Maureen Child - Desiring the Reilly Brothers - The Tempting Mrs Reilly / Whatever Reilly Wants... / The Last Reilly Standing

And when he reached the landing, he paused and looked back at the house.

Tina flinched. It was almost as if his gaze had locked with hers instinctively. She felt the heat and power of that steady stare and it rocked her right to her bones.

Long after he’d gone inside his apartment, Tina was still standing in the kitchen, looking out the window. And she couldn’t help wondering which of them was really off their guard.

Two hours later, Brian was finishing dinner and listening to Connor laugh at the latest development. It was his own fault. Not that he’d been expecting sympathy, but outright hilarity was a little uncalled for.

“So, Tina’s back in town,” Connor said, grinning. “Man, I can almost feel that money sliding into my wallet as we speak.”

“Forget it,” Brian snapped, still feeling the effects of Tina’s smile hours later. “She’s not going to help you win this bet. I divorced her , remember?”

“Yeah,” Connor said and signaled to the waiter for another beer. “Never did understand why, though.”

None of his family had understood, Brian thought, momentarily allowing himself to drift down memory lane. Hell, even he’d had a hard time coming to grips with the fact that divorcing Tina had been the only right thing to do.

It hadn’t been easy. But it had been right.

He still believed that.

If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to live with the regrets.

Tina Coretti still haunted him. At the oddest times, his brain would suddenly erupt into images of her. Cooking, laughing, singing off-key with the radio while on one of their notorious road trips. He remembered arguing with her, both of them shouting until one of them started laughing and then how they’d tumble into bed and rediscover each other.

The sex had always been amazing between them.

Not just bodies coming together, but in his more poetic moments, Brian had convinced himself that even their souls had mated.

And once she was gone from his life, he’d had to believe it, because he’d been left hollow. Empty. His heart broken and his soul crushed, despite knowing that what he’d done, he’d done for her.

That hadn’t changed.

He shoved what was left of his burger and fries to the edge of the table for the waiter to pick up, then leaned back in his seat.

The Lighthouse Restaurant was packed, as it generally was. Families crowded around big tables and couples snuggled close together in darkened booths. Overhead, light fell from iron chandeliers bristling with hanging ferns and copper pots.

Studying his brother across the table from him, Brian shifted the talk from himself by asking suddenly, “So how’re you doing on the bet front?”

Connor choked on a swallow of beer and when he was finished coughing, he shook his head. “Man, it’s way uglier than I thought it was going to be.”

Brian laughed.

“Seriously,” Connor protested. “Getting to the point where I’m hiding from women completely.”

“I know what you mean,” Brian said, though for him, hiding had just gotten a lot harder. Staying away from women at work was easy. There weren’t that many female pilots or female personnel assigned to the F-18 squadrons. And those that were there made a point of avoiding the guys. Couldn’t blame them. They had to work twice as hard as the men just to be accepted and they weren’t going to blow a career by flirting with their fellow officers.

So work was safe and Brian had planned to hide out at home, staying away from the usual spots, bars, clubs and whatever, to avoid women in his off-duty hours. But now, home wasn’t a refuge. Instead, with Tina in town, home was the most dangerous territory of all.

“It’s only been two weeks,” Connor admitted, “and already, I’ve got way more respect for Liam.”

“I’m with you there,” Brian said.

“Talked to Aidan last night and he says he’s thinking about joining a monastery for three months.”

The thought of that was worth a chuckle. “At least he’s suffering, too.”

“Yeah.” Connor narrowed his eyes, nodded at the waiter, who stopped by to deliver their check, then said, “At least I get to take out my frustrations by screaming at the ‘boots’ every day.”

Brian smiled but couldn’t help feeling sorry for the new recruits under Connor’s charge in boot camp.

Then his brother spoke up again.

“Have you noticed the only one who’s not suffering is our brother the priest?” Clearly disgusted, Connor shook his head. “He’s just sitting back laughing at the three of us. How’d he talk us into this, anyway?”

“He let us talk ourselves into it. None of us could ever resist a challenge. Or a dare.”

“We’re that predictable?”

“To him anyway. Remember, priest or not,” Brian said, “he’s still the sneakiest of us.”

“Got that right.” Connor reached for his wallet and pulled out a couple of bills, tossing them onto the tabletop. “So, what’re you gonna do about Tina?”

“I’m gonna stay as far away from her as I can, that’s what.”

“That was never easy for you.”

Brian tossed his money down, too, then grumbled, “Didn’t say it was gonna be easy.”

Connor stood up, looked at his brother and gave him a smile. “We could try the old switcheroo trick. Since you have a hard time being around her, I could talk to her. Ask her to leave.”

Brian looked at him and slowly slid out of the booth. They hadn’t used the switcheroo since they were kids. The triplets were so identical, even their mother had sometimes had a hard time keeping them straight. So, the three of them had often used that confusion to their advantage, with one of them pretending to be the other in order to get out of something they didn’t want to do. They’d fooled teachers, coaches and even, on occasion, their own mother and father.

But, Brian reminded himself, as the idea began to appeal to him, Tina had always been able to tell them apart. They’d never once fooled her as they had so many others. Still, he thought, watching Connor smile and nod encouragingly, it had been years since she’d seen the three Reilly brothers together. Years since Tina and Brian were close enough that she’d been able to pick him out of a crowd of three with pure instinct.

“I’m willing if you want to give it a shot,” Connor prodded.

What did he have to lose? Brian asked himself. If Tina didn’t catch on to the trick, maybe she would leave, making Brian’s life a little easier. And if she did catch on…well, it had been a long time since he’d seen Tina Coretti’s temper.

And as he remembered it, she looked damn good when she was fighting mad.

Tina heard Brian’s car when he returned to the house late that night and she breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Moving to the curtains of the upstairs bedroom that had been hers since she was a child, she peeked out to watch him walk up the driveway. When he paused long enough to snarl insults at the barking dogs, she smiled.

She’d been half worried that he might bolt. It would have been easy for him to up and move to the base for a few weeks just to avoid her. But he hadn’t. And she was pretty sure she knew why.

Brian would never admit that he wasn’t up to the challenge of seeing her every day. He’d never allow himself to acknowledge that there was anything to worry about.

He took the flight of steps to the garage apartment two at a time and her heartbeat quickened just watching him move. By the time he opened his door and went inside, without a glance at the house, her mouth was dry and her breath came in short fits and starts.