“But Bronagh, Keela, Branna, and Aideen all have completely different body types.”
I hesitated. “So?”
“So they don’t all look the same, yet you think they’re perfect.”
“They’re perfect in their own individual way.”
Damien smiled. “And so are you.”
I remained mute.
“I don’t know what has made you so insecure about your body, but we really need to work on it because you are perfect. And I’m making it my personal mission to make you see that.”
I looked down at my plate as a big smile plastered itself on my face.
“You’re such a pain in the arse.”
“When we start having sex, I will be a pain in your ass. Literally.”
I sucked in a sharp breath and darted my eyes up to Damien’s, and he laughed once more.
“Never,” I stated. “We’re never doin’ that.”
“What?”
“That!”
“What’s that?”
I lowered my voice. “Anal sex.”
“You might like it.”
“And I might hate it,” I countered. “That hole is an exit, not an entrance.”
Damien was thoroughly amused by me, and he didn’t stop smiling until we finished dinner and made our way back to my car. After we buckled ourselves in and began the drive back to my apartment, I turned my head and stared at Damien’s side profile.
“Tell me something about yourself from when you were little that no one else knows.”
He thought on this for a moment.
“I always wanted to be a ninja when I was a kid. A real crime fighting one.”
That drew a snort from me.
“You could never be a ninja.”
“I could be if I wanted to.”
“No, you couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“You forgot to tie your shoelaces yesterday, and you fell on your face.”
Damien considered this. “Perhaps you’re right.”
My lips twitched. “I’m always right.”
“You are indeed.”
He replied way too fast for that to be an honest answer.
I glanced at him as he drove. “Man Bible?”
“Chapter three, page nineteen, line seven,” Damien answered with a nod. “Always agree with a woman no matter what. The ‘no matter what’ part is in bold and underlined.”
I laughed. “You make it sound like you have actual Man Bible copies.”
“We do,” Damien answered. “In paperback.”
I blinked. “Paperback?”
“Yup, Dominic asked Keela about it since she knows everything about self-publishing, and she helped him write out the Man Bible. He got five copies, one for each brother.”
I stared at Damien in disbelief. “Are you jokin’?”
“No,” he answered. “Why would I lie?”
“Because that is the most outrageous thing I have ever heard.”
“It’s Dominic.” Damien shrugged. “Nothing is impossible with that idiot.”
“Do any of the other girls know about this?”
Damien hesitated. “No, but you can’t tell them.”
“Oh, I’m tellin’ them.”
“Alannah,” Damien groaned. “My brothers will kick my ass. We agreed not to tell you or the other girls because you’d want to read the Man Bible, and it’s not for women’s eyes. It’s sacred to men.”
“Oh, my God,” I said with a shake of my head. “You spend way too much time with Alec. That was him that just came out of your mouth just then.”
Damien grinned as we neared my apartment.
“He’s my big brother, so I guess I’m more like him than I thought.”
“I’m still tellin’ the girls.”
Damien growled. “I’ll have to punish you if you do.”
“If you even consider spankin’ me, I’ll knock your teeth out.”
A lower rumbling chuckle filled the car. “You and what army?”
“Bronagh Murphy.”
“That’s not fair,” Damien huffed. “She is feral when she is mad.”
“Exactly, so don’t mess with me or me arse, buddy.”
“No promises.”
I grinned like a fool.
“Do you think a lot about when we’re gonna have sex?”
“At least one hundred times a day.”
I cracked up laughing, and Damien simply smiled and shook his head. I loved how he made me feel. Carefree, beautiful, and most of all, happy. I didn’t think of sex with him anywhere close to one hundred times a day, but I found myself thinking of it all the way home, and I decided we had both waited long enough to come together.
Literally.
Four days later …
Four whole days.
That was how long it took for Damien to break. It took four fucking days for me to seduce the man. What I thought would be an easy task turned out to be anything but. From the moment we got home from our first date, I had been dropping hints left, right, and centre that I was ready for us to be physically intimate. Damien picked up on zero of these hints, and I was too embarrassed to simply come out and ask him to have sex with me, so I upped my game. I subtly teased him whenever I got the chance, and I talked about sex, a lot. At night, I draped myself over him in bed and purposely rubbed against him, but nothing would happen.
Either he had the patience of a saint, or he just had no clue what I wanted.
I was truly beginning to believe the latter until I apparently took it one step too far in Ryder and Branna’s kitchen. We were already at the house, every one of us, kids and all. Damien waited until we all had finished our meal together to get to his feet, drawing everyone’s attention. He retrieved a black box with a silver ribbon tied around it from behind the kitchen door. His attention was solely on me.