Page 14 of Twisted Secrets (The O’Malleys #3)

S top pacing.”

Olivia spun on her heel to face Cillian. Ever since agreeing to the date, she’d been full of nervous energy. It was all well and good to say yes to him, but the next few hours stretched out before them, and she wasn’t sure what they were supposed to do to occupy themselves.

No, that was a lie.

She could come up with half a dozen solutions without even trying, all of which would probably reinjure his head. It didn’t help that he sat on the bed, watching her have her little mental breakdown. She made an effort to stand still. “What do you do for fun?”

Cillian barked out a laugh that made her jump. He rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m sorry. That was unexpected.”

Which only served to make her feel more awkward. Olivia threw up her hands. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what?”

“This.” She motioned between the two of them. “This isn’t normal.”

He laughed again, quieter this time. “What does normal look like?” When she balked, he held out his hand. “Sit down. You’re making me twitchy with all the pacing. I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing at the absurdity of this entire situation. So humor me and tell me what normal looks like.”

She didn’t know. That was the problem. Olivia wasn’t sure she’d recognize normal if it hit her in the face.

But she wasn’t quite willing to share with Cillian exactly how messed up her childhood had been, outstanding chemistry or not.

She inched closer to the bed and perched on the edge, but even with three feet between them, she felt like a lightning rod to his storm, full of vibrating energy and impending boom .

She pulled at the edge of her T-shirt. “You know—we’d meet somewhere normal. ”

“We met at a bar.”

“Most relationships don’t start in a bar.

” She realized what she said and shoved to her feet.

“Strike that. I didn’t mean relationship.

I just…” Not sure what she was trying to say, she charged on.

“Maybe a coffee shop. You’d be behind me in line and say something witty, and I’d laugh and you’d spend the next ten minutes charming me until I gave you my number. ”

She was almost afraid to look at him and see his expression. His silence said it all. “That’s stupid, isn’t it?”

“No, not at all. It sounds nice.”

Olivia faced him. “You’re humoring me.”

“Sit down.” He waited for her to obey before he spoke again. “I’m not. It does sound nice.” He carefully leaned back against the headboard. “So I charm your number out of you, huh? I must be pretty charming.”

She shot him a look. “In this scenario, yes.”

Cillian laughed. “Then I’d call you.”

She edged over to sit on the other side of the mattress against the headboard. It was such a silly thing they were doing, but after how intense the rest of the night had been, maybe silly was exactly what they both needed. “A call instead of a text? I must have made an impression.”

“More like I was determined to make the right impression. Texts are lazy, and you can’t get a good read on someone that way. So I’d call.”

She hadn’t spent much time dating…well, ever, really…but even she knew that was different from the norm. “I’d think you were a freak for calling, but I’d answer because I was intrigued.”

“We’d talk for a while, feeling each other out.”

“More like me trying to figure out if you’re a psycho.”

He grinned. “Or that. I’d say all the things a normal guy would say. You’d be reassured that I wasn’t likely to chloroform you and chain you up in my torture-slash-sex dungeon.”

“That’s…comforting.”

“It would be, yes.”

She laughed softly. “We’d set up a date at the end of the call.”

“Somewhere nice and public and nonthreatening.”

“Now you’re getting the idea.” She stared at the ceiling, part of her kind of weirded out at how well the conversation was flowing with him playing along. “Dinner, no movie. Movies are for people who are too intimidated by the thought of first-date conversation that they chicken out.”

“The conversation would be titillating.”

“You think so?” She rolled onto her side to face him, finding that he’d done the same. His bandage was a vivid reminder of why they were there in the first place. Olivia frowned. “How’re you feeling?”

“That’s not part of the game.” He yawned.

“So we’d drink pretentious wine that neither one of us liked and order things that we could barely pronounce and, at the end of it, we’d sheepishly admit that we didn’t like either the drinks or the food, and we’d go find a food truck and laugh at ourselves. ”

It was an attractive picture he painted.

Normal and kind of sweet and something she’d never have the option of doing.

