Chasing River (Burying Water #3)(41)

“How do you two know each other, anyway?” Both beautiful women in their own right, they but couldn’t look more opposite if they tried. Amber’s got that girl-next-door-who-bakes-cookies-in-high-heels look. Ivy looks like she could star in the next Kill Bill film.

“We actually just met today,” Amber says, winking at Ivy, who, after a short delay, responds with a smirk.

“Making friends everywhere you go, are ya?” I lift my pint to my mouth at the same time that someone bumps me from behind, sloshing my beer up my nose. “Fuck!” I wave off his apology—after all, I’m the arse who’s sitting in the middle of a throughway—and shift my stool closer to Amber.

“So, you said this is your family’s pub?” Amber asks, twirling her hair between her fingertips as she stares at me with those translucent eyes, unabashed. The liquor must be giving her some courage.

“It is. Going on two hundred years now.”

Both their mouths drop open.

I like that reaction, when I tell tourists. I’ve never been to America, but I’ve heard everything is new there, and one family owning the same pub for two hundred years is unheard of. With a smile, I move to take another sip, only to get bumped from behind again.

Another curse, another apology, another wipe across my face.

“Move out of the bleedin’ way!” Rowen bellows from somewhere behind. I respond with a middle finger.

“Here.” Amber makes an effort to shift her stool, but it’s already as close to the wall as possible.

I drag myself over until my stool is butted against hers, resting my foot on the rung and the inside of my leg against her backside. Bloody hell. Just a bit closer and my cock will be lying against her bare thigh.

I sigh as the cool, delicious beer slides down my throat, uninterrupted.

“Long night?” Amber asks.

“Yeah. And it’s not over yet. I’m just taking a quick break.” I check the far side, where a table of brazen Londoners holler and laugh, one of them ogling Nuala as she passes by with a tray. She warned me that they’d be a problem before the end of the night. There’s always at least one here, every Saturday. We have a doorman for that reason, but sometimes Rowen and I end up giving someone a forceful hand out.

For now, though, I want to find out as much as I can about the American girl looking for a torrid affair. “So tell me, what brings both of you to my country?”

“Your country?” Amber mocks.

I grin. “My country.”

“Well . . .” She rests her chin on her palm. “I’m actually on this big trip around the world. I just finished traveling across Canada, and Ireland is my first stop on this side of the ocean. I’m going to England and then Spain, France, Italy . . .” Her eyes search the ceiling as she recites all the countries I saw on the list now safely tucked into my wallet.

“Don’t forget Greece,” I add, struggling to keep my face deadpan.

She snaps her fingers. “Yes! Of course, Greece and—” She cuts off and her eyes narrow as they dart to me.

Naked on a beach. Oh yeah. I remember. I hide my smile behind a sip of my pint as her cheeks burn, waiting for her to ask about it. “That’s a lot of traveling.” And a shit ton of money. The girl must be rich. She certainly carries herself like she is.

“That’s two years of cleaning vomit and sticking thermometers up rectums,” Amber says, as if reading my mind.

I choke on my pint and she starts laughing. “I’m a nurse.”

“Really . . .” Beautiful and caring. “I could have used you a few days ago . . .” I mutter under my breath. To mother me after Eamon tortured me on his dining table.

I guess I said it too loud. Recognition flashes across Amber’s face, followed quickly by a wince.

I brush her worries off with a smile and, “I’m just kidding.”

“So . . . what’s with the lady’s outfit?” Ivy asks, to my relief changing the topic.

I smirk. “I accidently tore my shirt earlier and had to change. It was either this or shirtless.”

“Shirtless. That would have been unfortunate. Right, Amber?” Ivy murmurs dryly.

Amber hides her answer behind a long sip of her water. Liquid courage or not, I still seem to make this bird nervous, and I don’t want her to be. So I drape my arm loosely around her back, settling my hand on her bare shoulder. Her skin is so soft, her body so slender. “What are you implying? That I don’t have the goods to pull this look off?”

Amber’s smile stretches wide. What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?

Angry voices rise over Collin’s melodic one somewhere in the bar, saving her from answering.

“River!” Rowen is already rounding the bar. Brennan, the hulk of a bouncer who guards our door on weekends, has his giant paw on one of the offenders’ forearms, his other arm hanging over his shoulders like a trunk. Ready to drag him out by the neck if he doesn’t go willingly, no doubt. Most times they’re smart enough to leave. Sometimes they’re not.

“I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Wait.” Her hand lands on my thigh, gripping it tight. “You’re not going to get into a fight, are you?” There’s no missing the disapproval in her gaze.

“I’m going to stop one,” I promise. A promise that I may have a hard time keeping.