The conversation fell to the wayside as they made their way back to the house and went inside, ready to move on to other things, which included grabbing a bite of lunch and settling down to do some home shopping
They sat together and picked out furniture for the nursery, a room that had once been a library, but that they’d left open because it was close to their own room and large enough for the multiple cribs they’d need. They sat curled together on the sofa, flipping through a catalog the furniture place had given them for when they were ready to make a selection, marking potential choices with small sticky notes.
“We’re out of notes,” Olcan told her. “Hold on. I’ve got some more in the desk in my study.”
“I would have sworn this pad was almost brand new. We haven’t put that many on the pages,” she said, puzzled.
“Things are getting smaller but more expensive every day it seems,” he told her.
“You’re beginning to sound like someone’s dad now,” she laughed.
He laughed and slipped up off the sofa, disappearing out the door. When he came back, she noted that he didn’t seem to have any notes in his hand, just a small box.
“I thought you were getting more notes,” she replied.
“I forgot. I found something else instead,” he told her, fumbling as he spoke and dropping it on the floor in front of the sofa.
“You’re getting clumsy in your old age too, Da,” she laughed.
“I know. Nothing worse than a clutzy bear, is there?” he replied, still fumbling around for something.
She leaned forward to see what it was he was fooling with and he raised back up, poised before her on one knee. Her heart beat wildly as he opened the box in his hands to display a stunning diamond and emerald ring.
“Niamh Rae O’Hanlon, you are the love of my life and the future mother of my children. I love you more than life itself. Will you marry me?”
Tears flowed down her face as he slipped the ring on her shaking finger, waiting expectantly for an answer.
“Yes! Of course, yes!” she squealed, flinging herself toward him so hard he almost fell backward.
“Careful now, you’re pregnant, and I’m getting to be an old man already,” he laughed as she kissed him all over his face.
“Yeah, how old are you? Am I going to have to start pushing you around in a wheelchair soon?”
“Baby, I’m an Alpha. You won’t ever have to worry about me being weak or frail. I’ll be chasing you around this house when we’re eighty years old and counting.”
“That sounds sexy, our old wrinkly bodies jiggling all over the place as we go.”
“I know I’m turned on. You want to go upstairs and put this cranked-up shaft of mine to effective use?”
“You say the most romantic things after you propose,” she laughed.
“I know. I mean, I really don’t know how you can resist it sometimes.”
“I can’t. What woman in her right mind would say no to you?”
“I don’t know, but hopefully not the one standing in front of me.”
“Never,” she laughed as he scooped her up, carrying up the stairs to their bedroom to celebrate their engagement with a naked romp fit for such an occasion.CHAPTER THIRTY-TWOOlcan
NIAMH LOOKED ABSOLUTELY stunning as she walked down the aisle toward him, nearly five months pregnant. Her dark hair was partly pinned up in curly tendrils that fell about her face and spiraled across her back and shoulders. The dress she wore was a lace off-the-shoulder number that fanned out like a mermaid’s tail near the bottom, showing off her perfect body, which included the baby bump that was rapidly increasing in size.
Watching her approach him, looking so incredible, touched him in a way he didn’t think he was capable of expressing in words, and it wasn’t just today. It was every day that he spent with her and drew closer. He was overcome by the connection they possessed, the pull of their bodies toward one another whether they were near or far from one another. He couldn’t have been any luckier to have had her turn up in his life, no matter the unfortunate circumstances that brought her to him.
He continued to beam at her as she took her place by his side, walked down the aisle by Fallon. He had been surprised when she had selected a lower level member of the clan to take the place of her father, who had died in an accident with her mother not long after she’d married Sean. She’d said that it was because he had been the one to save her from the house when the dragon had attacked and he was the one she felt was right to give her away to the man he had saved her for.
Olcan had long ago rewarded Fallon with a smaller promotion, but he had since handed him another, making him one of his top security team members not long before today. He had once been questionable but had earned his place, proving to be faithful to their family and trustworthy. Olcan nodded his approval as Fallon handed Niamh off to him and walked away to take his seat among the guests.