She made a face. “Instead, you wander into my bar because your family’s territory encompasses it and we have a quick fuck in the alley.

” She should regret it. She knew she should.

There were thousands of dating books and columns out there advising women to withhold sex until they had some sort of commitment.

Except she didn’t regret a damn thing.

She’d seen what she wanted and she’d taken it. It might not have been the perfect version of events they were joking about right now, but there had been something empowering about it all the same.

“I like our way.”

She smiled. “I kind of like our way, too. Simpler.”

“Sweetheart, there’s nothing simple about either of us, but it’s pretty of you to say so.”

She glanced at the clock. There were a good two hours left before she could safely leave him. She propped herself up on one elbow and grabbed the remote. “If I remember correctly, there’s a Justified marathon going on right now. That should keep us occupied until morning.”

“An artful dodge.” He stretched carefully. “That’s fine. Retreat. But don’t forget that you already agreed to a date, and I fully plan on holding you to it.”

As if she was in any danger of forgetting.

***

Cillian came out of the shower to find Olivia gone.

He’d expected as much, though she hadn’t said she was leaving.

He sat on the bed and lay down to stare at the ceiling.

What a wild night. Getting his ass handed to him had been one thing, but everything that happened after almost made it worthwhile.

She’d said yes.

He sat up so fast the room spun around him, but the queasy feeling in his stomach was nothing to the pounding in his chest. She’d agreed to go out with him. He grinned. Hell if that didn’t add a silver lining to a seriously shitty night.

But he had things to take care of before he could even think about setting up a date to do Olivia justice.

Their joking last night was just that—joking.

He would never be that douche who took a date to some snotty, pretentious restaurant.

Especially this date. She deserved a plan for something special.

But right now, his first priority had to be letting his family know where he was.

It was tempting to just catch a cab home and slink up to his room while hoping no one noticed his newest fashion statement, but that was the coward’s way out—something he would have done a year ago.

Now it was time to face the music and deal with the consequences.

He couldn’t tell them it was Halloran men who’d attacked him, but he had to let them know he was attacked.

He grabbed his phone. Here goes nothing .

Aiden picked up almost immediately. “Where are you?”

“I’m fine.”

“Since you’re calling me, I got that. So I’ll ask again—where are you? I know you’re fucking irresponsible sometimes, Cillian, but you missed a vital meeting this morning. Father’s pissed.”

He looked at the bedside clock and cursed. The Erickson meeting. He’d completely forgotten about it. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Make sure it doesn’t happen again. I don’t care how things were when we were kids—I can’t keep covering for your ass while you’re out being a dipshit. It’s time to step up like you’ve always said you would.”

He gritted his teeth. “I understand. I need a car.” He rattled off the hotel name and street.

Aiden cursed. “Goddamn it, Cillian. I hope she was worth it. You have our father to answer to.”

It was damn near impossible to keep from snapping back, but a year ago, his brother’s assumption that he’d blown off his responsibilities to party would have been right on the money.

No one seemed to have noticed that he’d changed after Devlin’s death, that he wasn’t the same asshole who put himself before anyone else.

But he understood. All of his siblings were so wrapped up in their own dramas and miseries, it was a wonder they realized he wasn’t where he was supposed to be in the first place.

Their father…Time only seemed to be adding to the weight Seamus O’Malley carried—a weight Cillian had never recognized until he started carrying it himself. It didn’t make the man any less of a bastard, but there was a level of understanding that had never been there before.

He took a deep breath. “Then I’ll answer to him. Send the car.” He hung up.

After using the bathroom, he stared in the mirror. One eye was blackened and, as he suspected, the bandage wrapping his head made him look like some soap opera trauma victim. “Sexy.” It was a wonder that Olivia hadn’t shoved his ass in a car and taken him to the hospital despite his arguments.

He owed her.

Hell, more than that, he actually liked her. He wanted to know more about her—about her past and her plans for the future. It might have started out because she was so different from any woman he’d met, but that superficial attraction wore off right around the time his head hit the brick wall.

When was the last time he’d had an actual connection with a woman?