First and Only: Callaghan Brothers, Book 2 (25 page)

“Ian, man, what’s up?” Jake asked a few seconds later as the crowd around Ian became eerily quiet, their curious attention focused on him.  Ian could only shake his head, holding out the papers for Jake to see. 

“Jesus Christ,” Jake said, scanning the contents.  A moment later, Ian felt himself being grabbed by the arms on either side and hauled toward the back kitchen.

“Aidan’s got a plane waiting,” he managed to choke out after a minute or two.

“Then what the hell are we waiting for?” Jake barked.  “Let’s GO!  Shane – cover for me, man, I’m taking Ian to the airport.”

* * *

L
exi yawned and stretched, feeling pleasantly drowsy.  Her breasts, heavy with milk, ached like crazy.  Looking at the clock, she started to panic.  It was nearly six a.m. and she’d put the baby down around midnight.  He was nursing about every two hours – how had she slept through two feedings?  Oh, God, what if something was wrong? 

As quickly as she dared, she slid her feet over the side of the bed and began to pad quietly across the lush carpet toward the crib at the far side of her room, holding her breath.  In the brief three seconds or so it took to get there, her post-partum hormones had managed to convince her that her baby was in mortal peril – or at the very least starving - and that she had to be The Worst Mother Ever.

Relief flooded her as she looked down and saw the crib was empty.  Then fear gripped her again an instant later. 
Where was her baby?
  Oh, God, someone stole her baby in the middle of the night while she was in bed sound asleep, selfishly dreaming of how the baby was conceived....

Worst.  Mother. 
Ever
.

Lexi gripped the rails and forced herself to breathe.  In.  Out.  In.  Out.  Aidan must have come back late last night.  Yeah, that was it.  He’d checked on them, like he always did, and fed the baby from the milk she’d pumped and stored in the fridge.  He was probably in the living room right now, rocking the baby and watching infomercials.  So help her, if he ordered one more gadget from QVC...

The thought of nursing made her overly-full breasts ache more as wet circles formed across the front of her nightgown.  She hoped the baby was still hungry as she pulled a light robe over her gown and headed for the kitchen. 

The smell of freshly brewed coffee, bacon, eggs, and toast met her the moment she opened the bedroom door.  Immediately her fears melted away.  Aidan
was
here.  The man was nothing less than a saint.  He was going to make some lucky woman very happy, she thought, her emotions now definitely on the up side of the roller coaster.  Maybe he would finally ask out that private duty nurse that came by every afternoon.  She was very pretty, soft-spoken and gentle.  And Aidan definitely had eyes for her.  She’d have to talk to him about taking her out very soon.  Maybe tonight, since she’d gotten so much sleep...

Lexi froze as she neared the kitchen and heard the quiet humming in a deep, bass tone.  She knew that voice, it called to the very depths of her soul.  She knew that song, too - it was an ancient Irish lullaby, the one her grandmother used to sing to her.

Taking small, hesitant steps, Lexi made it to the archway.  Her hand flew to her mouth as she blinked, once, twice, three times.  She pinched herself lightly, sure that she must still be dreaming. 

The broad, muscular back.  The jet black hair, so shiny it looked blue, longer than she remembered, extending beneath those strong shoulders.  The narrow waist, the gorgeous backside hugged by faded blue jeans, the heavy, corded legs. 

Ian
.

As if he sensed her presence, he turned around.  There, safely ensconced in the crook of one elbow was her son, looking perfectly content, sampling his tiny fist.  Two pairs of identical blue eyes looked at her with keen interest.

“Perfect timing,” Ian said softly, never taking his eyes from her, shifting the baby up toward his shoulder gently as if he had plenty of practice. 
Of course he has
, she thought suddenly, a bitter taste in her mouth. 
This isn’t his first.

“How –“

“Later,” Ian said huskily, his eyes dipping to her chest.  “My son is hungry.”  Ian looked pretty hungry, too.

A million questions floated around in her head, but the sharpening ache in her breasts overrode them.  She forced her numb legs toward the padded rocking chair and sat down, untying the top of her gown.  Ian brought the boy to her, reverently placing him in her arms as he knelt before them.  His face filled with awe as he saw his son snuggle into her, his tiny mouth searching until he latched on, his pudgy little fists on either side of her breast like he was holding on for dear life. 

