Round-the-Clock Temptation by Michelle Celmer Page B

restlessness, the bone-deep frustration he always seemed to feel whenever he let himself take a step back and look good and hard at his life. That frustration had always been the catalyst, the trigger for the irrepressible rage.
    Not that he hadn’t felt frustration lately, but this was an entirely different variety. It was born from the need to keep Nita safe, from her constant refusal to listen to him. From the affection and attraction that he knew was wrong, and felt despite that.
    Every so often he’d felt a flicker of something else, too. An emotion he hadn’t experienced in so long he’d barely recognized it.
    He’d felt content.
    Not that he expected it to last. It never did.
    Jake dropped into the chair next to his. “You look like hell.”
    Connor shot him an annoyed look. “Thanks.”
    â€œBeing a newlywed, I have a valid reason for being up half the night. What’s your excuse? Don’t tell me you turned her down.”
    The look went from annoyed to deadly.
    Jake laughed. “I don’t understand why you’re fighting it. You two are meant for each other.”
    â€œHow could you possibly know that?”
    â€œBecause I know Nita and I know you. She needs someone who won’t be threatened by her strength, someone who won’t try to change her, and you need someone who can show you how to have fun. I would say that makes you a perfect match.”
    If what his brother was saying made a weird sort of sense, Connor wrote it off as the direct result of sleep deprivation. He knew he was loopy when the next question popped from his mouth. “What did you mean about what finding the right woman can do to a man?”
    â€œSomething just…clicks. You start to look at things differently, to see yourself differently. Your priorities change.”
    â€œBut you must have dated a hundred different women. How did you know Chris was the one?”
    â€œIt was the freckles,” Jake said with that goofy grin of his. “I’m a sucker for that woman’s freckles.”
    â€œFreckles?” Leave it to Jake to give him such a ridiculous answer.
    â€œIn time, you’ll know exactly what I mean.” He slugged Connor in the arm, then got up to talk to Gavin, leaving Connor even more confused than he’d been before.
    â€œSince we’re all here we should get started,” Tom said. Connor looked to the doorway and saw that Mark, just back from his honeymoon, had arrived. “I talked to my uncle Lucas yesterday. It took some persuading, but I finally got him to admit what he’d planned to tell Will Windcroft.
    â€œIt seems that after his grandfather, Jonathan, was killed, and my uncle was going through his things, he noticed some odd notations in his personal bookkeeping and large payments Jonathan had been receiving from an unknown source.”
    â€œWhat are we talking about?” Gavin asked. “Extortion?”
    â€œLucas said his grandfather was a greedy bastard and was definitely capable of blackmail.”
    â€œSo, if we find out who he was blackmailing, we’ll most likely find his killer.”
    â€œHe also found letters to Jonathan. They were vague, but one mentioned a payment and a diary and how there could be trouble if the Windcrofts ever found out. Another talked of keeping the feud going.”
    â€œWere the letters from someone in the Devlin family?” Logan wanted to know.
    â€œI asked. Lucas said they weren’t signed, and there was no return address on the envelopes, but he was under the impression they were from someone outside the family.”
    Gavin sipped his drink. “Meaning someone outside the Devlin family could have a stake in the feud, and has a reason for keeping it going. Do we have any idea who that could be? Or where this diary is?”
    â€œNo,” Tom said. “But if we find it, I get the feeling we’ll have all the answers we’re looking