“Well, explain this Internet-dating scheme to me then, ’cos I just plain don’t get it.”

“You don’t have to get it. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Doesn’t it?”

She swung round so suddenly he walked straight into her and had to reach out his hands to grasp hold of her upper arms to steady them both.

Maggie felt her skin heat where he was touching, felt the warmth moving up her arm and spreading across her chest. Her heart fluttered and she looked up at him from beneath long lashes. Sean looked down at her with his deep, fathomless dark eyes, the smile still on his lips, and her cheeks flushed a deeper red than before.

Swallowing, she took a shaky breath and asked, “How could it possibly have anything to do with you?”

TRISH WYLIE

resides in the border counties between the north and south of Ireland, splitting her not-long-enough days between her horses and her writing. She started writing in primary school and dreamed about writing romances from the moment she first read one in her early teens. She admits that it’s important she’s a little in love with her heroes. That way she can write what her heroine is feeling with more conviction and keep alive the hope that her own Mr. Right might still be out there!

O’Reilly’s Bride
Trish Wylie

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Steve & Esther, who got their family.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

‘WE’RE just going to have to face up to the fact that we have no choice but to sleep together.’

Maggie watched with widening eyes as Sean launched himself into the air and landed on his side on the huge double bed. After a couple of large bounces, caused more by the weight of his large frame than overly generous springing inside the hotel bed, he rolled onto his side and propped an elbow so he could rest his head on his hand.

He patted the mattress with his free hand. ‘Come on over.’

She blinked as he winked at her.

‘You know you want to.’

Hell, yes, she wanted to. As the local-TV news team, they’d just spent the last seventeen hours following the police covering the disappearance of a missing twelve-year-old. Thankfully the search had happily ended in the boy being found, cold and hungry, inside the cellar of a derelict house.

Now Maggie was exhausted, her eyes dry and red with lack of sleep. The very idea of a comfy double bed with soft covers and cushions to put her head on was enough to practically draw a low moan from her lips. But the sight of her cameraman’s long, lean body lying on it was enough to keep her from the delights of sleep.

There was no way she was going to share a bed with him. Uh-uh. Nope. Just not happening. There was only so far friendship between men and women stretched these days. Well, at least once you’d passed the age of about ten. And Sean was a good twenty years past ten. Twenty-three years, five months and four days if her analytical mind remembered the facts correctly.

With a deep sigh and the folding of her arms across her chest she answered his invitation with a calm voice. ‘You can have the sofa. You’re used to roughing it. I’m not.’

He grinned. ‘I’m too big for that wee sofa. And you wouldn’t sleep if you were lying feelin’ all guilty about how cramped up I’d be. I know you.’

Her small burst of laughter came out with what she hoped was a graceful snort. ‘I’d give it a bloody good try.’

‘It’s not my fault there was only this room left.’

‘No, and it’s not my fault that tradition dictates that, as the only man here, you should at least pretend to be gentlemanly.’

‘Don’t get your corset in a twist, Miss Austen. We live in a modern age of equality now.’

‘I am not sleeping in that bed with you.’

‘You’re small enough for the sofa.’

Her green eyes flickered towards the small sofa. It looked plush enough but it was tiny. She guessed the usual occupants of this particular room didn’t have that great a need for sitting. Sean continued grinning and running his hand back and forth along the duvet cover. ‘Seems an awful waste of a honeymoon suite though. Don’t you think?’

She laughed, knew she shouldn’t have when she saw the answering sparkle in his dark eyes, but laughed anyway. ‘A desperate waste altogether.’

‘Then the very least we can do is share the bed. The room demands it.’ His hand stilled and he fixed her gaze with his darkly sparkling eyes. ‘I can manage to control myself if you can.’

Ah, now, but that was just the thing, wasn’t it? The knack for flirting with each other, that they’d both got ever so good at, made this situation all the more difficult.

A few months ago, when Sean had been like a child in a toy store where women were concerned, Maggie would have had no problem sharing a bed with him. Because at the time she’d thought he was a friendly version of lice, relationship-wise.

But since she’d moved into the apartment across the hall from him, spent more ‘quality’ time in his company, got to know him, really know him, they’d become genuine friends. He’d cleaned up his addiction to airheads and the next thing Maggie had known she was batting her eyelashes at him!

So with all the flirting stuff going on and knowing that she genuinely liked him, the last great idea she could have would be sharing a bed with him. In a honeymoon suite, of all places. And in an exhaustive state.

Not a good combination for maintaining that fine line between friendship, and, well, other stuff. And she just couldn’t focus on any ‘other stuff’ when she had other ‘other stuff’ to cope with in her life now. Serious stuff.

‘I know it will be hard for you to resist me.’

Her eyes widened again at the low, sexy tones to his voice. Oh, yeah, him using a bedroom voice would help.

‘How do you get that head through doors?’

‘Well, I’m in here so there must be a way.’

‘Amazing.’ She shook her head and began to peel off her coat. ‘We should do a story on how you manage that.’

His dark eyes watched as the jacket was removed and her shoes were kicked off. She then sat on the edge of the small sofa and unclipped her hair, shaking her head to allow the long auburn curls to frame her face.

Her eyes eventually rose to meet his again. ‘You’re not going to move, are you?’

He shrugged. ‘I might think about it if you continue to undress in front of me. I’d swap a night on the bed for that little show.’

A traitorous giveaway of a beating pulse throbbed in a vein in her neck and Maggie lifted a hand to cover it. She tilted her head a little and rubbed her fingers against the back of her neck to disguise what she was doing.

‘I’d even pay money, to be honest.’

‘Ooh, now, that would put me in a whole different profession, wouldn’t it?’

‘Everyone should have the chance to change careers if they want to.’

Her hand stilled and she glanced at him from beneath long lashes. ‘Like you did.’

He shrugged. ‘I didn’t exactly change.’

