Especially the older you get.
“Branna, we aren’t old,” Ryder said with a shake of his head. “We’re in our early thirties. Since when is that old?”
“Since I started havin’ to dye me hair every three feckin’ months to hide me grey hairs!”
I still felt sick about that. My roots weren’t growing out as dark brown anymore; they were growing out a lighter brown and grey. I was only thirty-three, and my pigment was fading. It broke my damn heart.
“Mate, really?” Bronagh winced from behind Ryder. “That sucks.”
I threw my hands up in the air.
“See!” I stated. “Bronagh knows the importance of hair and what goin’ grey means.”
It meant I was getting old.
“People can get grey hairs from anything, not just growing old,” Dominic commented. “I’d put it down to stress in your case. You’ve been through a hell of a lot over the last year and a half, and you have a hectic job.”
I leaned to my right and narrowed my eyes.
“Butt out, Slater.”
He clamped his mouth shut, but the corners of his lips turned up in a grin. I looked back at Ryder then quickly down at Georgie when she started to sing a song of sorts.
I beamed at her. “You have a lovely singin’ voice, me love.”
“We’re not done with this conversation,” Ryder said, amused that I was point-blank ignoring him. “We have two whole weeks to straighten this out, and you can’t hide from me where we’re going.”
My heart jumped.
“Promises, promises,” I teased.
Ryder growled, and it made me grin.
Oh, yeah, this was going to be a fun honeymoon.
“Bad news, Sweetness.”
My heart stopped at Ryder’s words. A terrifying flashback of being in my kitchen many years ago and him telling me Bronagh had been abducted played in my mind, and a sick feeling of dread swirled in my abdomen.
“What is it?” I nervously asked as I gripped the handle of my suitcase.
I was in the middle of wheeling it out to the hallway to leave it next to the front door of our house.
“We can’t leave until tomorrow.” He frowned, his shoulders sagging. “Heavy rain is due this evening, and I don’t want to take the risk with you in the car.”
My physical reaction mirrored Ryder’s. My shoulders slumped in disappointment, and my face fell, but my heart practically deflated with relief. I was gutted that we had to wait one more day for our getaway, but bad news from one of the brothers usually meant one of them telling me my sister or one of my friends were in serious danger, so this piece of news was easier to digest, but I couldn’t tell Ryder that.
“It’s fine,” I assured him when he frowned deeper at my reaction. “It’s only one night, right?”
He quickly nodded. “The storm breaks during the night, so we can leave in the a.m.”
I looked down at my big suitcase next to Ryder’s small duffle bag and said, “Well, at least we’re already packed.”
I looked back at my husband and smiled up at him when he stepped forward and pressed his body against mine. My pulse spiked when his hands went straight to my behind. I startled when Ryder captured my lips in a surprise kiss. I lifted my arms and placed my hands on his shoulders, digging my nails into his skin. He hissed, and it gave me the opportunity to snag his lower lip with my teeth. I gently bit down then sucked on it. I hummed when I felt his body shudder.
“Need you,” he rasped.
He needed me.
I released his lip. “You’ve got me, honey.”
Ryder backed me up against the wall in the hallway, and it made me giggle.
“In the hall?” I asked then groaned when his lips went to my neck, and he zeroed in on my sweet spot. “But Damien—”
“Is over at Dominic’s,” my husband cut me off, his breathing laboured.
Where Dominic was, Damien wasn’t far away.
I hummed. “You dirty man.”
I heard Ryder’s zipper being lowered, and I felt his rushed movements as he pushed down his jeans, quickly following suit with my leggings and underwear as he shoved them down to my knees. He carefully turned me until my back pressed against his front. His excitement and obvious hunger for me caused heat to spread between my thighs almost instantly.
“You’ve got me fumbling like a prepubescent boy,” he growled, and slapped my bare arse.
I looked over my shoulder and grinned. “You’re all man, baby.”
“You bet your sweet ass I am.”
He disappeared as he dropped to his knees behind me, and that movement was the only indication I got to what he was doing a second before I felt his tongue plunge into my exposed cunt.
“Oh, fuck!”
I gripped onto the side table closest to me and forced my knees not to buckle. My excitement quickly changed to an urgent need. My clit throbbed, each pulse acting as a demand for the attention of Ryder’s skilled tongue. I let go of the table with my right hand with the intention of stroking my clit myself, but a sharp wave of desire struck my body, and I needed to hold the table to stay upright.