The Navy SEAL’s Holiday Fling: Ballybeg Bad Boys, Book 3 Read Online Free PDF Page A

in McCarthy’s pub.”
    “Yeah, you did,” Liam said with a bark of laughter. “It hurt.”
    A glint of humor sparkled in her dark eyes. “Good. You still should have called me.”
    “I know. I should have cleared it with Cash—my boss—or found some other way to contact you.” He stopped pacing and looked her straight in the eye, pinning her in place with the intensity of his stare. “I’m flying back to the States right after this case wraps up—or I hand it over to someone else. Where do we go from here?”
    “ We go nowhere. If you’re leaving the country, I see no point in rekindling…whatever it was we had.”
    That slow-burn smile again. Her tummy performed an acrobatic flip. “What we had was a good time and great sex.”
    Her heart beat faster. “Are you trying to seduce me?”
    “Not really.” He grinned. “Well, maybe just a little.”
    She laughed in spite of herself. “There are a lot of modifiers in that sentence.”
    “Okay. You’re sexy, funny, and I like being around you. But you’ve had a hell of a shock today, and I don’t want to take advantage of the situation.”
    Her lips twitched. “Not willing to take advantage of the fact that you saved my life?”
    His face turned grave. “No, Jill. That was pure dumb luck, not skill. I was in the right place at the right time.”
    “Thank goodness you were,” she said in a solemn tone.
    He sat beside her and took her hand in his. The sensation of his skin against hers made her blood hum. “I’m sorry I hurt you, Jill. After the night in the pub, I should have tried to talk to you again.”
    “You did try. I ignored your letter.”
    “I should have tried harder.”
    “What would you have said? The truth? Or a lie to make yourself feel better?”
    He had the good grace to flush. “I wouldn’t have told you I was working undercover. My mission wasn’t yet over.”
    She removed her hand from his. “See? You’d have fobbed me off with yet another lie.”
    He sighed. “I had a job to do, and that job required me to play a role. For what it’s worth, I was always me when we were together, despite the different name and accent. What we had was real. Maybe that’s why I didn’t make more of an effort when you didn’t respond to my letter. Forming an attachment while undercover wasn’t a smart move.”
    She gave a low laugh. “And what do you define as an ‘attachment?’”
    “Feelings. Emotions. What we had wasn’t just sex.”
    She took a sip of the wine and absorbed his words. Did she believe him? The undercover story was outlandish, but the head policeman at the bomb scene treated him like an old friend. “The police took a brief statement from me and Olivia before we were allowed to go home. I couldn’t tell them anything. I’m the manager of Blush Shoppe’s Cork store, and we didn’t receive any threats.”
    “Rebecca Sampson, Blush Shoppe’s founder and CEO, received an email around an hour before the Paris bomb detonated,” Liam said. “The sender is a known morality terrorist who goes by the name The Ghost. He said Blush Shoppe stores in five cities would be targeted. Rebecca contacted the authorities as soon as she read the email, and they got in touch with my boss.”
    “What on earth is a morality terrorist?”
    “The Ghost refers to himself as a moral judge. He targets people working in the sex industry, and those who pay for their services or avail of their products.”
    Jill shuddered. “That’s crazy.”
    “Totally.”
    Jill fell silent for a minute, sipping her wine and mulling over what he’d told her. The entire scenario was preposterous, but the bomb had been very real. She turned to him and noted the chiseled jaw that had been less apparent when he’d worn a beard. “Is there anything else I should know about Liam Ryan, Man of Mystery?”
    A shy smile suffused his face. He took out his phone and showed her his screensaver. “This is my daughter, Meggie.” The photo was of a sweet little