Page 3 of Ruck Me

Undeterred, I placed my beer on the table and moved closer. Close enough that I could lay both my hands on her knees. Close enough that if I leaned in any further, I’d be near enough to kiss her. Close enough that she couldn’t getaway.

“You do know what I’m talking about, and I’m asking you to reconsider. Anyone buthim.”

“Why?” she whispered. “Why not Kevin?”

“That’s not my secret to share, but trust me when I tell you you’ll regretit.”

“What do you know about regret, Eoin?” she whispered back angrily. “You’ve had a ton ofsex.”

“I have.” Denying it would have been stupid since Aoife was friends with my first girlfriend, the one I’d lost my virginity to the night of the debutante ball—the same night Aoife jumped into the ocean in her gown. “Which is why I know you don’t want your first time to be with someone likehim.”

“Everyone I know is terrified of Declan, but not him. He couldn’t give a rat’s ass who my brother is. So if not Kevin, thenwho?”

The noise in the pub fell away until it was just the two of us, our breaths mingling. My eyes met hers and held them for three long seconds before I said the thing I shouldn’t have said. The thing that changed our friendship forever.

“What aboutme?”

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