LITMIR.BIZ

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made it easy. He’d insisted that as a Catholic priest, his decision to give up sex for a lifetime was something not one of his brothers could match. He dared them to be celibate for ninety days—last man standing winning the ten thousand dollars. And if all three of the triplets failed, then Liam got the money for a new roof for his church.

      Connor shot his older brother a suspicious look. He had a feeling that Liam was already getting estimates from local roofers. Scowling, he took another sip of his beer and let his gaze shift to Brian. A month ago the triplets had stood together in this bet, but now one had already fallen. Brian had reconciled with his ex-wife, Tina, and, now there was just Connor and Aidan to survive the bet.

      “Don’t know about you,” Aidan said, jamming his elbow into Connor’s rib cage, “but I’m avoiding all females for the duration.”

      “No self-control, huh?” Liam grinned and lifted his beer for another long drink.

      “You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?” Connor glared at him.

      “Damn right I am,” Liam said laughing. “Watching the three of you has always been entertaining. Just more so lately.”

      “Ah,” Brian said, “the two of them. I’m out, remember?”

      “Didn’t even last a month,” Aidan said with a slow, sad shake of his head.

      Brian’s self-satisfied smile spoke volumes. “Never been so glad about losing a bet in my life.”

      “Tina’s a peach, no doubt about it,” Connor said, just a little irritated by Brian’s “happy man” attitude. “But there’s still the matter of you in that ridiculous outfit to consider.”

      Not only did the losers lose the money in this bet, but they’d agreed to ride around in the back of a convertible, wearing coconut bras and hula skirts while being driven around the base on Battle Color day…the one day of the year when every dignitary imaginable would be on the Marine base.

      Brian shuddered, then manfully sucked it up and squared his shoulders. “It’ll still be worth it.”

      “He’s got it bad,” Aidan muttered, and held up both index fingers in an impromptu cross, as if trying to keep Brian at a distance.

      “Laugh all you want,” Brian said, leaning over the table to stare first at one brother, then the other. “But I’m the only one here having regular—and can I just add—great, sex.”

      “That was cold, man.” Aidan groaned and scraped one hand over his face.

      “Heartless,” Connor agreed.

      Liam laughed, clapped his hands together, then rubbed his palms briskly. Black eyebrows lifting, he looked at his brothers and asked, “Either of you care to back out now? Save time?”

      “Not likely,” Aidan muttered.

      “That’s for damn sure.” Connor held out one hand to Aidan. “In this to the end?”

      Aidan’s grip was fierce. “Or until you cave. Whichever comes first.”

      “In your dreams.” Connor’d never lost a bet yet and he wasn’t about to start with this one. Of course, the stakes were higher and the bet more challenging than anything else he’d ever done, but that didn’t matter. This was about pride. And he’d be damned if he’d let Aidan beat him. Besides, “No way am I gonna be riding in that convertible with Brian.”

      “I’ll save you a seat,” Brian said, grinning.

      “Oh, man, I need another beer.” Aidan lifted one hand to get the waitress’s attention.

      Another beer would be good. All he had to do was not look at the waitress. Connor’s gaze snapped from Aidan to Brian and finally to Liam. “This game’s far from over, you know.”

      “There’s two, count ’em, two long, tempting months left,” Liam reminded him.

      “Yeah, well, don’t be picking out roof shingles just yet, Father.”

      Liam just smiled. “The samples are coming tomorrow.”

      The next morning Connor sat in the sunlight outside Jake’s Garage and sighed heavily. South Carolina in July. Even the mornings were hot and steamy. The heat flattened a man until all he wanted to do was either escape to a beach and ocean breezes or find a nice shady tree and park himself beneath it.

      Neither of which Connor was doing. He was on leave. Two weeks off and nothing to do. Hell, he didn’t even want to go anywhere. What would be the point? He couldn’t date. Couldn’t spend any time at all with a woman the way he was feeling. He was a man on the edge.

      Two more months of this bet and he wasn’t sure how he was going to survive. Connor liked women. He liked the way they smelled and the way they laughed and the way they moved. He liked dancing with ’em, walking with ’em and most especially, he liked making love to ’em.

      So he’d never found the one.

      Who said he was looking for her?

      His mother, Maggie, had been telling her sons the story of her own whirlwind courtship and marriage to their father since they were kids. They’d all heard about the lightning bolt that had hit Maggie and Sean Reilly. About how they’d shared a dance at a town picnic, fallen desperately in love and within two weeks had been married. Nine months later, Liam had arrived and just two years later, the triplets.

      Maggie had long been a big believer in love at first sight and had always insisted that when the time was right, each of her sons…well, except for Liam, would be hit by a thunderbolt.

      Connor had made it a point to steer clear of storms.

      “Boy, you look like you could chew glass.” Emma Jacobsen, owner and manager of Jake’s Garage, took a seat on the bench beside him.

      Connor smiled. Here was the one woman he could trust himself with. The one woman he’d never thought of as, well…a woman.

      She wore dark-blue coveralls and a white T-shirt beneath. Her long, blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail and braided, falling to the middle of her back. She had a smudge of grease across her nose, and the cap she wore shaded her blue eyes. She’d been his friend for two years, and he could honestly say he’d never once wondered what she looked like under those coveralls.

      Emma was safety.

      “It’s this damn bet,” Connor muttered, and leaned his elbows on the bench back behind him, stretching out his legs and crossing them at the ankles.

      “So why’d you agree to it in the first place?”

      He grinned. “Turn down a challenge?”

      She laughed. “What was I thinking?”

      “Exactly.” He shook his head and sighed. “But it’s harder than I thought it’d be. I’m telling you, Em, I spend most of my time avoiding women like the plague. Hell, I even crossed the street yesterday when I saw a gorgeous redhead coming my way.”

      “Poor baby.”

      “Sarcasm isn’t pretty.”

      “Yeah, but so appropriate.” She smiled and punched his shoulder. “So if you’re avoiding women, what’re you doing hanging around my place?”

      Straightening up, Connor dropped one arm around her shoulder and gave her a quick, comradely squeeze. “That’s the beauty of it, Em. I’m safe here.”

      “Huh?”

      He looked at the confusion on her face and explained. “I can hang out with you and not worry. I’ve never wanted you. Not that way. So being here is like finding a demilitarized zone in the middle of a war.”

      “You’ve never wanted me.”

      “We’re pals, Em.” Connor gave her another squeeze just to prove how much he thought of her. “We can talk

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