First and Only (Callaghan Brothers #2)

“So you’re going back... why?”


Ian shrugged. “I owe her.” At Jake’s questioning look he added, “She saved me from a very unpleasant woman on the trip.”

“Mm-hm,” Jake mumbled. “So to repay her for her kindness you’re going to ignore her wishes and go after her anyway?”

“Yeah, something like that,” Ian agreed happily as he strode out the door. “No good deed goes unpunished.”





Chapter Four




In snug, worn blue jeans – clean ones – and a white shirt rolled up to the elbows, Ian stood outside room 333 of the Carlisle Hotel, registered to one Alexis Kattapoulos. He could hear the muted sounds of the local hard rock radio station through the door.

It was not what he would have expected. He would have guessed she was the easy listening type, but then again, he had thought the same thing about Jake’s wife Taryn at first, and she turned out to be the biggest female head-banger he’d ever met.

He smiled. This was just getting better and better.

“Hang on,” she called in response to his knock. He shifted his weight, feeling more like a seventeen year-old boy than a twenty-seven year old ex-SEAL. What was it about this woman?

The look on her face was priceless when she opened the door. The look on his was probably even better.

“Ian!” she said, stepping back in surprise.

Ian might have responded, had his brain not gone into sudden lockdown. His body, however, seemed more alert than ever, standing at attention for her and her alone (some parts decidedly more erect and eager to please than others).

No longer restricted by the hoodie, her hair fell down below her ample breasts, now damp and curling into waves. He’d only caught a glimpse of the blonde strands before, but now he saw that her hair really wasn’t blonde at all. It was made up of dark red, bronze, gold, and platinum, like some kind of living fire, wrapping her upper body in silken heat.

Instead of concealing jeans and a hoodie, she wore low-rise Capri sweats, a short white tank, and, Lord help him, no bra. Her skin was unmarred, a perfect light bronze, glistening like brushed satin. A golden chain, so finely linked it looked like it could have been made by mythical elves, draped across her abdomen, resting lazily upon her lush hips.

If the sight of her wasn’t enough, the scent of her nearly had him on his ass. Sweet, fresh, citrusy. Refreshing and warm at the same time. Suddenly his mouth was watering.

“Hey,” he managed roughly, but just barely. “I, uh, thought maybe, ...” Hell, he sounded like a moron, incapable of stringing a few words together to form a coherent sentence. Where had all of those smooth lines he’d been running through his mind gone? Oh, yeah. They probably all rushed down into his groin along with all of his blood.

She didn’t seem to notice his floundering (or if she did, she was too kind to say so). Her surprise at seeing him changed to curiosity as her gaze landed on the aromatic bag he held limply in his hands. “Food?”

Shit, she was talking to him. At least he thought she was. He was having trouble breaking away from the hypnotizing sparkle of her eyes. Eyes that were like polished amber, fathoms deep, and glowing. This wasn’t a girl. This was a freaking goddess. “Um, yeah, I –“

Taking pity on him, she gently relieved him of the bag and opened it up, leaning in to sniff the contents. The look on her face was one of such elation that Ian almost groaned out loud. “Oh my God. How did you know?”

How did he know? How did he know what? He couldn’t even remember his own name.

“Burgers!” she was saying as she took the bag over to the little table in her room and began to unpack the contents. “Real, honest-to-goodness American beef!” Her grin grew even wider as she pulled out another package. “And fries! Good Lord, I hope they’ve been deep-fried in the real stuff...”

She pulled one out and put it between her lips. Ian swore that she orgasmed in that moment; the pure ecstasy on her face was so beautiful it made his cock throb.

“Oh, God, they are!”

She hadn’t officially invited him in, but given the rapturous attention she was giving to the simple take-out he’d brought, he figured she wouldn’t mind too much. He stepped into the room, closing the door softly behind him.

“You haven’t eaten, then?” he said with a little smile as he tried to recover. She waved him into the chair across from her, shaking her head.

“No, I was just about to order room service.” She took another bite and studied him carefully. “Are you psychic or something?”

He chuckled at her question. Psychic, no. One step away from spontaneously combusting, absolutely. “No, why?”

“Dragonfire burgers are only my most favorite meal in the world. Haven’t had one in ages.”