IRISH: a Bad Boy Fighter Romance Read online

  “I think he does want to eat me up,” I said with a chuckle. Charlotte took a moment, got the joke and punched me playfully in response.

  She headed back out across the floor and almost ran smack into Knox’s friend Joe. I smiled as I watched their awkward exchange, and the look he gave her as she walked away made me wonder if he wanted more from her than just their one night stand.

  It would be nice to have another couple to hang out with so I wished them well and thought I’d mention it to Charlotte later on when we had a moment.

  I busied myself with helping customers and the usual bar clean up. I loved working with Kyle, but he didn’t seem to noticed that the outside of a glass needed to be washed as much as the inside. It was such a man thing.

  I would miss the job, but nights like this would be a fond memory soon. I got too stressed out during super busy times, and now that I didn’t need the tips it didn’t seem as important to be a part of the action.

  In fact I kept putting my tips in Kyle and Charlotte’s money jars, just to give them a little happiness when they checked at the end of the night.

  The time went quickly, there were a few incidents where Knox got protective and had to drag a drunk away from the bar, but I was okay with that. It made me feel safe and desired.

  There was one moment when Knox was surrounded by women who were all desperately trying to get him to sign his name on their breasts that I lost my cool. I’m not afraid to admit it, I stomped over to his table so I could tell them off just as Knox was telling them to piss off, that he was married and his bride wouldn’t appreciate it.

  I smiled and gave him a long kiss for that one with the promise of even more whispered into his ear. He grinned and his eyes never left me after that.

  Finally my shift was over and we practically ran to the car that was waiting. We hopped into the back seat laughing and slightly tipsy. I might have been taking sips of Knox’s whiskey all night, but don’t tell George.

  I couldn’t keep my hands off him and he couldn’t keep his off me.

  “Fek, kitten, I wanted te close the pub, kick everyone out and eat yer sweet cunt right there on the bar,” he whispered in my ear as his hands traveled up my skirt.

  “God, I wanted you too. I was so hot every time I looked over at your table,” I told him breathlessly.

  His hand cupped my pussy and his rough thick thumb rubbed my clit as he kissed me. I moaned and arched against him, only vaguely aware of the driver possibly seeing us in the back seat.

  “I’m gonna fek ye so hard ye won’t remember yer god damned name, kitten,” he said in a harsh tone as he rubbed me harder.

  “Your name is the only one that matters,” I moaned and felt myself tense up as he worked my pussy to orgasm.

  I pressed against him and bit his shoulder to stifle my screams as I came. He drew in a harsh breath but talked me through it in a deep voice thick with lust.

  “That’s right, kitten. Come fer me, come on me hand, come on, good girl…fek yeah…”

  I came for him, and as we pulled up in front of the house, I was ready to come again and again.

  He pulled his hand from between my clenched thighs and sucked his thumb, savoring my taste like a fine wine. We barely made it up the steps of his house, we were kissing and so drunk on our love for each other that navigating a short path seemed almost impossible.

  He fumbled with the front door key in the lock until it swept open and Sylvie the housekeeper found us entwined on the front steps.

  “Sir, I tried to call you,” she said in a frantic voice. “Please, she barged in and I didn’t know what to do.”

  “What’s going on?” Knox asked, suddenly serious. “Who barged in?”

  I straightened out my tee shirt and skirt and smoothed my hair as Sylvie continued. “I don’t know her, I’ve never seen her before in my life.”

  “What is she talking about, Knox?” I asked, the nerves jumping under my skin making me feel like a cat in a room full of dogs.

  “She’s talking ‘bout me I figure,” said a woman’s voice from the entrance way. “Ain’t that right, love?”

  I glanced past Sylvie and saw a tall, willowy red headed woman with an Irish accent and an attitude to match her fiery hair standing in the hallway, watching us with a smirk on her face.

  “Who are you?” I demanded angrily and stepped inside the house.

