Page 103 of Irish Betrayal

“I love you, Daniel. So much.”

It felt as though a long bout of uncertainty was ending, but she wasn’t foolish, or not usually so. She wasn’t free of Peter, not completely, and probably not for a good long while.

Peter Samson was cancer, but Blair was willing to take however many treatments she needed to get rid of him.

fifty-three

DANIEL

Daniel and Blair had been home for six weeks, and by home, he meant the manor in North Wicklow. The one now sporting three greenhouses and a new small home on the back of the property where the property manager lived.

He hired Jed a couple of months ago on his mother’s recommendation. So far, the man had been invaluable. Blair would need to hire gardeners to help with her plants when she went back to work, though Daniel eventually knew she planned to spend her time after school on experiments and research at their home.

He and Blair had been learning what it was like to live with one another. Their relationship was fast, intense, and amazing. Being expectant parents was also a trip.

Their families and friends helped them move in. Catriona spent hours outfitting the greenhouses while his mother, aunts, Bébhinn, Gray, and Mags worked on decorating with Blair.

Daniel noticed that Blair would escape the house and end up in one of the greenhouses within an hour.

Daniel wound up with embroidered daisies on his bedside table—courtesy of Mags. He didn’t care. They were a reminder of Blair, which was probably what their friend intended.

Bébhinn’s baby shower at the O’Faolain building was in a few days. Blair was six months, and Bébhinn was about to pop. She had put off her shower until she was sure Blair was up to being surrounded by everyone’s family and friends.

Their friends were coming to a casual housewarming party at noon. He hoped it would cheer Blair up. Her moments of melancholy worried him.

Daniel wasn’t concerned enough to discuss it with Blair’s parents, but he was enough to call her friends…their friends. Blair had been doing well since their return to Dublin, seeing a therapist once a week, and speaking to her lawyer and the police however often it was required, but she had been quieter and more withdrawn since her father had been forced to tell her that Mindy had taken her own life.

She didn’t say it, but Blair blamed herself for not going to the police or her dad the day she found out what Peter was capable of.

He glanced at Blair lying next to him, the early morning sun sparking hints of fiery orange throughout her curls that were draped haphazardly across the white sheets.

As it always did, his body reacted just from looking at her and couldn’t help but run his hand up the back of her naked body, from her ankle to her neck, enjoying the little moan of pleasure she let out.

Blair was beginning to stir and stretch, so Daniel encouraged the process by rolling her to her back, the swell of her belly too tempting not to touch.

A sleepy smile curved her lips as he pressed his palm against the curve of her stomach.

“Morning,” he signed when her eyes fluttered open.

Her eyes opened wider at seeing him watching her.

“Morning,” she said, signing back.

For a long moment neither spoke. Daniel simply looked at her.

Only a handful of weeks living together, and already he couldn’t remember how he’d survived without her in his bed, in every part of his life, really.

She caught him staring.

“What?” she asked, smiling.

His throat tightened unexpectedly.

There was no single thing about her that undid him. The brilliant mind that could spend hours discussing plant diseases and somehow enthrall him with her theories was one of thousands.

The tiny woman who routinely terrified men twice her size when they accidentally trampled one of her seedlings.

The friend he’d known his entire life.