Page 38 of Dark Succession (The O’Malleys #1)

“I’ll tell you about anything you want.” He kissed her again, backing her to the bed and gently laying her on the mattress.

“After.” He moved down her body, stopping to pepper her breasts with almost worshipful attention.

She dug her fingers into his hair, simultaneously wanting him to do more and never move, all at the same time.

He sucked her left nipple into his mouth, raking it gently with his teeth.

“Oh God.”

He chuckled against her skin, and her entire body went tight as he pulled her panties off and settled between her thighs. “Do you know how much time I spend thinking about doing this to you?”

“Tell me.” The command escaped before she could think better of it, but she was so happy it did the second he started talking.

“You consume me, angel. It’s the most welcome kind of distraction, but I can’t get through an hour without thinking about you. Thinking about this.” He dragged his tongue over her center, circling her clit.

She thought about it, too. But more than the sex, she thought about Teague .

Callie closed her eyes and gave herself over to the feeling of his tongue driving her closer and closer to orgasm.

In this moment, she didn’t have to make decisions about the future.

She didn’t have to contend with the riot of feelings in her chest, all centering on this man.

She didn’t have to do anything but feel .

With one last long lick, he drew back, a smile spreading over his face at her involuntary sound of protest. “Impatient.”

“Tease.” She watched him unbutton his pants and shove them off. He grabbed a condom from the nightstand and rolled it on, his gaze on hers. She shifted, her skin too tight, her body feeling like it was a thousand degrees. “Come here.”

“With pleasure.” His weight between her thighs was almost comforting.

Or it would have been if she wasn’t so desperate to get him inside her.

Teague didn’t seem in any sort of hurry, though.

He kissed her as if he had all night, as if he didn’t have an inferno of desire inside himself demanding more.

Callie hooked her leg around his waist, angling her hips so his cock notched in her entrance.

He pulled back a little, giving her a look, but she needed him too desperately to keep playing this teasing game.

Another time, perhaps, when it didn’t feel like they were living on borrowed time that could be stolen from them without warning.

“Please, Teague. I don’t want to wait anymore. ”

He pushed into her in one smooth move, bringing them as close as two people could possibly be, stealing her breath and her heart along with it.

“Anything for you, angel.” He moved, drawing out almost completely and then starting that slow slide back to completion.

All the while, he cupped the back of her neck, and slid his other arm beneath the small of her back, bringing them impossibly close.

Every stroke brought her closer to the edge, rubbing against her clit even as he filled her in the most perfect way possible.

She clung to him, wanting to draw this out forever. But her body wasn’t listening. Her orgasm crested, and it was all she could do to ride it out in his arms. He kept moving, drawing out the feeling until she was sure she couldn’t take it any longer.

Then, and only then, did his strokes become staggered and he followed her over the edge, burying his face in her neck as he came. He slid to the side and tucked her against him. “I’ll never get tired of that, either.”

Against all reason, a laugh escaped. “I’d say that’s a good sign, since you just married me.

” It wasn’t real yet, probably wouldn’t be for some time, but she liked the way the words sounded.

She liked the idea of Teague as her husband even more.

She lay with her head on his shoulder and listened to his heartbeat as their bodies cooled. “Will you tell me now?”

He glanced at her. “The tattoos? Sure.”

She shifted off him so she could see the tree in its entirety. She’d seen it before, of course, but it was different now. Now there was time to truly see it. She traced the twisted branches that tangled from the trunk and over his shoulder. “Oak?”

“Good eye. It’s family. Strong and rooted deeply.”

That sounded sweet, but she stopped on the scar bisecting the tree. “And this? Did this come before or after the tattoo?”

He hesitated, and she once again wondered if it was his father who had hurt him.

From everything she’d learned of Seamus O’Malley in recent weeks, she didn’t doubt he was capable of it.

But… to raise a hand to his son? Let alone with what must have been a blade?

It took a special kind of monster to deal out that kind of violence.

She curled her hands into fists, trying to quell the sudden anger coursing through her system.

You don’t hurt the helpless and innocent.

You just don’t. For someone who supposedly held family above all things to do it…

She wanted to hurt that man. She wanted to hurt him badly. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“No, I want to.” He covered her hand with his own.

“My father isn’t a good man. He didn’t like the fact that I mouthed off to him when I was thirteen, so he decided the best way to deal with my attitude was this.

” A shadow passed over his face. “It was just one cut, and not a deep one at that, but I never forgot. That’s the other side of family.

It can be strong enough to stand in the face of any enemy that arises, or it can be the rot that eats away at your insides, weakening you until you’re little more than a shell.

Both tattoo and scar are reminders of that. ”

Oh, Teague . She kissed the scar, because there was nothing else to do. If a time machine existed to allow her to save him from the hurts he’d experienced at the hands of the man whose one purpose in life should have been to protect him, she would have taken it in a heartbeat. But it didn’t.

There was nothing she could change but the future, and even that wasn’t a sure thing.

“The ones on my knuckles are my siblings.” He waited for her to look up before he pointed to each in turn. “Aiden, Carrigan, me, Cillian, Sloan, Devlin, Keira.”

Her gaze landed on the one representing him. A flame. She knew that specific flame. She’d seen it before. “Saint Jude?”

He grinned. “Yeah.”

Which meant the other symbols represented saints as well. She touched each in turn. It was such a different way to go about representing a family that he obviously had very conflicting feelings about. But he loved them. That couldn’t be any clearer. She stopped on his bare ring finger. “This one?”

“Well, angel, I left that one blank because I figured someday I might meet a woman I cared about enough to marry.” He rolled back on top of her, grinning. “That one’s yours.”

Mine . She kissed him, the riot of emotions in her chest only getting worse.

She loved him so much it hurt to breathe.

He took the kiss deeper, his hands sliding over her skin in a way designed to make her lose her mind.

As he slipped a finger inside her, she had one last thought before pleasure bore her away.

Maybe he’s right. Maybe things really will be okay.