“Have you told her about me?”

“I told her I met someone special.”

“Did you tell her I’m older than you? A lot older?”

“Are we back to that again? I thought we’d resolved all that and weren’t going to make a thing of it anymore.”

She twisted his nipple, hard enough to make him wince. “Does she know I’m older than you?”

“I might’ve forgotten to tell her that part. She was so happy to hear I’ve finally met a lass who turned my head that I never got a chance to tell her that part.”

“A lass. She thinks you’ve found someone young, Seamus, and you did nothing to disavow that notion!”

“Are you or are you not a lassie?”

“Lassie is a dog in this country.”

Laughing at her indignation, he said, “As opposed to a laddie. My neighbors in Scotland have their lassies and their laddies. You, my love, are most definitely a lassie.” He squeezed her bare breast for emphasis, drawing a gasp from her and stirring his recently satisfied libido. Encouraged by her response, he ran his calloused thumb back and forth over the tip, making her tremble.

“Are you sore, love?”

“Kind of.”

“I’m sorry. I got a little carried away last night.”

“A little?”

He smiled sheepishly and went hard as stone as he recalled worshiping her sweet breasts for almost an hour, until she’d begged him for mercy. “Okay, maybe a lot. But that’s what you do to me.”

“You should invite your mother to come for a visit.”

Seamus froze, his interest in her breast forgotten. “My mum? Here?”

“That’s what I said. Would she come?”

“I don’t know. She was here years ago when I first came to America to get a look at the place, but she didn’t think too much of it. That was when I was living in Boston, though, and she never has been one for the city. She said it was noisy and dirty.”

“Gansett is neither. I want you to invite her to come here. She could stay with us.”

“Here. Stay with us. Love… you’ve never met me mum. You might want to think twice about that.”

“Why? What’s wrong with her?”

“There’s nothing…wrong… It’s just that she’s, well…”

“You’re not afraid of her, are you?”

What had begun as a very nice morning erection shriveled at all this talk of his mother. “Of course I’m not afraid of her. She’s me mum. But she’s also... Well, you’d have to meet her to see what I mean.”

“I’ll look forward to meeting her and your father.”

“My Da won’t come. He hates to travel more than anything.”

“You’ll call today to invite your mother?”

“Do I have to?”

“If you want a repeat of last night any time soon.”