I looked at him, shocked. Speechless.
Then, slowly, he lowered his head, right outsideThe Banshee’s Rest, right on the main street for every mother and her son to watch, andkissedme.
It started soft, became deep and demanding, not just from his side but also from mine.
I wrapped my hands around his neck and stroked his hair.
He pulled off his gloves sometime during the kiss because, when he touched my face, we were skin-to-skin.
He tasted like an Irish spring, coffee, andsin.
He nibbled my lower lip. “Darlin’ Dee, give me the fuckin’ time of day, will you?”
I heard a whistle, and my face went red. Jax turned around without releasing me.
“Liam Murphy, now get gone; the pub doesn’t open until five,” I admonished, feeling foolish because I was in the arms of a man as I tried to speak with some dignity.
“Dee and the Yank sitting in a tree,” Liam began to sing as he walked away.
“Shite.” I groaned. “Now everyone will know.”
“Oh, Dee, I got news for you, darlin’, everyone already knows. I can’t keep my eyes off of you, and every time I’m around, you become just a tad more acerbic than usual.”
“That’s because I don’t like you.” I tried to push him away. Okay, I didn’t put my back into it. It was nice, wasn’t it, to be held like this, have a man like Jax, big, tall, and beautiful, wrapped around me?
“Don’t lie, Dee.” He dropped a soft kiss on my lips. “I’m not from here, I know that, and I don’t get it all, but I want to learn. Don’t push me away because you’re comparing me to the asshole you were engaged to.”
He had a point. He really did. But I wasn’t planning on being reasonable. Hell no!
“I’m not pushing you away because ofhim. I’m doing it because ofyou.”
In response, his warm and firm lips were back on mine, and once again, for a dizzying moment, I forgot how to breathe. My hands gripped the front of his coat, pulling him closer without meaning to, and the world seemed to tilt around us.
When he finally raised his head, my heart was racing, my face hot with shock and emotions I was too afraid to name.
“What the hell was that?” I whispered, my voice shaking.
He grinned, his blue eyes sparking with mischief. “Pretty sure that was a kiss, darlin’.”
And just like that, Jax Caldwell had knocked down another wall I wasn’t sure I could rebuild.
“Let me go,” I requested shakily, and he finally did as I asked. I stepped away, trying to gather the pieces of my pride. “Don’t do that again.”
He smirked. “No way we’re not doing that again. Honest to God, Dee, I think I felt the earth shake.”
Feckin’ hell, so did I!
I put a hand to my lips, aware that I was thirty years old and no kiss in my life had felt quite so…perfect, and I wasn’t even the sappy romance-novel kind of lass.
I was practical.
I was Dee Gallagher.
And I was falling for aneejitYank.
CHAPTER 9
Jax
