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30 - In Dublin's Fair City

Author's Note: Grateful thanks to each of you who left messages of sympathy after the last chapter, I was so touched by your words of care and truly appreciate you taking the time to offer them. Grief is an ongoing process, as I'm sure most of you know, so there are good days and bad days...today was a good day, so here's a new chapter.

"Good morning handsome." It should be against the law for a man to look so damn sexy first thing in the morning. Seriously. We girls have to primp and preen and he wakes up with tousled auburn curls, chin dusted with gingery bristles and those bedroom eyes and I have a tough job remembering why I should get out of bed.

"Good morning, my adorable blanket hog." He leaned in to me but I put a hand on his chest to stop him.

"Hold on now, big boy. You expect me to kiss the mouth that just called me a blanket hog?"

"Sweetheart," his mouth turned up in a sexy grin and for a minute there I completely forgot the topic of conversation. "I'll call you whatever you like as long as you let me kiss those sweet, delectable lips of yours." Dammit man! "And by the way," I dragged my gaze from his lips to his eyes, which were twinkling with mischief and lust. "Thank you for the compliment." He winked and I blushed. I blushed. Then I let him kiss me, and Oh God, I could feel that kiss down in my toes.

"Ben," I breathed, as our hands began a mutual exploration of each other's bodies while his mouth skirted down my collarbone towards my breasts, sending electrical shocks to every limb, "You'll be late for work."

"I'll be quick darling, I promise."

"I don't want quick." My pout turned into a gasp and then a moan at what his long, clever fingers were doing.

"Then I'm going to be late for work." It was very difficult to argue with that logic.

---

"What time is your rehearsal tonight?" he asked later as he dressed.

Tomorrow is the day of the gig; first thing in the morning the guys and I would be flying to Dublin. At the moment it seemed quite surreal, but I was pretty sure the jitters would set in once I was at the airport, if not before.

"Eight. We should be done by ten." Ben couldn't make it to Dublin; he would be recording Cabin Pressure, a comedy radio series he'd been involved in for all of its four seasons.

"I will get to see you afterwards, won't I? How about I bring you home?" He had his trousers on and now slipped on a sky blue shirt.

"That sounds like a plan, Cumbers." I got out of bed and began doing up the buttons for him but as I was about to tuck the shirt in, he stilled my hands. "No, best not to put your hands down there."

I looked down at the front of his trousers. "Ben! We've only just..."

"Sweetheart, you're standing naked in front of me. I'm only human."

I laughed and executed a twirl. "You like what you see?"

Instantly, arms wrapped around me, pulling me tight to every inch of him. "What do you think?" he growled. My hands ran through his curls as his tongue licked my lower lip and he caressed my rear, sending tingles up and down my spine. "You are Aglaope, Pelsinoe and Thelxlope rolled into one tantalising package."

"Thank you, I think. Who are they?"

"Sirens from Greek mythology." He gave me another toe-curling kiss then begged, "Now please put something on or I will be very late to work and then I'll never hear the end of it from the others."