‘Giving up making award-winning documentaries on war-torn countries to filming the local news wasn’t much of a change, right enough.’

He grimaced slightly. ‘I guess some people would see it as a downgrade.’

‘Some people would, but do you, now that you’ve been at this a while?’

He studied her for several long moments and then smiled a very small smile. ‘Some might. I don’t. You wouldn’t by any chance be trying to change the subject here, would you, Mary Margaret?’

She smiled at the full use of her given name. To everyone else she was just plain old Maggie. But when Sean used her full name it had started out as a way of teasing her. Here, in the provocative surroundings of a honeymoon suite, it was almost an endearment.

‘You wouldn’t by any chance be trying to avoid having a real conversation by flirting with me, would you, Sean O’Reilly?’

‘I might be tempted to open up if you were over here beside me.’

‘Might you?’

The question remained in her eyes long after her words faded into the air and Sean faltered for a moment, his eyes avoiding hers. He blinked as he studied the duvet cover, his hand automatically smoothing it again as he spoke in a low voice. ‘Maybe if you trusted me not to molest you in the night I might consider answering some of your questions.’

Maggie studied the dark hair on his head as she thought over the offer. So far their friendship had been limited to everyday conversations and simple truths about family and friends. They’d talked movies and books and current affairs on their many car journeys around the country but nothing deeper than that. Already she knew enough about him to have become attached to him, to care. But what she’d learned so far made her want to know even more why he had made so drastic a change to his life. She felt that knowing that would slot the rest of what she knew into place, would give her the complete picture.

It was almost too good an opportunity to miss.

But she also knew that there had been tension in the air between them lately. A very sexual tension. And the only way she knew of to ease that some and veer away from it was to make him smile. Because she couldn’t allow herself to get involved with him on a sexual level, no matter how much her body reacted to the idea. Not while a cloud hung over her.

‘OK. I’ll just have to trust you to be good.’

The required smile was instantaneous as he looked back at her and winked. ‘Honey, I’m way more than good.’

Maggie rolled her eyes. ‘I’ll take your word for that.’

‘You could find out.’

‘No, I couldn’t.’ She stood up and began to walk towards the bathroom, her chin held high. ‘Because nothing is going to happen. I’m going to trust you.’ At the door of the bathroom she looked back over her shoulder and smiled sweetly. ‘And I’m going to ask you personal questions till you’re so tired you’ll snore the rest of the night away.’

Sean watched the door close behind her and continued to smile until her words sank in. It was a big step for him. Huge, in fact. Because he hadn’t talked to anyone about his reasons for coming home. He hadn’t met anyone whom he thought could take listening to it.

Could Mary Margaret Sullivan? Could she listen to all the horrors and understand? He needed to talk about it to someone so that he could start to put it behind him. And he guessed he’d known for a while that she was a candidate for a listening ear. It had just been much easier to hide behind flirting with her.

Spending the night convincing her of how ‘good’ he could be was certainly a more inviting prospect.

But maybe it was time he allowed himself to make a genuine friend, one who really knew him. He may not tell her everything in one go, but hey, it would be a start.

She reappeared from the bathroom ten minutes later. At the sound of the door opening he turned on the bed and his breath caught. It wasn’t going to be easy baring his soul in a gigantic queen-size bed with a woman who looked like that. He could think of much better things to do. Lots of them, in fact.

It wasn’t that she’d dressed to seduce him. Oh, no, nothing that simple from Mary Margaret. In fact, he guessed she probably looked that way every night when she went to bed. All freshly scrubbed face and a simple two-piece pyjama suit in a baby pink. There was nothing vaguely sexual in the way she looked. It was the fact that she looked so sweet and fresh, so untouched by the sordid things of the world.

For the first time in his world-weary life he was immediately and ragingly turned on by pink cotton pyjamas.

‘What?’

He blinked and forced himself to look up into her large green eyes. How in heaven’s name did she manage to look better without make-up? His sisters had always told him that wasn’t humanly possible.

‘What?’

When he didn’t reply, she shook her head. ‘You are a weirdo sometimes, O’Reilly.’

Dark eyes watched as she moved around the end of the huge bed. It was a fairly long walk so he had plenty of time to look. She hesitated when she got to ‘her side’.

One dark eyebrow rose. ‘There’s plenty of room, Mary Margaret.’

Not enough though.

She lifted the cover and got in, keeping as close to the edge as she could without falling out. She tried closing her eyes, inviting sleep to take her.

‘You going to sleep?’

‘Yes.’

‘No bedtime story?’

‘Oh, I’m listening. You can start any time.’

Sean moved over, lying on his side with his head propped on his elbow so he could study her face. He smiled as her mouth pursed into a thin line, then her nose wrinkled and she sighed, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘When we got here I was wiped. Now I can’t sleep.’

He was still smiling when her eyes opened.

She smiled back, then turned to face him across the huge divide. ‘So talk to me.’

‘What do you want to know?’

The thought of actually getting to ask whatever she wanted made her even more awake than she already was from the way he’d looked at her when she came out of the bathroom. His eyes had positively burned her from the huge bed he was occupying. And the sight of his broad naked chest above the covers had woken her up pretty quick.

Trying hard to ignore the sight of that chest within an arm and a half’s reach, she tried to decide what to ask first. ‘How can you be happy doing what you’re doing now?’

‘Maybe it’s the company I keep.’

She blinked at him with large eyes.

He smiled a smaller smile and let his eyes rove up to her hair, the faint smell of her shampoo making it all the way across to him. He liked that smell. Then his eyes met hers again. ‘It’s simpler, less soul-destroying. I guess I just needed this right now.’

Maggie stared deep into his eyes, searching. Searching for evidence that he was being honest when her heart already told her he was.

‘Something to make you smile again, huh?’ Her voice was low, all the more intimate in their present surroundings. ‘You didn’t smile a whole lot when I first met you.’

