Liam: Branded Brothers (4 page)

“Jack’s got some things you could wear. He was a little
smaller than you are, but they should work for now,” she said, pulling Jack’s
soaked Cubs sweatshirt over her head. The wet cotton clung against her skin,
heavy and restrictive as she tried to yank it past her head. She felt a gentle
pull with extra hands lift the sweatshirt over her head. The sweatshirt finally
popped over her head, and she stood staring at Liam’s outstretched hands
holding the sweatshirt.

“Thanks,” she muttered, slowly putting her arms back down.
Liam’s small gesture was somehow both the sweetest and sexiest thing anyone had
done for her in the past two years. It was entirely depressing and intriguing
at the same time.

“You’re not the only person who likes helping around here,”
he said, lifting his shirt up over his head. She inhaled sharply at the sight
of his chest, following the lines of his tattoos. His chest was harder and more
defined than she imagined it to be. She studied the tattoo on his heart, the
tattoo just like Jack’s. She fought the urge to trace the lines of the two-inch
tattoo with her finger, and instead, clamped her hands by her thighs and tried
to ignore the skip in her heart. She could smell the deep hint of spice in his
cologne.

You need peace, Charla. Not the Irishman.

“You know, Jack had the same tattoo you have on your heart.”
She pointed to the tattoo, making sure she wasn’t in proximity of accidentally
grazing him.

“This one?” He took her outstretched finger and brought her
whole hand to his chest. He laid her hand on his heart and covered it with his
own hand.

“Yeah, that one,” she breathed as she felt Liam’s heart
pound beneath her hand. Despite the cool rain, his skin was hot. “Jack’s was
bigger, spanning across his whole heart.”

“It’s the Celtic symbol for family. Had it since I can remember.
I guess it makes sense his was bigger than mine. My chest must have been pretty
small when I got it. I don’t remember getting it, but it’s always been there.
It was really distorted when I was a teenager, but I had it touched up when I
was eighteen and then again two weeks ago. My parents said they didn’t know how
I had gotten it.”

“Oh.” She cleared her throat and tried to pull her hand away
from his chest, but he held it there, searching her eyes for permission.

“Charla,” he whispered. “I’m going to kiss you.”

Her mind told her to stop him, to keep this man away, but
her eyes didn’t obey and instead, gave him the permission he sought. He bent
down slowly and pressed his lips against hers. She felt the warmth of his lips
swallow her softly at first. Her lips moved against his, exchanging the sweet,
tender kiss. She felt the thud of the sweatshirt and his t-shirt drop near her
feet. Then his lips pressed harder, moving faster as he let go of her hand and
moved it to the back of her head. She met his pace, moving her lips faster to
meet the urgency of his. She felt his hand run through her wet strands and move
to her shoulder. He caressed her neck, sending a flood of shivers through her
body. She felt her body pull toward him, seeking out the heat of his. Just as
he slid his fingers underneath the strap of her tank top, the sound of a ring
tone pierced the air.

Charla’s eyes snapped open at the ringing, and she pulled
away suddenly, trying to catch her breath. She pressed her fingers in his chest
and gave a light push. “We shouldn’t be doing this…”

“Yes, we should,” Liam said, pulling her back in. “Ignore my
phone.”

“I can’t,” she said, giving another push. “Your Jack’s son.
I just can’t -”

“Yes, you can,” he said, his eyes pleading amid the ringing
phone in his pocket.

“I can’t.” She ducked under his arms and stepped a couple
feet to the side to take off her slick flip-flops.

“Damn it,” he cursed as he dug into his pants and retrieved
his phone. “Yeah?”

She tried to ignore the fact that her body was in complete
overdrive with Liam, a feeling she hadn’t felt in as long as she could remember.
She tried to think back to the time when she first met Rex. It was hot and
passionate in the beginning just like any new couple, but nothing like this.
Her whole body felt weak with just that minute of kissing.

