Free Hot Whispers of an Irishman by Dorien Kelly

relax.
    Vi hurried her pace, preferring to meet Liam head-on while temper gripped her. He had seen her and was frozen like a mad bit of statuary midfield.
    “I don’t suppose you’re divining for water, now are you?” she asked as she approached.
    His mouth curved into a brief smile that she’d call embarrassed if she didn’t know its owner. Nothing in life had ever embarrassed Liam Rafferty, not even when they’d been discovered naked by German tourists in Castle Duneen.
    “Actually, I’m looking for Rafferty’s gold.”
    Well now, perhaps he’d found something sufficiently ripe to match that smile. She hesitated before speaking, waiting to see if he’d say it was a joke and that he was…
    She frowned at the rig he wore. God knew what else he could be doing. Perhaps God also knew how she could be finding Liam Rafferty handsome when he looked half a lunatic.
    “Really, Vi, this is ground-penetrating radar. I’m treasure seeking.”
    It was a blessing that she’d chosen not to view this man as more than a potential source of long overdue sexual gratification. “I’ll give you credit for honesty, if not a brain working full-time.”
    “The legend’s real. I’m sure of it.”
    She knew the legend as well as she did her own name. When young, she’d heard the story from Liam’s grandda, and a rather more female-centric version of it from her nan. Either way the tale was told, it had been the sort of thing to pique a young girl’s fancy. She and Liam were like history’s legendary Deirdre and Naoise, star-crossed Irish lovers attached to opposing factions.
    No matter that the Raffertys weren’t overtly warring with her nan over treasure no one had ever actually seen. And while Vi had loved Liam with a passion that frightened her, she’d hardly have dashed her brains out on a rock for the loss of him the way woeful Deirdre had for Naoise. It had been enough to know that destiny held a hand in Vi and Liam’s romance. Or so that naïve, lust-addled teenager had thought.
    Vi pulled herself back to a rather confusing present. “And this from a man whose mother would have done better to name him Thomas, with all the time you’ve doubted the tale?” she asked. “Why the change?”
    “I didn’t have proof before.”
    “And you do now?”
    “Yes.” He hesitated, and Vi watched as a muscle in his jaw flexed as though he were gritting his teeth. “At least it’s the closest I’ve seen.”
    “Care to tell me about it?”
    “I don’t.”
    “No? You’re walking my land, looking for treasure that’s more mine than yours, and you don’t intend to tell me what brought you into the realm of believers? I’m thinking you don’t grasp our respective positions, here.”
    He settled his hands on his hips, a position that added little to his believability with that thing poking out before him. “I meant no, I don’t care to talk proof now, in the middle of this field. And I’ll tell you what I am grasping. I’m grasping that the gold is called Rafferty’s gold for a reason.”
    She laughed. “Aye, so your family could feel begrudged over bloody nothing but their own bad behavior for generations.”
    Liam’s blue eyes narrowed, not that Vi was feeling especially concerned. He switched off his radar-thing and began walking toward his car. Vi stayed even with him, stride after stride over the uneven ground, even though the effort was making her dizzy. She should have drunk more of Da’s wretched juice.
    “This doesn’t concern you,” Liam was saying. “Had you not shown up in Duncarraig, you’d know nothing of what I’m doing.”
    For once in her life, timing had been her friend.
    “Odd how that worked out, isn’t it?” she asked, giving him her pet “the spirits like me better than you” smile.
    She got a scowl in return for her comment before he picked up his pace. Roger trotted along just fine, but Vi began to falter. Liam started lecturing her about something or another, and she