Once Kissed: An O'Brien Family Novel (The O'Brien Family) Read Online Free Page B

would have been damn funny if he had.”
    Her pretty eyes narrow over her crooked glasses. “How did your mother not drown you at birth?”
    I grin. “Ma wouldn’t do that. I’ve always been her favorite.” I hold out a hand. “Come on, let me help you up. The judge is waiting—you said so yourself.”
    Instead of letting me help her, she pulls herself up by grasping the metal railing, clinging to it while she gathers her things. And although she’s limping, she pushes forward. “Looks like you did a real number on your knee,” I point out.
    She stops halfway down the next flight and just glares at me over her shoulder. “No shit.”
    I chuckle. “You said ‘shit.’ Aren’t you worried how that might affect your rep?”
    She spins around at the next landing and points at me. “You are intolerable, unbelievable, and insufferable.”
    “Yeah. I think you mentioned that once or twice back in college.” I wince. “Oh, sorry. I forgot that I’m supposed to keep our mutual education a secret.”
    She stamps her feet all hissy-fit like. I didn’t think sexy broads did that. Come to think of it, I also didn’t think they wore argyles. “What’s up with you and those socks, anyway?”
    Her cheeks flush to a deep red. “We were both young, and intoxicated, and, and—”
    “You forgot horny
.
”
    And holy Hannah, I thought for sure she was going to punch me in the nuts. Instead she lifts her chin and clenches her teeth. “Whatever. It seemed like a good idea at the time!”
    I burst out laughing. “I wasn’t asking why you tied me up with them way back then—
that
I’m not complaining about—
that
was all kinds of hot. What I mean is, why do you wear those things?”
    She opens and closes her mouth several times before finally forming her words. “They’re conservative,” she manages.
    I lean against the wall. “Like you? And how you want others to see you?”
    She presses her lips into a line. I don’t think she’s going to talk, but she does manage a small nod.
    I smile. “Then that’s how it’ll be.”
    “You won’t mention our time alone together?” she asks, staring past my shoulder.
    I take one step down. Then another. And another after that until I’m standing right over her. “No. I wouldn’t do that to you, Tess.” I grin a little. “But if you knew me past our time in bed, you’d already know as much. Come on, let’s get you to court.”
    For all I talk and screw around, I’m not one to drag a woman through the mud. The thing is, when Declan asked about me and Tess, I couldn’t lie. He knows me well enough to guess I’d been with her. There was no sense in denying it. That didn’t mean I’d go into detail. Even back in school when I thought for sure she didn’t like me, Tess seemed like a nice girl, just always kind of sad.
    I’ll admit that when she wasn’t taken by my looks, wasn’t impressed by my athletic skills, and would avert her gaze instead of smile my way, I saw her as a challenge. She was sexy, in that understated way she is now, with the kind of mouth a guy like me needs to kiss. I figured eventually I’d get her to let me have a taste of those lips, and maybe even cop a feel. I just never guessed we’d end up in bed, doing what we did, as hard as we did it. Hell, out of all the women I banged—homely clothes and all—she was the one who rocked my world.
    “You fucked Contessa,” Declan’s voice repeats in my head.
    “Yeah. Didn’t you hear me the first time?” I asked him.
    “Christ, Curran. I don’t need this shit right now.”
    When he slumped in his chair and rubbed his face, I thought for sure he’d send me packing and back to the precinct—seeing what this case means to him. Declan doesn’t like drama. Not when it involves his rep, and especially not when it involves a woman. It’s the reason he’s quick to cut his lays loose and not look back.
    But as mad as he was at learning Tess and I hooked up—and as much as he didn’t want