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Conflicting emotions warred in me, and even knowing how messed up it was, I couldn’t help but laugh. After all the shit those three had given me for months, for my friends to shut those bastards up that way? It was priceless. I couldn’t help but feel relief and even gratitude at seeing the way they’d been dealt with.
I didn’t have to defend myself from those guys anymore.
I didn’t have to dread walking down the halls of Astor and worrying about who was lurking around the next corner.
That was all taken care of.
I rested my head back against the couch and shut my eyes, feeling the weight I’d been carrying around, the fear I’d lived with, finally leave my shoulders. I felt lighter, more at ease than I’d felt in months—and with that realization, any residual anger I felt toward my friends disappeared.
How could I be angry when they’d just given me back my freedom? When they’d just—what had Daire said?—taken care of a problem I let get out of control?
It wasn’t like I’d been able to stop it. But after tonight, I had a feeling I’d seen the last of them. God knows I wouldn’t want to be on Daire’s bad side—I’d seen the kind of damage he could do. But I had to admit, something about the way he’d stood up for me, the way he’d promised vengeance if Joey ever came near me again, made my heart do this weird kind of skipping thing,similar to what happened when his mouth had slammed down onto mine…
Why had he kissed me like that? It wasn’t like we’d been on the best terms lately. If anything, we’d been at each other’s throats. The debacle with my breakup months ago had led to a chasm that seemed to widen more with each day. And after our argument the night I followed him to his underground fight club, I’d thought for sure we were on the outs. But then, why had he kissed me?
It hadn’t just been a quick mistake of a kiss, either—it had been a fierce, crushing, passionate kiss that went from punishing to life-altering in seconds. In one instant I’d been wanting to strangle him, and the next I would’ve done anything for him to drag me to his bedroom and?—
I jackknifed up on the couch, my eyes popping open.
What the hell was the matter with me? Here I was after one of the best dates of my life, and instead of thinking about the charming, good-looking man I’d run out on, I was fantasizing about Daire.
Daire…
The guy who barely grunted a good morning to me. Who only had one expression: a scowl. The guy who beat people up for fun, and got pissed off if you dared to worry about his well-being.
This was the guy I was imagining dragging me into his bedroom? Was I fucking insane? I had to be, because only an idiot would catch feelings for someone like Daire. And only a masochist would want him to touch them.
I was neither. At least, I didn’t think so. But I also couldn’t remember the last time I’d had such areactionto someone. For so long now I’d been walking around in a kind of funk. I’d become a hostile shadow of myself. Maybe it’d taken another grumpy asshole to make it all come crashing down. Like two lighting bolts slamming into one another across the sky.
Great, now I was thinking of his mouth crushing mine. The electricity I’d felt humming between us, and his hands…Damn. The way he’d held my face with those strong fighter hands? He’d been so gentle, so protective of me, even with his anger riding him. Not once had I felt scared or in danger with Daire, which was crazy, considering what a maniac he could be.
I thought back to the argument that led up to that combustible moment between us, the words we’d hurled at each other, and while most of it had been defensive and aggressive, one thing stood out to me—Daire’s angry acknowledgement of my distancing myself from him.
The fact that he’d noticed was shocking enough. But the mocking way he’d tried to shield his feelings about it made me wonder…
Did Daire actuallygivea shit about me? Did hecarewhat happened to me?
If someone had asked me that last month, or even a couple of weeks ago, I would’ve laughed in their face. But now I wasn’t so sure.
That kiss. The way he’d threatened Joey. The hurt I could’ve sworn I saw flash across his face when I told him not to fight my battles. It all spoke of feelings, emotions that, quite honestly, I hadn’t been sure Daire was capable of—still wasn’t, really.
No. That wasn’t true. There had been more emotion in our apartment tonight than either one of us had known what to do with. Emotion that had driven us into each other’s arms and thrown our entire situation into total, utter chaos.
What the hell did I do now? It wasn’t like I could erase my memory. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to.
I’d never thought of Daire Connery in any way other than the surly bastard with the permanent scowl. But now all I could think about was how damn good that scowl felt against me.
Fuck.This was going to get complicated.
SEVENTEEN
gavin
IT’D BEEN DAYS since I’d seen Daire. I had no idea where he’d gone off to, and if any of the others had a clue, they weren’t saying.
If Daire thought this made things easier after kissing and running, he was a fool. All it’d done was make me wonder what had scared him so much.
It also had me thinking about him nonstop.
