“And what’s wrong with that?” Faith asks curiously. “He was wearing his headphones after all, wasn’t he?”

“I forgot to plug them into the stereo.” Patrick takes a quick sip of his beer and sets it on the bar. “Nearly blasted the bloody building to the ground. Here’s me, thinking all that racket is inside my headphones, when they can hear it ten roads away.”

Brian leans in and interrupts Faith and my laughter. “Down the stairs comes our landlord in nothing but his jocks, pounding on the door to shut it off, but by that stage Patrick is passed out under the coffee table. And a cheese toastie burning on the stove.” The brothers exchange a laugh of recollection. “You’re lucky I came in when I did or they’d be digging your arse out of the rubble.”

Patrick throws a hand over his heart. “Brother.”

Brian shakes his head, but there’s a sparkle in his eye. “You’re a menace.”

I open my mouth to ask where they’re planning on staying, but I feel a shift in the bar’s energy. It’s swift and I appear to be the only one who feels it. The other three continue their conversation unfettered, but I rub my arms and search for the source of disruption.

I see Shane. He’s a head taller than most people in the bar and he’s looking directly at me, prowling toward us in a manner that all at once offends me and renders me breathless. Who does he think he is, moving like that? Women turn as he passes, possibly feeling the same surge in energy I did. It irritates me even more when he doesn’t pay them any notice, as if he’s so used to female attention, it’s a foregone conclusion.

As he comes closer, I notice his glacial gaze is locked on Patrick’s arm, thrown innocently around my shoulder. Without thinking, I slip from beneath it.

Faith is chattering away beside me, her voice full of youthful enthusiasm I’m kind of beginning to envy. I’ve gone this far in giving her a night of freedom, so I decide to salvage it before Shane blows my efforts to hell.

“Brian, if you don’t ask Faith to dance soon, she’s going to spontaneously combust. Then you won’t have a place to live, or a bar to drink in.”

No sooner are the words out of my mouth than Brian shoves his drink into Patrick’s hands and twirls a squealing Faith toward the dance floor. I throw a quick, “I’ll be right back,” at a curious Patrick and move to intercept Shane. We meet at the center of the bar, and I try to ignore the sighs of obvious disappointment from the women around me when they assume I’m his girlfriend. I almost laugh at how far off they are. His disdain for me is written all over his face. It’s in every line of his hard body.

“Are you daft, girl?”

I have zero patience for questions like that. There really is no acceptable answer. My options are either No, I’m not daft, which will be unsatisfying for us both. Or Yes, in fact, I am daft, which will required a lot more explanation. “How did you find us?”

His jaw tightens when I don’t address his question. “It hardly matters.”

“Does to me.”

Over my head, he watches Faith dance and I see a strange look enter his eye, before it vanishes. “You left the address on a note, stuck to your nightstand. I put two and two together.”

My mind races with the implications of that. I can feel my neck getting hot, my temper beginning to make an appearance. “You went into my room?”

“I had no choice. Kitty saw you two leave together, and Faith won’t answer her bloody phone.” He shrugs his broad shoulders impatiently. “It’s not as if I went through your underwear drawer.”

“I’ll never know for sure, will I?”

“If I wanted to see your underwear, there are more creative ways to accomplish it.”

If I still had a beer in my hand, it would now be sloshing down over his dark head. The comical image is not nearly enough to satisfy me. Not at all. I get right up in his face, swallowing my nerves when his eyes land on my mouth and darken imperceptibly. “If you seeing my underwear was the only thing preventing the destruction of planet Earth and the end of mankind as we know it, I would still have to think about it.”

Shane clucks his tongue. “That’s selfish, now, isn’t it?” He leans in close to speak right beside my ear. My hair shifts with each movement of his lips. “I’m not nearly as selfish. Not when it counts. Bear that in mind next time you’re deciding which panties to wear under those damnably tight jeans.”

Something heavy moves in my belly, twisting and expanding. I suck in a quick breath. Doing my best to ignore the uncomfortable sensation, I jerk back. “Did you come here just to comment on my choice in undergarments?”

“No,” Shane bites out. The sensuality in his eyes is gone, replaced by irritation once again. His moods shift so fast, even my own volatile temperament is having a hard time keeping up. He’s knocking me off balance and I resent him for it. Possibly because I’m usually the one doing the knocking. “I’m here because this hellhole is no place for my sister. Don’t let this go to your head, but I pegged you as smarter than to bring her somewhere like this. Somewhere that could send her out a different person than when she walked through the door.”

His barb hits the mark, because I know he’s right. Mostly. But it’ll be a cold day in hell before I give him an ounce of satisfaction. “Last time I checked she was old enough to make her own decisions.”

He shakes his head, a humorless smile on his face. “God, I saw this coming. You just couldn’t leave her alone, could you? You made it all of one week before blowing off my simple request.”

“Look, she begged to come with me. It’s no wonder, the way her entire life is devoted to the inn. One night isn’t going to bring on a Full Lohan.” I throw a glance over my shoulder to see a laughing Faith being spun by Brian, her feet completely off the floor. When I turn back around, Shane has already started moving toward the dance floor, obviously intending to retrieve his sister, mortifying her in the process. Can’t let it happen. Quickly, I put a hand on his chest to stop him, ignoring the electricity that shoots up my limb. “Don’t do this to her, please. Can you just give us five minutes? Wait for us outside.”

His snapping blue gaze drops to my hand, still pressed against his chest. “You told me never to touch you again. Does this mean we’re breaking that rule?”