Page 21 of Stronger Than Love

She seemed to possess some sort of voodoo magic that made my dick stand to attention to salute her as she walked past. Her ass in those leggings had the power of a snake charmer, blowing his pipe to make a snake dance. She could definitely blow my pipe any time she wanted. Wiping my brow with my arm, I navigated back to the ladder. Every minute in Oonagh’s presence was driving me insane.

Callum disappeared through the window and reappeared a few minutes later through the back door, just as I was making my way back toward the house.

Oonagh gasped as she went to hand us glasses, her eyes on Callum’s face. “What happened?” she whispered as if she was blaspheming in church.

My gaze moved to Callum’s frozen expression. I never saw the scar on the side of his face anymore, it was just part of who he was. The maniac who attacked him all those years ago had been carrying a knife and hadn’t been afraid to useit. He’d stabbed several people that night, but Callum received the worst of the attack as he tried to stop him.

“I was stabbed at the end of summer ten years ago,” he replied, lifting the offered glass from her hand. “We’d finished a construction job and went out for drinks to celebrate when a mad man with a knife decided he wanted to remodel me.”

Her brow furrowed. “Ten years ago?” Her gaze darted to me before focusing back on Callum.

“Yeah, Liam sat at my bedside for days watching them resuscitate me several times. The nurses joked he refused to let me die.” I was tempted to slap Callum because he was taunting her with the details of where I went the night I disappeared. My brother was nothing but a paradox—wanting me to get the girl I’d always wanted but at the same time needing to punish her for the way she’d treated me.

Oonagh blinked, her face neutralising into the expression she wore when she was desperately trying to hide her emotions. I took the other glass from her hand to sip the sweet drink.

“When Liam got home his life was destroyed. Our brothers had been taken into care and everyone he cared about had walked away and left him alone. Better to have your face cut than your heart.” Callum walked past Oonagh in the pretence of chatting to Niall.

I felt her eyes boring into the side of my head, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn and face her. Everything felt too raw at this moment, Callum’s words evoking all the memories of the day that my life fell apart.

Even now, I refused to relive that day because there were times I didn’t think I’d find the strength to go on. I wrote to Oonagh every day for weeks and never got a response. One day, a bundle of letters were returned unopened. They still languished in a drawer in my studio. I never opened them since I’d written them.

“Liam?” Her voice was nothing more than a caress on my skin.

My eyes met hers and I slowly shook my head. Her eyes widened slightly as she took in the significance of the conversation with Callum. This was not a conversation I could start right now. Words were peculiar things. They had the power to elevate you to the heights of heaven. The flip side of that double-edged sword was once they were spoken, you couldn’t reclaim them again. In that respect they had the power to destroy and corrupt.

The fact that I was shouting at Oonagh in my head didn’t bode well for what could tumble out of my mouth. I wanted to grab her and shake her, scream and ask her why could she not wait for me, why she’d believed those girls when she knew how I felt about her?

Instead, I calmly sipped my fruit juice while keeping everything I wanted to say locked in my head where it couldn’t do anyone any harm.

Oonagh stood beside me silently, and the tingles that always emerged when she was near prickled along my skin. My body would recognise her in a room filled with people because she was the only one who I reacted to the way I did. We were attuned in a way that went beyond reason and explanation.

“Aoife didn’t like the rhubarb rock,” Oonagh said, changing the topic of conversation.

Niall’s girlfriend looked over at the mention of her name. “I didn’t buy them for her,” I replied. Really, I wanted to say I didn’t give a fuck what Aoife liked or disliked.

“I haven’t eaten sugar candy since I was a child,” Aoife interjected, raising her chin toward us in defiance. “I doubt any adult would enjoy it.”

My eyebrow arched. “You’d be surprised what most adults enjoy. They just tend to lie about it in the light of day.”

I knew Aoife’s type very well. She pretended to be refined, wanting a husband to display to the world and provide her with a big house and beautiful, intelligent children. What she desired was someone who’d own her body and take her on a trip to the rough side of passion. She’d screw her nose up at woman who openly read books on BDSM while secretly reading them on her Kindle in bed with the lights down low.

An artic frost descended on her expression and her eyes bored into mine. “We move in different social circles, don’t presume to speak for everyone.”

She’d seen me in my jeans and riding my bike and decided I was nothing more than a mindless idiot.

“Aoife!” Niall barked. “There’s no need to be rude. Liam has won awards for his architecture and can name his fee from companies that want him. He’s not one of the juniors in our office.”

Oonagh practically vibrated with bad temper beside me, her back straightening and head rising. “He’s a person, just like everyone else. Education doesn’t define you and makeyou a better person.” She paused to glare at Aoife. “There is no one in this world who has the right to speak down to anyone.”

Callum slowly clapped. “You always did like to champion the underdog.”

“No.” Oonagh shook her head. “I just didn’t like to see people judged by the ill-founded beliefs of others.”

Aoife stormed into the house, her cheeks flushed and hands in fists at her sides.

“And yet,” I said in a low voice, “you did that anyway.”

Before she had the chance to reply, I moved back to the box of decorations and pretended to rummage through the banners for the hooks on the trees. Niall followed Aoife into the house, rolling his eyes at me to say he was growing weary of her temper tantrums.

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