Page 28 of Finding the One (River Rain #7)

Irrevocably

Dair

“ A nd then he ran into the street wearing nothing but his socks, shouting, ‘I forgot the ice cream!’” Davi was saying while chortling.

Blake finally allowed her humor to overtake her, tears were in her eyes, she was laughing so hard.

Dair rested back on his and Blake’s side of the booth, his arm stretched along the back of the seat behind Blake, smiling at his sister’s funny story, but not allowing himself to laugh so he could watch two of his three best girls enjoying each other’s company.

It was Tuesday night.

They’d all had dinner together at an Indian restaurant, then went to the pub.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday, he and Blake barely got out of bed. They did so only to get food and tug on clothes to take Sorcha on a walk.

However, he’d been alarmed when he’d seen the bruises he left on her thighs and hips.

These left after he took her hard.

But when he mentioned them, she’d kissed him with an unusual light in her eyes that was both soft and feminine in a cat’s-got-her-cream type of way.

And she did this telling him, “I bruise easy, Dair. I always did. And anyway, they don’t hurt at all.” The soft went out of her gaze and the cat’s-got-her-cream took over. “And I like them.”

He sensed she told no lies, especially considering her libido matched his, as did her stamina, so he changed his mind and decided he liked his marks on her too.

He’d had some meetings he’d had to be on his computer in his office for that day.

She’d left him alone to have them, taking Sorcha for a walk. During it, she’d texted him five pictures of his dog playing in a park, the last one a selfie of the two of them, Sorcha licking Blake’s cheek while Blake’s eyes were closed, and she looked to be laughing.

Again, she could be adorable.

And that fucking snap was going in a frame.

Dair was not unaware that he was falling for her.

The distance thing was a concern, but nothing else was.

She was funny. She was bright. She was well-traveled. She could hold her own. She was stylish. She could cook. She could make a mess, but she didn’t leave it long before she tidied it up. She was fucking sensational in bed. She liked to cuddle. She could be adorable.

And she liked his dog.

Aye, and she got along great with his sister.

“Obviously, he got arrested. Though, only after the coppers chased him for five blocks with his willie flapping in the breeze,” Davi finished, to gales more of Blake’s laughter.

It was then Dair saw his mobile, screen down on the table in front of them, light up around the edges. He reached to turn it, seeing he had a call from his mate, Declan.

Dec was a texter, so Dair was surprised at getting a call.

However, Dec and his woman had just had their second child, maybe three weeks ago, and it hadn’t been an easy go for Shannon.

Fuck.

“Gotta take this,” he said and got both women’s attention. “Ye good?” he asked.

Two nods.

He kissed Blake’s cheek and slid out of the booth with his phone.

When he got outside, he saw it wasn’t raining for once. It had either been raining or misting since Sunday morning. They’d had to walk the dog huddling under an umbrella for three days. The only respite they’d had, Dair didn’t get to enjoy, but Blake did when she took Sorcha to the park.

He walked up the narrow close where the pub was, to the Royal Mile. He’d missed the call but rang Dec as he looked up the rain slicked street that had many pedestrians, both locals and obvious tourists, on the pavements, toward Edinburgh Castle, lit up at night.

Dec picked up. “Dair.”

“Heya, mate. All right?”

“Aye, Dair. You?”

“All good. Ye called?”

“Aye. And…shit, Dair. Fucks me to tell ye this but think you should know with some urgency. Shannon was on her mobile, scrolling, and she came across some video of a podcast Signe did recently.”

Dair felt his neck get tight. “A podcast?”

“Shann did some sleuthing, and apparently you’re dating someone?”

“Aye.”

“Serious?” Dec asked.

“Aye,” Dair answered. “Why?”

“Well, that would explain why Signe is using this to catapult herself back into the consciousness of the masses, mate.”

His neck muscles tensing further, Dair shifted to stand next to a building to move out of the way of passersby and asked, “What’s she saying?”

“Shann listened to it, and not much, really, except a whole sob story about how ye were the love of her life, and ye married too young, and she expected you’d eventually make it back to each other since ye were meant to be, and shite like that.”

Bloody hell.

They’d been divorced eleven years, and his ex was trying to cast Blake in the role of the other woman.

Why the fuck would she do that?

“Thought ye should know,” Dec went on.

“I should. And I thank ye. Not sure what’s in that woman’s head, but whatever it is, she’s getting something out of it.”

“Maybe they paid her. Shann says your new woman is a big deal.”

“A big deal?”

“Some kind of feminist icon or something.”

