Kate Hoffmann - Brian

Brian slowly stood. "Lily?" He blinked, certain that he was simply engaged in some strange fantasy. But it was her. Lily Gallagher was in Quinn's Pub. What the hell was she doing here? Had he mentioned the place to her? Had she come looking for him?

He sighed. God, she looked pretty. Her auburn hair was pulled back and twisted at the nape of her neck. She wore a conservative business suit that served to hide all her assets, but she still took his breath away the same way she had the first time he'd seen her in her gold gown and sexy little shoes.

Her mouth snapped shut as she saw him, then she frowned and glanced back at the door.

Brian slowly approached her. "My twin brother, Sean," he explained. "People say we look alike, but I don't see it. What are you doing here? I didn't expect to see you again."

She crossed her arms in front of her, her eyes darting everywhere but to his face. "We had an appointment. At three p.m.?"

Brian frowned. "You're my contact? How can that be?"

"I work for Richard Patterson," she said, her voice calm, almost cold.

He gasped. "Are you kidding me?"

"I'm a public relations consultant. And he hired me to protect him from people like you."

He couldn't help but laugh. She made him sound like some kind of criminal. "People like me?"

"Reporters." She said the word as if it caused a vile taste in her mouth. "So just stay away, or you'll be sorry." Then she cursed softly and walked away. But just as she reached the door, she turned around and stalked back to him, her impassive expression now suffused with anger. "You know this is all your fault. If you wouldn't have suggested those silly rules when we met, then none of this would have happened. I would have known who you were and you would have known who I was and we could have avoided… well, we'd never have taken that little tour of Boston."

"You work for Richard Patterson," Brian said. "So what. The only thing that could make me regret what happened in the limo was if you announced that you were Richard Patterson's wife."

Lily shook her head. "I have to go. I just wanted you to know that I'm going to do everything in my power to protect his interests. It's my job and I'm very, very good at my job." She turned on her heel and started back to the door, but Brian wasn't about to let her walk out.

He caught up with her in a few short steps and grabbed her hand. The moment he touched her, he realized that she wasn't nearly as tough as she acted. Her voice caught in her throat and she stumbled slightly. "Wait a second," he murmured. "You can't just leave like that. We have a few more things to talk about."

Lily swallowed hard, then twisted out of his grasp. "We-we have nothing more to talk about. You know where I stand and I know where you stand. That's all that needs to be-" His gaze caught hers and for a moment, it seemed as if she forgot what she wanted to say. "Said," she finished in a weak voice.

"You're acting like there's nothing more between us, Lily. And you know that's not true."

She gnawed on her lower lip. "There's nothing between us," she said. She pulled the door open and stumbled down the steps. For a second, he considered letting her go. But Brian wasn't willing to concede that this might be the last time he ever saw her. He jogged over to her, stepping in front of her to prevent her escape.

"You just used me for sex and then tossed me aside," he said, walking backward. "I guess I didn't realize how coldhearted you really were." That caused her to stop short.

"I didn't use-" She snapped her mouth shut, but her emotions were all there in her eyes-anger, frustration, a good measure of doubt and insecurity. And hidden behind it all, an undeniable attraction.

He reached out to take her hand. "I know you felt something, Lily," he said, softening his tone. "Remember, I was there. It may have started out as just sex, but it didn't end that way, did it?" It felt good to touch her again, Brian mused. In truth, it was all he could do not to yank her into his arms and kiss away this stupid argument.

"Don't make this about that night," Lily warned, her voice cracking slightly. "That was a mistake and this is a completely separate issue."

"Well then, let's agree that we're both going to do our jobs to the best of our abilities. I'm going to go after Patterson hard and you're going to try to stop me. That's fine with me. May the best person win."

"It was sex," Lily murmured.

"You keep believing that, Lily. You believe that you were just using me, that you just wanted to take your pleasure and walk away. But you won't convince me. I was there. I saw you, I felt you. And right now, you're looking at me and wondering just what you'd have to do to make it all happen again."

"Stop it!" she cried. Lily glanced around. "I'm leaving now and I don't ever want to see you again."

She started toward the street, but in her anger she wasn't watching for traffic. Brian caught her just as she stepped off the curb. He yanked her back as a car sped by. "Lily, stop. You can't just run out in the-"

"Let go of me!"

Frustrated, he grabbed her other arm and yanked her into his embrace, then kissed her, long and hard. At first, she refused to yield, but then he softened his assault and she slowly went limp in his arms. A tiny moan slipped from her throat and her hands moved from his chest to his neck. Brian had forgotten just how intoxicating she tasted, how when their tongues touched, he seemed to lose the ability to think.

He'd kissed a lot of women and had considered himself pretty good at it. But with Lily, the experience was something more than just the first step in seduction. It was like a silent communication, a chance to share some brief intimacy that he hadn't ever shared with another woman.

When he had kissed her as thoroughly as he possibly could, Brian stepped away and waited for her reaction. He didn't have to wait long. Desire flooded her expression and she fixed her gaze on his mouth, her lips slightly swollen and her ivory complexion flushed. "You can kiss me all day and it's not going to change my mind."

Brian chuckled. Her words didn't seem like a threat, but more like an invitation. "Now there's an idea. Would you like to get started right here or should we find some place a little more comfortable?"

Her brow rose and annoyance replaced desire. "I think you must be the most self-centered, egotistical man I've ever met."

Brian chuckled. "But I know how to kiss you like no one's ever kissed you before."

Her jaw tensed and with a low growl, she walked away from him, crossing the street to a waiting cab. Brian watched as she drove off, then shook his head and started toward his car. After he'd left her that night in the limo, he'd been sure he'd never see her again. And now, Brian knew it was only a matter of time before they'd cross paths once more. And when they did, it promised to be an interesting experience.

Lily tossed her briefcase on the sofa and kicked off her shoes. It was nearly seven and she'd spent a long day at the office going over all of Richard Patterson's press clippings for the past year. She'd looked at videotape of newscasts and flipped through business magazines until she had a good sense of which members of the press were friends and which were enemies. She'd met with his legal team to get their take on the situation.

And she mapped out a strategy to contain any scandal that might come to light.

There was no doubt in her mind that Brian Quinn would come at them hard. From what she could see, he was relentless in the pursuit of a juicy story. She couldn't really fault him for that. From the moment she'd begun her career in public relations, she'd been just as focused on her own goals.

But she'd never really doubted herself. And now, she wondered if maybe she'd stepped into the deep end without a life jacket. If Richard Patterson's business dealings were on the dark side of shady, it would be difficult to make the scandal go away. And an unhappy client was sometimes worse than an unsatisfactory outcome. Added to that, she was also forced to deal with a single-minded reporter who had the capacity to kiss her senseless.