O'Reilly's Bride

‘What?’

When he didn’t reply, she shook her head. ‘You are a weirdo sometimes, O’Reilly.’

Dark eyes watched as she moved around the end of the huge bed. It was a fairly long walk so he had plenty of time to look. She hesitated when she got to ‘her side’.

One dark eyebrow rose. ‘There’s plenty of room, Mary Margaret.’

Not enough though.

She lifted the cover and got in, keeping as close to the edge as she could without falling out. She tried closing her eyes, inviting sleep to take her.

‘You going to sleep?’

‘Yes.’

‘No bedtime story?’

‘Oh, I’m listening. You can start any time.’

Sean moved over, lying on his side with his head propped on his elbow so he could study her face. He smiled as her mouth pursed into a thin line, then her nose wrinkled and she sighed, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘When we got here I was wiped. Now I can’t sleep.’

He was still smiling when her eyes opened.

She smiled back, then turned to face him across the huge divide. ‘So talk to me.’

‘What do you want to know?’

The thought of actually getting to ask whatever she wanted made her even more awake than she already was from the way he’d looked at her when she came out of the bathroom. His eyes had positively burned her from the huge bed he was occupying. And the sight of his broad naked chest above the covers had woken her up pretty quick.

Trying hard to ignore the sight of that chest within an arm and a half’s reach, she tried to decide what to ask first. ‘How can you be happy doing what you’re doing now?’

‘Maybe it’s the company I keep.’

She blinked at him with large eyes.

He smiled a smaller smile and let his eyes rove up to her hair, the faint smell of her shampoo making it all the way across to him. He liked that smell. Then his eyes met hers again. ‘It’s simpler, less soul-destroying. I guess I just needed this right now.’

Maggie stared deep into his eyes, searching. Searching for evidence that he was being honest when her heart already told her he was.

‘Something to make you smile again, huh?’ Her voice was low, all the more intimate in their present surroundings. ‘You didn’t smile a whole lot when I first met you.’

‘No, I guess I didn’t.’ His voice dropped to a similarly intimate level. ‘Maybe you just brought that out in me.’

She was being sucked in by the moment. Any second she fully expected there to be violins in the background and they would move across the great divide and—

She shook her head.

He laughed. ‘What?’

‘It’s just nice to know that when you looked through that lens the sight you saw was so amusing. I’m flattered.’ She smiled a small smile to let him know she was teasing.

‘You had your moments.’

Her mind turned for a small moment, then she propped her elbow and raised her hand so she could lift her head and rest it there. ‘So is it enough for you?’

‘Looking at you through a lens every day?’ He managed to hold his smile even as he realised it was precisely enough for him. He loved looking at her. Had been doing more and more of it recently, and not just through a lens. Had she noticed that he’d stopped dating recently? Because he was only just discovering why it was he’d stopped.

‘You can quit that, I know what you’re doing.’

‘I thought I was flirting with you.’

‘You are. But you’re only doing it to distract me.’

‘Is it working?’

Yes. ‘No.’

‘Damn.’

She laughed and watched as his eyes sparkled in response. ‘Tell me something else.’

‘You’re the reporter, you ask the questions.’

‘Will you stay?’ Her breath caught when she spoke the question aloud as soon as it entered her head. It was something she really needed to know. ‘Or is this just a break for you?’

Dark lashes brushed against his skin once, twice, as he blinked at her. ‘I’m not going back there, if that’s what you mean.’

‘Never?’

‘Never again.’ He shook his head. ‘I guess you could say I’m burned out when it comes to overseas work. I want to make a life here now. I just needed to come home, that’s all.’

‘Does it help?’

His nod was slow. ‘It does now that I have this new friend.’

The answering smile was warm and sincere. ‘I’m glad.’

Sean watched as she set her head back down on the pillow, her eyes closing again. ‘You want to sleep now?’

‘I think I have to, I’m sorry.’ Her eyes flickered open and she glanced up at him. ‘I’ve still a lot to ask, though.’

‘We have time, Mary Margaret, don’t worry.’ His eyes glowed across at her in the soft light. ‘Sweet dreams.’

CHAPTER TWO

SOMETHING changed.