very talented photographer, but he was also a sick, perverted, peeping Tom!
Ellie sucked in a long and ragged breath, that action serving to galvanize her. She raced around the darkroom, grabbing every photo and negative that even resembled her, determined to steal the last image from his possession. When she was finished, she headed for the bedroom.
She’d been so damn concerned about her safety that she’d never even recognized the true danger. In less than two minutes she’d dressed, packed her bag and snatched up the pile of photos and negatives from the end of the bed. Then the front door creaked and she heard footsteps in the living room. Ellie groaned softly. She’d wanted to leave without having to confront him. After all, a guy who took covert pictures of a woman might be downright dangerous. She’d tear up the photos, toss the scraps in his face and walk out, adding a threat to call the police if he ever came near her again. “That will do it.”
But when she reached the living room, Liam wasn’t there. His brother Sean was. He seemed surprised to see her, considering that he’d known she’d be spending the night. Ellie stalked up to him and waved the photos under his nose. “I want you to tell that sick, psycho brother of yours that I know what he’s up to. If he doesn’t want to end up locked away in jail or some mental hospital, he’d better stay away from me.”
Sean opened his mouth, then snapped it shut again. “Okay,” he said.
She stuffed the photos into her bag, yanked open the door, then made sure to slam it behind her. But when she reached the sidewalk, she wasn’t quite sure what to do. She didn’t have a car, there were no cabs or buses in sight, and she really wasn’t sure exactly where she was.
“I should have never come to Boston,” Ellie muttered as she hiked down the street. “I should have stayed in New York, kept my job there and put up with Ronald Pettibone. This whole move has been cursed from the start.”
It hadn’t been so difficult to get over the two break-ins, the near hit-and-run, or the brick incident with Liam Quinn around as a consolation prize. But now she had no choice but to add him to the list of disasters that had plagued her since she’d come to Boston.
“I can’t believe I trusted him,” Ellie murmured. She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling. “I can’t believe I slept with him.” Her track record with men had gone from terrible to downright pathetic. She’d vowed to take time away from romance, to give herself a chance to recover. But Liam Quinn had been so sweet and so charming and incredibly heroic.
As Ellie walked she began to look at the events of the past few weeks in a different light. Yes, he’d come to her rescue so many times. But maybe he’d set it all up simply to get her into bed. “Oh, yuck,” Ellie cried. “He could be a sleazy creep as well as a sick psycho and a demented pervert.”
She quickened her pace, following the sound of traffic toward a main street. When she finally saw an elderly couple strolling down the sidewalk, she hurried up to them. She explained where she wanted to go and they pointed her in the direction of a nearby thoroughfare, directing her to take the number nine bus to the Broadway T stop. Ellie assured them that she could find her way home once she got downtown.
But when she got on the bus, Ellie wasn’t sure she wanted to go back to her apartment. Maybe she just ought to leave Boston-leave
Ellie turned the notion over and over in her mind. It could work. And she’d certainly avoid seeing Liam Quinn again. She stared out the window of the bus at Monday morning traffic. Maybe it was time to find another place to start over.
LIAM KICKED OPEN the front door and stepped inside, Ellie’s latte and his large coffee balanced in one hand, the paper bag of doughnuts clenched in his teeth. He yanked his keys from the lock, then closed the door behind him. As he walked into the living room, he was surprised to find Sean pacing back and forth in front of the sofa.
“Morning,” Liam said, letting the bag drop onto a nearby table.
“Morning.”
“I didn’t realize you were here. I would have brought you coffee. When did you get in?”
“A few minutes ago,” Sean said.
“Any news on Pettibone?” he murmured.
“None so far.”
Liam headed toward his bedroom. “Well, I’d love to hang around, but I’ve got breakfast to deliver.”
“She left,” Sean called.
Liam stopped short, then slowly turned. “She left? What did you say to her?”
“Nothing. But she had a lot to say about you. From what I can figure, she wandered into your darkroom.”
Liam groaned, then cursed. “I don’t have to ask what she found in there.”
“What did she find?”
“I developed the photos that I took from the attic window and they were…very…revealing.”
“Naked?” Sean asked.
“No. What do you think, I’m some kind of pervert?”
“She does. And she thinks you’re a psycho. A disgusting worm of a man.”
Liam closed his eyes and groaned. “She said that?”
“No, but I’m sure that’s what she was thinking. Jaysus, Liam, could you have screwed this up any worse?”
Liam aimed the bag of doughnuts at Sean’s head and pitched it as hard as he could. But Sean’s reflexes were too quick and he caught it. “Thanks. I’m starved.”
“I’ve gotta go find her,” Liam said. “I have to explain.”
“You’re not going to tell her the truth.”
Liam shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m going to say. But I’ve got to find some way to explain.”
“You really like her, don’t you?” Sean said.
Liam pulled his keys out of his pocket, then headed to the door. “That’s a major understatement,” he muttered.
He drove from Southie to Charlestown in record time, weaving in and out of traffic as he tried to decide what to say to Ellie. His first impulse was to come clean, to tell her everything and to hope that his instincts about her were right. But if they weren’t, Liam knew she’d have no choice but to run. And then he’d never see her again.
With every other woman in his life, it had always been easy, a take-it-or-leave-it kind of affair. But Ellie was different. She made him feel confused and excited and frustrated and satisfied all at once. And when he thought about her walking out of his life, he got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Liam had been in love with a lot of women-at least he thought it had been love. But it didn’t even come close to what he’d come to feel for Ellie in just a very short time. Was this real love, this crazy, wild, disturbing feeling that he had whenever he was with her?
They’d known each other less than two weeks. People didn’t fall in love that fast, Quinn family curse or not. Memories of all his father’s tales of the Mighty Quinns drifted through his mind. Seamus Quinn had warned all of his sons about the dangers of succumbing to the powers of a woman. And for the first time in Liam’s life, he understood what his father had been talking about. There was every chance in the world that this would end badly and that he’d end up with his heart in shreds.
He couldn’t avoid the reality. Next month, Ellie Thorpe could be on trial for embezzlement. And the month after that, she could be in jail. Maybe that’s what made it easy to fall for her. In the back of his mind, he knew it might end at any minute.
Liam parked the car in front of Ellie’s building in Charlestown and hopped out. He took the front steps two at a time, then pushed the security buzzer, saying a silent prayer that she’d let him in. But the buzzer went unanswered. Either she was in her apartment avoiding him, or he’d beaten her across town. “Or she’s already in the wind,” he murmured. With a soft curse, he sat on the step, determined to wait.
He’d only been waiting two or three minutes when it began to rain-a cold, stinging, spring rain. Liam pushed up from the steps and jogged across the street. He’d wait for Ellie in the attic, and when she came home, he’d have all of his explanations in order.
As Liam unlocked the front door and climbed the stairs, he couldn’t help but rewind the previous night in his head. He and Ellie had been so good together. It was as if her body had been made especially for him. Every curve,
