“I’m sorry,” I said looking down and stepping away from him. I made a b-line to Nikita, hoping he didn’t recognize me. When I reached her, I glanced at where he’d been. He stood in the doorway; his eyes narrowed toward me as if he was trying to place me.
Asshole, I thought as I turned my attention to Nikita. I remembered every moment of our time together, and he clearly didn’t remember me. Then again, I didn’t want him to remember me. I turned my attention to Nikita because I didn’t need him figuring out who I was. I worked to ignore him as he talked to his staff, but it was hard because I was dying to get a better look.
Finally, Nikita thanked me and sent me back to the office. I headed out of the event room, trying not to look like I was running away. I’d just made it to the elevator when Devin stepped in front of me.
He gave me that affable smile he’d used to seduce me five years ago. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
2
Devin
When I was first told by my father to go to Europe, I didn’t want to go. The only thing that had made the prospect better was when Serena said she’d come with me. Then she didn’t show up at the airport and she didn’t return my calls.
Five years later, when I was told to come back to New York City, I didn’t want to come. I’d made a life for myself in Europe. I’d not only had the freedom to bring the Roarke establishments into the modern age, but also, I’d built clubs next door to the London and Dublin restaurants that were designed to attract a younger crowd who wanted a high-quality experience but weren’t in the top one percent socioeconomic status. I was currently scouting a location for a Paris club. My father hated the idea of the clubs, but stopped balking when the profits started rolling in.
Even so, I had no illusions that he’d allow me to build a club in New York. Coming home would be returning to life under my parents’ thumb. I’d often thought I’d never have children, but on the flight back to take my father’s place at the helm of the Roarke empire, I’d vowed it wouldn’t happen. I didn’t want to have to put my kid in the same position of living a life established by Paddy Roarke nearly a century before. My grandfather, my father, and now I had lives predestined to run the Roarke business. From now on, my sister would have to bear the kids that would take over the company.
What I hadn’t counted on was seeing Serena. Did I ever think of her? Sure. A lot at first. Less often as the years went by, except perhaps when I was jerking off. At first, I’d been hurt and then pissed when she ghosted me. Then I was just baffled. What the hell had happened? Had her parents stopped her? Had mine? No, it couldn’t have been mine. I hadn’t told them about Serena or our plans. I hadn’t told anyone but my sister and Danny. Neither of them would have snitched on me.
Normally, I wouldn’t be the one meeting with the event planner for an event at the Roarke, but I’d only been back a week, and this event was for a well-known celebrity, at least by the older crowd. I wanted to see firsthand how the Roarke organized events and worked with event planning firms. Imagine my surprise to look up and see Serena as part of the event organizer team.
I had the same reaction I had the first time I saw her; like a zap of electricity. And like that first time, I worked to pinpoint what it was about her that affected me. Last time, I’d settled on her eyes and her no-bullshit personality. She was real and she wasn’t intimidated by my family’s status or wealth. There was no sucking up to try and finagle a marriage or business proposition from me, as most women I met did. What I’d seen was exactly who she was. Or maybe not because I hadn’t counted on her disappearing on me.
She stared at me for a second and then turned away, so I wasn’t sure she recognized me. On the one hand, my ego didn’t like that I was forgettable. On the other hand, I had to laugh at my own arrogance. Clearly, what had happened between five years ago affected me more than her.
Even so, I wasn’t going to let her get away without finding out why she ghosted on me. So, when her boss excused her, I followed her to the elevators.
I smiled so she wouldn’t think I was pissed about her disappearance, and asked, “You don’t remember me, do you?”
She looked at me with those amazing blue eyes. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen eyes quite that color of blue.
“Yes, of course, Mr. Roarke, I remember you.”
I quirked a brow. “Mr. Roarke? You didn’t call me that before. Are you sure you remember?” The old me would have added a comment about taking her to a hotel to remind her who I was, but I’d grown up a little since then. Now I might still think it, but I kept it to myself.
She glanced behind me to where her boss was talking to my staff. She turned her attention back to me. “I’m working right now.”
I nodded. “Okay. How about a drink? We can catch up.”
“Thank you but I can’t. Still working.” She looked up at the lighted numbers over the elevator. I got the feeling she was willing the car to show up faster. Didn’t she know I’d just get in it with her?