She studied the deep lines of his chest, cut like one of the
trainers at her gym, and tried to ignore the guy shouting on the other end of
his phone. She diverted her attention by looking around the living room,
assessing what she all needed to do. She needed to make a list. She was good
with lists. It would give her something to work toward and would keep her mind
off the shirtless guy in front of her. She started to make a mental checklist.
The coffee tables and lamps were dated but still in decent condition, which
meant they were definitely donation-ready. Jack’s chair and couch were too old
to salvage so she’d put them out on the curb. Maybe she’d ask Liam to help her
carry them out tonight.

Liam.

“Yeah, yeah. I got it. Tomorrow. I’ll get him.” His eyes
were steady on her across the room. He mumbled one last thing she couldn’t make
out and then slid the phone back into his jeans. “Sorry. Business call.”

“Something with the bar?” she asked, putting her hands on
the back of a chair. If she could bring whatever was going on between them back
to small talk, she’d be okay.

“No, I have a job tomorrow.”

“You have a second job?”

“Yeah, I’m a bounty hunter.”

“A bounty hunter?” She choked, pressing her hands deeper
around the chair. “That’s real?”

“Yeah, it’s real.” He laughed a low grumble that came from
the back of his throat. “There’s more criminals that have jumped parole in
Clark County than you’d think. I do my best to keep people like you safe. You
know, the pretty ones, like you.”

“There you go again with that pretty bullshit. It’s not
going to work on me.” The last thing she needed was to get mixed up with some
gun-slinging Irishman who chased after criminals, no matter how good that kiss
felt. “I’m willing to answer questions about your father, but that’s it. I’m
not going to help you find your brothers. I’m not one of those women you bring
to the back of your bar. You can’t charm the pants right off of me.”

“I don’t bring women to the back of my bar. It’s not good
for business. And, for the record, you’re not wearing pants. You’re wearing
shorts so I can’t exactly charm the pants right off of you,” he said, pointing
to her legs. “I should be offended, but I’m going to let it slide because I
need you.”

“Right,” she scoffed as she folded her arms across her
chest. “I know guys like you…”

“You don’t know shit, Charla. I was married for eight years
until my wife left me two years ago for someone else. And I haven’t been with
anyone else since her. So there. I’m a divorced man with no girlfriend in the
midst of a goddamn dry spell. I’m sorry if I got a little eager around a beautiful
woman.” Liam put his hands on his hips and hung his head. “I should get going,
anyway.”

God damn it.
Charla’s face flushed a deep crimson.
“I’m just a little jaded, you know. When you catch your fiancé with another
woman, you get a little edgy around men. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need your pity. I need you to know you shouldn’t
judge ‘guys like me’ before you get to know them.” Liam pulled up his innocent
eyes to meet hers.

“I’m not giving you any pity. I’m just trying to be nice or
at least not be an asshole,” she said. It was depressing as hell to see a guy
torn apart two years after his wife left him. But she knew better than most
people that two years could feel like a blink of the eye. The first few months
after breaking up with Rex had been agonizing. Cancelling all the wedding
vendors was a bitch and even though she played the distraught
I-have-a-cheating-fiancé card, she lost all of her deposits. Rex, of course,
didn’t pay a dime because he was footing all his bills for medical school. That
should have been another tip he was a loser. The bitterness had yet to wear off,
and it had been two years.
Two years too long
, she thought.

“Please don’t leave yet,” she added, feeling guilt wash over
her. He was Jack’s son after all, and they were in his house. The least she
could do was be hospitable. “I’ll get you some dry clothes and a beer. Plus,
maybe there are some things you may want to take with you.”

“What kind of beer?” He cocked his head.

“The only kind Jack would allow in this place. Guinness.”

“Then maybe I’ll stay for one, as long as you promise not to
seduce me again,” he said, shaking out his hair with his hand.

“Seduce you?” She huffed, shaking her head with a smile. She
let go of the chair and made her way down the hallway to Jack’s room. “You’re just
like your old man, you know that?”

“How’s that? Smart as hell?” he called.

She shook her head again in Jack’s room as she dug through a
box of his clothes. She grabbed a t-shirt and pair of jeans she’d never even
seen Jack wear. He’d stopped wearing pants long before she’d arrived. They’d be
small, but the other option was to give Liam one of Jack’s robes. She squeezed
the jeans tighter, taking a glance at Jack’s bed.