‘No, I guess I didn’t.’ His voice dropped to a similarly intimate level. ‘Maybe you just brought that out in me.’

She was being sucked in by the moment. Any second she fully expected there to be violins in the background and they would move across the great divide and—

She shook her head.

He laughed. ‘What?’

‘It’s just nice to know that when you looked through that lens the sight you saw was so amusing. I’m flattered.’ She smiled a small smile to let him know she was teasing.

‘You had your moments.’

Her mind turned for a small moment, then she propped her elbow and raised her hand so she could lift her head and rest it there. ‘So is it enough for you?’

‘Looking at you through a lens every day?’ He managed to hold his smile even as he realised it was precisely enough for him. He loved looking at her. Had been doing more and more of it recently, and not just through a lens. Had she noticed that he’d stopped dating recently? Because he was only just discovering why it was he’d stopped.

‘You can quit that, I know what you’re doing.’

‘I thought I was flirting with you.’

‘You are. But you’re only doing it to distract me.’

‘Is it working?’

Yes. ‘No.’

‘Damn.’

She laughed and watched as his eyes sparkled in response. ‘Tell me something else.’

‘You’re the reporter, you ask the questions.’

‘Will you stay?’ Her breath caught when she spoke the question aloud as soon as it entered her head. It was something she really needed to know. ‘Or is this just a break for you?’

Dark lashes brushed against his skin once, twice, as he blinked at her. ‘I’m not going back there, if that’s what you mean.’

‘Never?’

‘Never again.’ He shook his head. ‘I guess you could say I’m burned out when it comes to overseas work. I want to make a life here now. I just needed to come home, that’s all.’

‘Does it help?’

His nod was slow. ‘It does now that I have this new friend.’

The answering smile was warm and sincere. ‘I’m glad.’

Sean watched as she set her head back down on the pillow, her eyes closing again. ‘You want to sleep now?’

‘I think I have to, I’m sorry.’ Her eyes flickered open and she glanced up at him. ‘I’ve still a lot to ask, though.’

‘We have time, Mary Margaret, don’t worry.’ His eyes glowed across at her in the soft light. ‘Sweet dreams.’

CHAPTER TWO

SOMETHING changed.

Sean couldn’t narrow it down to a precise moment in time or some circumstance in particular. But something changed. And the fact that it changed around the time he was finally admitting he had a thing for Maggie didn’t help his inner turmoil any.

She was hiding something from him.

The first thing he’d noticed was how she would turn her eyes away from him. It was one of the things he’d always liked about her. She would look a person straight in the eye when she talked to them, would let them know they had her full attention. And it was a great trait for a reporter. People trusted that she was listening, that what they said mattered to her.

But now she would look down, her lashes hiding the windows to her soul when she spoke to him. And sometimes she even seemed to struggle to look him directly in the lens. Probably because she knew he might see something there.

Then there was the sadness. Not that she didn’t hide that pretty well. Every day she would smile, crack jokes with her workmates, laugh. But as a connouiseur of her laughter he knew that even that was missing something. It took a lot of careful scrutiny for him to spot the sadness, but it was there. In the unguarded moments when she thought no one was looking or for a split-second before she turned her eyes away.

Something had changed.

When she jumped the day that he crept up behind her in the office he smelt a rat. She was quick to flick the screen of her computer off before she fobbed him off with something about his not having yelled ‘boo’ and how she had been writing a personal e-mail. But that was a lie, Sean knew, because she looked away as she said it and she had been jumpy as all hell for the rest of the day.

It took a lot of investigative work for him to get to the bottom of it. But he got there. Eventually.

And when he did he couldn’t have been more knocked sidewards.

With determined steps he walked across the lawn of the big old country manor that had been turned into luxury apartments. Apartments where he and Maggie lived.

It was a gorgeous summer’s day and a great place for a birthday barbeque for one of their neighbours. But Sean wasn’t thinking about the celebrations. Or the food. Or even the beer clutched in his hand.

He was thinking about Maggie. And her latest brainwave.

‘Fancy meeting you here.’

He grinned, immediately recognising her smile for what it was. A front specifically for his benefit.

‘Yeah, fancy that.’ He took a swig of beer and stood by her side, his feet set slightly apart, claiming the piece of ground he was standing on while he looked at the small crowd and glanced occasionally at Maggie from the corner of his eye. ‘Don seems to be having a good time.’ Maggie looked over at their neighbour. ‘Yeah, he does.’ With a safe topic to discuss she immediately slipped into the easy role that until a few months ago had been so natural to her, leaning a little closer to Sean and nudging her shoulder against his upper arm. ‘You see the way he keeps looking at Rachel?’ Sean leaned his head a little closer to hers and dropped his voice conspiratorially. ‘She keeps looking at him too, when she thinks he can’t see her.’ The subject of the octogenarian love affair was one they frequently talked about. Maggie smiled and tilted her head to look up into dark eyes, her voice low. ‘You think they’ll ever get it together? Or is that still too much of a stretch for you into the realms of believing good things can happen?’ Sean’s eyes locked with hers and he stared at her for a long moment. ‘I’m learning to stretch some. So, maybe it might happen yet. They’ve been friends a long time though.’ ‘Yes, they have, but you only have to see the way they are together to know there’s more there.’ He blinked slowly and smiled.

Maggie searched his eyes, looking from one to the other. She tilted her head to the other side and searched again, then an eyebrow quirked and she asked, ‘What?’

The smile remained. ‘What?’

She stared back at him. ‘You have a look.’

‘Do I?’ He continued smiling his usual self-assured smile, his eyes giving nothing away.

It bugged the hell out of Maggie that he had the ability to do that and that he still felt the need to do it around her. He was just so controlled sometimes that she wanted to smack him silly. He held everything inside, guarded from the world so that in the brief instances he did open up it made it all the more of a gift to whoever was allowed in. But he still didn’t completely trust her, did he?

