But he sure as hell wasn’t going to open up about that to this woman who seemed to like taking him out at the knees. “I fucked up my knee saving a man’s life. Running marathons might not be in my future, but he gets to go home to his family because I was there.” Saved the patient, but let my brother-in-arms die. A great fucking legacy to have. Not that he was going to tell her that. She didn’t deserve a window into the private pain he lived with.

Luke braced himself for the sympathy or, worse, pity that he got when he told the abbreviated version of how he got hurt. But she surprised him. “Heroic thing to do.” She raised her eyebrows. “But if you’re at peace about it, then why the hell do you stomp around, dragging your knuckles and glaring at everyone? No, I don’t think so. Luke, I do believe your nose is growing by the second.”

Voices raised on the other side of Alexis, two burly men shouting about… He couldn’t quite catch it. But the writing was on the wall when the taller of the two shoved the other. Shit. Luke moved as the short man shoved back, hauling Alexis into his lap and getting an arm up in time to deflect the man’s fall. By that point, several other guys got involved, dragging the original two outside. A heartbeat passed, and another, and then the musicians started up again, a slow, haunting melody that raised the small hairs on the back of his neck.

He started to breathe a sigh of relief that the situation hadn’t gotten truly out of control, when she shifted and he realized that they were seriously up close and personal. Her dark hair was tousled, and her chest rose and fell with each harsh breath. He stared, knowing he should say something or do something to break the tension building between them, but all Luke could see was the way her lips parted as if in invitation.

Goddamn it.

Chapter Three

Luke was going to kiss her. Alexis could read it on his face. Now was her opportunity to laugh again, slide off his lap, and retreat to her own stool. She hadn’t meant to be so harsh with him, but her lack of control these days was part of what spurred her to take this trip in the first place.

Her inability to say the right thing was part of the reason she’d started her journey here in Cork with visiting the Blarney Stone. Her mother used to regale both Alexis and Avery with stories of Ireland and the faerie folk and all the magical things that happened on the green isle. She wasn’t a child anymore, and her mother was dead and gone, but the magic of those stories still held a special place in Alexis’s heart.

Her life had become so dull and heartbreaking that every day seemed to sink her deeper into a mud pit of depression she couldn’t escape. So she’d come here, to arguably one of the most magical places on earth, to begin to wash the muck away. To learn to love her life again, the way her mother had loved life…even when death was knocking at her doorstep.

And now here she was in a situation that never would have come about at home, sitting on the lap of a man who was barely more than a stranger and considering kissing him—considering doing a whole lot more than kissing him if she was honest.

There was something about this painfully attractive, brooding man that set her teeth on edge and made her restless, all at the same time. She hadn’t pulled her punches, and he certainly wasn’t holding back for fear of hurting her feelings. He was the first person she’d come across in a long time who didn’t dance around her for fear of saying something that would hurt her. It was as refreshing as it was aggravating. The barb about Eat, Pray, Love hit entirely too close to home. She’d read that book just last month, and it had felt like such a profound step in her journey to take control back in her life.

None of that seemed to matter now, not when he watched her as if she were the most important thing in the room, as if he were losing his mind just being this close to her. Before she could talk herself out of it, Alexis tipped her face up, inviting him to follow through on the promise in his pale green eyes.

Kiss me, please kiss me, and make me forget all about the countless things trying to drag me under.

Luke froze, and for one eternal second she thought she’d misread his signals. But then his mouth crashed down on hers, erasing any chance of misinterpretation. His tongue speared between her lips, stroking along her tongue once, twice, a third time. She couldn’t fight back a moan as he raked his teeth over her bottom lip before sucking it into his mouth. The spark of attraction inside her burst into an all-out bonfire. Alexis shifted her grip, letting go of his shirt with one hand so she could twine her fingers through his longish blond hair. She pulled it sharply enough to make him groan against her mouth, and then he was kissing his way along her jaw and nipping her earlobe. “You taste so goddamn good, darlin’, like a Georgia peach. I can’t get enough of it.”

Thank God, because if he stopped right now, she might not recover. She’d never felt such all-encompassing need pounding through her veins, pushing her to do something she’d never even considered before. I could take him back to my hostel. He doesn’t know me. I don’t know him. I’ll never see him again, and that’s okay. Why not take what this man was so obviously offering? He didn’t have to know that this wasn’t something she ever did. “Please.”

He ran one hand up her thigh, his heat seeming to brand itself through her jeans. “Tell me what you want.”

A thousand answers flitted through her mind, but one dwarfed them all. Still, she hesitated. She’d just met him, and he was an ass—not exactly the prime candidate for someone to take to bed. But then he kissed down her neck, sucking on a spot that made the whole pub go blurry. God, how was she supposed to pass a man like him up? It’s just sex. It’s not like I’m going to marry the man. The Old Alexis wouldn’t think to do this.

Which meant that was exactly what the New Alexis should do. She was supposed to be learning to take what she wanted. Right now, there was one need and one need alone dominating the forefront of her mind. She took a shuddering breath. “You. I want you.”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen.” Before she could process his words, he kept going, his hand sliding a few inches higher, until he pressed against the vee of her legs. “But fuck, I’m not a saint. I never have been.”

She didn’t know what he was talking about, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself to back off. I just put myself out there for the first time ever—no way are we stopping. There had to be something she could say to get his head back in the game. She tugged on his hair again, guiding him up until her lips brushed his with every word. “Take me now, Luke, or I’m going to walk out of this pub and find the first man who will.” A bold-faced lie. If he rejected her, she’d walk back to her hostel with her tail between her legs. But in that moment, she almost believed herself. She wasn’t the shy and polite and obedient Alexis. She was wild and free and could do whatever she damn well pleased.

Whomever she damn well pleased.

His eyes narrowed. “Like hell you will.”

Oh, he didn’t like that at all. Power, overwhelming as it was unfamiliar, swept over her. This man wasn’t going to turn her down—not with that look on his face. From the sharp gleam in his green eyes, he appeared ready, willing, and able to follow through on their earlier conversation and haul her out of this bar. Oh yes.

She never thought she’d be into something like that. Sex had always been in the dark, beneath the covers, and completely as expected. She had a feeling sex with Luke wouldn’t be any of those things.