Beers, Lies and Alibis (Warblers Point Series Book 2) (18 page)

Luckily, the sink was on the outside of the bathroom, so Booker was able to take the complimentary “we lost your crap” kit the airlines gave them and brush his teeth, wash his face and get ready for bed. The shower turned off, which Booker was impressed with; he had never met a woman able to take such a short shower. He looked at his watch and decided he would be able to take a shower before he went to bed.
 

The bathroom door opened and Booker was greeted by Keara, dripping wet with only a towel wrapped around her body. Booker swallowed his tongue.
 

“Good luck with that shower. It will either scald your nipples off or freeze your ass.” She carried her clothes out and waved toward the shower. “She’s all yours; maybe you’ll have better luck.”

Booker just nodded and headed into the shower as quickly as possible to mask the hard on he had. What the hell was he doing? Why was he getting excited around her? It’s not like he had never seen a gorgeous woman before. Hell, his girlfriend was amazingly gorgeous. Keara just had some sort of effect on him and it was annoying as hell.

Turning the shower all the way cold, Booker took a quick shower, cooled down his libido and headed out to the main room, sporting the clothes he had been wearing all day. He didn’t think it would be appropriate to wear only a towel. He didn’t want to give Keara any ideas.
 

Booker walked out to see Keara’s clothes hanging around the room, dripping wet. Her bra and underwear were matching, of course, and were draped over the closet door handles, giving Booker a good idea what was hidden under her clothes. Thankfully, she had washed her bra so she would have that to wear tomorrow.
 

“That was quick,” Keara said, as she put lotion on her long luscious legs.
 

“Yeah, it was cold,” Booker grumbled, as he headed toward the bed and got under the top layer of the crusty sheets. He banished all thoughts of where the sheets might have been from his mind as he focused on trying to calm his nerves at being so close to another woman.
 

“I’m tired,” Keara yawned and stretched her arms.
 

At that instant, Booker wanted to bury his head in the ground because, when Keara lifted her arms to stretch, her towel came undone and fell to the floor, giving Booker the perfect view of her fully tanned and amazingly curved body. She was completely bare, from head to toe and, God, was she gorgeous.
 

Not even ashamed of her nakedness, she walked toward the bed and lifted the sheets to get in. She settled in the bed and pushed toward the middle. Booker’s hand brushed up against her bare ass causing her to squeal.
 

“Oh my God, I thought that was a snake or something. Sorry, I thought I had the top layer.”

Booker just grumbled and turned away from her. If he didn’t know any better, he would swear she was trying to entice him. Well if she was, good God was it working. His hands itched to run up the length of her body and take in all her magnificent curves. He wanted to see how soft her skin really was and if the weight of her breasts were really as heavy as he imagined them to be.
 

Chastising himself for having such thoughts, Booker prayed to the relationship gods to keep him sane. He loved Fiona, she was perfect for him; she was the girl for him and Keara was only temptation. That was it.
 

“Good night Booker. Thank you for taking care of me,” Keara said, as she leaned over and kissed Booker on the cheek. Her body brushed up against his, which set every nerve ending he had on fire.
 

He was in hell…literally hell.
 

***

There was a sharp rap at Fiona’s front door that startled her from her semi-consciousness. She hadn’t been able to fully sleep ever since she found out about her dad. It also didn’t help that she didn’t have Booker to hold her. He was supposed to arrive soon, as least she hoped; she hadn’t even looked outside to see what the weather was like.
 

A loud knock came from the front door again, so Fiona wrapped her robe around her body for warmth, slipped on her fuzzy pink slippers and headed toward the door. The minute she opened it, she wished she hadn’t.

Standing in her doorway, wearing perfectly faded jeans, a thermal shirt and a winter hat that had a pom pom on the top was Murphy Ryan. He was so gorgeously handsome it had started to annoy Fiona. Did he start getting sexier the minute she went for someone else?

“Mornin’ lassie. How are ya farin’ tis mornin’?” Murphy asked as he walked into Fiona’s apartment, not bothering to wait for an invitation.
 

Not up for a confrontation, Fiona said, “As good as I can be.”

“Where’s Booker?” Murphy asked, while looking around Fiona’s apartment.
 

“He’s not here yet. He got stuck in the bad weather, but he should be here today.”

Murphy nodded and headed toward the kitchen where he started to make coffee. It was almost frightening how at ease Murphy was in her apartment. They dated for two years and spent a lot of their time together in her place, so it was only natural that Murphy knew where everything was, but Fiona still didn’t like it. It almost seemed too comfortable.
 

“Murphy, I want to talk to you about the other night.”

“What about it?” Murphy said with a giant grin.
 

“You know…”

“All I remember is that ya were tremblin’ from me touch and beggin’ for me to take ya. If it wasn’t for ya four-eyed brother, then I would have had ya in me bed that night.”

Instantly annoyed, Fiona stormed toward Murphy and poked him in the chest. “You took advantage of me during a rough time in my life. I needed comfort and you took it too far. You know I’m with Booker, so why would you do that?”
 

Fiona was trembling from the adrenaline rushing through her body. It felt like everything was crashing around her and the one thing she could do was take it out on Murphy.
 

“I did nothin’ of the sort.” Murphy was still grinning and the single thread that Fiona was holding on to finally broke.
 

“Fuck you, Murphy…”

Murphy turned around sharply and pinned Fiona against the fridge. The rapid movements caused Fiona to have to catch her breath. Murphy was so close, Fiona actually thought he was going to kiss her.

