The Mighty Quinns: Liam

Liam finished his beer, then followed Conor out the door. He zipped up his jacket and glanced up and down the street. He and Sean had a flat seven blocks from the bar. He could go home and get some sleep or he could go back to the attic and keep his eye on Ellie Thorpe.

Liam shook his head as he headed for the bus stop. He wasn’t going back for her. He had a job to do and he promised Sean he’d do it. The fact that he hadn’t been able to get Ellie out of his head since he’d met her made absolutely no difference at all.

“DOUBLE AMERICANO, half caf!”

A man in a business suit pushed past Ellie to retrieve his coffee from the counter. Ellie raked her fingers through her hair and yawned. She leaned over and counted the number of people in front of her, deciding she’d get four shots of espresso in her latte rather than her usual two. Since her encounter with Liam Quinn three nights ago, she really hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep.

Her mind flashed back to a memory of him tied up on her living-room floor. A tiny flush warmed her cheeks. She certainly hadn’t expected her next encounter with a handsome man to include a little bondage. Just the thought of indulging in sex games with a man like Liam Quinn was enough to start her blood pumping much more effectively than any form of caffeine could.

Luckily, the police had dragged him away before she’d had more serious thoughts in that direction. When she’d left New York City, she’d vowed to take a break from men. It wasn’t that she didn’t like men, they just never seemed to like her—enough. She’d had five serious relationships in as many years and all of them had fallen apart for reasons unknown to her. One day everything had been perfect and the next she’d been single again.

After the second breakup, Ellie had decided that men were just fickle. After the third, she’d determined that she’d have to be more careful with her choices. By the fourth, she’d started to wonder if there was something wrong with her. And after her breakup with Ronald Pettibone, she’d come to the conclusion that she just wasn’t any good at romance.