Even when they broke apart, breathing heavily, Lorcan couldn't bring himself to loosen his arms around her waist, not even a little. He could feel her breaths against his cheek, his face and neck and whole body flushed with heat at their closeness... He licked his lips, thinking of kissing her again - but before he could she began to speak.

"We don't - you don't have to -" He interrupted to protest, after her first remark - not because he didn't want to, or because he wouldn't have, usually, without asking again, but... he hadn't been expecting anything of her, not anymore. Not by confessing, this time. She'd wanted to know why he was acting so oddly - she had needed to understand what was going through his head - but that was not to say she owed him anything in return, not because of his feelings or because of the marriage or any of it, and if that was why she was suddenly so determined not to stop them in their tracks, then was it even really worth it? In the end - Lorcan wasn't entirely stupid - it'd only make them both feel worse. Even once would ruin it all, worse than it had been ruined before.

But Maggie had more to say, and he was almost too busy trying to construct an argument to the above affect (and mourning what might've been) to hear it when she did. Lorcan jerked his head back in abrupt surprise, in shock and awe. Mad about him?

But - he could usually tell when someone liked him. He made a very great deal about falling for his charms, that was - that was kind of his thing. He had been awfully clear about liking her, he had thought - if it hadn't been clear from his offer of marriage, surely she might have gleaned it from that first night, but - Jesus and Merlin, he didn't know. What did it matter? She felt the same way. She felt the same!

"You could have fooled me," Lorcan said slowly, but this was not an accusation; no, there was honest humour in it, his face spreading into a disbelieving smile, ear to ear. A laugh bubbled up as he leant in to kiss her again, just gently, briefly... entirely relieved. "Wait a minute," he said, pulling back and eyeing her anew, an eyebrow raised as he toyed absently with the folds of her dress near his fingertips, "Day one?" He smirked, suddenly feeling back to himself again, in a way he hadn't in months. "Day one of being married, or day one... back then?" Lorcan gestured lightly with his chin as if to recall all that time ago in the bakery, back when they'd first met. Not that it mattered either way, but she hadn't bloody liked him then, surely! Put up with his flirting, maybe.

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Maggie was grateful when Lorcan didn't continue to try and interrupt what she had to say and actually listened to what she was saying. It was clear she'd needed to say it herself no matter how nervous she was to admit such things. It was a bit terrifying, really, to put oneself all out there in such a way. He'd gone first though, admitted to liking her more than just a convenience and for having actually been mad about her for some time. It made it easier to respond in kind, honestly. But it still didn't stop it from being terrifying to an extent.

But when he pulled away in such a way, she couldn't help but to blush more, adding more red to her already flushed cheeks. She bit her bottom lip and looked away just slightly, blue eyes falling to his chest instead of his face as a result. And though his words did sting a little initially, she knew he didn't mean it that way. There was no amount of bitterness or anger to his voice that she could detect. It seemed as if he was well and truly shocked by her own admission, enough so that he had to question how long it had been.

Daring to meet his gaze again, she gave a small shrug. "Back then," she said softly, still blushing and still chewing on her bottom lip thanks to the nervous energy she was feeling, "I think anyways. But I never could have, or would have, thought that you would ever have more of an interest in me beyond a fleeting fancy." It had been where most of her hesitation had come from, that he'd never really wanted to be with her as a husband beyond what they'd originally discussed and arranged. "You could have had anyone so why me?" she said, the question not one she really needed nor wanted answered, "So it was easier to not think of such but I was so fearful of giving my all to you, heart and body, and it being an empty sort of promise."

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The following 1 user Likes Magdalena Byrne's post:1 user Likes Magdalena Byrne's post
   Elsie Kirke

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Funny, how she could look so nervous now, after he'd already told her, in plain terms, that he was mad about her. Her face was flushed, biting down on her bottom lip - she ought to stop that, so that he could kiss her again - her shoulders shrugging and her gaze shy. Well, this was different. Lorcan didn't think he'd ever seen her so thrown off: she had been impervious to all his flirting before, he could have sworn, skeptical if nothing else.

Why her? It took all he had not to burst into an incredulous laugh. "Even I don't go around offering to marry every girl I meet," Lorcan said, face crinkling in amusement and dipping closer to her face again to nudge her with his nose teasingly. "You realise that, don't you?" Even he wasn't that mad! He'd fallen in love more times than he could count, he'd thought, after all, and he'd still never been married before. Surely she had reasoned it out, and seen herself for the exception she was?

"Nothing about you is convenient, Cinderella," Lorcan declared, lifting his hands to her cheeks to cup her face in front of him. For all the twinkle in his eyes, it was true - a baker's daughter was never going to have been the easiest sell to the Connollys, nor was the spontaneous elopement or their life now (although, he supposed, things might be looking up slightly now, now that it turned out she actually could stand to be living in the same house as him).

"And I promise," Lorcan added, his hands falling back to her waist as he beamed at her, and then pivoted his whole body and her with him so that they were better situated on the bed, rather than only perched on the edge of it, "that my promises aren't empty." How convincing did he have to be? He leant in to kiss her again.

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It was hard to meet his gaze in that moment. Maggie should have known there was more to her for him to even keep coming around the way he had but she'd still always been afraid to think of such. Because what if it hadn't been true? What if she had let herself believe such things when really it had all just been some crazy spontaneous thing he'd decided to do? She still didn't think his initial proposal had been all that serious, just another of their random jokes that ended up going further. But then he had accepted her proposal after she'd had time to think about it all. But then she'd just been the selfish one, right?

But, he was still there. And he was admitting to being crazy about her and even making light of it by rubbing his nose against her own. She couldn't help the small giggle then, an almost too girlish of one for the too serious Magdalena Backus. No, Byrne. She was no longer the baker's daughter on High Street in Hogsmeade. She was her own woman, married to a very handsome man and with a bakery of her very own. It was certainly all a fairy tale and he only emphasized that fact by calling her Cinderella again.

It was then that she met his gaze once more, assisted by his own hand. The twinkle was back in his eyes. That mischievous little glint but now full of happiness as well. She'd missed that look, especially when it was being directed her way. And as she moved easily with him as he readjusted their position on the bed, she finally let the full force of what had been said settle over her. This was real. They were real and the feelings that they'd both obviously been harboring were just as real. She smiled into that kiss, a soft sigh leaving her as a result.

She didn't let the kiss linger for long though, even going so far as to cast a bit of a mischievous look of her own at him as she pulled away. Gently, she removed his hands from her waist and stood up, turning her back to him as she went. "I fear you've got a slight advantage over me though," she said softly, looking back to him from over her shoulder, "I've got far more layers on than you have."

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