  “Oh, Knox, ain’t ye gonna be polite now and introduce me to yer guest?” the woman said.

  Knox was silent, I looked back at him and almost gasped at the evil glare on his face. His usually bright eyes were dark with anger and his mouth was twisted in a mean grimace.

  “Why if yer not gonna do it, I will,” the woman said stepping towards me and extending her hand. I didn’t take it and she laughed. “I’m Sabrina O’Connor…Knox’s wife.”

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Lennon

  “Knox,” I said in a high-pitched strained voice without looking back at him, “what the hell is she talking about?”

  “Oh did he never mention me then?” Sabrina asked with a wide, nasty grin. “We’ve been married for almost ten years now, ain’t that right, love?”

  “Our marriage was annulled,” Knox growled, “and you god damned well know it was a sham to begin with.”

  “Ain’t ye gonna tell yer girl about it?” Sabrina laughed. “Tis a good tale, full of love and heartbreak and criminal activities.”

  Sylvie looked increasingly distressed and I felt sorry for her. She had done no wrong, this Sabrina seemed like the kind of woman who would never take no for an answer. She had probably barged in against Sylvie’s wishes.

  I decided to let her off the hook.

  “It’s quite all right, Sylvie. You can go to bed, we’ve got this,” I told her with a smile.

  “Oh Miss, I feel so awful,” she replied, wringing her hands and scrunching her face up.

  “It’s not your fault,” I reassured her. “Go home or sleep here, but you need some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Tis quite all right, Sylvie,” Knox agreed. He stepped forward and put his hand on my shoulder to offer me support. “It ain’t yer fault.”

  “Thank you,” Sylvie said and dashed off out of the entrance foyer.

  “So ye got servants now, do ye?” Sabrina laughed. “A street urchin like ye ordering folks around like dat. Did he ever tell ye about his upbringing?”

  I shook my head. “We haven’t had much time to get to know each other, but whatever he’s done is in the past and I love him for it and in spite of it.”

  “So if ye found out he was bombin’ up churches and schools, it would na bother ye?” Sabrina smirked.

  I glanced at Knox who still had that mask of anger that made my own stomach watery and flip flop in fear. I didn’t know how Sabrina could look at him like that and not back down.

  “I had nothin to do with that,” Knox growled. “I was out of the group by the time ye started blowing up wee kids and such.”

  “What group?” I asked, alarmed.

  “The IRA,” Sabrina replied with a triumphant grin. “Yer lover was part of a terrorist organization. Still is, really, being married to me.”

  “He’s a good man, that’s all that matters,” I said defiantly and placed my hand on Knox’s chest. “And he’s mine in spite of whatever shit you might bring to our doorstep.”

  “Tis not shite, tis legal paperwork,” Sabrina replied, glaring at me. She reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope and thrust it towards us. I grabbed it and stared back at her, hating her stupid smug face just then. “Open it up, it’s a copy of the marriage license.”

  “You were supposed to file an annulment,” Knox said in a low, tense tone. I could tell he was on the verge of snapping.

  “Ye know me an paperwork,” she laughed. “Besides, we hafta get the church to sign off on it too. I saw ye on the news and I hate te be the one te break it to ye, but ye ain’t getting married on Friday.”

  I
wanted to smash my fist into her face, an urge I’d never experienced before, but instead I opened the envelope and found the marriage license and all the papers for an annulment.

  Knox would have to sign them to make it go through, but I noticed the spot where Sabrina was supposed to sign was blank.

  She hadn’t signed them yet.

  “So what do you want?” I asked, holding them up. Behind me I could feel Knox’s body as taut as a bow pulled back, ready to spring.

  “Why would ye ask that?” she laughed. “I just want an annulment, I got a fella of me own to marry.”

  “You haven’t signed them yet, you obviously want something,” I said.

  “Well, if you insist. I have a little need. I mean our organization has a little need. We’ve got some merchandise that needs te be shipped and our regular lines of transport have been…compromised,” Sabrina said over my shoulder to Knox.

