The Virgin Next Door (Stud Ranch)

Liam’s jaw clenched as she came even closer and ran her hand down his chest. “—Beg you to give me another chance. We were good together.” She bit her lip, eyelashes batting. “Best I ever had.”

Liam jerked back from her and glared, head shaking. “You must think I’m an awful fuckin’ eejit to fall for your shite again. You tossed Sean over for me because he was bust and I was bank. Then when it looked like I might go bust too, you were just as ready to drop me and go looking for another lad.”

“That’s not true,” Brigid said, coming up to him again. He grabbed her wrists before she could land them on him. “I just got scared. Haven’t you ever been scared? Liam, I loved you.” Her voice was impassioned as she searched his eyes. “I still do.”

He shook his head in disgust. When he’d gone to her after the fight with his da, all she could focus on was the money. Saying he needed to get DNA tested to prove who his da was since only Ciarán’s ‘natural born son’ would be given a ten percent share in the company he’d built. That was the language Ciarán had the lawyers put in the legal paperwork—just one of the little details that had come out in the row earlier. Just in case Liam wasn’t his son. He’d been hedging his bets where Liam was concerned his whole life. Never willing to quite invest all his money, or his time, or his love—

And then there Brigid had been doing the same.

Liam grabbed her hands and begged her to come.

To run away with him.

No money, no prospects.

Just him.

And she’d backed away from him like he’d been diagnosed with leprosy.

“You lost your chance with me,” Liam said, affecting a hard grin. “But seems like you’ve been spending some quality time with Ciarán. You’re the type he usually goes for these days. Young. Pretty. Willing to play the slut for—”

She slapped him.

The sound of her hand against his cheek echoed around the empty room. Gasps came from the small crowd that was gathering in the lobby to watch the show.

“Shite,” Brigid swore. “Liam, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—” She reached for him again but he pulled back.

“No, don’t take it back.” He stretched his jaw. She packed quite a wallop. “I think that’s the fitting end to us.” He shook his head. “If you knew me at all, you woulda known all I ever wanted was someone who wanted me for me. Starting the way we did, I don’t know why I ever thought that person would be you.”

“Liam, I can be that pers— Wait, where are you going?” She followed him as she went out the front door and headed for his truck. He needed to take a drive. Clear his head.

“Wait. Liam. Please!” she pleaded.

He slammed his truck door in her face, then peeled out. Then he sped out of there, leaving his da and the woman he once thought he loved in his dust.

28

MACK

Calla fell asleep in Mack’s arms about an hour after Liam left them. He’d texted Liam several times to ask what was going on but got nothing back.

Calla said he was probably just catching up with his dad. Mack didn’t tell her he saw Liam storming out of the hotel when he’d followed him back downstairs earlier. Or that that woman, Brigid, had gone right after him.

Calla always believed the best in people. So Mack had just nodded along, not believing it for a minute. People like Liam always stuck to their own kind in the end. The fact that he himself had started allowing Liam just the little bit in made Mack furious with himself.

But if he was honest, Liam had wormed his way under Mack’s skin. Calla too.

Mack would find his thoughts straying to the softness of Calla’s hair at the most random moments. Whenever he made a breakthrough with Torpedo, she was the first one he wanted to tell. And whenever he had a setback, he immediately wanted to take out his frustrations on Liam’s ass.

Though really, there’d even been more tender moments between him and the bloody Irishman lately. Who would have thought? Just this morning, early as fuck, he’d woken up hard as a rock and gone in to grab Liam so they could go give Calla a wake-up call she wouldn’t forget.

And he’d stood there for a good five minutes just watching Liam sleep.

What the fuck was that about?

Thank Christ for the rude awakening of Liam’s past coming back to remind both of them exactly who Liam Delaney O’Neill was.

Because the clock had wound down. Time was up. Mack was supposed to split town as soon as Torpedo was auctioned tomorrow. But he hadn’t yet made any plans. Or packed any of his things.