Seriously? What the fuck? I glance over at Declan to see what he will say and thankfully, he is shaking his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t think so. And I’m sure my date would have something to say about that.”

Damn right, I would!

“With who?” she asks, actually looking confused.

I raise my hand and she looks over at me, her fake eyelashes shooting up to her forehead. Looking straight on, I decide that she isn’t very pretty. “Me. Amberlyn Reilly, nice to meet you.”

“Oh,” is all she says before looking back at Declan. “I didn’t know that you were seeing anyone.”

“Yeah, it’s not anyone’s business but mine.”

“Does your ma and da know?”

Declan sets her with a look, his eyes narrowing as he says, “Yes, why does that matter to you?”

“Just wondering. Guess I’ll leave you be.”

“That would be great,” he says and inside, I cheer him on. What a bitch. She glares before she stalks away, and then Declan is looking off to the side. I watch as he nods his head, and then the waiter appears. “Sir?”

“Yes, can I please have our food to go? Or you know what, cancel it,” he says before standing up and throwing some money on the table. He closes the distance between us and holds out his arm. I stand without questioning him, taking his arm as he leads me out. “I’m sorry for cutting our dinner short but since she came up to our table, everyone will. We need to get out of here.”

“Oh, okay,” I say as we walk out of the restaurant to the car that awaits us. After being seated inside, he soon enters and then we are off. I want to say something, but he is on the phone and I don’t want to interrupt him. I feel like it’s my fault we left. I don’t know why because I did nothing wrong, but I feel like he was embarrassed by me or something. Was that why he didn’t want people coming to the table? Fuck, why am I so insecure around this guy?

When we pull up to a pub I don’t know, he parks the car and lays his phone down before looking over at me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken you there. That is a life I used to have and then I gave it up because of eejits like Marci. I apologize.”

“It’s okay,” I say with a shrug. “Are you taking me home?”

He shakes his head. “I didn’t plan on it. I still have five hours,” he says, pointing to the clock, his brows touching each other as his gaze holds mine.

“Oh, I figured since we left, you didn’t want to spend time with me.”

“Huh? What? No, I hate that place. I wanted to impress you, but it kind of backfired.”

I smile. “You don’t have to take me to some fancy restaurant to impress me, Declan. The place was nice, but I’m fine with just this pub. As long as I’m with you, I don’t care.”

He nods, a smile playing on his lips as he looks over at me. “Well, we aren’t eating here either. I figured we’d get some food to go and go out on the lake.”

My heart flutters in my chest as I reach over and slowly pull his beanie off. It has been taunting me all night, and it’s just us now. Nothing to be embarrassed about. When I place the beanie in my lap, he grins at me as I say, “That sounds wonderful.”

Later with the lights from Declan’s car allowing us to see, we sit on the dock of the O’Callaghan side and dig into the food that he ordered for us.

“A burger and fries is more my thing than whatever the hell that chicken dish was.”

He laughs. “Yeah, it was probably a bad idea all around taking you there. The food isn’t that good.”

“Maybe, but the whiskey was fantastic.”

He nods in agreement. “It is, but lucky for you, I had the pub owner throw in a bottle for us,” he says, pulling it out before filling up two plastic cups. “Perks of being the Whiskey Prince.”

I laugh. “Yeah. I guess it does have its perks while any other time, it just weird.”

He shrugs. “It’s my history; I don’t mind it much until I’m out. When I’m on this land, it doesn’t bother me.”

“The staring bothers you, huh?”

“Yeah, and the way everyone thinks that they need to tell my parents everything. Oh, and the lies they put online and in the papers. It’s really stupid.”

“I bet. I still don’t get it.”

He doesn’t say anything as I take a bite of my hamburger. The flavor bursts in my mouth, and I smile happily as I eat. When I look over at him, I can see, even with the limited light, that his brows are pulled together. He is picking at the bun of his hamburger, too. Shit. “Did I say something wrong?”

He looks up and shakes his head. “It’s not that. I’m just worried that my birthright is going to be a problem between us.”

I lay my burger down. “How do you mean?”

“It seems like a big deal to you. Is it?”

“No, not at all,” I stress. “I don’t care. I just hate how everyone makes a big deal and makes you unconformable when you are just like every other guy in the world.”

He shrugs. “I want to say that it doesn’t bother me, that I understand it, but sometimes I feel like I’m lying. I don’t like the attention. I’ve always been sheltered. I went away to private school until I was fourteen, and I hated it. The older kids used me for money, and the younger kids used me to get in with the older kids. I never really made friends. All I had was Kane, but that was only when I was home during the summer. The only reason I went to a public school was because I begged my parents to let me go to school with him. I’ve always felt comfortable with him, and they agreed. I guess because most of the school was using their money. So then, I’m in school with everyone that Kane is close with and I go from being picked on and hated to being worshiped. It was weird and I guess it got to my head, because I went fuckin’ crazy. Kane and I tore this town up and I didn’t care about my name, about my title, or anything for that matter. I was having a blast with my friends I thought were cool, but then it got to be too much. I was always at parties, girls all over me, wanting to marry me, and soon I realized that these people weren’t here because they liked me but because of who I am. And then Lena was raped.”

I don’t touch my food as he talks and when Lena’s name leaves his lips, I can see the pain in his eyes. It physically hurts me. I want to scoot over and I don’t know, hug him but in a way, it feels like he doesn’t want that. So I listen as he goes on.