Page 22 of Hot Irish Halloween

“I want to meet her, but it’s getting late. Maybe another time.”

Her dark eyes were almost pleading. And he was a bit disoriented; less than ten minutes ago, he’d been in her bed, seconds away from reaching his paradise, and now he was being pushed out the door.

Jack had no choice but to back off despite his body still thrumming with desire. Penny walked him to the door and opened it. They’d been in such haste to make it to her bed they hadn’t bothered locking it.

“Thank you,” she said when he was standing on the other side in the cold night air. “For the dress and the dinner. And the roses. And the company. I had a really good time.”

In a reversal of the afternoon, Jack didn’t lean in to kiss her cheek. He had some serious doubts he’d be able to control himself if he smelled her scent again while he still felt like this.

“You’re welcome. Good night, angel.”

“You know, you’ve called me that a few times tonight. We’re on nickname terms already?” she asked, but the teasing was only in her smile. Those eyes were now guarded.

Jack stared at her, a muscle jumping in his jaw. This time he stepped in closer and leaned down to speak into her ear. “Less than a half hour ago, you rubbed your pussy all over my cock until you came. You were ready to let me inside you. Let’s not play games about nicknames now. Good night,angel.”

Penny shivered, visibly swallowing hard. Her eyes had gone heavy-lidded with desire that she was trying to hide by not meeting his stare. Before he could give in to the temptation tograb her and demand his place back inside that bedroom and in her life, he summoned every ounce of willpower he had and strode off.

On the way home, Jack’s blood still stirred, not only in his cock but in the rest of his body. He gave Trixie some dinner, and while he waited for her to digest, he checked his emails. Foundation stuff, gym stuff. A formal offer from the league for a three-fight contract, like he hadn’t fucking said ‘no’ already.

But he read the proposed terms, his mind racing. On a whim, he forwarded it to his cousin James who was technically still a solicitor, even if he was the English mob’s equivalent of a consiglieri who got his hands dirty. It would make it real if he sent it to his actual attorney; this was just to get an opinion. Not that he was signing anything. “Just opinions,” went in the subject line.

Enough time had elapsed, and he took Trixie for her walk. He wasn’t planning on going down and around the block toward Penny’s like he had the night before to look up at her window and make sure she was okay. Especially not after she’d shut him down so abruptly over those pictures. He’d told her the truth; he’d never ask her to put her husband’s pictures away. A woman who was ready for a new relationship wouldn’t have to be asked.

That day would come. It had to.

Lost in his thoughts, he suddenly realized he was in front of her small rowhouse after all. Trixie was quiet, probably tired, and ready to get back home and to bed. Jack picked her up, staring at Penny’s upstairs window until the lone light in the room clicked off.

“Good night, angel.”

Jack went home, but he was still too amped to sleep with the thoughts racing in his head and the lust in his body. He read the email James had sent him while he’d been out.

“Good offer, mate. But…you going back in the cage??”

“Just curious,” Jack wrote back.

But he still went to the workout room to the heavy bag. He wrapped his hands and began a slow, methodical punch-punch-kick, punch-punch-kick until thoughts of Brendan or La Roque or anything else ceased to matter.

8

LOVER/FRIEND

PENNY

“So how’s it going with The Mountain?”

Penny had Jade on speakerphone while she was busy putting the last-minute items in her overnight bag. Jack was scheduled to pick her up in another hour for their trip to the FitzGerald’s estate. The drive would take roughly two hours, and she was packing water, sandwiches, and snacks.

Jade had used the code name she’d given Jack, borrowed from a certain TV show they were both into.

“Girl, you tell me. We’ve kinda had a weird week after that dress fitting.”

“Weird how?”

Popping a washed grape in her mouth, Penny munched it. “Well, he texts me every day to say hi and check in on me. We’ve seen each other a few times for dress fittings, and we always eat afterward. We talk for hours… well,Italk, and he listens,” she amended wryly. “But then he drops me off and doesn’t ask tocome in. I’m getting this vibe like he’s low-key still bothered by the thing with Brendan’s pictures.”

Penny had told Jade about their night, and Jack’s one-hundred-eighty degree turn from hot and ready to cool and distant.

Jade exhaled. “Penny, be for real. What man wants to fuck somebody with her deceased husband staring at him the whole time?”

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