The Right Twin For Him (O'Rourke Family 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

rolling up his sleeve and showing her the gang tattoo he sported on his upper arm. Oh, he’d gotten out of it quickly enough—thanks to a tough old coot whose car he’d tried to steal—but not so fast he didn’t have some scars and a broken nose from fighting. Not even his family knew everything about his escapades.
    God, he’d been so angry after his father’s accident it was a miracle he hadn’t gotten himself killed.
    But it wasn’t any wonder Maddie didn’t believe him. The closest thing to a gang in her hometown was probably the crew down at the local hamburger stand. He’d driven through some of the small, off-the-beaten-track towns in New Mexico. They were terrific…and about a million miles from the city.
    Oh, but she did have a very sweet mouth.
    Reaching out, he traced his forefinger across the fullness of Maddie’s bottom lip. Her breath caught and her golden-brown eyes widened, the pupils expanding until nearly all the gold specks disappeared, leaving a ring of velvet brown.
    “I’m not nice,” Patrick whispered. “If I was, I wouldn’t be having so many notions about nibbling on parts of you. But I’m decent enough not to get involved with a woman who wants different things than I do.” He dropped his hand before he could be tempted to demonstrate exactly how much touching her appealed to him.
    Maddie flicked her tongue against the spot he’d just caressed. He was certain it was an unconscious reaction. Any flirting on her part was almost certainly unintentional: she didn’t seem to have a clue about the usual games between a man and woman.
    “Different things?”
    “Marriage, family, permanence. That isn’t me, Maddie.”
    “It isn’t me, either. After what happened with Ted and the punch girl I’m never getting married,” she said immediately.
    It was Patrick’s turn to be skeptical, but he wisely kept from smiling. Maddie might say that now, but she’d change her mind quickly enough. She would meet the right man and forget all about Ted and the punch girl.
    A small twinge of pain went through him at the thought. It was the same sort of feeling he’d had watching her at the cemetery, her face turned to the sky. Hell, he’d thought Beth was an innocent, but compared to Maddie, his sister-in-law was a sophisticate. Patrick had never realized it before, but innocence could be very appealing.
    He cleared his throat. It wouldn’t help to start thinking that way.
    “Maddie, I really am sorry.”
    “Let’s not talk about it any longer,” she saidquickly. “I don’t think I can take any more apologies. You wouldn’t believe how many times Ted said he was sorry.”
    Patrick studied the stubborn jut to Maddie’s chin; she reminded him of an eight-week-old kitten spitting at a big old tomcat. And as the tomcat in question, he thought it was pretty funny.
    And sweet. But if there hadn’t been such a gulf between them in experience, then he wouldn’t have to be so careful.
    “Ted is the fiancé, I take it?”
    “ Ex -fiancé.”
    “I hope you smashed a cake in his face, or something equally appropriate.” Patrick wished he could visit a little frontier justice on “Ted.” He might have been a troublemaker as a kid, but the O’Rourke men had always had a strict code when it came to the female half of the human race, and Ted had broken the code.
    To his surprise, Maddie giggled. “Not quite. I did throw my engagement ring at him, though. I think it cut his lip.”
    “Good for you.”
    “That’s what Dad said. He wanted to shoot Ted, but Mom said it wouldn’t help, and we were lucky I caught him before the wedding instead of after. And there I was in the middle of it, listening to them and feeling so strange—like it wasn’t even me.” Maddie bit her lip and looked up. “You probably noticed I tend to cry easily.”
    Great, another opportunity to say something stupid. That was another thing to be angry with Ted about—if Ted had been a decent guy, then Maddie would