Page 19 of Until Ireland

“And?”

Landon shrugged. “And nothing. Just not something you normally do. We kind of got worried.”

Some conversations between siblings should be off-limits. This happened to be one of them, even if I did appreciate their concern. “I’m not sure it’s any of your business.” I hated the defensive tone in my voice. I should’ve been honest with them and told them the truth—I spent the night with Mack because I got drunk.

Hunter snorted. “Relax, we’re being overprotective shitheads, Ireland. You’re hungover, which means you were drinking last night—”

“Yeah, we really want to know if we have to go beat the shit out of Mack for taking advantage of our intoxicated baby sister,” Landon added.

Leave it to Landon to be blunt.

I snorted in amusement. Mack wouldn’t go down willingly. I was almost sure Mack could take them, even with as strong as my brothers were. Those expensive suits he wore effectively hid his muscular physique which spoke of the power and strength of his body. His polished appearance did its job, hiding all his tattoos, giving him the façade of the classic, eloquent businessman. A tingle of arousal spread through me just thinking about him along with a giddiness I couldn’t quite place.

“Nothing happened.” I outright lied, more than ready to be done with this conversation. My nosey Nelly brothers in no way needed to know how Mack made me experience an earth-shattering orgasm. With. His. Fingers. I could only imagine what it was going to feel like when he used other parts of his anatomy. “He was a perfect gentleman last night and again this morning.”

Hunter polished off his breakfast and tossed his wrapper in the can. A new song began to blare from the speakers in the garage, and I groaned. It was yet another banger filled with those heavy drums he loved. I wanted to smack my head against the wall to either make it stop or pass out. Whichever came first.

“Ugh…Hunter, can you do me a favor and lower that,” I pleaded, making sure to bat my eyelashes at my older brother. I wasn’t above using whatever was in my arsenal to make him turn the stereo down.

Hunter pulled the remote to the sound system from his pocket, dashing all my earlier hopes of taking over, and lowered the volume.

“Thank you,” I said, appreciating his gesture of decency.

Landon put a comforting arm around me. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay, sissy?”

Ugh…I had a love-hate relationship with the nickname all my brothers insisted on calling me when it was just us. Sure, it had been as cute as hell when I was younger. But I was no longer a teenager with acne, worried about when I was going to get my first kiss.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about, Land,” I answered, forcing a smile. “I’m sure any business we do with Mack Redman will be solely professional.” I shrugged, knowing full well Mack wouldn’t walk away so easily, and I’d been lying to myself. Mack wasn’t giving me up, and I didn’t want him to either, no matter how much it might scare me. “And I’m okay with that.”

“Why do you assume that?” Hunter tipped his bottle of water to his lips for a drink.

“Why?”

Hunter nodded before adding the empty bottle to the pile of trash in my can.

“He probably thinks I’m batshit crazy and either require medication or psychiatric help. I was a bitch to him the first day we meet, and then I overindulged in extremely good wine last night.”

Hunter gave my shoulder a playful push. “Yeah, well some guys happen to like batshit, crazy women. Just saying.”

Men were infuriating, particularly older overly protective brothers. I pointed at them, giving them my best glare. “It hasn’t gone unnoticed that neither of you evenbotheredto deny the crazy thing.”

Hunter, being older and somewhat wiser, had the good sense to not laugh at my statement, even though I could see the amusement twinkling in his gaze. Landon, on the other hand, had no self-preservation at all and guffawed. When he turned, I smacked him. The satisfying crack of my hand hitting the back of his head had me feeling better. Unfortunately, for both Hunter and me, Landon began bitching about the gigantic headache he now had. I rolled my eyes, proud of myself for not calling him a pussy. Huh, maybe age did make us wiser.

Then I laughed to myself, trying to ignore the increased throbbing behind my eyes.Nah, not even close.“Suck it up. I barely touched you.”

Landon stuck his tongue out. “Hunter isn’t wrong. Some guys like your type of crazy. Keeps us on our toes.”

“Pfft. Last time I looked, Landon, you have exactly zero experience having a girlfriend. ” I held my hand up, forming and zero with my fingers. “You’re a hit it and quit it type of guy.”

Landon grinned as if he were proud of being a manwhore.Smug bastard.I was done with them and this stupid conversation. “I’m out. Work isn’t going to get done by itself.”

Hunter twisted, taking a gander at the clock above the door that led from the bays into the offices. “You might want to wait another twenty minutes or so before you do that. We’re not even ‘officially’ open yet.”

“Ugh,” I groused while stomping away to my workstation to see what was scheduled for me.

Mack’s stupid Aston Martin was waiting. I sighed. Okay it wasn’t stupid. It was a beautifully crafted machine. But it felt like the classic beauty was mocking me, and although I was itching to get to her, now wasn’t the best time. I’d have to take her for a test drive, and I wasn’t functioning on all cylinders yet. I reluctantly pushed aside the diagnostic Landon had run the other day for me and got busy on some of my other pending jobs of ordering parts for other vehicles we needed to fix and calling customers who might not want to hear from us when they found out how much it would cost to fix their baby. In between, I kept chugging coffee, hoping to flush my body and get this killer headache under control.

Regrettably, it wasn’t until after I ate a small lunch and drank what felt like another gallon of water along with two more pain pills that I felt like a human being. By the time one o’clock came around, the steady throbbing in my head eased then finally disappeared.

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