Read Part of Me for Free Online Page A

us into O’Shea’s.
    The atmosphere here was drastically different from the Olive Garden, with its jukebox music and loud conversations. “Maybe I can find us a booth,” Daniel said.
    “No. The bar is fine and it’s probably quicker,” was my reply because I didn’t feel like being boxed in. I felt like stretching, like being free.
    Shaking my head of those thoughts I reached for Daniel’s hand. “Here, let’s sit over here.”
    He followed and we snagged two seats at the very end of the bar. I smiled at him as we settled onto the stools, trying like hell to focus on him and not the strange vibe I was getting from this place.
    “I’ll have a beer,” Daniel ordered when the bartender came over.
    “Cranberry and vodka,” I added to the order.
    Daniel laughed and looked at me when the bartender left us alone. “Wow.”
    “What?” I asked, after looking over my shoulder to see who was behind me. I felt someone there, someone watching me, I thought.
    Daniel shook his head. “Just never knew a girl that drank vodka before.”
    “It’s not a big deal.” I shrugged. Brayden had introduced me to vodka. Or rather, I’d forced him to let me drink the same thing he and his brothers were drinking one night when we were in Costa Rica. We’d stayed at a resort until the transportation had arrived to take us deep into the Talamancan forests where more of the tribes lived. After their parents had gone to sleep the brothers had crept out of the suite we all shared. I knew they would and had followed them right down to the resort bar where Aidan, since he was the oldest, had paid some desk clerk who was over twenty-one to buy them two bottles of vodka. I followed them out to the pool and threatened to go upstairs and tell if they didn’t give me a drink. Caleb, with his sullen and generally gruff personality, had still refused. Aidan tried to unravel me with reproach. But it was Brayden, the middlebrother, who knew I was dead serious and that I’d definitely tell if they didn’t give me what I wanted. He’d held that bottle to my lips and gave me the shortest sip I’d ever experienced. Then I’d grabbed the bottle from his hands and took a gulp that almost knocked me right on my ass.
    I was smiling with the memory before I could stop myself.
    “Wherever your mind just wandered off to, I can see it makes you very happy,” Daniel was saying.
    “Oh, it was nothing. Just thinking about my first taste of vodka.”
    His brow furrowed with that remark and I instantly followed it up with, “I like it so much better with cranberry juice,” I told him, and that wasn’t a total lie. I liked drinking cranberry juice by itself as well.
    “That she definitely does,” came the familiar voice from behind me. “Maybe you should have ordered plain cranberry juice instead.”
    I spun around on that bar stool so fast I would have fallen right off if Daniel hadn’t reached out, grabbing my arm first. Amidst the conversations and the music and the instantaneous roaring of my heart, there was a growl. Low, deep, and deadly. Did I forget, familiar?
    “Hi, Kyra,” was the first thing to come out of my mouth as the female was just about glued to Brayden’s hip.
    “You must be the boyfriend,” Brayden continued, extending his hand to Daniel.
    “Ah, yeah, I mean, ah, I’m Daniel,” he stuttered over the greeting and I felt like an ass for lying about having a boyfriend and for getting caught in that lie, because there was no doubt Brayden had known I was lying. He always knew.
    “We just came from dinner and we’re having a drink,” I volunteered even though Brayden didn’t need any explanation from me. “How about you two? What are you doing here?”
    I guess he didn’t owe me an explanation either, but hell, I was asking anyway.
    Kyra blinked like she was bored. “We were just leaving, right, babe?” she asked Brayden.
    Her hand, with long, red-painted nails, moved up and down his arm as she spoke, like the contact