admit that. He looked as if he had no idea at all what she was talking about.
“You and Jack,” she said, to clarify things. “What’s up with all the whispering?”
“It’s about a case he’s working on.”
“Why can he talk to you about it?” she asked, not buying it for a minute, “yet the two of you clam up whenever I come around.”
“It’s nothing for you to worry about,” Ryan said dismissively, picking up the legal pad and scanning her notes. “How’s our supply of Irish whisky?”
Maggie frowned at the deliberate evasiveness. “We have an entire case, which you should know, since you ordered it day before yesterday.”
He gave her a sheepish grin. “So I did.” He stepped closer. “Must be you. You have a way of making me forget everything except my name.” He tucked a finger under her chin and kissed her thoroughly. “Now that’s something I’ve been waiting to do ever since you walked through the door tonight.”
Her gaze narrowed at the touch of blarney in his voice. “Ryan Devaney, you’re keeping something from me,” she accused. “And you’re being patronizing about it, as well. Just so you know, I don’t like it.”
“Is that so?” he asked, still not taking her nearly seriously enough. “I thought you were a woman who was fond of secrets.”
“I’m a woman who is fond of unraveling secrets. There’s a difference. I don’t like things being kept from me.”
“Is it not possible that some things don’t concern you?” he inquired.
“Of course it’s possible,” she retorted impatiently. “But something tells me that’s not the case right now.”
He beckoned her closer. “If you were to put aside all those doubts and questions, I could close up now and we could go upstairs.”
“You shouldn’t use sex as a distraction,” she chided, but her mood was definitely shifting. Maybe she didn’t have to have answers to all those burning questions just yet. Tomorrow might be soon enough. “Though if it were a promise of outrageously wicked sex you were making, I could be persuaded to go along with it.”
He leaned down and whispered in her ear. His husky voice and the promise of something absolutely sinful shot the last of her resolve to smithereens. When he was in this kind of dangerous mood, he was practically irresistible.
“Lock the door,” she said, her voice breathless.
His expression turned smug. “You’re a surprisingly predictable woman at times, Maggie O’Brien.”
Maggie glowered at him. “Not a compliment,” she warned.
He didn’t seem disturbed. “There are other times, though—and far more of them, I might add—when you’re so unpredictable you make a man’s head spin.”
Pleased by that assessment, she kissed him. “Much better. Which am I tonight?”
He gave her a considering look. “Now that remains to be seen, doesn’t it?”
Heat shot through her at the speculative gleam in his eyes. She headed for the stairs. “If you dawdle over closing up, I’ll have to come down here and have my way with you on the bar.”
He laughed. “You’ve been begging to do that since the first night we made love. One of these nights I’ll have to accommodate you, though it seems to me that a bed is a more practical, comfortable choice.”
“Sometimes the thrill of accepting a dare offsets whatever discomfort is involved,” she teased. “But tonight the bed will do.”
In fact, just about any place where she could feel Ryan’s arms around her and his body joined with hers was a magical place indeed. And with each and every day that passed, Maggie was growing more and more confident that Ryan felt the same.
If only there weren’t this faint shadow threatening her happiness.
Two days later Maggie looked up from behind the bar and spotted her entire family coming through the door. Her mother shot her a rueful look as they made their way to the biggest table in the room. Maggie sighed. She might not be able to kick them right back out, but she could certainly avoid them, at least for a while. She turned to Maureen.
“That crowd that just came in,” she said, nodding in her family’s direction. “They belong to me, but I think I’ll give you the pleasure of waiting on them. I have the feeling they’re here on a mission.”
“What sort of mission?” Maureen inquired curiously.
“I haven’t been home for a few days now.”
Maureen’s gaze shot to Ryan, who was just emerging from the kitchen. “I see. How lovely!”
“I imagine that depends on your point of view,” Maggie said, eyeing her family warily. “Go and keep them