“After work. It doesn’t have to be here. And it can be coffee if you don’t want a drink drink.”
She kept looking at the numbers over the elevator. “I appreciate the offer, but I have plans.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Then too.”
I put my hands on my hips and studied her. Yes, it was arrogant of me to feel like this shouldn’t be this hard. Most women said yes to me for anything and everything I asked. But I decided it was character building to have to work for it, so I kept on.
“If you’re not going to meet with me, then you’ll have to tell me right here, right now, why you ghosted me.”
Her eyes closed as if I’d asked the one thing that she didn’t want to tell me. When she opened them again, I could see I was going to get the same brush off.
“I’m sorry about that. We were both so young and impulsive,” she said.
“That doesn’t take the sting of rejection away.”
She looked down, and I hoped she felt bad. “I’m sorry. I handled it wrong. But now, we’re older and surely, looking back, you can see it for what it was.”
“What was it?” I pushed her even though I was pretty sure I didn’t want to hear her dismiss what we had. Yes, it was impulsive. Yes, we were young. But I’d cared for her. At the time, I was sure I loved her.
“A hook-up.”
Fuck. I was right. I didn’t want to hear that. “You don’t feel it was a little more than that?”
“At the time, sure, it felt like more, but we were in the middle of it.” She cocked her head to the side. “You can’t tell me you pined too long. Or didn’t have someone in the wings ready to take my place.”
Her words felt like they had weight. Like she thought I was cheating or had moved on quickly. Had I fucked other women since her? Yes. But it hadn’t happened quickly, and I hadn’t had the same feeling with them as I’d had with her.
“It sounds like you want me to be the bad guy here. Once you lost your virginity, how long was it before you went out with another man? Were you curious to experience the size of other dicks?” The minute I said it, I regretted it. It was petty. But dammit, there was only so much my ego could take.
Her eyes flashed with heat reminding me of the times I was thrusting inside her, watching her as she rode the edge of an orgasm. Of course, this time she wasn’t hot from pleasure, but from anger.
“You’re one to talk, Devin.”
Huh? “What is it you’re accusing me of, Serena?”
All of a sudden, she straightened to attention.
“Everything okay here?” her boss asked as she approached us.
“Yes, of course,” Serena said. When the door to the elevator opened, she hurried in. “It was good to see you again, Mr. Roarke.”
I nodded. “You too, Ms…” Fuck what was her last name?
She smirked at me as the doors closed.
Moore. Fuck it was Moore. I wanted to poke the button and chase her down to let her know I hadn’t forgotten
. She wasn’t just some random short-term hook-up in a long line of hook-ups.
“Mr. Roarke?”
I sighed and turned toward the chef. “Yes, chef.”
After dealing with the chef, I finished my business at the Roarke, and then I scouted a location a few doors down from the Roarke building for the potential of a club. My dad would balk, but if I was going to be taking over the business, then I was going in all the way. He’d had his run, now it was my turn.
After work, I returned to my parents’ place on Riverside in the Upper West Side of the city. The place was large enough that I could be there without seeing my parents unless I wanted to. Even so, I was in the process of buying a penthouse in midtown.
After dinner, I went to my father’s study to let him know about my day. To my mind it was a courtesy, although I’m sure he felt it was my duty. My father had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and encouraged to reduce his workload, which was why I was summoned home. But on the first day, I could see my father wasn’t going to let go of the reins that easily.
I felt bad that he was sick, but that didn’t mean I was going to come home simply to do his bidding. I told him so when he clearly didn’t like that I was seeking a spot for a club.
“You know you wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t sick,” he said. I couldn’t decide if it was sadness at what his illness was taking from him, or envy of my taking charge.
“That’s true. I’d still be in Europe living the life you forced me to create there. But now I’m back at your insistence to take over the business.”
“I’m not dead yet, Devin.”
“No, but you asked…actually, you ordered me back home to start running the business. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m not here to take orders though. You give me the reins, or keep them for yourself. I don’t care. Just make a choice.”
“Devin!” My mother’s scolding voice echoed across my father’s study.
“You think you can do better than me?” my father asked.
