Page 44 of Ruck Me

“Aidan said he’s acting weird,” she answered, grabbing a glass of celebratory champagne as a waiter passed carrying atry.

“My brother’s not exactly normal,” I reminded her, shaking my head at the proffered glass.

“Weirder than normalthen.”

“Beats me.” I shrugged. “I haven’t talked to him since before last week’s match.”

“You okay on your own?” she asked when the conversation moved on from Declan.

I took a breath and squared my shoulders. “Yeah. I’ve gotthis.”

At least I hope I do, I thought as Tanya strolled away, her glorious hips swaying enticingly. She may claim nothing would ever come of her friendship with Aidan, but it was obvious they cared for one another. If I had to guess, they more than cared. I just hoped whatever stood between them was resolved soon because it made no sense that they weren’t together.

But Tanya’s love life was the least of my concerns. I sought out the object of my affection. At first I didn’t see him, but then I realized why. When my eyes had first skimmed over the room, he’d been squatting down, out of my line of sight Now, he stood with a hand on the back of a chair occupied by a blonde woman with huge breasts. My eyes narrowed and then zoomed in on Eoin’s right hand, which had slipped forward to rest on her bare shoulder.

My ears ringing and my face turning scarlet with rage, I stepped backward, my eyes fixed on Eoin’s hand, willing him to quit touching her, remembering what those hands had felt like when they’d touched me. With those torturous memories causing my belly to flip with nausea, I quickened the pace of my retreat. When I’d nearly reached the exit, I crashed headlong into a waiter and ten full glasses of bubbly crashed to the floor, shattering, and drawing all eyes my way. Immediately, I bent to clean up the mess, slicing my hand in the process, until a hotel employee shooed me away with a towel and directions to the washroom. Mortified, I rose to my feet, my gaze zeroing in on Eoin while I prayed he’d been too distracted by the Playboy bunnies to have noticed my humiliation.

Unfortunately, my prayers went unanswered.

With a look that said, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Eoin shook his head. Bending forward, he whispered something to his companions. That was the last thing I saw before I ran out of the ballroom, through the hotel’s elegant lobby, and into the night. Heavy footsteps pounding behind me was the last thing I heard as I threw open the door of a waiting taxi and urged the driver to “GO!”

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