Page 14 of Irish Daddies
I see my breath displace her hair, and she shivers slightly, then laughs. “Maybe. Depends on what kind of old debts you have to settle. I don’t have any money to offer you.”
“I don’t want your money. I want you.” I say it firmly, looking straight into her eyes, so that there’s no question what I mean. “And I think you want me too.”
When she doesn’t respond, I quip, “Besides, it’s not that kind of debt. It’s more like someone saw something, and now I have to kill them.”
A surprised laugh shakes out of her, and she nods at the bartender that she’d like another drink.
The bar hums around us, but it’s just noise now. She’s leaning in, head tilted, eyes wide with the kind of curiosity that only surfaces when someone finally lets their guard down. Her elbow brushes mine. She doesn’t move away, and neither do I. I let myself imagine, just for a second, that we’re any two people on a first date. Just for a second.
She scoots her elbow closer, glues it to mine, and smiles at me. Like she’s safe. She has no idea what I am or what I’ve done, what I’m capable of and what I will do. And if I do this right, if I keep her laughing, keep her smiling, she never will.
Not until it’s too late.
9
CAROLINE
It feelslike a hush falls over the bar as I lean in for my drink, trying to keep the pressure of our connected arms steady. I don’t want to move. I want another drink, something for confidence. The second whiskey burns a warm trail down my throat, but it falls into my stomach softer than the first did, like it has a landing pad.
Or maybe it’s just Paul, the shimmering specks of green in his eyes, the way they light up when I laugh. He watches me like he has all the time in the world, like I’m some old film he wants to study frame by frame. It should feel invasive, but it doesn’t. I can’t remember the last time I felt seen and it didn’t scare me.
“You’re really not what I expected,” I say before I think better of it.
His lips quirk. “Should I be offended?”
“No,” I say quickly, heat rising to my cheeks. “Just…you’re good at this. The whole dating thing.”
He lifts his glass, swirling the amber liquid inside like it’s something sacred. “Maybe I’m fooling you.”
I try to scoff, but it comes out too soft, caught in my chest with my heaving breaths. It comes out too close to something else, to an admission. I shift in my seat, suddenly aware of the slow ache building between my thighs. The part of me I wrote off a long time ago.
He leans closer, eyes scanning mine like they’re a puzzle he wants to solve. “Do you want to get out of here?”
My pulse spikes.
There it is. The proposition.
I shouldn’t even consider it. I barely know this man. But I feel like I do, and I feel like we’re going to be in each other’s lives for a long time.
I glance at my phone. No emergencies. Alaina told me the boys could stay over at her house, made me swear to have fun. I’ve been making good on that promise. And now I could have even more fun. My pussy clenches at the thought. It strikes through my brain, a zap of lust.Paul holding my wrists over my head, telling me to just lie still. Paul touching me until I come undone from underneath him.
“Your place?” I ask, my voice lower than I expect.
“Only if you want to.”
I nod.
He pays the tab without a word, and we walk to his car in silence. The night air is crisp, biting at my exposed arms, and he rubs my arm when he sees me holding them close to my chest. His button-up moves with him, and I can see muscles peeking through. He opens the door for me. That part almost breaks me.
His car is fancy, and more than that, it’s clean. Not clean like he never uses it but clean like he thought I might care and wanted to make a good impression.
We drive in silence. The kind that crackles. He doesn’t touch me at all, and the careful restraint makes me want him more.
When we pull up, my stomach flips nervously. His house is sleek, perched on a hill overlooking the quiet. Too nice for someone in insurance. But then again, so is he.
He unlocks the door and lets me step in first.
The inside is just as composed as him. Minimal. Masculine. Like no one lives here, like a performance.