The fact that she’d had to hold back so much from him of late made the realisation almost hurtful. She hated that a relationship that had come to mean so much to her had got to this point.

He searched her eyes in a similar way to how she’d just searched his. ‘What?’

She mimicked his answer. ‘What?’

‘That mind of yours works in mysterious ways.’

‘At least I have a mind.’

‘Meaning I don’t?’

She only had to search for the briefest of seconds to find the spark in his eyes. ‘Not you, but possibly some of those other women you keep company with…’

‘At least they have brains enough to see what an amazingly sexy, damned good-looking, generally all-round great guy I am.’

What would usually have been taken as one of their usual ‘sparring type’ answers was imparted with a somewhat huskier tone of voice than Maggie was used to hearing from him. But as she searched his eyes again he turned his head and looked back over the crowd, raising his bottle to his mouth.

Maggie’s eyes automatically followed the bottle, watched as his mouth fitted around the lip, saw his throat contract as he swallowed. She hated that she noticed but she did.

‘I already know what a great guy you are.’ The words were spoken with sincerity, even though she didn’t have to point out that she hadn’t agreed with the other descriptions of his ‘assets’.

‘Do you, now?’ He studied the last of the liquid in the bottle, swirling it around against tinted glass.

Maggie felt her heart miss a beat at his question. He had an uncertainty in him she’d never seen before. Sean was just always so confident on the outside. Everything he did, the way he held himself, it all spoke of a complete lack of self-consciousness. Until now. What had her sister said to him during the long conversation they’d been having on the far side of the lawn?

‘OK, what’s going on?’

He didn’t look at her. ‘You’re the one who seems to think that any woman interested in me might not have a brain in their head.’

Maggie frowned. ‘I was kidding.’

‘Were you?’ He glanced at her, then away again.

The question astounded her. For crying out loud she had even introduced him to a couple of the women he had dated way back at the start. That was, until she’d learned better than to get involved in all that would inevitably follow. Now she guarded her single friends with the ferocity of a lioness guarding innocent cubs.

But those earlier women most certainly had not been brainless. They had been smart, successful, pretty women. Like anyone he had been even remotely interested in. So what was with the sudden concern? It wasn’t as if he’d even done that much dating of late. She’d noticed that.

The thought then crossed her mind that maybe he had met someone he had more than a passing interest in. She’d certainly been less aware of him being with anyone new but that didn’t mean there wasn’t somebody. Maybe he was serious about someone and having those feelings was making him insecure. Wasn’t that what happened with something that important?

The idea made her stomach churn ridiculously and she had to take a deep breath when she looked away from his profile. God only knew she wanted him to be happy, to learn about real love and to have all the things he hadn’t quite completely admitted out loud he wanted for himself down the line. A woman to love, to love him back. A family of his own. Children who would look just like him.

Maggie wanted those things for him.

But that didn’t mean that losing something of the friendship and the closeness they had wouldn’t hurt. Even the thought of it already hurt. Because in her own way she was already taking the initial steps that would distance her from him.

Clearing her throat, she looked down at the ground and then back at his profile. ‘Did you meet someone new?’

His eyes shot round to meet hers and he wanted to ask her if it would matter. But the words got stuck. He smiled to ease the tension. ‘Me?’

She smiled back at him, her composure in place. ‘Yes, you, unlikely and all as that may be. You tend to go through women faster than most.’

‘No, I didn’t meet someone new.’ He said the words softly and watched for her reaction. To see if she looked at all relieved. But when she just continued to smile at him he jumped right on in with both feet. ‘But then I haven’t advertised myself anywhere or felt the need to, funnily enough. Unlike someone I could mention.’

Her smile faltered. So that was it, then. Her sister had told him about that during their little tête-à-tête on the other side of the lawn. She straightened her spine again and moved a couple of steps away from his side.

‘I may as well have announced it on the news.’

He continued to study her intently before she turned her face from him. ‘What’s going on?’

‘If you’ve been talking to Kath then you know exactly what’s going on.’

‘She said you’ve decided to hunt down some poor unsuspecting single parent.’ His mouth twisted at one edge. ‘What’s the thinking there, then? You want to make sure he can be a good father before you tie yourself down? Sort of already broken in, kinda thing?’

Maggie flushed under his scrutiny. ‘Funny, Sean, really hilarious. You just have such insight into the female mind that it’s a miracle you’ve stayed single this long.’

He frowned at the sharp tone in her voice; frowned even harder when she turned on her heel and walked away. In the space of a heartbeat he was on her heel. ‘Well, explain it to me, then, ’cos I just plain don’t get it.’

‘You don’t have to get it. It has nothing to do with you.’

‘Doesn’t it?’

She swung round so suddenly he walked straight into her and had to reach out his hands to grasp hold of her upper arms to steady them both. A little juggling saved both them and his bottle from an ungraceful contact with the hard ground that would have been aided by a small thing known as gravity.

When they were both firmly on their feet his hands remained, his hold loosening a little, thumbs brushing back and forth against her skin. He laughed. ‘Did the earth move for you too?’

Maggie felt her skin heat where he was touching, felt the warmth moving up her arm and spreading across her chest. Her heart fluttered and she looked up at him from beneath long lashes. Sean looked down at her with his deep, fathomless dark eyes, the smile still on his lips, and her cheeks flushed a deeper red than before.

Swallowing, she took a shaky breath and asked, ‘How could it possibly have anything to do with you?’

He wondered if she had any idea how much she had got under his skin? They’d been flirting around a deeper involvement up until recently; he wasn’t so stupid that he didn’t know that. But did it really add up to anything more in Maggie’s mind? Or was it simply wishful thinking on his part?

He took the one safe route open to him. ‘Can’t your best mate worry that you might make a mistake?’