As the baby’s powerful tugging began to ease some of the ache, Lexi studied the man before her.  God, how she’d missed him.  He was even more breath-taking than the pictures in her mind, the ones she’d locked away and brought out to get her through the next minute, the next hour, the next day.

“Christ,” he whispered, stroking his son’s head lightly with trembling fingers.  “That is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”  He swallowed hard and raised his eyes to meet hers.  In them, she saw raw, powerful emotions swirling restlessly, held carefully in check, but her reckoning would come soon, she knew.

As soon as the boy’s eyes drifted shut and his little body relaxed, Ian took him from her, holding him to his chest and rubbing his back.  Lexi frowned, feeling a bit cheated.  She loved holding her baby up against her, caressing his soft skin, inhaling his perfect little baby smell.  One look at Ian, though, and she felt ashamed.  No matter what had transpired between them, Patrick was his son, too.

“Now it’s your turn,” Ian said, walking toward the kitchen.  The child remained asleep in his arms; he made no move to put him down.  Lexi knew just how he felt. 

She heard the microwave door open and less than a minute later, Ian brought her a covered plate.  He went back for silverware.  Again for coffee.  Once more for juice, doing everything one-handed, never once relinquishing his hold on his son.

It was hypnotic, watching him move.  He had a silent, masculine grace that radiated strength and control like some lethal predator, yet he held their son with infinite care.  Like someone who had been in the dark for ages and was then suddenly permitted to gaze upon a spectacular sunrise, she could not turn away.

There was no denying that Patrick was Ian’s son.  The boy was barely two months old but it would be clear to anyone not legally blind that the resemblance went far beyond the black hair and blue eyes.  Already her son had the same stubborn set to his jaw, the fierce temper, and the ability to melt her heart with only a look.  Seeing them together stirred something inside of her, something at once beautiful and sad.  Yes, Patrick was Ian’s son, but he was hers, too, and there was no way in hell she would ever let him go.  The only way that child would be taken from her was over her cold, dead body.

Ian stopped moving and stared back at her.  As if sensing her thoughts, his big hand came up protectively against the back of Patrick’s head.

“Ian, I - ”

He flashed those blue eyes at her, a look that breached no argument.  “Eat,” he commanded, his voice quiet but with unquestionable authority.  “Then we’ll talk.”

Her eyes flashed right back at him, but the loud growling from her stomach lessened the impact.  Her traitorous body was betraying her left and right this morning, wasn’t it?

The meal was hot and delicious, but despite her hunger, she had trouble swallowing.  Ian was here, in her apartment.  He waited patiently, holding Patrick, watching her with an intensity that did absolutely nothing for her appetite.  Only when she laid down her fork and refused to take another bite did he stir.

Without a word, he removed the dishes one by one.  Then, with a kiss to the baby’s forehead that melted her heart, he laid their son down in the little bassinet and began to pace, running his hand through his hair. 
Here it comes
, Lexi thought, bracing herself. 

But instead of saying anything, Ian suddenly appeared before her, pulling her to her feet.  The next thing she knew she was wrapped tightly in his arms, his body crushing gloriously against her, his mouth devouring hers. 

The raw emotion in his kiss was staggering.  In it, Lexi felt paralyzing fear, relief, elation, hunger, anger, and desperation.  She was swept away in a fast, swirling current, clinging to him as if her life depended on it.

Eons later, he finally broke away, gasping for breath.  The cage of his arms didn’t weaken in the slightest, though, as he rested his forehead against hers.  “I thought I lost you,” he said, his voice tortured.  “Never,
ever
do that to me again.  I swear to God, Lexi, I won’t survive it.”

* * *

H
er heart beating against his chest encouraged his own, and he focused on that until he felt strong enough to release her.  Unwilling to relinquish all contact, though, he entwined his fingers with hers and guided them both to the couch.

“Why, Lex?” he asked finally, following up his one-word question with several others, one after the other.  Once he got going, he found it hard to stop.  “Why did you leave?  Why didn’t you answer any of my emails, phone calls, texts?  Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant? 
Why did you risk your life
?”

“Because I love you,” she whispered quietly.

For the life of him, he didn’t understand.  He’d heard the words, but they made no sense to him whatsoever.  He opened his mouth to respond, but couldn’t seem to figure out a way to express the complete state of confusion in which he found himself.

