COWBOY CHRISTMAS
Blaecleah Brothers 7
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Life has settled down for each of the Blaecleahs. They’ve
all found their legends and are living a life filled with love and happiness.
But anything worth having is worth fighting for and not even the luck of the
Irish can keep the Blaecleahs from having to fight to keep what they have when
the past comes back to haunt them all.
In order to save Ma and Da, they may have to decide who
they want to keep in their family, and who they don’t before that choice is
taken away from them by someone they never expected.
When violence threatens them, aid comes from an unusual
source but will it be enough to keep the Blaecleahs in Cade Creek or will the
life they have built for themselves disappear before their eyes?
STORY
EXCERPT
A Christmas wish…
May you never forget what is worth
remembering,
Or remember what is best
forgotten.
~ Irish Proverb ~
“That’s the last of them.”
Alani Blaecleah turned to see her husband setting another
green rubber tub down on the hardwood floor of the living room. She chuckled
softly when Da grunted and rubbed his lower back with his hands as he
stood.
“You’ll live, old man.”
“Not if I keep lugging your holiday boxes around, I
won’t.”
Miffed, Ma planted her hands on her hips and sent her
husband her best don’t make fun of me glare. “Now, you know it wouldn’t be
Christmas without all my decorations, Donnell Blaecleah.”
“Woman, I’ve been married to you for almost forty years.
You could make Christmas happen with a shoebox and a ball of twine, and have.”
Da waved his hands toward the stack of tubs that held all of the Christmas
decorations Ma had collected over the years. “You don’t need all this fancy
stuff to make a holiday.”
Ma smiled despite Da’s flustering. “They hold our
memories.” She reached into the small box in front of her and pulled out a
folded piece of faded paper. Ma set it on the table and smoothed it open with
care. There was a lace doily snuggled inside the paper. “You gave me this on our
first Christmas together,” she said as she held the small piece of lace lovingly
in her hands.
It was one of her most prized possessions.
“I remember.” Da’s soft chuckle was as warm and light as
summer’s breeze. “We had nothing that year, barely a roof over our heads or
potatoes in the root cellar.”
“And yet you found a way to buy this for me.” Ma still
remembered how blessed she had felt when Da gave her the small piece of white
lace interwoven with intricate purple flowers. The small piece of fabric was so
delicate she often worried it would just disintegrate if she breathed on it too
hard, but it had held up for decades.
“Lachlan was still in diapers and Neason was just a
couple of weeks old. We put every spare penny into making their Christmas
special and yet you made mine even better.”
Ma felt tears prickle her eyes when weathered but strong
hands settled on her shoulders, giving her a gentle squeeze. The warm body of
the man that had stood by her side for so many years pressed gently into her
back.
“It’s just an old piece of cloth, woman.” There was a
suspicious sheen in Da’s pale-green eyes as he turned Ma and wiped his thumbs
over her wrinkled cheeks right under her eyelashes. “Didn’t cost me more than a
couple of hours chopping wood for old man Walker.”
“That man had two sons that could have chopped wood for
him.” Ma pointed a finger at Da, not in an angry manner, but just to make her
point. Her Donnell had a soft spot whether he wanted to admit it or not. “He
didn’t need you to do it.”
“No, maybe not.” Da’s smile was a beautiful as a sunrise.
His eyes twinkled and were so full of love and affection that Ma felt like she
could drown in them. “But he also had a wife. He knew exactly why I needed to
earn a little extra money.”
When Donnell looked at her with that twinkle in his green
eyes, Ma felt like her husband’s universe. He had been looking at her like that
for nearly forty years. It had been the main deciding factor in her giving up a
life of luxury back in Ireland and coming to the new world with barely a penny
to their name.
“No one looks at me the way you do, Donnell Blaecleah.”
Ma’s voice hitched, emotion tightening her throat. “No one has ever looked at me
the way you do.”
Da let out a bark of rich laughter, a joyous sound that
Ma had grown to adore over the years. “I fought the whole of Ireland to have
you, Alani, me love. I would be very upset if someone else thought they could
take you away from me.”
Ma closed her eyes as she leaned her head back against
Da’s solid chest, savoring the moment for what it was—a slice of time when
everything in her world was perfect. Her soul mate held her in his arms, her
sons were happy with their own partners, and the next generation was alive and
well and adored by everyone.
A shiver of awareness slid through Ma when Da’s fingers
threaded through her graying hair. She was grateful that Da was one of those men
not afraid to show his affections. She, as well as all of their sons, knew that
Da loved them, in word and in deed.
“Do you miss Ireland, Alani?” The words were whispered
almost as if Da was afraid of the answer although he had asked the same question
a hundred times over the years. Ma always gave the same answer.
Maybe this time, she should tell him the honest
truth.
“I miss my ma, Donnell. I always do around this time of
year. Christmas was her favorite holiday. I miss watching her decorate the
house, the smells that filled every room, the food, the sense of something
bigger than us that seemed to take a hold of everyone.”