Maggie avoided his eyes while her mind worked on an answer to his question. She’d known he would probably have the most difficulty with what she’d decided to do. That he would push the most to find the motive behind her decision. He cared about her in his own very individual way, she knew that much. Knew it and had to skirt around it for reasons of her own.

She could never tell him the truth. Because if he knew he would try to stop her, would argue every step of the way unless she was very much mistaken. And she’d already made up her mind. There could be no shifting her. No turn-around.

His thumbs continued to move against her skin. Soothing, reassuring and letting her know that he was right there, beside her, with her. But little did he know that the touch did more than reassure and the last thing it did was soothe.

For months she had been fighting the pull towards him. At first she hadn’t wanted to face up to the fact that she could even see him that way. As anything more than just a friend, a buddy, her pal, her mate. But it had just been so strong, so very real that it had scared her. It had been a losing battle though.

Even now, while his thumbs moved back and forth and back and forth, her blood was humming in her veins, her skin was heating, her pulse was beating irrationally. She couldn’t let him keep touching her. Bad, bad plan.

Sean watched as she moved out of his hold. He frowned when she seemed to shiver, before wrapping her arms around herself. And she still couldn’t look him in the eye.

If she was this disgusted by him touching just her arms then he was way off base with what he’d thought had been happening between them.

He frowned harder.

‘You don’t need to worry about me, Sean. I know what I’m doing.’ She smiled with a little more conviction as she forced out the words she had been rehearsing in front of a mirror for days. ‘You know how much I want a family; we’ve talked about it loads. The more the merrier, as far as I’m concerned. I’m sick to death of the whole singles thing and I’m not getting any younger. I don’t want to wait till I’m old before I find the right guy.’ She paused for a breath. ‘I tripped across the site when I was doing some background on the dating scene for that piece we did last month and it just made sense to me. That’s all.’

He blinked the whole way through her speech and then asked, ‘Is it?’

‘Oh, for crying out loud, yes!’ The fact that he was still asking questions with that deadpan expression was making her more and more nervous. ‘Why does it need to be any more complicated than that? We’ve talked about what we’d both like from our lives since that night in the honeymoon suite and for me a family is the most important thing. I’m just doing something about it, that’s all.’

That was all. And she’d never even considered him in that equation. Why would she? It wasn’t as if he’d given the impression it was something he wanted in the here and now. It was only recently he’d even allowed himself to admit inwardly that it was something he wanted. How could he have expected her to know? He wasn’t exactly an open up and share kind of guy after all. Not with the deep stuff anyway.

‘Fine.’ He took a breath and looked away from her. ‘Good luck with that. Just be sure you don’t end up chatting to some speckly faced kid.’

She waited several long moments before she replied. Ignoring the jibe at the end of his sentence, she decided to take the easy route out with a softly spoken, ‘Thank you.’ And then she walked away.

Sean frowned as he watched her leave. He drained the remnants of his bottle and then marched off in search of a new one.

He’d been very wrong on this thing he had with Maggie, or had thought he had with Maggie. There were no visible signs of her holding an unrequited adoration for him. It was just an awful shame that he didn’t feel the same way.

But he wasn’t about to spill that to her when she was so obviously uninterested. Because he might have lost his mind but he wasn’t about to part with his pride. There were limits.

But he had thought, for a while, that there was something more there for her too. He wasn’t an adolescent or so inexperienced that he hadn’t noticed when she’d looked at him with a slow-burning smoulder in her eyes. Maybe it had even been the catalyst for his own silent smouldering. But something had changed her mind. Something more involved than what she’d just stated was behind this scheme of hers. And even if she wasn’t in love with him, the part of him that was her friend, that cared so much, just couldn’t stand by and let her make a big mistake. Not if her motives weren’t genuine.

He was going to find out what was going on. Whether she liked it or not. Because it mattered to him. He might not be able to show how much he cared right that minute but he could show it in another way. He could help her find the right guy for her.

He could also try and persuade her that that guy was right in front of her nose.

CHAPTER THREE

SHE spent most of her fourth date with Bryan studying him and comparing him. To Sean. Damn the notion that had occurred to her that he looked like him. Because the thought had got stuck in her head and she’d felt the need to make sure that he didn’t. Only to end up realising just how short Bryan fell of the ideal that, apparently, was Sean O’Reilly.

It wasn’t Bryan’s fault. He was a nice guy. A nice, sweet, gentlemanly kind of a guy. But, having now compared him with Sean, Maggie knew that they’d be lucky to make it to a fifth date.

Damn Sean. Not that he’d done anything beyond just being there. In the background, all the damn time of late, as it happened.

Somehow she managed to smile her way through dinner and remain attentive through drinks. But the end of the evening couldn’t have come soon enough. She was just going to have to keep looking. Because somewhere out there, there had to be someone who could measure up to what she couldn’t have. Ever. No question about it.

Bryan insisted on walking her to the large front door, even though she insisted she knew the way. But she wasn’t cruel enough to jump out of his car and run. After all, it was hardly his fault.

It was dark, clouds covering what there was of the moon. And, with the large old country house that was divided into apartments being so far from the road, there wasn’t even a glow from streetlights. But Maggie knew the way, and even had to reach a hand out to steady Bryan when he stumbled on the edge of the path.

‘Sorry.’ He smiled at her in the dim light. ‘I’m supposed to be making sure that you’re all right.’

She smiled back, linking her arm through his as they made it to the door. ‘We talked about having low lights put along the path but no one has quite got round to it yet.’

‘I could help put those in for you.’

‘No.’ She almost sighed with relief as they reached the bottom step, the low glow of the hall light shining down on them. ‘It’s fine. Those of us who own apartments here do that kind of thing between us.’

‘Well, you’ve only to ask.’

