The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

his knuckle, eased it open. She’d already wrapped a towel around herself and was slathering on the cream she kept in a little white pot. He thought it smelled like warm apricots, and it never failed to whet his appetite.
    Her hair was wet and curled and wild as it was in the painting she had in her room. It reminded him, uncomfortably, of his dream.
    “I brought you some tea.” “
    “That’s lovely. Thanks.” She took the cup, smiling at him. Her eyes were still dreamy from her song. “I thought maybe you’d gone on to work already. I’m glad you didn’t.”
    She moved closer to touch her mouth to his. She felt soft everywhere from wishing he’d take her back to bed to make love again as they had in the night.
    “I was about to come up and wake you.” Wanting her clouded his brain, just as the steam clouded the bath. So he stepped out, kept the door open. “You beat me to it.”
    She sipped the hot tea as the air in the bedroom shivered in and chilled her. “And what did you have in mind for after you’d waked me?”
    A man with a single-digit IQ and no libido would have caught the invitation. Stay on track, Trevor warned himself. “A walk.”
    “A walk?”
    “Yeah.” He moved across the room to sit on the edge of the bed. He didn’t intend to touch her and lose focus, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t watch her dress and torture himself. “You usually walk down to the village anyway. So we’ll take a walk, then I’ll drive you down.”
    She was pink and warm and fragrant from her shower, naked but for a towel, and the man wanted to go tramping around in the mist. A woman with less confidence, Darcy thought, would wonder if she’d misplaced her sex appeal during the night.
    It didn’t mean she couldn’t be miffed. “
    “Don’t you have to work?” Prepared to pout, she turned to the closet.
    “I can take the morning. Mick’s coming in to keep an eye on things. Between him and Brenna I can spare a couple hours.”
    The fact was, he could have spared days. Even weeks. It would have been more sensible to return to New York, handle the business he had there up front rather than long distance. But he watched Darcy slither into underwear and knew he wasn’t going anywhere in the near future. Not alone.
    “Mr. O’Toole should be at home yet. Recuperating.” “ ‘
    “I’ve had me fill of women fluttering around me person day and night.’ ” Trevor’s very passable mimic of Mick’s disgust had a smile tugging at Darcy’s lips.
    “Nonetheless.” “
    “You want to try to keep him down? Be my guest. Me, I don’t have the heart.”
    “Well.” She pondered over a shirt. “As long as he doesn’t overdo. It’s not that he’s old, but he’s not as young as he was, either. And being a man, he’ll want to do more than he should.”
    “Meaning men show off?”
    “Of course they do.” She shot an amused and female look over her shoulder. Indulgent and insulting. “Don’t you?”
    “Probably. But Brenna isn’t liable to let him overdo. She doesn’t flutter, she just watches him like a she-wolf watches a pup. I think he likes it. Men also like being pampered by a woman. They just have to pretend it annoys them.”
    “As if having two brothers I didn’t know that already. I’ll lure him into the kitchen for a hot meal and some pampering and tell him how strong and handsome he is.” She did up the buttons of the shirt. “He likes the flattery as well.”
    Holding her trousers by one finger, her shirttail skimming her thighs, she turned. “And, as I can attest you’re a man as well, wouldn’t you like some of the same? I might be persuaded to fix you a meal downstairs in the cozy kitchen and tell you you’re strong and handsome.”
    Adam’s temptation for an apple was nothing compared to Darcy’s smile. But there were priorities. “I had a bagel.” He grinned at her. “It was great.”
    “Then I’m pleased.” Baffled, but pleased. She stepped into her trousers, slipped on her shoes. “Just let me fix my hair and face, and I’ll be right with you.”
    “What’s wrong with your hair?” “
    “It’s wet, for one thing.”
    “It’s damp out, so it won’t matter.” Impatient now, he rose to take her hand. “If I let you go into that bathroom, you won’t come out for an hour.”
    “Trevor.” Exasperated, she tugged to try to free her hand as he pulled her down the steps. “I’m only half done here.”
    “You look beautiful.” Moving quickly,