“She’s banging a Demigod,” Bria mumbled, taking her plate to the sink. “She’s getting the short end of the stick on that one. Soon he’ll start cutting her meat for her.”

“I want someone to cut my meat for me, are you kidding?” Henry dropped some dishes next to the sink. “Feed me, too, I don’t care. It’ll leave my hands free to scratch my balls.”

“You’re considered the charming one of the group?” Bria shook her head. “And you wonder why I don’t date?”

“Not with that personality I don’t.” Henry laughed.

Kieran stood and ran a lock of my hair through his fingers. He directed his comment to the kids. “We have ice cream and cake if you want some. I’m going to show Alexis—”

“Come on, man!” Bria cupped her hands over Mordecai’s ears. “They’re just kids. They don’t want to know what you’re going to show Alexis.”

“No, we certainly don’t want to know what you’re going to show Alexis,” Henry mumbled.

Kieran gave Bria a flat look.

“It’s fine, go.” Daisy waved him away. “Woo her into accepting that house.”

“Boy has your tune changed,” Jack said, bumping Thane out of the way to get at the cake Donovan was uncovering.

“For my own bedroom and bathroom, I’ll join a chorus and sing his praise,” Daisy replied dryly.

“Come on.” Kieran slid his fingertips over the bare skin on my neck. Goosebumps covered my flesh and heat raged in my core. “I have something I want to show you.”

“Does it rhyme with—”

“No.” Henry held up his hand to stop Bria. “There are actually kids present, in case you forgot from two seconds ago.”

I took Kieran’s hand and let him pull me up, ignoring the tomfoolery going on around me and instead focusing on the delicious hum spreading through my body. He led me out of the room and stopped at the base of the stairs, looking down onto me.

“Do you want to go up?” he asked quietly.

I took in his handsome face and those perfect, shapely lips. “It would be awkward to strip you naked right here. Otherwise, I’d say no.”

He pulled me closer in a rush and planted his lips on mine. I fell into the kiss with everything I had, wrapping my arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. His hands spread across my back, his fingers lightly pressing in, as he angled his head and swirled his tongue with mine. I moaned into his mouth and ran my fingers through his hair.

“Stop,” he said, gripping my hips hard, breathing heavily. “Let’s stop, or we will end up naked right here.”

Face turned up and mouth open, I panted with need.

“I want you to take that house across the street, but after learning this recent development, now it’ll have to come with strings—” His step back turned into a stagger. Still hanging on to him, I stepped heavily after him. He grinned sheepishly but didn’t apologize.

He turned and took my hand before climbing the stairs.

“My guys will take turns staying here. If the heat turns up, I’ll keep them here or at Henrietta’s house. If you stay at your home house…” I knew home house was what the Irish called their parents’ houses—where they grew up. Fear and anxiety bled through the soul connection, but his voice remained even and confident. “If you go back, we’ll reassess the schedule. I might have two guys on you at all times, and we’ll need an exit plan.”

I didn’t comment as he turned down the hall, so similar to the layout of the other house. He pointed at rooms we passed, all fully furnished guest rooms, just like mine—

I grimaced and squeezed my eyes shut.

Not mine. Henrietta’s.

Get out of my stomach, butterflies, it’s not my house!

He paused at the last door, straight ahead, and I knew from the layout it was his room. His fingers curled around the door knob.

“Are you afraid of rejection or something?” I teased, seeing—and feeling—his hesitation.

He chuckled softly but didn’t comment as he turned the handle and pushed the door open. The dwindling light of the early evening blazed through the airy and artfully decorated room. It cut across a deep blue rug that complemented the palette of a large oil painting on the wall. A king-sized bed took up the far wall and a little couch and two chairs congregated around the massive window facing the gorgeous blue ocean. Way out in the distance, a curtain of white waited for its chance to drift in and cover the mainland.

The soft click said he’d closed the door behind me, and heat unfurled within me. “This is beautiful,” I said, out of breath.

“I have a few less trees blocking my view than you do.” He wrapped his arms around my middle and held me close. “Whatever you decide about the house, it has nothing to do with this moment,” he whispered.

I closed my eyes as his strong hands curled around my upper arms. His heat coated my back and his hot breath warmed the hollow of my throat.

I sighed and leaned my head away, giving him more access.

