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He holds out the purse and lets me take it. I’m surprised he’s not going to tease me a little. Then I realize his brother, Aidan, is standing a few meters away waiting for him, so I guess he doesn’t have time to play with me.
“Thank you,” I tell him because I can’t be rude to the man.
“My pleasure.” The way he draws out the wordpleasuremakes my insides turn to jelly. “How do you plan to get home?”
“I’m going to hail a cab.”
Rory tuts at me. “Unacceptable.”
Before I can tell him I’m a big girl who’s quite capable of getting herself home, he whips out his cellphone and starts pressing buttons.
“One of my guys will drive you home.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Yes,” he says firmly, “it is, unless you’d rather I asked Aidan to make a detour to get you home safe.”
I glance over his shoulder at his brother, who I find to be the most terrifying of the Donovans. While I’m wary of Rory, I am downright petrified of Aidan. Even if he didn’t have a jagged scar running down his face as a testament to his life of violence, his chilling sternness would frighten me.
“No, it’s fine.”
“Aye,” Rory says, “I thought not.”
Luckily I don’t have to stand next to his brooding masculinity for long as an older, gray-haired man with a potbelly appears on the sidewalk next to us. I have to stifle a laugh.
Red in the face, he obviously ran to get here. He’s slightly sweaty and breathing heavily. Rory obviously picked the least attractive man he could think of to drive me home. He needn’t worry. I’m not looking to sleep with any members of the Irish mob.
“This is Padraig,” Rory tells me. “He’ll get you home safely.”
He turns and speaks quietly to the other man, who nods in response to whatever instructions he was just given. Padraig goes to a dark blue Range Rover, parked a few yards down the street and gets into the driver’s seat.
Rory takes my elbow in a firm, but not bruising grip and steers me to the car. He opens the back door and waits for me to climb onto the seat. Then he leans in close, his breath whispering over my ear.
“See you soon, Eleanor.”
A shiver runs down my spine, born not of fear, but arousal. As he walks off, limping slightly due to some injury he suffered, I try to get a grip on myself.
My mind is telling me Rory Donovan is a bad idea, but my body says something entirely different. I guess I’m going to have to work extra hard to resist his charms because being with a man like that can only lead to trouble.
CHAPTERTWO
Rory
As I walk awayfrom Eleanor, a twinge of pain shoots up my right leg. It’s been more than two years now since some asshole shot me while trying to steal my wallet, but it still gives me trouble.
Apparently, that’s my fault for not letting it heal properly after our family doctor removed the bullet and stitched me up. I don’t know what anyone expected. I could hardly lie around in bed when every fiber of my being was calling out for revenge against the man who shot me.
Hearing him beg for mercy before I killed him was like the sweetest music to my ears. Still, I regret not resting my leg more in the weeks after I was hurt.
I groan as I ease myself into the passenger seat of Aidan’s Mercedes. He glances my way, but knows better than to make a fuss. Big brother or not, I will smack him if he tries to baby me.
As Aidan pulls out into traffic, I look over my shoulder, hoping to catch one last glimpse of my red-haired beauty. I don’t see her. Padraig’s already moving off in the opposite direction.
“You need to fuck the lass and get her out of her system,” Aidan says.
I shake my head. “Nah, I want to do this right. Can’t risk upsetting Libby.”
Eleanor being my new sister-in-law’s friend is a convenient excuse for why I haven’t made a move on her yet. I can pretend to everyone that I’m worried about creating tension with Andrew’s wife if I hurt her friend.