Leaning forward, Murphy stared deeply into Fiona’s eyes and said, “Listen closely, lassie. You might be with Booker for now, but ya won’t be forever. He doesn’t know ya like I do, he doesn’t know how to touch ya the way I do and he doesn’t know ye family like I do. We might not talk much, but I know ye soul like no one else. Booker…he’s a temporary speed bump that we have to overcome, but we will because we’re meant for each other, me love. Ye’re me girl, the one for me. I might have fucked up once by lettin’ ya go, but I won’t make that mistake again.”
 

Every word that dripped from Murphy’s mouth hit Fiona in her core. Months ago, Fiona would have died to hear such things uttered from Murphy’s mouth; all she had wanted was to know how much she mattered to him, that he cared for her and their relationship wasn’t pure sex. But now, now she had Booker and he had given her everything she had ever wanted in a relationship. She was in love with him and, even though his life was different than hers and extremely intimidating, she didn’t think she could be without him.
 

Trying not to get lost in Murphy’s emerald eyes, Fiona pushed against his chest, but he didn’t budge.
 

“Murphy…”

“That’s not why I came over here,” Murphy said, while licking his lips. “I came here to talk about The Sleepin’ Potato.”

If that was the case, Fiona wondered why he was still so close to her. She knew he was talking to her, but she couldn’t make sense of what he was saying because he was too damn close. He was messing with her senses with his cologne that was all man and his fresh breath; Fiona was practically shaking in her robe from his proximity.
 

“Can you step back? I can’t think with you hovering over me like this.”

That stupid grin spread across Murphy’s face again, making Fiona want to slap it away.
 

“Am I makin’ ya uncomfortable, lassie?” Murphy asked, while stroking the side of Fiona’s cheek and, for some reason, her treacherous face leaned into his touch, making his smile brighten even more.
 

Murphy started leaning even further in. She could feel the heat pouring off his lips as he inched closer, testing his boundaries. Her mind was screaming to stop him, but her body wasn’t reacting. She was completely frozen as Murphy made his way down to her lips.
 

Slightly parting her lips, Fiona watched as Murphy moved the final inches towards her mouth. This was actually going to happen; she was going to let Murphy kiss her and, for some reason, she wanted it. She wanted to see what it felt like, what she was missing.
 

Fiona closed her eyes and braced herself from the impact of Murphy Ryan, but right before his lips pressed against hers, Fiona’s phone rang, causing Fiona to jump a foot in the air and bang her head against Murphy’s.
 

“Shit!” Fiona screeched as she held her head with her hand and searched around for her phone.
 

Murphy just stood in her kitchen and watched her scamper around the living room trying to find her phone. He was such an ass.
 

She finally found her phone on the floor under one of the sofa cushions and quickly answered.
 

“Hello?”

“Fiona? It’s Blaire.”

Guilt washed over Fiona as she heard her boyfriend’s sister’s voice come through the phone, not just because she hadn’t talked to Blaire in a while, but because she had a hunky Irishman standing in her kitchen, eyeing her up and down like she was a freaking cold glass of Guinness.
 

“Blaire, how are you? I’m sorry I haven’t called you in a while…”

“Fiona, stop. How’s your dad?”

Fiona sat down on her sofa as Murphy brought her a little bag of ice for her head. She really wanted to hate him with everything in her body, but when he did sweet things like bring her ice, it was kind of hard to hate him. She gave him a brief smile and then returned back to her conversation.
 

“He’s about the same. Ma has him hooked up to every connection to God you could think of. Not only does she have the world’s largest rosary draped across his body, but she bought those candles with pictures of Jesus on them and placed them on every surface that wasn’t in the way of the nurses. Since she can’t light them in the hospital, she got the battery powered tea lights so they’re always burning.”

Blaire chuckled over the phone. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to laugh but I can so picture your mom doing that.”

“That’s not even the worst of it. Since she refuses to go outside and because its winter, she acquired some green construction paper from the kids’ corner and cut out multiple and I mean multiple four leaf clovers to plaster along the walls in addition to the rabbits’ feet she has hanging everywhere, which she strokes at the top of every hour. It looks like a damn circus in his room. I think the only reason the hospital staff puts up with her insanity is because they’re too afraid to see what happens if they tell her no.”

Blaire continued to giggle. “Oh Mary Margaret, you got to love her. Please tell me she at least left the white apron at home.”

Fiona shook her head. “Nope, that’s at the hospital and draped across my dad as well, since it once brought Mary Margaret luck when she was cleaning one of the toilets at The Sleeping Potato, but I won’t bore you with that story.”

“Umm…any story with Mary Margaret in it is not boring, believe me.”

“Well, you are in for a treat. You know how she cleans the toilets every Tuesday during the week?”

“Toilet Tuesdays, as she calls it,” Blaire added.

“Yes, good old Toilet Tuesdays. Well, she was off to scrub one of the toilets in one of the male guest’s rooms when she tripped over a pair of his boxers that was thrown across the bathroom tiles. Now what I tell you next I am almost one hundred percent positive is full of Irish blarney, but I swear this is what she told me.”

“Okay,” Blaire laughed in the phone.
 

“On her way down, she said she created a parachute-like device with her apron that eased her to the ground and deterred her away from the sharp corner of the bathroom counter that, and I quote ‘could have torn her brains out’.”

Both Fiona and Blaire laughed together on the phone as they pictured Mary Margaret making a “parachute” out of her apron. Fiona completely forgot about Murphy until she heard him laughing from the kitchen. She looked over and saw him leaning against the counter with his arms crossed over his expansive chest and a mug of coffee in his hand.
 

 
Damn him.
 

“God, I miss it out there.”

“Then come out here. I miss you, Blaire. It would be nice to have a friend out here right now.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone and Fiona knew it was because she was thinking about Finn. Fiona never talked about Finn with Blaire unless she actually asked and, even if she did, Fiona kept the Finn talk to a minimum.