Ma tilted her head back so that she could look up into
the pale-green eyes she had fallen for as a young girl of barely nineteen. “What
I don’t miss is the way my father tried to run my life, to dictate my every
move, right down to who I was to marry. I don’t miss feeling like I was a
disappointment because I failed at something my father believed I should have
mastered just because of the family I was born into. I don’t miss feeling like
anything I did was never good enough or that everyone in my family felt they
were better than everyone else because we had money and a family name that went
back centuries.”
Ma drew in a quick breath so that she could continue
before Da said anything. “The Blaecleah name is an old and proud one, just as
old and proud as my maiden name. But I’d much rather be a Blaecleah than the
name I was born with.”
The beginnings of a small smile curved up one corner of
Ma’s lips as she smoothed her hands down Da’s chest. “There are things that I
miss, Donnell, but I think the question you need to ask is if I regret coming to
America with you and the answer is a resounding no. It will always be no.
Marrying you was the best decision I ever made, one I have never
regretted.”
As his thumb gently traced Alani’s lip, Da smiled that
sweet gentle smile he gave her when it was just the two of them. “You are the
one good thing that has happened to me in my life.”
Ma cocked an eyebrow. “What about your sons?”
“Without you, I would have no sons.”
Ma chuckled lightly. “Touché.”
“Because of you, I have six beautiful sons, all of whom
have found that one person meant just for them.” Da’s head cocked to one side, a
funny little smile on his face. “Well, except for Seamus. He found two people.
But the point is—”
“The point is that we are lucky.”
Da chuckled. “We are Irish, Alani. We’re genetically
predisposed to be lucky.”
ADULT
EXCERPT
May the saddest day of your future be
no worse than the happiest day of your past.
~ Irish Blessing ~
“Harder!” Lachlan squeezed his eyes shut as he dug his
fingers into the sheets. He spread his knees and tilted his ass up even further
into the air, needing the pounding Asa was giving his ass. No one fucked like
his Asa. The man gave new meaning to the term ecstasy. No matter what Lachlan
had asked for over the years, Asa provided it.
“So tight, Lany,” Asa groaned, the deep needy sound music
to Lachlan’s ears.
Lachlan spread his legs farther apart as he rocked his
ass back and up, wanting Asa to fuck him until he was unconscious. Lachlan’s
fingers curled into the sheets as Asa hammered into him. It was raw, fast, and
made Lachlan’s head swoon. He keened and mewled, begging his lover to take him
harder.
Asa didn’t disappoint.
He moved faster and faster with each deep thrust,
achingly deeper. Fingers dug into Lachlan’s hips as Asa switched his position,
tagging Lachlan’s prostate on every damn stroke. Lachlan’s body tingled and
buzzed, his heart beating faster as he felt an all-too-familiar tingling shoot
up his spine.
Lachlan was getting close. He could feel his balls
drawing up tight against his body. He knew he only had mere moments before he
flew over the edge with abandon. His cries and whimpers filled the room,
overshadowing their heaving panting. The harder Asa rammed into Lachlan, the
louder his cries became. Sweat dripped down both of their bodies, the sounds of
their flesh slapping together, mingling with their groans of pleasure.
“Harder, damn it,” Lachlan growled. “Fuck me like you
mean it.”
He arched his body toward Asa as his orgasm roared up his
spine and down to his groin, and then his cock exploded, wetting the bed with
his seed. Lachlan cried out, his entire body throbbing with his
release.
“Lachlan!” Asa shouted as he slammed into Lachlan’s ass,
his fingers digging in so deeply that Lachlan knew he was going to have bruises.
Lachlan felt a series of short thrusts and one long one
where Asa drove up into his ass and stayed there. Hot liquid filled his ass,
each powerful spurt shooting against his sweet spot, making Lachlan’s vision dim
as even more pleasure continued to weave its way through his body.
He rocked back and forth, bathing in the release that had
had him hazy and sated. Little tremors rocked through him, prolonging his
pleasure until Lachlan thought he was going to pass out.
He closed his eyes and laid his head down on the bed,
unable to do anything but breathe, and even that was taking effort. He smiled
weakly when he felt Asa plant a small kiss on his temple.
“Thank you, babe.”
Lachlan opened his eyes and grinned up at the man that
had become his husband just a few years earlier. He leaned up and brushed a
small kiss across Asa’s lips. His eyes twinkled with amusement as he replied,
“My pleasure.”
Asa chuckled as he slid from Lachlan’s body and rolled to
the side of the bed. He quickly went to the bathroom and then came back a moment
later with a washrag to clean Lachlan up. After chucking the washcloth back into
the bathroom, Asa sat on the side of the bed and reached down to thread his
fingers with Lachlan’s.
“We need to get up, babe,” Asa said. “Da is waiting for
us to help him with the cattle.”
Lachlan groaned and rolled over to bury his face in his
pillow. He could lie all day in bed with his husband—and he wanted to. “Don’t
wanna.”
“You’ve tried that excuse before and we ended up with a
wet mattress after Da took the hose to you. I’d really prefer to keep this one
dry.”
Lachlan smiled into his pillow and the smile grew wider
when Asa’s hand came down on his ass. Lachlan pushed up, silently begging for
more. He would never get enough of the gorgeous man. He loved having Asa’s hands
anywhere on his body.
