Moira’s stomach dropped at the sound of her boss’s voice behind her.

Swirling, her jaw followed suit, and fell to her chest. She wished the ground would swallow her right that instant as she eyeballed the newcomers. Not so much because of Noah’s boyish grin splitting his face as he took in the scene he had walked into, but definitely because of the Greek god standing beside him.

She tried and failed to take her eyes off the young man’s perfection.

Smooth forehead, broad shoulders, and narrow hips.

Big blue eyes, shoulder-length brown hair, and drool-worthy brawny everything.

Her eyes stuck on the man’s powerful thighs bulging beneath the stretched fabric of his khaki Bermuda shorts.

Her brain stuck in a loop feeding her erotic scenes featuring another part of his anatomy that was equally bulging his shorts.

Damn it.

When arousal flooded her girly parts, like it hadn’t happened in forever, reminding Moira of her dry spell, she got self-conscious. Not of her natural reaction to the man’s beauty, but of her disheveled appearance.

Crap.

As Noah introduced his companion, she tucked a strand of hair that had escaped the loose bun she had piled on top of her head. “Ladies, sorry to interrupt your riveting debate, but I’d like you to meet the newest addition to my band. Aidan Gallagher, these are Ana Oliveira, Karen Razzini, and Moira Romano.”

Aidan dipped his head to greet each woman as Noah named them, but his eyes didn’t leave Moira’s when he spoke, in a charming accent that caressed her ears. “Always a pleasure meeting your country’s beauties. I think I might never go back to Ireland.”

That explained the music in his voice. Moira had lost hers, so she leaned on the mop and ogled, praying she wouldn’t drool.

Karen stretched out her hand. “Right back at you. Ireland has just shot up to the top of my dream destinations bucket list.”

Even his laughter has an enchanting ring to it.

Moira wished her inner teenager would behave, but that was a lost cause. Aidan Gallagher was the right age for the brat. Adult Moira, however, was too old for that kind of nonsense. She needed to focus on that. Maybe then she would regain control of her rebelled body.

Still incapable of speaking or moving, she watched Aidan bowed over Karen’s hand pretending to kiss it, like gentlemen used to do in imperial times, and whispered in French, “Enchanté.” He repeated the reverence to Ana. He did the same with Moira’s hand, except he didn’t let go of it, once he straighten his back. He held the fingers she tried to pull away and covered her hand with his other one. Blue eyes probed hers, and the rest of the world faded to the background. “Have dinner with me.”

Yes, screamed teen Moira.

The perfect arch of his right eyebrow hitched up, followed by his full lower lip. “Please?”

Yes, damn it, insisted the brat, stomping a foot.

Moira shut her eyes on temptation for a second and recovered her cool when she reopened them. Except, she had to focus her stare on the lower button of his polo shirt to be able to keep her resolve. “Sorry. I’ve got two kids to look after when I go home.” She brandished the killer blow with precision. Nothing scared men like the K word.

“I’m great with kids.”

Her time to probe his gaze. Aidan wasn’t bullshitting her. Great. Too bad he was a friend of her bosses, a barely legal friend of her bosses.

“I don’t doubt it, being close to their age and all.”

“Moira!” Karen and Ana scolded her.

“Ouch!” Noah sounded at the same time as the women.

Aidan was the only one amused by her words, as his guffaw indicated. The sound sparked another wave of reaction in her. She steeled her spine and held the scowl in place as it slipped.

He remarked, “Twenty-two is a long way from childhood, but I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Older than I thought, but still too young for my thirty-two. I’m flattered, but I’ll pass.” She gathered the mop and the bucket she had neglected and tipped her head toward the staff room. “Excuse me. I should get ready for work.”

Moira ignored the shadow which darkened the blue in his eyes when she pulled her hand out of the cocoon of his and scurried out of the bar. Her hands shook as she unbuttoned her old shorts and pulled the stained t-shirt over her head. She tossed them on the floor of the cramped staff bathroom. When she hoisted a leg to step into the black mini skirt of her uniform, Moira almost keeled over. She set her foot back on the ground and leaned against the wall, waiting for her shaky limbs to cooperate with her efforts.

Damn the guy.

She was safe in her illusion that she was immune to silly emotions, unattainable desires. Why the heck did Aidan have to pop up in her life and derail her secure existence? Her sex-free life?

Boring as hell life? Teen Moira suggested.

“Oh, shut the fuck up!” she uttered, as she donned the skirt and pulled on the white button-down shirt that completed the uniform. An elegant logo embroidered in golden thread set off the black apron she tied to her waist.

She peered into the mirror and sighed.

Life sucked sometimes. She couldn’t fool herself.

As attractive as Aidan was, he was off-limits.

Too young, too foreigner, too close to her breadwinning place.

Even if she overlooked the fact he was ten years her senior, Aidan could go back to his Ireland at any moment, leaving her behind. Or worse, she could screw up their relationship and lose her job. Noah and Tristan were fair bosses, but replacing a bartender would be much easier than a band member, if push came to shove.

Moira tied her hair in a tight bun at her nape and sighed again.

It was a no-brainer. She would not get involved with Aidan Gallagher.

Period.

Case closed.

Too bad her heart and brain didn’t speak the same language.

* * *

The damned man tested her decision all through her shift. Aidan plopped himself on a stool, nursed the same bottle of beer the whole time, and followed her every move. She ignored the way his knuckles turned white as he held the bottle. She didn’t engage when he talked to her, using the busy happy-hour as excuse every time he made a comment meant for her. At last, he gave up chatting, not so much staring.

She was exhausted when the shift ended.