Dair couldn’t hold back his laughter.

“She’s not?” Declan asked through it.

“It’s not going to be hard for ye to learn that Blake went viral a few years back when she gutted her fiancée at the altar of their wedding, exposing he’d slept with most of her bridesmaids.

Their men were in the congregation, so things got even more hostile after that.

But she’s not a feminist icon, at least not intentionally. Though what she did kicked arse.”

But it would trigger Signe as well.

Everything about Blake would. That she was classically beautiful. That she came from money. That she had fame for a reason that might be painful to her, but it was worthwhile.

Signe had that blonde hair, pale, blue-eyed prettiness that would never be anything more than pretty, though she was very pretty.

And she used what intelligence she had to connive to get what she wanted, and for no other purpose.

Naturally, because she was who she was, Signe would be feeling competitive.

Fucking hell.

“Got to find that footage, mate,” Dec replied.

“Blake doesn’t think it’s her finest hour, and it isn’t, but it’s one of them,” Dair told him, and got down to the matter at hand, “Could ye get Shannon to text me a link to that podcast? Signe has signed two NDAs. She doesn’t have a lot of leeway to talk about us.”

This brought up the unwanted realization that his father was the one who took care of that.

Balfour not only didn’t like Signe for Dair, he didn’t trust her.

But he did love his son and wanted him to have what he wanted, just doing that being protected.

Therefore, he’d not only been on Dair about the prenuptial agreement, and going bullish on it, advice Dair, in the end, thankfully took, he’d pushed an NDA, not only before the wedding, but as a term of the prenuptial, so she didn’t get to spew anything after.

In fact, she wasn’t allowed to say much publicly but confirm they’d been married and now were not.

“We’ll text it, mate. Sorry about this. I thought ye were done with her mess.”

“I thought so too,” he muttered and heard voices coming up the close. Voices he knew.

His two girls.

He looked around the corner and saw them latched together by their arms, leaning into each other, talking and coming his way.

Blake negotiated the wet cobbles in her heels like she was gliding on ice, going for the gold.

He felt his lips curl up.

Damn, he was totally falling for her.

“It’s late. I’ll leave ye be. See you next time I’m in town,” Dec bid.

Dec, being Irish, lived in Dublin.

“Look forward to that. Say hi to Shannon and kiss those weans for me.”

“Will do.”

“Bye, Dec,”

“Bye, Dair.”

They hung up just as the women made it to him.

“Pub’s closing,” Davi told him.

He narrowed his eyes. “Who paid?”

He knew exactly who with the smug look on Blake’s face even if Davi said, “Secret we’re taking to the grave, big brother.”

Davi was going to get away with it.

Blake would pay for it…

Later.

“Heading home but I’ll be picking Mum up from the airport tomorrow morning,” Davina reminded him.

“And we’ll be seeing ye both Thursday night at the house for dinner,” Dair reminded her.

“Aye,” Davi confirmed.

They walked his sister to her car, and she got a hug from Blake and a kiss on the cheek from Dair.

But as his sister drove away, Blake linked arms with him, looked up at him, and said, “It’s not raining for once. Do you mind walking for a spell before we go home? Doesn’t seem like we’ve been able to stretch our legs very much since I’ve been here.”

They were challenging their bodies quite a bit, but they were in bed (or in the shower) while they did it.

And he felt a warmth spread low in his belly at her referring to his place as “home.”

“Aye, lassie, whatever ye want.”

She beamed at him.

He led her up the Royal Mile.

Dair was seated on the side of the bed.

Blake was seated in his lap, bouncing on his cock.

He felt her wet cunt gripping and releasing as she moved up and down at his command with his fingers wrapped around her ribcage, and it felt fucking phenomenal .

Making it better was the hungry look in her eyes, the flush across the creamy skin of her cheeks, her nails digging into his flesh where she held him at his shoulders.

For her part in paying for drinks earlier, he smacked her ass, not for the first time that night, and without him saying a word, she went faster, also not for the first time.

Definitely.

He was falling for her.

He moved one hand over her belly, down, in, and thumbed her clit.

Her head fell back, exposing the elegant line of her neck, and she bounced even harder.

Fucking hell, she wasn’t something.

She was everything.

It was time to get serious.

He took her with him as he got to his feet, and while he did, he got off on her startled, annoyed, turned-on cry.

He pulled her off his cock, turned her and deposited her in the bed on her hands and knees, that sweet arse facing him.

He took hold of her hip with one hand, his dick with the other, and guided it home.

Her head flew back, and she released a sultry moan.

His balls drew up.