The Mighty Quinns: Rourke by Kate Hoffmann Page A

wanted to wear a long dress and have someone buy me a wrist corsage. I wanted a boy to kiss me and to treat me like I wasn’t the strange girl in school.”
    He stared at her for a long time, his anger fading to be replaced by regret. “I’m not going to want to hear this, am I?”
    “My grandmother didn’t have money to buy me a new dress, but we found a beautiful party dress that my mother had once worn. It had a velveteen bodice and a skirt made of tulle and it was the prettiest shade of green.”
    “It went with your eyes,” he murmured.
    Annie nodded, smiling. “It did. And I felt beautiful for the first time in my life. And then one of the girls at school told me that the bullies had paid this boy to ask me and that he was just not going to show up the night of the dance. He was going to leave me waiting.”
    This time Rourke cursed out loud. “Who was this kid? Does he still live on the island? Because I’m thinking I might have to beat the shit out of him.”
    “That’s not the point,” she said.
    “It damn well is. Was it Decker who set this all up? Was he the ringleader?”
    “The point is that I should have been able to read the signs. I should have suspected that something was up. But I didn’t have the...intuition. I wasn’t a very perceptive girl. And I really wanted to believe that my prince had come.”
    “So now you just mistrust everyone you meet?”
    She shrugged, forcing a smile. “Yeah, pretty much.”
    “And you think that my wanting to insulate your attic is some kind of trick?”
    When he said it that way, Annie realized how ridiculous it sounded. “No, of course not. But I don’t always think things out before I react. When something confuses me, I just throw the walls up and wait for the bombs to start dropping.”
    “And do they?”
    Annie thought about his question for a long moment, then shook her head. “Not since that day.”
    “You can trust me,” Rourke said. He crossed the room and sat down on the hearth, then reached out and took her hands. Pressing her fingers to his lips, he stared into her eyes. “I would never, ever do anything to hurt you, Annie. If you believe one thing in this life, believe in that.”
    “You might not even know you’re doing it.” Her voice caught in her throat, betraying the emotion behind her words.
    “And that’s why you need to talk to me and tell me how you feel. As much as I’d like to, I can’t read your thoughts.”
    Maybe it was time, Annie thought to herself. Sooner or later, she’d have to take a risk in life. And she felt safe with Rourke. She believed that he did care about her. And even if she got hurt in the end, at least she would have tried. She couldn’t live inside a protective shell for the next fifty years. If she did, she’d always be alone.
    “All right,” she said. “You can insulate my attic.”
    He slipped his hand around the back of her neck, tangling his fingers in her hair, then pulled her into a kiss. Annie felt her resistance crumble and she pulled him back onto the bed with her.
    “I should finish the roof,” he murmured, smoothing the hair out of her eyes.
    “That can wait,” she said. She ran her fingertips over his lower lip, then kissed him.
    The kiss dissolved into a frantic seduction and it wasn’t long before she’d rid him of his clothes. And when he pulled her legs tight around his hips and sank deep inside of her, Annie knew that she was lost. Even if she wanted to fight this, to resist his charms, she couldn’t. He owned her, body and soul, and there was nothing she could do about it.
    * * *
    R OURKE SNIFFED AT his hands. No matter how hard he’d scrubbed them, in the kitchen sink and in the shower in the lighthouse, the smell of fish still lingered.
    Lady Gray had returned that afternoon, waiting patiently at the bottom of the porch steps for Annie to appear. The sun had come out for a short time and he and Annie had enjoyed the turn in the weather as they’d fed the seal.
    He