Trish Wylie - O'Reilly's Bride

He stepped around her again when she tried to move. ‘So does he ask permission for everything he does?’

‘I’m not answering that.’

‘I can just picture it.’ He stopped in front of her as he continued in a low drawl, ‘I’ll just bet he’s mannerly every step of the way.’

Maggie clenched her teeth. She wouldn’t let him get the better of her. ‘He’s a very nice person. Unlike some people I could mention right now.’

‘I’m sure.’

‘He’s considerate.’

‘I’d imagine so.’

She frowned up at him, her eyes sparking. ‘He would never do anything I didn’t want him to.’

Sean tilted his head to one side and studied her for a split-second. ‘Or surprise you with anything that you might enjoy either.’

Maggie’s breath caught and without her thinking about it her eyes swept to his mouth.

Sean stepped closer. ‘Where’s the thrill, Maggie, the passion? How can he get your pulse racing if he asks permission for everything?’

She knew she should have a smart answer for his questions but right at that moment, for the life of her, she couldn’t find one. All she could do was watch his mouth as he spoke and feel the air crackle around her.

‘Would you mind if I kissed you, Maggie?’

Her eyes shot up to meet his.

‘Would you mind if I undressed you a little, Maggie?’

She swallowed hard.

‘Would you mind if I took you to bed, Maggie?’ He blinked down at her, his dark eyes getting darker. ‘Or maybe you wouldn’t mind if we just made love right here, Maggie?’

‘Stop it.’ The words tumbled out on a shaky breath.

‘Is that really what you want?’ He stepped back from her. ‘That cool politeness every step of the way?’

‘You have no idea what I want.’

He glanced down, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans before he looked back at her. ‘Maybe not. But I know what you deserve. And that guy isn’t it.’

Maggie felt her lower lip tremble. She would not break down in front of him, she couldn’t! She couldn’t show him that his words had got to her, on many levels. Because every question he had asked had her running hotter than Hades. Because the questions had come from his lips and her imagination had provided the mental images to go with them. Bryan had been nowhere in sight, mentally or physically.

With a deep, steadying breath she looked him straight in the eye. ‘You have no right to tell me what I do and do not want from any guy. I make my own decisions.’

‘Oh, I know, even when they’re bad ones.’

‘Because everything you do is just so right all the time, isn’t it?’ She scowled at him. ‘You’re just perfect, right?’

‘No,’ he smiled a slightly lopsided smile at the comment, ‘that I’m most definitely not and we both know that I’m not.’

Maggie shook her head. ‘No, you’re not. But when you reckon you are and all your relationships are perfect then you can come and criticise mine.’

‘You can’t tell me you’re seriously considering staying with that guy?’ His eyes widened in question.

‘That wouldn’t be any of your business, would it?’ She fumbled inside her bag for her key, her eyes having to look down until she located it. Then she glanced up again, finally rediscovering her spine along the way. ‘I’ll follow my heart, Sean. Maybe you should try doing the same. That way we both stand a chance of finding the right person for ourselves.’

Sean stepped aside as she walked up the steps, fitted her key in the door and disappeared inside.

He stood for a long time staring at the door. Then he turned and looked out into the darkness.

When he’d come outside for a walk around the house it was because he hadn’t been able to sleep, not because he was spying on Maggie. He had needed to think about how he could try and mend their friendship, how he could discover what was bothering her and help fix it. Because he missed her. He really did.

Walking in on her with her ‘boyfriend’ had been completely unintentional. As had the clenching of his fists when the other man had leaned in to kiss her. If it had gone anything beyond that tepid touch of mouths he might even have unintentionally interrupted them. Or unintentionally felt the need to use one of those clenched fists.

Instead he’d ended up having one of the most sensual conversations of his life.

That conversation, too, might have been at least partially unintentional. But once he’d started he couldn’t seem to stop himself. It certainly wouldn’t have done anything to help rebuild their friendship. But what it had done was open him up to an earlier, small idea of his. One that now grew and took on wings.

The idea of following his heart as Maggie had said and taking a chance, in a roundabout way.

After all, she may not be in love with him now. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t get her to fall for him, let her see that he could be exactly what she was looking for. That guy who had been right in front of her face all along. He could do that anonymously, without any risk to his pride, because she’d handed him the method. He could try and find out what it was that was bothering her, because she might talk to a stranger in the same way she’d encouraged him to talk in the beginning.

While doing that, he could vet all her other ‘candidates’.

Any interference with those candidates along the way would of course, naturally, be unintentional.

HE WAS ‘at’ something.

At the morning meeting of crews in the station Sean smiled brightly at everyone, joked around with the other cameramen and flirted with their editor’s assistant before plonking himself down next to her with a grin and a ‘Hiya’ before the briefing started. That action alone made her nervous, for varying reasons.

She felt her body warm when his knee accidentally brushed against her thigh, was aware of every breath he took. She noticed how any movement in the room, displacing the air around them, would bring the scent of his aftershave to her sensitive nostrils.

So she retaliated with coldness. ‘Sarah’s a bit young for you, don’t you think?’

Sean smiled at her stern profile. ‘She’s legal. What more do I need to worry about?’

‘Oh, I don’t know…the nuclear fallout that might naturally accompany the break-up of some little affair?’ She turned her head to glare at him up close and personal. ‘And in the workplace that probably wouldn’t be the best career decision you’ve ever made, now, would it?’ Sean grinned a wolf-like grin at her. ‘That wouldn’t be a teeny bit of jealousy there, now, would it?’

Maggie snorted gracefully. ‘Dream on.’

He nudged her so suddenly she ended up nudging the guy beside her and had to take a second to apologise. Then she scowled back at him. ‘She’s twenty-three, Sean; leave her be. Let her discover most guys are snakes on her own.’

Sean focused his eyes forward, his voice dropping as the meeting started. ‘Maybe she should date someone with slightly better manners. Someone nice and polite.’ He tilted his head to whisper, ‘Someone who says please before they do anything.’

It took a moment for her to decipher his meaning. When she got it she gaped at him like a goldfish and struggled to find words that her mother wouldn’t slap her for saying. The inner struggle distracted her from mundane little things, like the meeting they were in. To the extent that it took two attempts at her name before her eyes focused on their editor.

‘You with us, Maggie?’

She flushed. ‘Yes, Joe; sorry.’

Joe quirked an eyebrow and handed her a sheet of paper. ‘There have been cuts in the fishing quotas so I want you to head to one of those wee ports on the Co. Down coast and see what the locals have to say.’