  “Speak plainly,” Knox growled. “Just tell me what ye fekking need for me to get these papers signed.”

  “We need your private jet,” Sabrina smiled, a cold and reptilian smile. “We’ve got guns and cocaine that need to get to Mexico so our organization gets paid. We’re short on funds, ye see, and we need this deal to go smoothly or they won’t buy from us again.”

  “And by compromised, you mean your regular transport has been discovered by law enforcement?” I asked.

  She moved her gaze to my face and I almost gasped at how cold and calculating she was. “Yes, love. That’s exactly what I mean. If ye want te marry your big, bad fighter here, yer gonna have te convince him to do this.”

  Of course I wanted to marry him, but I could never put Knox’s safety and our future at risk for the red haired bitch who had just dropped into our lives.

  Knox glanced down at me and said, “We’ll talk about it and get back to ye in the mornin’.”

  He grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him up the stairs to our bedroom.

  Knox couldn’t possibly be considering her demands, could he?

  I looked back down at her and shuddered at the calculating smile she gave me. She knew she’d already won.

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Knox

  “There is no way this is going to work,” Lennon said in a frustrated sigh. “I would rather not marry you than have you caught up in some international drug smuggling for a freaking terrorist group!”

  “She’s not gonna go away, kitten,” I replied, trying to get her to calm down. “She’ll hold that paper over me head every chance she’s got now if we don’t handle this right now.”

  “So let her, what does it matter?” Lennon demanded, standing in front of me with her arms crossed and her chin thrust out defiantly.

  “It’ll matter,” I told her. “It’ll matter when we have wee ones of our own and Sabrina comes around again. It’ll matter if she goes to the press and tells everyone about me past connections and me marriage to her. You don’t think it will matter right now, but some time in the future it will fekking matter and it will hurt us and our family.”

  “Then we’ll never have kids,” she said, “she can’t hurt our family if it’s just us.”

  “But I want to put a baby in ye,” I growled and pulled her against me. I stared down at her challenging her to defy me, to deny me. To tell me it wasn’t the most fucking natural thing in the world for us to have a child. “I want te fill ye with me seed and fuck you raw like fekking animals, kitten. But I want te see yer belly grow big and know that’s mine inside ye. My baby inside my wife. I won’t be denied.”

  I dipped my head and crushed her mouth with mine; let the heat of my passionate demands flow through me into her. I wanted her to feel the feral urgency I felt, the need to make a family together, to have babies and grandchildren and watch our love grow as we grew old together.

  She moaned and her body softened against mine, her anger dissipating as we kissed.

  I loosened the knotted bun on the top of her head and tangled my fingers in her hair. Her tiny hand slid up my torso, settling on my chest and making me feel like a fucking super hero.

  I didn’t know what it was, this power she had over me, but I felt like Godzilla when she leaned into me like that. I felt invincible, like I could crush cities and destroy anyone who threatened our love or her safety.

  Fek. It was intoxicating. The most addictive drug I knew and the only way to get more was to get inside of me bride. Me girl.

  “I’ve got te taste ye,” I told her in her ear. She shivered and looked up.

  “Now? But I was working all night. Should we shower first?” she asked, looking a little embarrassed.

  “Fek that, I want yer natural flavor, there’s nothing on yer body that turns me off, kitten. I thought ye would have realized that by now,” I said and lifted her in my arms.

  I didn’t even think about the girl downstairs, the nasty little bitch who had tricked me into marriage the first time back when I was but a lad starting to fight in Dublin.

  Lennon’s scent and presence erased all thoughts of other women from my mind, even the only one who had ever broken me fekkin heart and walked away the day we’d gotten married.

  I’d been so naïve and had really believed her when she’d said she loved me.

  I’d been sixteen the first time I’d met her at a group home for wayward street kids. She’d treated like she owned me, and I’d given her everything…including me heart.

