Patrick by Maura Rose

PATRICK: I’m the black sheep of the Donaghue family, and I’ve got a reputation for being sly as a fox and as mischievous as an imp. My specialty? Picking locks, slipping in undetected, and getting the goods.
And breaking hearts.
I left that life behind five years ago. Left behind all I’d ever known, and the only one I’d ever loved—Sinead. I left without a farewell, without a trace and never looked back… until now.
When I got the news about the attempt on Father’s life, I couldn’t stay away. Even if it meant bringing up old memories. Even if it meant tearing open old wounds. Even if it meant confronting the one I had hurt the most all those years ago.
Now, I’m coming home. I’m coming to claim what’s mine: a place in my family, and a place in Sinead’s heart. I’m coming to make things right. And I’ll do whatever it takes to prove myself, even if it means starting an all-out clan war.

SINEAD: When Patrick left, he took a piece of my heart with him, and I’ll never forgive him for that. I hate myself for holding a torch for him all these years, hate that I can still see the trickster-like gleam in his bright blue eyes in my dreams.
Those dreams become a jarring reality when Patrick makes his grand homecoming, and seeing that gaze locking with mine again reignites a flame inside me that I thought had burned out long ago—a fire of rage at being left behind, but also the embers of a passion I thought had died.
If he thinks he can just waltz back into my life and charm his way into my pants again after all this time, he’s got another thing coming. With the tensions rising between the Donaghue and McCourt families, there are more important matters at hand than unrequited love—matters of life and death.