Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

78.

*
 

Ailbhe was following Lizzie and Polly into the dance where the crowd was moving towards. She looked between the heads to try and see Finn, but she couldn't find him. She should have known he'd find her first, hands enclosing around her waist and pulling her back away from the crowds. Nobody saw her disappear, nor noticed that she seemed to vanish into the shadows. During the dance Tommy and Liam noticed Ailbhe was missing but when they realised Finn was too and they knew she was alright, wherever she was.
 
 She knew his cologne and the feel of his hand around her neck, feeling herself being pulled against him until her back was pressed against his front and she could feel his body heat on her.
 
"Fuck the ballet" was all he whispered into her ear, wrapping his arms around her and finding her neck with his lips.
 
It wasn't an offer she could refuse, sinking into his arms and letting his hands find hers, pulling her along behind him to around the corner of the house where lights were low and there was no one but themselves finally. The night was clear and crisp but it wasn't too cold, not with Finn up close to her.
 
"Where were we earlier?" He asked, a glint in his eye as he stepped closer to her. Ailbhe backed up away from him teasingly, but her back hit the wall of the stables and gave her nowhere to go. It was a good thing she didn't want to be anywhere else in the world.
 
"I think we were going to cut off Mosley's hands and sink him to the bottom of the cut, Finn" She joked, stretching up on her toes wanting to get closer to him as he stood in front of her, mere inches between them.
 
"Don't tempt me" He almost growled, his hands finding hers and lacing their fingers together.
 
"Or what?" She asked him, her eyes having an almost glow about them as she looked up at him almost innocently but she knew exactly what she was doing to him.
 
Her hands were linked with his in between them but he pulled them up above her head, taking her small wrists in one hand and pinning them above her head.
 
"Or we'll both spend the night telling Tommy why Mosley's dead and we have no alibi" he warned her, but the tug of a smile on his lips and the way he looked at her, she knew he couldn't resist her. He never could.
 
She stretched up on her toes, pushing her chest against his and bringing her face closer to his. He could smell whiskey and smoke, perfume and her. Like she was hooking something up to his veins, tapping into his adrenaline and making him feel more alive than always she did something to him. Something all the snow and whiskey in the world wouldn't do.
 
He couldn't pretend not to want it anymore, joining their lips and keeping her hands pinned above her head while his other wrapped around her waist and pulled her up off her feet.
 
She gasped when she felt him lift her off her feet, the quiet laugh she left out even more intoxicating than all the booze in The Garrison. It gave him the chance to deepen the kiss, his tongue against hers. He planted her back on her feet, wanting to put his hands to better use.
 
The way she gripped his shoulders and pulled him in closer by his braces, ran her fingers along the waistline of his trousers and pulled his hips in to clash with hers by tugging on his belt loops. It didn't matter what she did but she just made him realise every time they were intimate that there was no such thing as having enough of her or growing tired of her. He didn't think it was possible.
 
There was no one around, they were almost covered by the darkness of the night and shade of the trees but there was enough light from the moon and the light of the house to make out their faces and bodies. He wanted to be able to make out her perfect face and every expression she made when he hooked her leg around his hip and slid his hand up the smooth skin of her leg under her dress. She wanted to see how he threw his head back when she kissed down his neck and unbuttoned his shirt for more access. He wanted to see how she bit her lip to stop herself moaning his name but it always slipped out like a breathy gasp. She wanted to see how his whole body seemed to relax when he slid into her, when he was as close to her as possible and knew that there wasn't a feeling on Earth that could be better.
 
Ailbhe didn't care in the slightest to have missed the ballet, not when that was the alternative. She felt calm and content, utterly at ease as she leaned against the wall beside him after coming back down to Earth and being placed back on her feet. He lit a cigarette, passing it to her which she took but having her just beside him didn't seem to satisfy him. He looked across at her, how she seemed so much more content and at ease now. He had done that to her, he could do that for her.
 
"What?" She asked, her hand freezing mid-air with the cigarette still in hand.
 
He didn't say anything, not sure there were words to say. He just tugged her closer, until she was standing between his legs and wrapping her arms around his shoulders while his tightened around her waist. He had sat his jacket across her shoulders when he noticed the goosebumps on her arms but she had told him the goosebumps weren't from the cold but from the way Finn could make her body react. The smug smirk on his lips made Ailbhe roll her eyes and want to either kiss or slap it off.
 
The words seemed to be out of Finn's mouth before he knew it. Maybe it was the booze or the snow, or just the way she looked at him but he couldn't stop it.
 
"I don't think I could do any of this without you..."
 
The way her eyes widened he knew she hadn't been expecting him to say anything that he hadn't said before. A smile tugged at her lips and she sighed happily when she ran her thumb across his cheek.
 
"Then it's a good thing you'll never have to" She replied, knowing that she wouldn't have made it this far without him.
 
She wouldn't have made it through the war years without him, nor the years of bullying in school for being the poor girl who couldn't speak proper English and never had shoes. She wouldn't have gotten a job and an education, wouldn't have been able to grow up to become a woman of the working world who had her own freedom and her own money. She wouldn't have been able to find someone and fall in love with someone who respected that in her and loved her all the more for it but she had and he was everything.
 
"Always, right?" He asked her, pressing a kiss to her lips for a second.
 
"Always what?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowing in that face she made when she was confused that made him feel his heart pound in his chest.
 
"You're mine, always," He said it with a hint of nerve in his voice like there was still a tiny part of him that was convinced she would be taken from him or that she would leave, whether by her own choice or someone else's.
 
She didn't know how long it would take for Finn to understand that nothing could stop her from being with him anymore, that there was nothing in the world that could make her leave him again. But she would be consistent, would promise to him and wouldn't lie to him ever again and it might help him. Whatever it took.
 
Holding his face in her hands, making sure he was looking her in the eyes she nodded.
 
"I'm yours, always. And you're mine, always" She replied, pressing a kiss to his lips and knowing that he would believe her. She didn't lie to him, not ever.
 
"I love you" She promised him, kissing his lips, then his cheek.
 
"Oh yeah? How much?" He asked her playfully, pulling her against him and that smirk on his face, eyes practically glowing back at her.
 
"Enough to risk our brother's finding out we ditched the ballet" She replied in a whisper, her face so close to hers he just had to nudge forward to have her lips back on his.
 
But he didn't. He got distracted by the shining headlights of an approaching car and the crunching of gravel under the wheels.
 
"Finn, who's that?" Ailbhe asked, knowing that no guests were missing off the list and she didn't recognise the car.
 
Finn stood up straight, keeping a hold of her hand as he narrowed his eyes, trying to see better but he couldn't recognise the car no matter how hard he tried.
 
"Whoever it is, they weren't invited," Finn told her, grabbing his gun from the harness around his shoulders and not letting her hand go.
 
Ailbhe had a bad feeling about the car, knowing everyone was still inside at the ballet it was just her and Finn out there to stop them. And they had one gun between them. But any betting man would fancy their odds. After all, they were Finn and Ailbhe.