‘I know.’ She removed her arm from his and turned to smile up at him. He really was just such a nice guy. Uncomplicated, open, sincere…

‘It’s fine, really.’

Bryan continued to smile at her. ‘I just hope I can make it back to the car in one piece.’

‘I could walk you back a little.’

‘Now, that would kind of defeat the purpose of my getting out of the car in the first place, wouldn’t it?’

‘I guess it would.’

There was an awkward silence as Maggie suddenly realised that Bryan was looking at her intently. Oh, God. He was going to try to kiss her, wasn’t he?

‘Bryan—’

‘I just want to say how much I’ve enjoyed spending time with you, Maggie.’ He stepped closer.

Maggie froze. He was going to kiss her. Her mind searched frantically for the words to get her out of the inevitable. She could hardly run screaming into the house, having encouraged him for this long, now, could she? He didn’t deserve it.

She swallowed hard. One kiss wouldn’t kill her. In a way she guessed she owed him. And then she’d find a way to let him down gently. First thing tomorrow.

With a breath she found words. ‘You’re a very nice person, Bryan.’ ‘And so are you.’

He stopped an inch or two away from her and asked, ‘I was wondering if you would mind if I kissed you?’

She smiled weakly. ‘That would be all right, I think.’

Lifting his hands, he cupped her elbows and moved his head closer to hers.

Maggie held her breath and hoped fervently he wouldn’t try for anything more than a kiss. Her guilt only actually stretched so far.

But all he did was brush his mouth across hers. Then he blinked down at her, his nose close to hers, and said, ‘Thank you.’

Maggie blinked back. That was it? ‘You’re welcome.’

Bryan stepped back and released her elbows. ‘I had a lovely time, Maggie. I’ll call you tomorrow.’

Still blinking in astonishment, Maggie nodded as he turned away. ‘OK.’

There was a small scuffle of gravel followed by a brief grunt. Maggie raised her eyebrows. ‘You OK?’

‘I’m fine!’ he called back to her. ‘Don’t worry. I’m almost at the car now.’

After another few seconds she heard a door open and saw the dim light from the car’s interior. Then the engine started and she waved as the headlights spun over her.

She glanced up at the dark sky and sighed.

‘Well, he’s a keeper.’

Her head jerked in the direction of Sean’s voice as he stepped out of the dark and into the circle of light at the door. ‘How long have you been there?’ He smiled slowly. ‘Since just before that passionate kiss goodnight.’

Her chin rose an inch. ‘I had no idea you were into voyeurism.’

‘I could take it up with all this romance in the air.’ He stepped around her and looked upwards. ‘I don’t think I’ve come across a guy so swept up in passion that he took the time to ask permission for a kiss and then said thank you afterwards.’

‘And I suppose you wouldn’t wait to ask?’ The words dripped with sarcasm but she wavered when he fixed her with his dark eyes, his smile slow and sensual.

‘Hell, no.’

Her mouth went dry.

Sean’s smile grew when she didn’t come back at him with one of her usual quick answers. ‘There’s a lot to be said for spontaneity.’

‘There’s also a lot to be said for good manners.’

He stepped around her again when she tried to move. ‘So does he ask permission for everything he does?’

‘I’m not answering that.’

‘I can just picture it.’ He stopped in front of her as he continued in a low drawl, ‘I’ll just bet he’s mannerly every step of the way.’

Maggie clenched her teeth. She wouldn’t let him get the better of her. ‘He’s a very nice person. Unlike some people I could mention right now.’

‘I’m sure.’

‘He’s considerate.’

‘I’d imagine so.’

She frowned up at him, her eyes sparking. ‘He would never do anything I didn’t want him to.’

Sean tilted his head to one side and studied her for a split-second. ‘Or surprise you with anything that you might enjoy either.’

Maggie’s breath caught and without her thinking about it her eyes swept to his mouth.

Sean stepped closer. ‘Where’s the thrill, Maggie, the passion? How can he get your pulse racing if he asks permission for everything?’

She knew she should have a smart answer for his questions but right at that moment, for the life of her, she couldn’t find one. All she could do was watch his mouth as he spoke and feel the air crackle around her.

‘Would you mind if I kissed you, Maggie?’

Her eyes shot up to meet his.

‘Would you mind if I undressed you a little, Maggie?’

She swallowed hard.

‘Would you mind if I took you to bed, Maggie?’ He blinked down at her, his dark eyes getting darker. ‘Or maybe you wouldn’t mind if we just made love right here, Maggie?’

‘Stop it.’ The words tumbled out on a shaky breath.

‘Is that really what you want?’ He stepped back from her. ‘That cool politeness every step of the way?’

‘You have no idea what I want.’

He glanced down, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans before he looked back at her. ‘Maybe not. But I know what you deserve. And that guy isn’t it.’

Maggie felt her lower lip tremble. She would not break down in front of him, she couldn’t! She couldn’t show him that his words had got to her, on many levels. Because every question he had asked had her running hotter than Hades. Because the questions had come from his lips and her imagination had provided the mental images to go with them. Bryan had been nowhere in sight, mentally or physically.

With a deep, steadying breath she looked him straight in the eye. ‘You have no right to tell me what I do and do not want from any guy. I make my own decisions.’

‘Oh, I know, even when they’re bad ones.’

‘Because everything you do is just so right all the time, isn’t it?’ She scowled at him. ‘You’re just perfect, right?’

‘No,’ he smiled a slightly lopsided smile at the comment, ‘that I’m most definitely not and we both know that I’m not.’

Maggie shook her head. ‘No, you’re not. But when you reckon you are and all your relationships are perfect then you can come and criticise mine.’

‘You can’t tell me you’re seriously considering staying with that guy?’ His eyes widened in question.

‘That wouldn’t be any of your business, would it?’ She fumbled inside her bag for her key, her eyes having to look down until she located it. Then she glanced up again, finally rediscovering her spine along the way. ‘I’ll follow my heart, Sean. Maybe you should try doing the same. That way we both stand a chance of finding the right person for ourselves.’