  The marriage was to trick the system, she’d been two years younger than me and wanted out of the home so bad she’d convinced me te marry her when I turned eighteen.

  I’d done it, fool I was, and learned the hard way that a bitch like Sabrina wasn’t made for any one man and she weren’t made for lovin’, not like me Lennon. She’d played me the entire time, saving herself for another man and stringing me along with kisses and promises and nothing else.

  Ironically, it was the way Sabrina had done me wrong that let me see Lennon’s goodness for all it was the first time I met her.

  It was the darkness in the first girl I’d married that allowed me to see the light in the only girl that mattered. Lennon might be the second girl I marry, but she’d be the only one who kept me heart and bore me wee ones.

  I set her on the bed and stripped her naked. I drank in the sight of her curves and swells, the perfection of her body. She seemed shy, like she wanted to cover herself, but I dropped to my knees in front of her as if in worship.

  “I love ye so fekking much, kitten,” I told her with the most sincerity I’d ever had. “Yer my bride, and yer mine forever. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you mine in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of the law. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” she whispered and placed her hands on my head as if absolving me of my sins. “Whatever you’ve done in your life, it doesn’t matter, Knox. I love the man you are now, today. And whatever you’ve done has contributed to it. Just don’t do anything terrible now, I’m so afraid I’ll lose you forever.”

  “You’ll never lose me,” I promised her and buried my face between her legs.

  Her moans and shuddering gasps drove me on as I drank deeply of her cunt. She came hard and fast and part of me hoped the bitch downstairs heard Lennon’s cries of joy when she came again and again, from my tongue, from my fingers, from my cock and from my love.

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Lennon

  I did not like the plan to help Sabrina and the IRA one bit, but I understood where Knox was coming from.

  We reluctantly put off the wedding, telling people we’d decided to make it a big affair and planned it for two months away.

  I still lived with him of course; we lived like we were married. Sabrina had been gone in the morning when we’d gotten up but had left behind a pre-programmed burner cell phone to keep in touch.

  I hated that she had any power over my life, but I could see how doing this for her and her group would get rid of her forever.

  And I needed her gone forever.

/>   It did occur to me that she might have been telling the truth, that Knox might have hurt people or even killed them. I didn’t know how I felt about it exactly and decided I’d have to talk to him about it someday.

  We’d all done things that made us feel a little ashamed at some point, especially those of us who seemed to have been tossed into the rushing river of life without a life jacket. It had been sink or swim from day one for me and him, and if swimming meant taking advantage of people who were better off than us from time to time, then so be it.

  Survival was the most basic primal instinct, it wasn’t my fault or his if we’d been pressured into doing things to simply keep going.

  I’d stolen in the past, from people who had trusted me. I’d even worked for a short time as a drug courier back home in my small town. I had been a teenager and had lost my way, ended up hooking up with a small time drug dealer who had promised me big dreams.

  It had ended badly for him, he’d been arrested and after finding out he’d also been promising the moon to every other girl he had working for him, I’d decided to never again fall for somebody that hard.

  I had stuck to my guns too, always dating people at arms length and staying on the straight and narrow path.

  Until Knox.

  It made me feel sick to my stomach when I thought about what we were going to do. Instead of getting ready for my wedding, I was spending Thursday getting ready to help Knox haul illegal cargo to Mexico.

  All for love.

  That was the silliest part of this, it wasn’t for money or fame or fortune, but for love, so we could get married and start our lives together.

  And a family. God I couldn’t even believe I was admitting that to myself, but the thought of having Knox’s baby was addictively sexy. He was such an alpha male that I didn’t think I could say no to him even if I wanted to.

  And I no longer wanted to. I wanted to feel him all over me, inside of me, bonding with me and making a new life.

  Gone was the timid girl I’d been just a short time ago, under Knox’s command I was becoming more and more in tune with my body. Through his love I was growing and becoming more of a woman every day.