“Can I ask you something?”
He puts his phone back into his pocket and rakes his fingers through his hair, pushing it out of his face. I turn myself out of his grasp, grazing my fingertips across his chiseled biceps. I fight myself to stop the urge to remember those arms wrapped around my naked body for the past week.
“What do you want to know?” he asks.
“Your friends, how do you know them?” I asked hesitantly.
“Mates from childhood. I started working at the bar as a teenager. We all remained friends until they moved away, and I became owner of the pub,” Finn explains.
“You own the pub?”
“A big giant fuck you to my father with that one.”
“I’m sorry.”
I turned to look at the incredible sight before me. Ocean waves crashed violently against the cliffside on all sides of me, but gentle waves raked across the small stone beachside in front of us.
“Don’t be, love. I love being a bartender. I love the people. I love random women who come in and ask me to take her in the bathroom with my best mate,” he says sarcastically.
“Damn, and here I was thinking I was fucking special.”
“You are certifiably original as hell,” Finn says.
“I am certifiably something alright,” I chuckled.
Before he can say something in retaliation of my comment, my phone rings from a video call. A smiling photo of my father shows on screen, and I can’t stop myself from smiling wholeheartedly. Finn lets me out of his tight embrace, and I distance myself from him to answer my father’s video call.
“Da,” I answer.
My father’s face emerges onto the screen, thankfully his face further away from the camera this time. I chuckle as he starts laughing in amusement.
“Amee,” he chuckles.
“Da, what’s so funny?” I ask.
“I suckered these old folks into races with that scooter you bought me. Stupid pricks bet against me, but I am fast as long as I don’t have to walk,” he says.
“Good, I’m glad,” I reply.
“You know, you didn’t have to buy me that scooter, but you’re going to do what you want.”
“That’s right,” I agree.
“Where are you now?” he asks.
“Giant’s Causeway. Da, it’s even more beautiful in person,” I say.
I point the phone across the seascape and my father gasps as tears well in his coffee-brown eyes. He shakes his head in disbelief and runs his hand along his cheek to wipe his tears off.
“You look just like your Ma, angel girl,” he breathes.
“You can feel her here,” I say.
“She loved that place so much. Oh, she would be so proud of you. What is next in your travels?” he asks.
“I leave Belfast tomorrow and catch my flight to Cairo.”
“Oh, you’re obsession with The Mummy. You going to find an archaeologist, Amee?” he says jokingly.
“Over my dead body,” Finn whispers.
I lightly flick my hand at his forearm, making him laugh wholeheartedly.
“Who is that?” my dad asks, his brows furrowing at confusion at the Irish man beside me.
“Da,” I warn.
“Did you find a good Irish boy?” my father asks hopeful.
“From Dublin, sir. The name is Finn,” he says.
He brushes the curls out of my face and pushes my hair to one side of my neck as it blows into my face from the sea breeze.
“Finn, this is Charlie, my Da,” I breathe.
“Nice to meet you, sir. I’m taking good care of her,” he promise.
I look at Finn with a raised eyebrow as I can tell from his smirk what he said was inherently full of sexual innuendo. That smirk does things to me, and he fucking knows it. He brushes a stray strand of hair behind his ear, and I breathe out a deep breath of sexual frustration into the air. Truthfully, it’s been a few hours since I have had this man inside of me and I honestly don’t know how I am going to handle being in Cairo without him.
What the fuck are you going on about? He’s not going to go to Cairo with you.
“Where did she find you?” My father asks.
“I picked him up in a pub,” I say.
“I hoped she ordered a Guinness,” my father chuckles.
“Magners, sir. It was an abomination to my pub,” Finn replied.
“Get out of here with that! Magners is the best Irish cider and not everyone likes Guinness,” I argue.
“Shut your mouth!” Finn and my father exclaimed in unison.
“Oh my God, Da, I have to go. There are only a few more hours before sunset and Finn still wants to take me Fionn’s Boot,” I say.
“Amee, I love you. You have the best time. Finn, keep my angel girl out of trouble,” my father says.
My father hangs up the phone while in mid-conversation and I laugh to myself in amusement. My father and electronics have a long way to go to learn about one another.
“I like keeping you IN trouble,” Finn whispers against my neck.
His arm snakes around my curvaceous waist as he softly places his hand in the back of my jeans. His large hand firmly grasps my left butt cheek. I gasp at the roughness in his grip as his nails pinch my sensitive skin.
“Finn,” I whisper.