“Stay the night with me,” he said in a thick voice laden with emotion. “Your kids can sleep here. They’ll be safe. You’ll all be safe.”

I moaned as his lips trailed up my neck and grazed my jaw.

“Stay the night with me,” he said again, his hands slipping down and applying pressure on my hips.

I moaned and moved my hands behind me, feeling along his thighs until I reached his hardness. I cupped him firmly and moaned as his lips sucked lightly on the fevered skin of my neck.

“Yes,” I said in a breathy whisper, massaging his erection. Waves of heat ran through me. “Yes.”

He turned me to face him and captured my lips with his. His tongue thrust, needy and insistent, and his fingers worked into my hair. I yanked the bottom of his button-up shirt out of his slacks and unbuttoned it from the bottom up.

He nibbled my bottom lip as he pulled one hand from my head and slid it down my torso. His fingers rolled over my budded nipple, sending a shock of pleasure straight to my core.

“Hmm, Kieran.”

His hand trailed lower, dipping into my pants, and then still lower, until his fingers just barely skirted the edges of my panties. I sucked in a breath and moved my knee to the side, giving him more room. His other hand found my breast, and he massaged my nipple.

I deepened the kiss as his fingers continued to brush under my panties, driving me crazy. I rubbed his hard bulge before going back to his buttons, my hands shaking with eager anticipation. His fingers brushed a little harder, turning my insides molten, until his hot touch finally slid over my clit.

“Oh…” A scorching wave of passion washed through me. I let out a trembling breath.

His kiss increased in fervency, sucking me into that place I only went to with him. That place of no gravity and complete focus. Of pleasure and mutual desire.

His fingers slid down my wetness before pushing into my body.

“Holy—” I fluttered my eyes closed and reached down to cup his erection again, rubbing as he thrust first one finger, then two, into my depths. “Yes, Kieran.”

“I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted this,” he murmured against my lips.

He pushed my bra up before slightly pinching my nipple. The fingers on his other hand worked back up to massage my nub. Pleasure speared straight through me, pooling in my desperately tight core.

“What, your own house?”

“You in my house, for as long as I want you. Sleeping by your side and then burying myself into you the second I wake up. Serving you breakfast, and licking between your spread thighs as you eat it.”

“Oh God, Kieran, please.” I moved against his fingers, needing his cock inside me. “Please, Kieran.”

“You writhing under me helplessly,” he whispered against the shell of my ear, jerking my jeans button free. “You begging for me to fuck you again. And again.”

He ripped my shirt up and over my head with one hand, then grabbed my jeans and yanked them to the floor. A moment later I was in his arms, rushing for the bed. As soon as he laid me down on the soft mattress, he grabbed my lacy panties and tore them loose. He ran his lush lips up the center of my stomach, drifting to the side to lick my budded nipple. His hands reached under me and snapped my bra clasp open. He pulled it away and threw it over his shoulder.

I arched and slid my thighs up the sides of his unnecessarily clothed body. He switched to the other nipple, sucking it in before rolling it around his mouth with his tongue.

“Oh holy…shit.” I huffed out a breath and arched, soaking in the sensations.

He rose up and shrugged out of his shirt, fully revealing his delicious upper body, sculpted by the gods. Cut pecs led down into that nearly eight pack; large shoulders gave way to bulging biceps.

He undid his pants before pushing them down to release his enormous, straining cock. Once out of his jeans, he slowed down for a moment. His entrancing eyes, deep and open, leading all the way down to his soul, lingered on mine. They didn’t drift away to my exposed breasts, or even around my face. They stayed rooted to mine as he said, “You take my breath away, Alexis. I am so lucky to have found you.”

Warmth wrapped around my heart. It was me he was responding to. Not my looks or the shape of my body, but me as a person. He was looking deep down into me, at all my secrets and the weirdness I liked to hide, and pulling it out to show me how much he treasured it.

I’d never felt more beautiful than I did in that moment. I’d never felt more relevant to someone, or more cherished.

Through the haze of passion, I recognized the depth of feeling running back and forth over our soul connection. I couldn’t have said who it started with, just that it was tightening the connection, bringing our souls closer together. Intensifying our feelings.

“Let me buy you a house,” he whispered into the hush of the room. He lowered down and touched his lips to mine. “Let me look after you.”