“What the hell is going on, Jack?” she whispered, resting
her hand on his bed. She gave it a light push before she walked into the hallway
and shoved the clothes into Liam’s hands.

“Bathroom is right there. They’ll be a little tight, but
they should be okay.” She pointed to the door behind him. “I’ll be out in a
sec.”

She took a step back into her room and shut the door,
exhaling deeply.

“Aren’t you going to lock the door?” he asked on the other
side of the door.

Her eyes widened, and she reached out instinctively to lock
the door with a click.

“That’s what I thought,” he called before she heard the
bathroom door shut.

She peeled off her clothes, struggling to take down the jean
shorts plastered to her skin. As she wiggled out, she scanned her closet
looking for something not too sexy, but not too tame. She looked over at the
set of button down, fleece pajamas on her dresser. She wore them every night
for a week straight after breaking up with Rex. Definitely not sexy. She turned
back to her closet and cursed herself for not keeping up with the body she
worked hard to get. Most of her clothes were comfortable ones that enabled her
to lift Jack or get spilled on by him. She heard the door of the bathroom open.

“Shit.” She stood in her bra and underwear for a second
longer, thinking of the paper thin wall that stood between her and Liam. She
finally resorted to a cotton dress she hadn’t worn in over two years. She
pulled it over her head and assessed the outcome in the mirror.

“Not bad,” she whispered as she pulled down the dress. Her
cleavage popped against the dress.

“What are you doing in there?” he called.

She yanked the dress back up to cover her breasts and opened
the door to see Liam standing in the doorway. He looked her up and down and
fought back a smile. The t-shirt hugged his body tight across his broad chest. “Nothing.”

“Like the jeans?” He pointed down to the snug-fitting denim wrapped
around his thighs and the bottoms that came up above his ankles. “I’m ready for
a flood and that beer.”

***

Liam sat on the ratty burgundy couch
in Jack’s clothes, looking through a box of belongings from his father’s
bedroom. The contents were a random assortment of books and knick-knacks. She
handed him an opened bottle of beer and sat down in Jack’s go-to chair, an old
Lazy Boy recliner with a worn footrest. She took a sip of Guinness as he threw
a book back in the box.

“At least he had good taste in beer. Irish down to his
bone,” Liam said, taking a drink “So, he left you the house, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so. I didn’t expect it at all. I thought
maybe he had some long lost cousin or someone he forgot to mention. I figured
there had to be someone he’d leave everything to,” she said.

He raised his eyebrows, not convinced.

“Honestly. I didn’t weasel my way in here and con him into
anything,” she said defensively. “I worked for three hundred and twenty dollars
a week for the last two years. That’s eight dollars an hour. I had free room
and board and food while I finished my nursing degree. It was a good deal, and
I didn’t expect anything else from him.”

“You couldn’t find a better job anywhere else?”

“Not with the same flexibility and benefits. He needed more
care at the end, but I still made it work. Plus, he needed me. He interviewed
twenty people before me. TWENTY. He even had another girl living with him for a
week until he kicked her out,” she said, the anger in her voice edging her
forward in the chair. “I moved in the same day he interviewed me and never left.
I graduated a couple months ago and could have left him for a great paying job
at the hospital, but I didn’t.”

“I got it. You’re the devoted type, willing to put up with a
lot of crap,” he said, nodding his head in approval. “I just wanted to make
sure he wasn’t being swindled, that’s all. I guess you deserve the house.”

“Damn right,” she said, sitting back in her chair.

Liam laughed before he took another swig. The chuckle was
low and incredibly sexy.

Not sexy, just a laugh,
she told herself.

“So what was he like?” he asked.

“He had a great sense of humor,” she started, thinking back
to all his witty remarks and jokes. Like the one about Pete and Repeat in the
boat. She could still hear his voice
Pete and Repeat were in a boat. Pete
fell out, who was left?
Repeat, of course, she would say every time, which
prompted his joke again. It always ended in laughter, no matter how many times
he said it. “And he was kind and loyal to me. He was the one who made me go
back and finish my RN degree. I didn’t want to leave him, but he
always told me he would be fine. I finished just before he started going
downhill.”