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

Navy SEAL, did you say?” asked a strident voice behind him. “The punters will love this. Did you really smash the alarm box with a dildo?”
    When Liam whirled around to see who’d spoken, the flash of a camera blinded him. “No pictures,” he snarled. “If any photos of me appear in whatever paper you work for, you’ll have to answer to my boss.”
    Cash had no jurisdiction in Ireland, and even less over the media, but a photo of Liam appearing on the news was the last thing he wanted. While Liam was the only person to have ever eyeballed The Ghost, the man had also seen him. He couldn’t run the risk of The Ghost recognizing him from a photo.
    “Freedom of the press, Mr. Ryan.” The journalist smirked and backed into the crowd.
    “Fuck.” Liam ran a hand through his tightly cropped hair. “He must have overheard you say my name. My boss will go apeshit if my photo is splashed all over the news.”
    “Don’t blame me for your lies.”
    “Jeez, Jill. I’m not blaming. It’s just…” He trailed off before he revealed classified information.
    Jill treated him to an icy glare, her arms folded under her fabulous breasts. “Fine,” she said crisply. “I’m intrigued. Come by my cottage later. I deserve an explanation, and I expect it to be the truth.”
    Liam inclined his head. “Okay. I’ll call you when my meeting is over.” On impulse, he leaned down and kissed her cheek, relishing the softness of her skin beneath his lips. “ À bientôt ,” he murmured.
    Jill’s stern expression faltered, and her eyes clouded with an emotion he couldn’t decipher. “You are a prick, Liam Ryan. Now go and play hero. You might as well enjoy your moment of glory, because I intend to give you a right bollocking later.”
    He winked at her, nodded to Olivia, and melted into the crowd.

4
    B y eleven o’clock that night , Jill had cleaned and tidied her cottage and scrubbed the stone floors until they shone. She’d baked four batches of muffins that she’d never eat, reorganized the linen cupboard, and arranged her books in alphabetical order.
    The cleaning frenzy was an effort to calm her nerves. It hadn’t worked. She held her hands in front of her face and watched them tremble. Hot tears stung her eyes. She forced air into her lungs and tried to stay calm.
    On the drive back to Ballybeg, Olivia had switched on the radio. According to the news, over two hundred people were feared dead in four cities across the globe. That Cork wasn’t among them was only thanks to the mysterious Liam Ryan.
    Jill slumped onto the floor and surrendered to the tears. She could have been killed. She would have been killed, along with everyone else at the Blush Shoppe launch party. Despite the lack of concrete information on the news report, the international retail business targeted had to be Blush Shoppe. But why? Why would anyone want to murder employees of a sex toy company? A religious fanatic? A lone nut with an aversion to vibrators?
    Whatever the reason behind the attack, no one deserved to be murdered. Her heart broke at the thought of all those families left without their loved ones, of all the children whose holiday season would be forever tainted by the atrocity.
    On the kitchen counter, her mobile phone began to vibrate. Jill struggled to her feet, grabbed the phone, and hit connect. “Hello.”
    “Hey, Jill. It’s Liam. The meeting just finished. I should be at your place in around thirty minutes.”
    “Okay,” she said in a voice thick from crying. “See you then.”
    She rang off before he could respond. Whatever Liam had done to her last summer, he’d saved her life today. He’d saved everyone in the conference room. Jill was no bomb expert, but even she could tell an explosion of that magnitude would have left few or no survivors.
    She finished mopping the floor and jumped in the shower. She stood motionless in the small cubicle and allowed the hot needles to massage her skin. Damn the man. Jill dumped