Angel's Share by Clare Austin

Aidan Kennedy travelled half way around the world to forget the beautiful Galway woman who stole his heart one night in a Dublin pub. Had Kerry Sloane underestimated the price of fame?


Vengeance tore them apart. Will it be the catalyst to spark the flames of love again?

Excerpt:

Kerry stepped into the dining room and stopped. A cold hand gripped her belly and her breath quickened. Was it the way he sat, his back to her, elbows on the bar? Was it how his coat hung from broad shoulders or how his dark hair needed a trim? It chilled her to her marrow.

“Excuse me,” she started to step forward as he swiveled around on the stool. “Nunzio said…”

Golden eyes swept over her with enough heat to melt her bones. She was in a nightmare with a lion snapping at her heels. She needed to run, but her legs were leaden. The room whirled and closed in, black waves of fear threatened to overtake her and pull her into oblivion.

“Aren’t you going to say ‘hello’?” he asked.

“I…what…why are you here?” The question seemed inane. Her mind disconnected from her vocal chords.

“You don’t sound happy to see me.”

His voice hadn’t changed. Nor had the distinctive Belfast accent mellowed. It could still stop her pulse and then send it into double time.

“Aidan…” The name came with a rush of breath. Seeing him here, so close she could feel the power emanating from him, took her ability to think.

The corner of his mouth lifted into a half smile. “You look beautiful, Kerry. The dress suits you.”

Kerry’s rapid pulse was making her dizzy. “My sister…she got married today.”

Aidan laughed. “Flannery—that pint sized, punked out fiddle player? Married?”

“Well, she grew up.” Kerry wanted to walk away, but Aiden was a magnet that held her. She’d never been able to resist his compelling gaze, the roughly hewn turn of his jaw, the sensuous line of his lips. His tall, lean body was like a spring wound tight—ready.

Aidan had changed, but the changes were subtle. His face and body had matured, as though he had been thrown into the forge of life and come out tempered, hard but more resilient. The one aspect of him she hadn’t expected was the way he could, with a word and a look, threaten to dissolve every promise she had made to protect herself from him.

“Aidan, you shouldn’t have come here.” It was a statement and a plea. His proximity shook her. The scent of him filled her with hot-sweet memories and made her want to touch him.

“Did you think you could hide from me forever?” He took a step toward her. She instinctively stepped back. “Fame makes for a small world, Kerry.”

“You made your choice four years ago, Aidan. There’s nothing here for you.” Kerry was surprised at how thin her voice sounded—how unsure.

“My choice? If memory serves, you left me.” He reached out and touched her cheek.

“Don’t!” She flinched. “Aidan, you should leave.”

Nunzio approached. “Step away from the lady, Mister.”

Kerry shook her head at Di Silva and he backed off.

Aidan straightened. He ignored the bouncer, his hint of a smile faded, and a muscle tightened in his jaw.

“Kerry,” he said, his voice a cold echo devoid of emotion. “You took somethin’ that belongs to me. I think it’s time we agreed to share what we made together.”

A searing bolt so real Kerry was sure it had pierced her heart sent her stumbling backward until she bumped into a chair. Anger, loss, and bone deep regret coalesced in a cataclysmic assault on her spirit. She grasped the cold oak of the chair back and let the hardness of it dig into her palms.

When she found words, they came in a gasp. “I have nothing. We have nothing.” She was only able to meet his eyes long enough to make him real to her. “Whatever you thought we had together was as fragile as dandelion seeds blown on the wind and gone.”

Kerry turned and walked up the back stairs and away from the man to whom she had once pledged her love.


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