The waiter returns then, dropping a large rectangular plate full of colorful sushi. “You gonna help me eat this?” I ask Tess.

She nods, but then cautiously reaches for another small piece. “Tell me something about yourself,” she says.

“Like what?”

“Like anything.” The corners of her mouth lift. “For all the time we’ve spent together lately, I don’t feel like I know you.”

“I’m pretty damn boring. Good-looking, smart, funny, and with butt cheeks capable of rubbing two sticks together and starting a fire, but boring all the same.”

She tilts her chin, her features growing a little sad. “Why do you do that?”

I pause, wondering what I said wrong, before reaching for a roll. “Do what?”

“Say a lot without really saying anything at all.”

I stop mid-chew. Yeah, this babe’s no dumb broad. “How about I tell you a story instead?”

“A story? You mean about your police training?”

“Nah, I told you everything there is to know.” Okay, not really. “Let me tell you about my family instead.”

“Your family?” she asks, like she doesn’t believe me.

“Sure. You said you wanted to get to know me, right?”

“I really do,” she says with a soft smile I feel down to my gut. Shit, what’s happening here?

I crack my knuckles, trying to relax and shake off whatever the hell she hit me with. “Okay. Then I’ll tell you about the first time I almost got laid.”

The roll falls from her chopsticks, and the smile drops from her face. Her attention sweeps the room. “Do you think this is appropriate?” she whispers breathlessly. “We’re in a restaurant.”

“Probably not, but it’s pretty damn funny.” I chuckle. “Well, at least it is now.”

“But you said you were going to tell me about your family.”

“Oh, it involves them, too,” I assure her.

As much as she’s trying to keep me quiet, there’s no missing the flickers of curiosity in her gaze. “All right,” she says. “I’m all ears.”

No, you’re all legs. Legs I want to wrap around my— I cough into my shoulder. “Okay. See, there’re six of us boys.”

“Six? You have five siblings?”

“No, I have six, on account there’s also our sister, Erin—she goes by Wren. You know, the one who caught our brother fucking—”

“Yes, yes, I know,” she says, shushing me. She slumps back in the booth. “Wow. Seven children in one family.”

I hold out my hands. “What do you expect? We’re Catholic. Anyways, I think Ma and Papa would have stopped after Wren was born and they got their girl. But the Phils made the playoffs the following year and there was all this beer. Nine months later, Ma’s pushing Finnie out on our kitchen floor—but that’s another story.”

“Good Lord,” Tess says, her mouth falling open.

“Yeah, Ma said the same thing, except not so politely. Anyway, so Angus, Seamus, Declan, and Killian had all gotten laid. I turn sixteen, and I still haven’t popped my cherry.”

Tess’s eyes are now the size of the crab roll, but she’s not exactly telling me to stop, so I keep going. “Deanna Zaccara was a girl from the neighborhood. I think she runs a daycare now. Back in the day, she had quite the rep, especially following her affair with the wrestling coach. One day after school, she came up to me, told me I was cute, and asked if she could come over to our house to study.”

Tess tightens her grip on her chopsticks. “Curran! You took advantage of a young woman who was taken advantage of by a teacher?”

“She was nineteen when they were screwing.”

“Nineteen? She was in college?”

“No, high school. I said Deanna had a rep. I never claimed she was a scholar.” I take another bite of food. “So I told her yes. Like an imbecile, I thought she really wanted to study so she’d finally get her ass out of high school. It wasn’t until she dragged me into my parents’ bedroom that I realized she wasn’t interested in my mind.”

Tess gapes at me, and it’s all I can do to keep a straight face. “So I’m all excited,” I tell her, “thinking my time had come. What I didn’t know was that Ma had to close down the dry cleaner she ran early due to a gas leak in the building.”

Tess covers her mouth. “Your mother walked in on you?”

I smirk. “And my grandmother—God rest her soul.”

“No!”

“Oh, yeah. So there I am, wearing Deanna’s green panties—”

“Why were you wearing green panties?” Her fair skin morphs to beet red when she realizes the waiter’s looming over us.

“Deanna was also into some kinky shit,” I tell her truthfully, before glancing up at the waiter. “Hey, you got any dessert specials?”

“Cheesecake, sir. And, ah, green tea ice cream.”

I grin. “Perfect. We’ll take one of each.”

“Yes, sir.”

Tess leans in as the waiter disappears, speaking low. “I can’t believe that was your first sexual experience.”

I lift a piece of sushi and bring it to her mouth. She glances at it, then shocks me by letting me feed it to her. For some reason, it’s a bit of a turn-on.

Who am I kidding? Everything about her turns me on.

I pull back a little, watching her eat and forcing myself to finish my story. “I never said it was my first time. Ma freaked out and beat me over the head with her sneakers while Grammie begged God not to send me straight to hell. Deanna ran out without her panties and I spent the rest of the afternoon in confession wearing them beneath my jeans.” I lift another roll and offer it to her. “So, you going to tell me what your first time was like?”

Chapter 7

Tess

We stumble into my hallway, both of us laughing. My stomach muscles are clenched so tight, I drop my purse stuffed with legal briefs, and have to clutch the doorframe to keep from falling over.

Tears stream down my face as Curran finishes another riveting tale from his childhood. “I swear to God, my mother became bionic,” he says. “She chased Declan down the street when he bolted, trying to escape her wrath. Not two seconds later, she kicks open the front door and hauls him inside by the ear, all a hundred pounds of her dragging his six-foot frame like he was nothing.”

I wipe my eyes. “What did she do to him?”

“God only knows. The rest of us were jumping out windows trying to get out of her way. I gotta tell you, though, Declan never said ‘fuck’ in front of her again—hell, none of us swore in front of her after that.”

I place my hand against my chest. “I don’t blame you. From what you’ve told me, your mother’s one tough lady.”

Curran leans against the wall, his smile softening. “She is. She instilled the fear of God into us, and didn’t let us get away with anything. But she was always there for us, you know? As pissed as we’d get about how strict she was, we knew she loved us.”

I smile. “It couldn’t have been easy for her, raising so many children, and raising them all to be good people. But she did, and it’s obvious she put her heart and soul into it.”

“Yeah, she did,” he adds as if remembering.

Maybe it’s me, but there’s something hot about a man as tough as Curran having a soft spot for his mother.

Or maybe he’s just plain hot.

My smile diminishes the longer I take him in, and as his stare sears into mine.

Jesus…I’m not sure what’s happening. If it’s good, or bad, or simply just is. But silence seems to envelop us at once, and all life stops except for the breaths between us.

My hand slowly slips from my chest. If it weren’t for the distant sound of moving traffic, I’d swear time had ground to a halt and carved out this moment solely for us.