'Well, I've plenty more to say to you.' But he couldn't think of a thing, not with images of Brenna wrapped around some faceless man burning into his brain.
She tossed back her head, and her eyes burned once more into his. 'Do you want to have sex with me or not?'
Truth or lie? He was suddenly certain that either answer would send him straight to hell. But he thought the lie safer. 'No.'
'Then that's the end of it.' Humiliated, furious, she shoved away. Then-perhaps it was pride, or perhaps it was just need, but she acted before she thought.
In one easy leap, she was in his arms, her legs locked around his waist, her mouth fused to his. She thought she heard Betty bark-once, twice, three times in rapid succession, almost like a laugh. She clung like a bur when Shawn staggered, then bit, not so lightly, his bottom lip. Someone moaned, she didn't know or care who, and she poured everything she had into that fierce and hot mating of lips.
She'd caught him by surprise. That was why he didn't shake her loose. Of course it was. It was simply an instinctive reaction to grip that wonderfully tight bottom in his hands, then to let them slide up her back and get lost in her hair.
And that quick intake of breath had been shock. It wasn't his fault that the scent and flavor of her assaulted him and because of it, made his head spin.
He had to stop. For her sake, he had to stop this now- in just a moment. Sooner or later.
The wind spun around them in chilly ribbons. The sun buried itself behind clouds, shimmering out fragile light as a soft, soft rain began to fall. He all but felt the blood draining downward out of his head, leaving it empty but for the image of carrying her back inside and up the stairs so he could tumble her into bed and have more.
Then she was shoving him again, jumping down. Through the lust clouding his vision, he saw her sharp sneer. 'I thought you should have a sample of what you've turned away.'
While he stood there, aroused beyond speech, she brushed off the sleeve of her shirt. 'I'll have a look at your car when I have a bit of time to spare. You'd best get down to the village. You're running late for work.' He didn't speak when she strolled away, and was still standing in the quiet rain when she and the yellow dog disappeared over the rise.
'You're late,' Aidan said the minute Shawn came in the kitchen door of the pub.
'Then fire me or get out of my way.' At the unusually surly response Aidan lifted his eyebrows, watching as Shawn wrenched open the refrigerator and started pulling out eggs and milk and meat. 'It's hard to fire a man who owns as much of the business as I do myself.'
Shawn banged a pot onto the stove. 'Then buy me out, why don't you?'
When Darcy pushed into the kitchen, Aidan held up a hand, shook his head, and motioned her back. She didn't look pleased about it, but she stepped back out again.
'What's the matter?'
'Nothing's the matter. I've things on my mind and work to do.'
'I've never known you not to be able to work and run your mouth at the same time.'
'I've nothing to say, and meat pies to make. What the hell's with women, anyway?' he demanded, spinning away from the stove to scowl at his brother. 'First it's one thing, then it's another, and you never know which way they'll be coming at you next.'
'Oh, well, then.' Aidan's concern melted into amusement. He helped himself to tea and leaned back on the counter while Shawn muttered and worked. 'We could talk all day and half the night and not come close to solving that particular puzzle. 'Tis a thorny one. But it's more pleasant to have a female causing you problems than to have no female at all, don't you think?'
'No, not at the moment.'
Aidan only laughed. 'Well, which one is it 'that's causing you grief?'
'It's no one. It's nothing. It's ridiculous.'
'Hmm, not saying.' Aidan sipped and considered. 'Must be in the way of a serious matter, then.'
'Easy for you to smile and look smug,' Shawn tossed back with bitter annoyance. 'All cozied up as you are with your Jude Frances.'
'I reckon it is.' Aidan nodded. 'But it wasn't always, and you gave me good advice when I was at my own wits' end. Maybe you should take some time and give yourself some on this, if you don't want to hear from me.'
'I don't want a woman in my life just at the moment,' Shawn muttered. 'And this particular one won't do at all. Just won't.'
He tried not to think of that wild and wicked kiss, or the way Brenna's compact body had plastered itself to his.
'No, it won't,' he said again, then adjusted the fire under the pot of meat filling with a sharp turn of his wrist.
'You'd know best what suits and what doesn't. I'll just say there comes a time when your head's telling you one thing, and the rest of you just won't listen. A man can be a child when it comes to a woman, wanting what he shouldn't have and taking more than he can handle. Knowing something's not good for you doesn't stop you from wanting it.'
'I wouldn't be good for her.' Calmer now, Shawn took put a bowl to make the pastry for the pies. 'Even if there weren't other factors involved, I wouldn't be good for her. So that's the end of it.'
With the flour and water mixed to a firm dough, he covered the bowl and stuck it into the refrigerator. 'I'll be making poundies,' he told Aidan while he creamed butter and suet for the next stage of the pastry. And I've some samphire that young Brian Duffy picked for me that I've pickled into jars, so we'll have that tonight as well, as it goes nicely with the salmon you bought this morning. You tell Jude to come over so I can fix her a plate.'
'I will, thanks. Shawn-' He broke off as Darcy shoved through the door again, looking aggrieved.
'You ask me to come down early, then you push me back out the door. If the pair of you are going to stand in here and tell your little men's secrets, I'm going back upstairs and do my nails, since we don't open for nearly an hour as yet.'
'Let me pour you a cup, darling, for I've abused you something terrible.' Aidan gave her a little pat on the cheek, then pulled a chair out at the table with a flourish.
'Well, I'll have a cup, but I want some biscuits with it.' She folded her hands on the table after she sat and gave her brother a challenging smile.
'Biscuits, then.' Aidan got down a tin and set it in front of her. 'I need to talk to both of you, as it concerns the pub.'
'Then you'll have to talk while I work.' Shawn retrieved the bowl from the refrigerator and began to roll out the pastry.
'Well, you were late, weren't you?' Aidan said easily. 'The man from New York, the Magee? It seems he's interested in the idea of linking the theater he's planning with Gallagher's. It was my thought to lease him the land, long term, but he's holding out to buy it outright. If we do that, we forfeit the land, and some of the control we might have.'
'How much will he pay?' Darcy asked and bit into a biscuit.
'We've only danced about the terms for the moment, but he'll meet the price we set, I'm thinking. I'll need to call Ma and Dad on this, but as the pub is in our hands now, the three of us need to decide what we want to do.'
'If he pays enough, I say sell it to him. We don't use it for anything.'
'It's land,' Shawn said, sending Darcy a glance as he covered the rectangle of rolled-out pastry with the mixture of suet and butter. 'Our land. It's always been ours.'
'And it'll be money. Our money.'
'I've thought on both ends of that.' Aidan pursed his lips while he turned his cup of tea around-and around. 'If we don't agree to sell, Magee could find himself another plot for his project. And the theater could be a benefit to the pub, if we keep some sort of handle on it. He strikes me as a sharp one, and one I'd rather deal with face-to- face than over the phone. But he says he can't come here now, as he's into some other business and can't leave it until it's done.'
'So send me to New York.' Darcy fluttered her inky lashes. 'And I'll charm him into opening his wallet wide.'