Sean stepped aside as she walked up the steps, fitted her key in the door and disappeared inside.

He stood for a long time staring at the door. Then he turned and looked out into the darkness.

When he’d come outside for a walk around the house it was because he hadn’t been able to sleep, not because he was spying on Maggie. He had needed to think about how he could try and mend their friendship, how he could discover what was bothering her and help fix it. Because he missed her. He really did.

Walking in on her with her ‘boyfriend’ had been completely unintentional. As had the clenching of his fists when the other man had leaned in to kiss her. If it had gone anything beyond that tepid touch of mouths he might even have unintentionally interrupted them. Or unintentionally felt the need to use one of those clenched fists.

Instead he’d ended up having one of the most sensual conversations of his life.

That conversation, too, might have been at least partially unintentional. But once he’d started he couldn’t seem to stop himself. It certainly wouldn’t have done anything to help rebuild their friendship. But what it had done was open him up to an earlier, small idea of his. One that now grew and took on wings.

The idea of following his heart as Maggie had said and taking a chance, in a roundabout way.

After all, she may not be in love with him now. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t get her to fall for him, let her see that he could be exactly what she was looking for. That guy who had been right in front of her face all along. He could do that anonymously, without any risk to his pride, because she’d handed him the method. He could try and find out what it was that was bothering her, because she might talk to a stranger in the same way she’d encouraged him to talk in the beginning.

While doing that, he could vet all her other ‘candidates’.

Any interference with those candidates along the way would of course, naturally, be unintentional.

CHAPTER FOUR

HE WAS ‘at’ something.

At the morning meeting of crews in the station Sean smiled brightly at everyone, joked around with the other cameramen and flirted with their editor’s assistant before plonking himself down next to her with a grin and a ‘Hiya’ before the briefing started. That action alone made her nervous, for varying reasons.

She felt her body warm when his knee accidentally brushed against her thigh, was aware of every breath he took. She noticed how any movement in the room, displacing the air around them, would bring the scent of his aftershave to her sensitive nostrils.

So she retaliated with coldness. ‘Sarah’s a bit young for you, don’t you think?’

Sean smiled at her stern profile. ‘She’s legal. What more do I need to worry about?’

‘Oh, I don’t know…the nuclear fallout that might naturally accompany the break-up of some little affair?’ She turned her head to glare at him up close and personal. ‘And in the workplace that probably wouldn’t be the best career decision you’ve ever made, now, would it?’ Sean grinned a wolf-like grin at her. ‘That wouldn’t be a teeny bit of jealousy there, now, would it?’

Maggie snorted gracefully. ‘Dream on.’

He nudged her so suddenly she ended up nudging the guy beside her and had to take a second to apologise. Then she scowled back at him. ‘She’s twenty-three, Sean; leave her be. Let her discover most guys are snakes on her own.’

Sean focused his eyes forward, his voice dropping as the meeting started. ‘Maybe she should date someone with slightly better manners. Someone nice and polite.’ He tilted his head to whisper, ‘Someone who says please before they do anything.’

It took a moment for her to decipher his meaning. When she got it she gaped at him like a goldfish and struggled to find words that her mother wouldn’t slap her for saying. The inner struggle distracted her from mundane little things, like the meeting they were in. To the extent that it took two attempts at her name before her eyes focused on their editor.

‘You with us, Maggie?’

She flushed. ‘Yes, Joe; sorry.’

Joe quirked an eyebrow and handed her a sheet of paper. ‘There have been cuts in the fishing quotas so I want you to head to one of those wee ports on the Co. Down coast and see what the locals have to say.’

She nodded as she speed-read what he’d given her:

Usual background stuff, interviews with the families and local shop owners and then something with one of the crews out on a trawler.

Her eyes widened as she glanced up. ‘On the boat? As in at sea on the boat?’

‘Yes; is that a problem?’

‘No.’ She shook her head and pinned a smile on her face. ‘Not a problem. How long a piece?’

His eyes widened at the question. ‘Well, how about you just bring us as much as you can and we’ll edit it together? You know, it really depends what else comes up in the headlines.’

He moved on to the next crew and Maggie looked back at the sheet of contacts in front of her. This day just got better by the second. She hated boats. Really, truly couldn’t stand them. Ever since she’d gone swimming off one as a child. With a little help from her brother’s hands in the centre of her back, that was. The fear of water had never left her.

She swallowed hard and glanced at Sean as he leaned in to read over her shoulder. That at least distracted her from the thought of spending some of her day on a boat.

‘You OK?’ He looked at her eyes, close to his, one dark brow rising in question.

‘Oh, yeah, just fine and dandy.’ She smiled through clenched white teeth.

‘Great stuff.’ He leaned back, and within a few minutes the meeting broke up and they set off to drive to the east coast.

She had thought the journey would be hell. That after the conversation the night before and his wise-arse comments during the meeting she wouldn’t be able to face him. Or stay trapped with him in a car without ending up arguing with him. But it was like none of the previous things had ever happened. In fact Sean was more like they had both been in the good old days, when they got along a whole pile better.

He told her tales about Don and Rachel gardening the day before, with all their little glances and blushes. He talked about how they really should put low lighting along the path to the house, for safety reasons. He whittered away about her sister Kath’s new husband and what a great guy he was. But never once did he mention Bryan, their conversation after Bryan had left or how much he disagreed with her method of finding a husband. It freaked her out.

Something was going on.

The initial interviews with families of the trawler crews went smoothly, as did the ones with local businessmen who would see their own livelihoods affected if the fishing crews had to quit. Like every other small community built around the fishing industry, this one knew a cut in quotas could in time lead to the end of the village. And the fear came through as each of the people opened up to Maggie’s friendly manner and easy-going questioning.