Taking advantage of Aidan’s momentary distraction as he replied to something Noah asked him, Moira snuck out of the bar. She grabbed her backpack from the staff room, and left through the delivery door, not bothering to change into her civil clothes.

She drove her beat-up green Jetta like a manic through the packed streets at rush-hour.

Or like someone escaping her demons.

Either way, her mind raced more.

And it was all for nothing. Her demons lived inside her. They were going nowhere.

Frustrated, she parked in her driveway, killed the engine, and leaned her forehead against the cool leather of the steering wheel.

If only life were simpler.

Shaking her head to disperse the illusions that insisted on setting up camp inside her head, Moira got out of the car, slung the backpack on a shoulder and ambled to Mrs. Oliveira’s house, two doors down the street from hers.

Before she knocked on the front door, she heard Danielle’s and Felipe’s shrieks.

“Mom!”

Her heart swelled, as their footsteps scampered toward the door. They burst through it and pounced on her. She squatted and scooped them both in her arms, kissing their cheeks and hair. She inhaled their scent, her heart fluttered. Dani and Felipe were her life, her reality, her amazing kids.

She made a mental note to keep that in mind, shoving the intrusive dreams of tempting Irishmen back to the dungeon of her unconscious.

“Thanks, Mrs. Oliveira,” she muttered, straightening up when the elderly neighbor came to her front door.

“My pleasure. They’re easy kids to look after. Dani finished her homework in record time, so she decided to go ahead and teach Felipe what she had learned in school today.”

Moira grinned. “That’s my girl.” She kissed her daughter’s cheek.

“I’ve got an A in spelling today.”

“Good job, I’m proud of you. Now, go grab your things, so we can go home, and Mrs. Oliveira can have peace and quiet again. Felipe, help your sister.”

“Would you like to come in and have some coffee?” Mrs. Oliveira offered.

“Thank you, but we should go. Have you heard back from the doctors?”

The sweet lady had received a troubling diagnosis a few months earlier. The doctors suspected cancer, so they ran more tests to determine its stage.

“They’ve confirmed it’s a stage one tumor, so treatment will be non-invasive, and the prognosis is favorable.”

Relief seeped through Moira’s voice. “So glad to hear that. It would be hard going through more aggressive treatment living away from your family.”

Since Mr. Oliveira passed away, the neighbor’s family had been reduced to a daughter who lived more than ten hours away in São Paulo.

“You can say that again.”

When her kids returned carrying their backpacks, Moira thanked the lady again. “Thanks. Goodnight.”

At home, she cooked pizza, and they gobbled it down with soda as they watched cartoons on TV. Around eight, she put the little rascals in bed.

“Why do I need to go to bed? I’m not sleepy,” slurred Felipe as he dragged his feet along the corridor to his room.

She smiled. “Yeah, I can see that. It’s a school night, buddy. We all sleep early on school nights, right?”

“Right,” Danielle agreed, lacing her fingers through her mom’s.

Moira waited for her daughter to get under the covers, pulled them up, and kissed her smooth cheek. “Goodnight, angel. Sleep tight.”

She walked Felipe to his room, hoisted him onto bed, and tucked him in. When she leaned to kiss him goodnight, his soft snore made her smile.

With the kids sound asleep, she locked the doors, turned off the lights, and got in the shower. As the warm jets embraced her, washing the worries of the day away, she couldn’t keep the memory of Aidan’s face at bay anymore. And it invaded her mind with a strength that surprised her.

She never believed in lust at first sight. She certainly didn’t believe in love at first sight. Yet, she couldn’t ignore the emotions that took her senses by storm.

She knew Aidan was attracted to her as well. If she gave him half a chance, he would grab it.

Then, what?

After they had a couple of moments of bliss, some sweaty rounds under the covers, what would happen? There was no future for them, she reminded her stubborn heart as she got out of the shower and toweled dry herself. Any relationship she had with a man would mean putting her kids in contact with said boyfriend. What if they got attached and the relationship failed? Dani and Felipe had already been abandoned once. She wouldn’t put her children through that hell again.

Still, Aidan’s smile haunted her as she pulled her oversized t-shirt down her body and climbed into bed. Following her doctor’s advice, she didn’t wear panties to sleep a couple of nights a week.

Sleep didn’t come, and images of Aidan tempted her. It would be so easy to forget conventions for a couple of hours and jump his bones. She didn’t doubt she’d enjoy that. But, after all was over, what would she do?

She rolled over her stomach and buried her head under the pillow.

Useless. The X-rated images became more vivid as she shut her eyes tight.

“Shit.”

She rolled back and sat upright against the headboard. She adjusted the pillows behind her, then opened the top drawer in her nightstand to get her vibrator. She hadn’t used it for a while, so it wasn’t a surprise to find out the battery had died.

She mumbled as she closed the drawer. “Great.”

Moira could ignore the urges and wait for sleep to come. She had done that in the past, every time Bob had left her hanging.

Except, this time it was different.

Her body craved Aidan with an intensity that surprised her. She had never felt anything like that. Her sex pulsed at the memory of his full lips, smiling at her, tempting her.

She caved in. “Ah, what the hell?”

Slipping her butt down, she lay on her back, flattened her feet on the mattress, and took matters into her own hands. As she gasped, biting her lower lip to contain her moans, Moira envisioned Aidan’s chest rubbing hers, his thighs prying hers open, and his cock pounding her until she came.

And she did, like she hadn’t in a long time.

Muscles relaxed, heart beats decreasing, she curled around the body pillow, and smiled. She’d better not wonder how the real thing would make her feel.

As slumber claimed her consciousness, muting her brain, Moira’s heart dared to dream.