She forced herself to look up, then suddenly realized her mistake. He was looking down at her, the most beautiful blue eyes she’d ever seen locked on hers, those full, strong lips quirked in amusement. And his breath smelled like chocolate. Oh, hell, no. This man was devastating each and every one of her senses, blowing them away with the force of a nuclear blast.
Surely she was still asleep, dreaming that the sexy prof was actually talking to, walking with, and smiling at her. That was the most logical explanation as he held open the door for her. His other hand hovered along her back protectively, its radiating heat contrasting with the crisp night air. It was a bit embarrassing, but she didn’t blame him for his caution. So far she’d fallen asleep in his class, babbled like an idiot, and nearly managed to fall backward over a stationary desk. Of course, walking into the doorway when she glanced back to make sure she wasn’t dreaming probably didn’t do much to convince him otherwise, either.
“I’m not usually this clumsy,” she told him as she rubbed at the now-sore spot on her shoulder.
“You said you’re tired,” he offered. She accepted that small kindness gratefully.
“Yeah, that must be it.” It certainly couldn’t be that a Celtic god in human form was walking with her. Speaking with her. Touching her occasionally. It was no secret on campus that when Shane Callaghan guest-lectured in Professor Steven’s Ethics class it was standing room only. She vaguely wondered where everyone else had gone; normally the line to speak with him extended out into the hallway; at least that’s what her younger sister had told her when she’d taken this class last semester.
As they walked along, she realized that not only the classroom, but the entire building, was empty. She withheld another groan at the thought that everyone must have witnessed her unintentional snooze. Night school was hard enough without adding social ineptitude.
Sparks shot out from the point of contact on her lower back as Shane gently guided her around a piece of statuary that would have done some serious damage to her kneecaps had she walked into it.
“I’m questioning the sanity of letting you get behind the wheel,” he said, his deep voice wrapping around her like velvet and filled with obvious amusement. What he didn’t seem to realize was that he was the source of her current ineptitude. Shane Callaghan was the human male equivalent of a solar flare, messing up all of her circuits. She’d walked this path a hundred times and never had an issue. Well, not that anyone saw, anyway.
Instead of voicing those thoughts aloud and adding to her humiliation, however, she simply nodded, hoping to clear away some of the fog while at the same time clinging to it. “You’re probably right. Maybe I should grab a coffee first.”
“Mind if I join you?”
His words, completely unexpected, had her freezing so suddenly on the spot that Shane took a step beyond her before he realized she’d come to an abrupt halt. “Why would you do that?” Lacie asked, her blue eyes the size of saucers as she regarded him. Was he kidding?
The light breeze caught his hair – a black so dark and shiny it looked blue – pushing locks of it into his face. His eyes – a crystalline blue – were like brilliant sapphires in the moonlight. The effect was startling. She sucked in a breath, a conscious effort to remind her temporarily failing autonomic systems that breathing was essential
He shrugged, offering a boyish grin. “I’m not sure exactly. Maybe because you’ve made me smile more in the last ten minutes than I have in the last ten days.”
It took a few moments for his words to penetrate the haze. Oh. Comic relief. Yeah, well, okay. She could do that. It was probably the only time she’d ever get a chance like this, so why not?
“You like to live dangerously, don’t you?” she said, flashing him a friendly smile again. “No, I don’t mind, but I’m warning you - you do so at your own risk.”
“Duly noted,” he chuckled. “But I think I’ll take my chances.”
Chapter Two
Shane hadn’t been entirely honest with her. She did make him smile, that much was true, and heaven knew, he could use more of that these days. Five of his brothers – including his twin – were now happily married, leaving only him and his younger brother Kieran feeling somewhat... lost? Left behind, maybe?
They had always been a very close-knit group. For the most part, their adult lives had been a series of dangerous missions interspersed with Callaghan-centric recharge time. Over the last several years, though, the dynamics had changed. They had wives and kids to turn to. They had other places to go. Other things to do.
Not that Shane sat around on the sidelines twiddling his thumbs these days, not by any means. As the legal counsel for his family and their vast (and lucrative) interests he stayed quite busy. And with himself and Kieran as the only unattached males, they were taking on more of the special forces task load, both out of a sense of responsibility and for the sense of purpose it gave them.