Page 34 of Ruck Me

Chapter10

EOIN

“Is this weird?”I asked, looping our fingers together. “I feel like it should be weird.”

Aoife peered at me out of the side of her eye while keeping her focus on the horde of tourists strolling through Temple Bar so we didn’t run into anyone. “It’s not weird, but it’s definitely different.”

I turned and walked backwards, keeping our hands linked. “I want to kiss you so bad rightnow.”

Even though we’d been dating for a few weeks, kissing was the only thing we’d done so far. As much as it went against everything I wanted, when she’d asked if we could take things slow, I’d agreed. But that didn’t mean I didn’t want her every second of every goddamned day. The only thing that kept my mind off all the filthy things I wanted to teach her was playing rugby.

Aoife’s eyes grew wide with panic, and she shook her head back and forth. “No kissing. Not in public.”

Tugging her up against me, I let my hands rest at the small of her back. “Why not? You like kissingme.”

“I do,” she answered, her palms rising to find my chest.

I was wearing a t-shirt, sweater, and jacket, and yet somehow, I still managed to feel the heat of her touch against my skin. Day by day my feelings for Aoife were growing—almost as if by giving myself permission to care about her as more than a friend, all my capacity for affection had been let loose.

“Someone willsee.”

“Yeah, so?”

Aoife sighed and shook her head. “We talked about this, Eoin.”

“We talked about keeping us a secret from Declan,” I responded, my anger spiking. I dropped my hands and took a step back. “I didn’t realize we were hiding from the entire fucking world.”

“We’re not,” she answered, but her eyes wouldn’t meet mine. “It’s just there’s a lot of people around. Someone who knows Declan might see and tellhim.”

I took an exaggerated look around. “No one here knows your fucking brother.”

Her head shot up and her hands fisted on her hips. “You don’t knowthat.”

I swung my arm wide. “Look around. Tourists. Every last one of them. That’s why we’re in the middle of Temple Bar instead of hanging out somewhere we might actually run into someone weknow.”

Aoife worried her hands and chewed on her lip, her eyes downcast. “Please don’t yell atme.”

“I’m not yelling,” I told her, grabbing her hand and leading her down a side alley. Once we were out of sight, I tugged her back into my arms. When I dropped a kiss to the top of her head, the smell of her fresh hair dye hit me in the nostrils. “Fuck, this stuff stinks.”

“Imagine what it’s like when I put it on my hair,” she answered into my chest.

Fingering her locks, I was surprised at how soft her hair was even with all the chemicals she regularly used. “Why’d you start dyeing your hair pink anyway? One day you were blonde and then boom! Cotton candyhair.”

“At first it was because I wanted to shock my mam. Then I actually liked it so decided to keepit.”

“I thought you were crazy the first time I saw it,” I murmured, remembering how shocked I’d been, “but I like it now. You look like a badass.”

“Hardly. I look like a cartoon character.”

“A bad ass cartoon character.”

Silence lingered between us until she eventually said, “I’m sorry, Eoin. I don’t mean to be difficult, but I’m worried about how Declan will react if he finds out we’re dating.”

“Let me worry about that. It’ll befine.”

“You don’t know Declan like I do. We fight like cats and dogs, but he’s super protective ofme.”

“Yeah, I know,” I laughed cynically. “Every new guy that comes up the ranks gets the speech about staying away from you. I got it twice, infact.”

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