Then came the thing that Maggie had been dreading for the entire day. It was time to take a trip on the big, wide ocean.

Her stomach churned and she watched the trees on the water’s edge shift as the wind picked up.

‘It’s getting windy.’

Sean glanced up from his camera and followed her gaze. ‘Some. Nothing compared to what these guys go out in half the time, though, I’ll bet.’

Her stomach churned again. And she hadn’t even left the safety of the stone jetty yet.

‘They’re very brave.’

Sean shrugged. ‘It’s what they do. I guess they don’t see it as anything but doing another day’s work.’

A burly man in a bright yellow waterproof coat smiled up at them as they walked to the end of the jetty.

‘You must be the TV people.’

Sean grinned and reached a large hand out to shake the other man’s. ‘Yep, that’s us. You must be Mike.’ ‘Mike McCabe. This here’s The Sally at the end.’

‘I’m Sean O’Reilly, this is Maggie Sullivan.’ Sean’s eyes drifted to Maggie’s pale face, surprised when she didn’t greet Mike with her trademark hundred-watt smile. ‘She’s normally brighter than this.’

Maggie glanced at him and then recovered, smiling as she shook Mike’s hand. ‘Hi, Mike.’

Mike’s ruddy face went even ruddier as she smiled at him. ‘Nice to meet you, Miss Sullivan. We see you on the box all the time.’

Maggie’s smile faded as he released her hand and turned towards the brightly coloured trawler. The scent of fish hit her nostrils, not exactly helping her churning stomach. ‘So this is your boat, then, Mike.’

‘Aye.’ He beamed with pride as he jumped down onto the deck and held out his hand to help her aboard. ‘This is The Sally. My dad’s boat and mine now. It’ll be my boys’ one day if the quotas don’t kill us first.’

She gave herself a minute to accustom herself to the movement of the deck beneath her feet. Then the boat rocked as Sean landed beside her with a huge thud of equally huge feet on wood. He glanced at her, his hand cupping her elbow. ‘You OK?’

‘Oh, I’m great.’ She moved into the centre of the boat as the engines started and Mike’s crew cast off from the jetty. ‘Let’s just get this done.’

They went out a lot further than she’d thought they would. And if it had been a tad windy by the water’s edge, in the shelter of the harbour, out in the main channel was to her the equivalent of a hurricane.

They started the interview once The Sally had thrown out her nets and Sean had got plenty of footage of the crew at work. Maggie managed to get through it. Just. But by the end she had to run to the railing to throw up.

Sean appeared by her side with a bottle of water and rubbed her back. ‘You should have said you weren’t feeling well.’

She turned from the railing and glanced at him from the corner of her eye. ‘I’m not sick.’

‘No, course not; you were just considerately feeding the starving fish of the world your breakfast.’ He grinned.

A similar grin appeared at the lip of the water bottle. ‘You’re a funny guy. But I’m not sick, really.’

‘I see.’ He leaned back against the railing and folded his arms across his chest, his dark hair catching in the wind. ‘Well, since you’ve never mentioned having a problem with boats, then that leaves only one option.’

‘Oh, really?’ She quirked an eyebrow at him. ‘Well, since you’re so all damned knowing and seeing, what, pray tell, would that be?’

His eyes sparkled at her as she continued to smile. This was more like normality for them. This easy banter and comfortable proximity. This was the kind of thing he missed.

With a deep breath he winked at her. ‘Since I’m the only guy you’ve slept with these last few months, you must be pregnant. Guess we’ll just have to go get married.’

Maggie’s smile disappeared, her breath caught in her lungs and her heart twisted agonisingly in her chest. Already emotional about her complete panic being on a boat, miles from shore, she found it too much of an effort to hold back the shimmer that appeared in her eyes. She swiftly turned her face from his.

But he’d seen it. ‘Hey.’ He leapt away from the railing, his arm encircling her shoulders. ‘What’s up?’

Her eyes glancing out at the choppy waves, she shook her head. ‘I’m fine. It’s just this boat.’

‘You sure?’ His voice was soft, persuasive. ‘You can tell me, you know.’

She nodded and gripped the railing again. ‘I just really hate boats, that’s all.’ She glanced at him through watery eyes. ‘I can’t swim.’

‘You can’t swim?’

‘No.’ She smiled. ‘Colin pushed me off a boat when I was six and I almost drowned. I’m scared rigid of the water.’

His eyes widened at the new information. ‘You should have said.’ He hauled her into his arms and tucked her head beneath his chin. ‘We could have shot this on the dock.’

‘Not unless it was boat-shaped, we couldn’t.’ She sniffed against his broad chest, forcing herself to open up about one thing when she couldn’t about another. ‘Joe wanted it done on a boat. And you know I always get the story I’m sent to get.’

‘Even when you don’t want to get it, huh?’

She risked lifting her head to look up at him. ‘Because that’s what people like you and me do.’

Something crossed his eyes, then he lifted a hand to tuck her head back into place. ‘Sometimes it’s just not a big enough deal to cause yourself pain over.’

‘And sometimes you just have to get on with it so that it’s more real for other people.’

It was ridiculous to mentally compare what they were doing now to what Sean had done for years. But sometimes, when things were difficult for her, Maggie would find herself thinking of what he might have seen and it made her braver, out of a sense of shame if nothing else. How could she be such a chicken about a simple thing like a boat when he’d risked his life dozens of times?

Sean still hadn’t really talked much about his years working in battle zones. Travelling from one hell to another. Every time they got close to broaching the subject he would get that look in his eyes, would shut the world out while he remembered. It was that vulnerability that drew her to him time after time. She would feel a tug from her heart, demanding that she offer him comfort of some kind. It pulled her closer to him as their friendship grew, it held her to him. That very vulnerability becoming her vulnerability. What little he talked about only drew her further in.

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