War of Hearts(67)

“Without the memory of my parents and of Amanda, I think I might have become something different.” Thea tried to hide the sudden bleakness in her eyes by lowering them to the table. “As it is, you know I don’t always do the right thing.”

Conall knew instinctively she was talking about her thievery. He’d judged her for it, inwardly and outwardly. What a wanker he was sometimes.

“I’ve never had to survive day to day with no money the way you have. In fact, I’ve been lucky enough to never worry about money at all. I’ve no right to judge you, Thea. I cannae say I wouldnae have done the same if our roles were reversed. And we both know you could have used your talent for mind trickery, to live a life of luxury, if you’d wanted.”

Thea gave him a sexy little smirk. “Don’t think too highly of me, Conall. Remember how this ends.”

Like he could forget. “Aye. I remember.”

“So your grandfather started the whisky company?” She abruptly changed the subject. “That’s where all the money comes from?”

When he explained GlenTorr’s history and spoke more of its unexpected success, Thea admitted she’d never tasted it. Upon hearing that, Conall led her to the bar after dinner.

Sure enough, they had a bottle of his whisky.

“You have to try it.”

“I’ve never tried any whisky,” she confessed.

“Well now, you definitely have to try it.” Conall ordered one whisky with ice and the other straight.

“How come I get ice?” Thea frowned.

“Waters it down a wee bit. Trust me, you’ll be glad for it.”

“If you can drink it straight, I can drink it straight.”

Conall grinned at her indignation. “Fine.” He changed his order.

And then laughed when Thea took a gulp and spluttered when the burn hit her chest.

She shot him a filthy look. “You could have warned me.”

“Now where would the fun be in that? Sip it, lass. A whisky is to be nursed, not downed.”

Doing as instructed, Thea sipped at the drink.

“What do you think?”

“It’s smoky. It’s weirdly nice,” she said.

“We dry our malted barley using peat smoke,” he explained, and then his attention caught on a drop of whisky glistening on her lower lip. Conall reached out without thinking to catch the drop on his thumb. Thea tensed at the intimate action.

Their eyes locked and everything he’d been feeling all day pooled heavily in a visceral need in his groin. Conall wanted to touch Thea. Everywhere. And he wanted her to touch him. It was a haze that made his heart race, his breathing deepen, and everything else in his world fade out.

All he was left with was want.

For this woman.

It stayed with him as the mounting tension between them forced them to withdraw from the bar and head to their room. It remained with him as he showered, shaved, and changed back into his clothes since the hotel robe was too small for him.

And it became all-consuming as he sat on the sofa, staring at a blank television screen while he listened to Thea shower, control straining at the knowledge she was naked in the next room. His imagination was vivid.

He swelled uncomfortably against his jeans zipper.

His skin felt too tight, too hot.

The bathroom door opened, and Thea stepped out in the white hotel robe, her long, dark hair a wet spill down her left shoulder. Those big, shining, cognac eyes locked with his and whatever control Conall had been holding onto melted under the stress of the fire between them.

One second he was on the sofa, telling himself to stay put. The next he was a blur across the room, hauling Thea against him so he could crush her mouth beneath his.

She gasped, and he tasted her.

No one woman had ever tasted as perfect.

And Conall knew as he gripped her warm, soft body as close to his as he could get her that nothing would stop him from tasting every inch of her.

Nothing.





While she’d showered, Thea’s hands shook as she used the hotel shampoo and conditioner to wash her hair. Her knees had trembled too, and her belly was a riot of nerves.

She was worried about what she should say to Conall when she came out of the bathroom and almost hoped he was already asleep. The tension between them was unbearable, and it was all his fault. He kept looking at her like he wanted to devour her, and it was making her desire things she never thought she’d want again.

When Thea stepped out, not only was Conall awake but the look in his eyes when he stared at her made her breathless. It was like he thought she was the most magnificent thing he’d ever seen. It was beyond mere sexual attraction.

No one had ever looked at her like that.

To know someone like Conall, so fierce and ruthless on the outside, so honorable and true on the inside, would look at her like that … Her heart was already racing when suddenly the guy was a blur across the room.

Her heart jumped into her throat as he hauled her into his arms and up onto her tiptoes so he could kiss her like she’d never been kissed before.

Thea gasped with excitement. A million reasons why they shouldn’t do this flashed across her mind yet were easily silenced by the stroke of his tongue against hers. A shiver skated down her spine and she pressed closer against Conall’s hard body.

Like the desperate grasp of his hands, his kisses were deep, ravenous, and intoxicating.