The corner of her lips twitched, and through her eyes danced a light that told him he wasn’t alone in this. She might be trying to deflect the attraction between them with jokes, but nothing could distract him from how badly he wanted to know if her lips were as soft as they looked.
“Kavanagh! What the fuck are you doing? Get back up on that roof!” Kieran heard Brogan shouting at him from the clinic down the street, where he was supposed to be working right now. He refused to turn around, ignoring his boss.
“So you’re a construction worker?” She lifted one brow, and he could tell she was trying not to judge but failing miserably. It irritated the hell out of him. It was like she was trying to find reasons not to like him. But he’d always been one to enjoy a challenge.
He licked his lips, pleased to see her eyes flicker down to watch the movement. Deciding to take a different approach, he reached forward and pushed a stray strand of hair off her cheek, tucking it behind her ear.
She visibly gulped, and her chest rose and fell at a quicker pace. She might be doing everything she could to push him away, but her body was screaming a different story. And that was the tale he wanted to tell.
“Stalking gets expensive. Gotta pay the bills somehow.” His eyes were now glued to her lips as she tried to hide her smile at his joke.
“You’re funny,” she said slowly, seemingly as transfixed by him as he was by her. At least he hoped she was. He needed her to be. He needed her. He wanted her.
His hand trailed gently from her upper arm to her wrist before sliding his fingers through hers and lifting her hand to his lips. Softly, slowly, his eyes never leaving hers, he placed a kiss on the back of her hand. “I’ll see you soon for our date, flower girl.”
“I never said yes,” she stammered, looking less sure than her words.
“But you will.” He let go of her hand, then nonchalantly walked past her toward the clinic. He didn’t bother turning around to see if she was staring after him, because he also didn’t hear the click of her shoes on the concrete. He took it as a sign that maybe he’d actually gotten past her defensive walls for a moment, however brief it might have been.
“Kieran, what the hell are you doing?” A minute or so later, he turned the corner and almost collided with Rory as he reached the clinic.
“Fuck, I’m almost falling on my ass is what I’m doing.” Kieran grabbed the wall to keep from toppling backward at the sudden encounter, grateful he was at least out of Fiona’s line of sight.
“Why aren’t you working? Brogan said you just walked off with no explanation.” Rory looked pissed. Actually, he looked like the Rory whom Kieran remembered from before he went to prison. The Rory he’d seen the last few days had been different, all love-swept and calm, nothing like the angry man staring at him now.
“Chill, I was just saying hi to a friend. It’s not a big deal.” He rolled his eyes and tried to walk past his brother, but Rory stepped in his way. Ace was by his side, yet the dog didn’t have the same look of hostility as his owner.
“It is a big fucking deal, Kieran. I vouched for you to get you this job. It’s my reputation that you’re fucking with, not just your own.”
“What do you care? It’s your clinic—you own the place.”
“I don’t own the contracting company, idiot. And it’s called professional courtesy. I’m trying to make a name for myself as a businessman, and I don’t need the family fuckup messing with that. It’s bad enough every person in Woodlawn knows where you’ve been the last two years.” Rory’s fists clenched at his sides.
Kieran’s jaw dropped at the hateful words, and he paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. Instinct was telling him to slam his fists into his brother’s face.
Instinct had also landed him in prison, though.
“I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, but I’m not the family fuckup, Rory,” Kieran finally managed to spit out. “You’ve screwed up just as much as I have: pills, booze, whatever. You think Mom and Dad didn’t know? They knew, everyone knew.”
“Don’t you dare bring that up, asshole.” Rory jaw tightened and his face flushed. “It’s ancient history, and you weren’t clean back then, either. You did that shit right along with me until you nearly killed that kid.”
“Ancient history, my ass. There’s nothing ancient about it! And I never did that stuff like you did—I was just having fun and fucking around. Yeah, I went too far, but I paid for that mistake. You haven’t been clean that long, and other people are still paying for how you were back in the day.”