable, kept my patients happy, despite the fact that I was called to the hospital, and this one pile of mail is all that she’s asked of me. Just to go through it, because there are some things in there that say ‘confidential’, and she refuses to breach confidentiality, so she makes me skim through those envelopes first. She’s a woman of superior integrity and I don’t question it.”

I feel like I’m rambling, and I am, so I shut up, walk out to the living room to grab the mail, and I rejoin him in the bedroom. “Lass, you do realize that it’s six o’clock in the morning, right?”

“I need to get back to the hospital for my patient that went into labor early, Declan. If I don’t do this now there’s no telling when I’ll get to it.”

“It’s...mail, lass. It’s not urgent.” He pats the bed, and that’s when I notice the beautiful gold watch he’s wearing. “Come on, back to bed with you, then. You’re exhausted. And now I know for sure that you are, considering that you just told me you pulled thirty-six hours in the last two days.”

“Is that new?” I ask him, completely sidestepping his comment.

He follows my gaze. “Oh...aye. It belonged to my granddad.”

I get up and join him on the bed. “It’s bonnie, Declan. How come you’ve never worn it before? And why are you wearing it now?”

The look on his face is unreadable.

“I’m sorry. That’s probably a sore subject. I bet you miss him.”

“No, it’s not that, lass.” He says kindly, pulling me up so that I'm close to him. “I’ll be honest with you, Moira. I did something that I’m not too proud of.”

My face fills with concern. “Are you okay?”

He kisses my forehead. “Bless you for that. But I should warn you that when I tell you this, you might not be as kind to me.”

I wait, brows scrunching together slightly.

“My ex-girlfriend, Krystal, she reached out to me, telling me that she’s getting married, and that she has something that belongs to me. Fool for me for believing her and going to meet up with her. Turns out she was lying. My da had this watch the whole time. She just wanted to see me so that she could try to reconcile. As sick as that sounds.” He chuckles mirthlessly, looking at me with eyes so round it almost brings tears to my eyes.

I kiss his lips. “Why would you think that I’d be cross at you for that?”

He shrugs and frowns. “I’d be upset if you went to go see an old flame.”

I wrap my arms around him, pulling my body on top of his. “Well, I can’t say that I blame her, Declan. If I were an ex, I’d be fighting my way back to you, tooth and nail.”

Another chuckle, this time warmer, and his eyes are still soft. “Meeting up with her made me realize how much you mean to me.”

“Then I’m glad that you did.” I smile playfully. “I just wish that I was a fly on the wall to hear that conversation go down. You don’t strike me as a man that likes to be fucked with.”

“Aye.” He snuffles a laugh, agreeing with me. “She was told in not so many words to fuck all the way off, and never to bother me again.” I kiss him again, loving being this close to him. I could lay on top of him all day and never grow tired of it.

“And when I saw you here, waiting for me, it made me realize how much I missed you. I hadn’t slept in thirty-six hours, but I lost all sense of exhaustion just laying eyes on you, Declan.” I lay my head on his chest, and he rubs my back. “I guess I didn’t realize how much you mean to me, either.”

He kisses the top of my head. “What can I do to help you, lass. Can I help you go through your mail? I have no qualms about opening up confidential things, so long as they aren’t laced with arsenic or the anthrax virus.”

I can’t help but laugh as I lift my head. “Oh, so I should open those ones, should I?”

He frowns. “On second thought, you’re the one birthing bairns and saving lives. Maybe I should give them the sniff test first.”

After a playful slap, I get off him. “I’m sure they’re all just junk envelopes, anyway. I rarely get anything important through snail mail. It’s always an email or registered mail, and even then, the last time I received anything noteworthy was when I got my new medical license.”

I bring the mail over, tossing it on the bed. There are about ten envelopes of varying sizes, shapes and colors. “Okay, you take half.” I tell him, as I take the larger envelopes. “These are flyers and full letters from promotional companies, I'll bet.”

“And these are...oh, this one is a bill.” He says, handing me a bill for flowers I bought for Shana, for her birthday a couple of weeks ago.

“She’s shrewd.” I say, lifting a brow. “She ordered them herself, yet she wants me to think that I did.”

“Why didn’t she just pay for them by credit card?”

“I’m waiting for a new business one. Mine was compromised.” I explain.

“Ah, then that’s what this one is. The envelope is unmarked, but it’s a new credit card inside.” Declan says, handing me the envelope.

Next is a letter that looks like it was once addressed to my old office, yet it’s tucked inside a plastic bag, with a note from the post office, explaining and apologizing for the fact that it was damaged in transit. Declan is opening the last two of his envelopes, which appear to be advertisements with the word ‘Confidential’ stamped in red to make them look more professional, which they aren’t. “What the hell is that?” He asks with a playful growl.

“Something that went to my other address. I moved closer to the hospital once a space was vacant. I was only there for a couple of months.” I explain as I open the letter, and my stomach drops.

“What’s wrong, lass?” Declan asks, seeing my expression.

“Fuck.” I say, not answering him.

“What is it?”

I cover my mouth in shock.

I can’t believe what I’m looking at, and my mind reels as I wonder what’s inside the envelope.

I can’t open it.

I can’t face this...not now. Not with Declan sitting right here, ready to witness the horror.

And as I try to get up, the man that I’m falling for stops me.

...and he reminds me just why I’m falling for him.