She sighed, focusing on where their hands met, moving her thumb slowly over his skin.  “You have to understand something, Ian.  I’ve been in love with you since the first time I saw you,” she confessed.  “Wildly, madly, passionately in love with you, before I even knew what that was.” 

Yeah, his brothers had told him as much.  The ones that were still talking to him, anyway. 

“Kieran brought you home with him after school,” he said. 

Lexi nodded.  “It was in 9
^th
grade.  My first year of public high school.  I met Kieran my first day.”  She smiled at the memory.  “I was totally lost, standing where two hallways intersected, trying to figure out which way to go.  He literally plowed right into me, leveling me like the bulldozer he is.  My lip split and, as you can imagine, it was a total bloodbath.  Thank God we were both running late and no one else was in the hallway at the time.” 

“He was a little freaked out, I think, but he handled it better than most.  He picked me up and carried me to the nurse, refusing to leave even though they threatened him with detention for not going back to his classes.  That’s when he found out my little secret.  He swore he wouldn’t tell anyone, and instantly appointed himself my protector.”

Yeah, thought Ian.  That sounded like Kieran.  Even when they were little, their mother used to call him her little knight.  The rest of them teased him mercilessly about it.  Still did. 

“Anyway, we started hanging out a little after that.  Well, it was more like I tried to hide and he kept finding me, but he really started growing on me after a while.  One day, football practice was cancelled, and he wanted to walk me home after school, but I was in no hurry to go back to my house.  I knew Kayla would be there with all of her friends.”

She shrugged, seeming to grow smaller as she subconsciously shrunk back from the memory.  “I swear they spent hours coming up with new ways to torment me.  I didn’t care – I’d learned to ignore them, but I would have been mortified if they’d humiliated me in front of Kieran.  He was pretty much my only friend.  I couldn’t chance that.  Kayla was beautiful, outgoing, popular – boys were always asking her out, but me, well...”

Yes, Kayla had been popular.  She’d been in Ian’s class.  He had been just as enamored as the rest of them when she first moved to Pine Ridge, but that was the stupidity of adolescent boys, wasn’t it?  And Kayla never had any qualms about flaunting her assets in front of them.  Still, Kayla was one of those girls boys liked to take out, not take home.  She made it easy. 
Too
easy.  There was a huge difference between that kind of “popularity” and the genuine kind, though he doubted Lexi understood that back then. 

“When he realized I wasn’t going to let him walk me home he suggested I go home with him instead, feigning some excuse so I wouldn’t feel bad.  That was the first day I met all of you.”

“You were in the kitchen,” Ian recalled quietly.  “Making cookies.”

“Yeah,” she laughed softly.  “I wanted to do something nice for Kieran since he’d been so kind to me.  Given the size of him, I figured anything involving food was a safe bet, and baking was one thing I could do really well.  Little did I realize I would end up feeding a small army.”

Ian smiled at the memory.  The aroma had drawn him and all of his brothers to the kitchen like moths to a flame.  They’d been without a mother for several years by that time, and needless to say, Jack Callaghan was not much of a baker.  Things that other kids took for granted – like having a mom around that made fresh-baked cookies after school – were highly coveted in their household.

“I remember thinking that Kayla would have done anything to be in my place that day,” she recalled fondly.  “There I was, alone, surrounded by an entire room full of Irish demi-gods.”  Ian raised an eyebrow and Lexi blushed.  “That’s what all the girls called you guys.”

“Then you came in,” she said, looking at their joined hands again.  “You were bummed because all the cookies that had come out of the oven so far were gone, and the others were razzing you about it.  ‘Don’t worry,’ I said, pulling out another tray.  ‘You can have these.’  You leaned against the counter, looked me right in the eye, and said – “

“
You are a goddess.
”  It came back to him in a rush and suddenly he was back in that kitchen, looking down into her beautiful face, tilted up toward his, more exotic-looking than any girl he’d ever seen.  Those wide, innocent eyes, blazing amber.  The dark pink that quickly suffused her light bronze skin.  The way her dark, full lips parted slightly, giving him an instant hard-on.  Embarrassed by his reaction to her, he’d grabbed a few cookies right off the tray, ignoring the burning in his palm, and beat feet out of there before any of his brothers – or more importantly, she – took notice.