“A better question is if you don’t trust me, why am I here?”
“Roarke’s has been doing business the same way successfully for a century, and all of a sudden you think you know better?” my father demanded.
“Roarke’s clientele is dying, Dad.” I winced at my own insensitive words. My mother gaped, but my father’s eyes sharpened. “You also seem to be missing the fact that many people today that can afford to eat at Roarke’s are under the age of forty. The truth is, in the next ten years or less, Roarke’s will be dead too if we don’t pay attention to the market.”
“So, what, you want to turn it into fast food?”
I rolled my eyes. “It can still appeal to the rich, but it should appeal to the young rich. But for now, I’m not touching the restaurant. Right now I’m looking for a club, which, if you read the financial reports I’ve sent back, are not only profitable but often are the first step to getting people into the restaurant.”
“I read the reports,” my father grumbled.
“So, what’s the problem?”
“This isn’t easy for your father, Devin,” my mother snapped. “He’s spent his life dedicated to and sacrificing for Roarke’s.”
“Me too, Mom. Because neither of us had a choice. Thank God I’m not having kids.”
My mother flinched, and she quickly turned away, which was a weird reaction. I’d more expected her to say something like I was overreacting.
“I can’t do what I did before, but I’m not ready to let go,” my father said, and for the first time in my life, I felt like I saw genuine emotion in him. “I know you’re good at business. And when the time comes for you to run the company, I know you’ll continue the legacy—”
“If that time isn’t now, Dad, why am I here?” I hated to be a dick about it, but I wasn’t coming home to have my parents boss me around.
“Let’s call it a transition,” he said.
“I don’t want to work for you.”
“Then call it a partnership. Don’t push me aside. I’ve got a few good ideas left in me yet, and I can be an asset to you.”
I inhaled a breath because he was probably right. I was still young enough that many of the old guard like him wouldn’t take me seriously.
I nodded. “Partnership then.”
“Pour us a drink, Katherine,” my father said to my mother.
“It’s not good for—”
“I’m not going to live the rest of my life without having a drink now and then.”
“Yes, fine.” She poured us both a finger of my father’s favorite whiskey from his ancestors’ homeland of Ireland.
“To partnership,” my father said holding up his glass.
I clinked my glass against his. “Partnership.”
“Well now that’s done, perhaps we can talk about something more fun.”
I couldn’t imagine what my mother was thinking.
“I saw Evelyn Winthrop,” she said, and I immediately rolled my eyes. Would she ever stop trying to get me and Evie married?
“Did she marry that duke or whatever,” I asked, having heard she’d been dating some guy with a title.
“No. And thank goodness. A title is all well and good unless you’re broke,” my mother said.
“Dodge a bullet on that one,” my father agreed. “You should call her.”
“Sure,” I said to appease them. I might call her, but not to marry her. Keeping in good with her family would help me as I took more control of the business. I’m sure that’s partly why my parents were on me to get with her.
Because I didn’t want to continue the conversation, I put my glass down. “I’ve had a long day and still have more to do.”
“At least you have the right work ethic. Sending you to Europe turned out to be the right decision,” my father said.
“In more ways than one,” my mother said under her breath.
I stared at her, wondering what she meant. Deciding I probably didn’t want to know, I said goodnight and headed out.
They were right about one thing, I was a different man than when I left, except for one thing. The effect Serena had on me hadn’t changed. I wondered what that meant.
3
Serena
I wasn’t sure how I made it through the rest of the day. Nikita immediately started asking me questions about how I knew Roarke and why hadn’t I ever said anything.
“You should be using that connection to help build your career,” she’d said.
“It’s not like that,” I said.
She studied me and I tried not to squirm. Fortunately, we reached the ground floor, so I hurried out of the building. Back at work, I busied myself with my other events, but Devin and his brilliant green eyes and sexy smile were never far from my mind. It was annoying. I’d been so certain I was over him. I was over him. My hormones, however, wouldn’t mind spending time with him again. It was annoyingly frustrating.
After work, I took the train home and picked up Andrew at my parents’ house.
“I’ve made enough spaghetti to feed an army,” my mother said when I found her in the kitchen. “Why don’t you and Andrew stay for dinner.”
I was never a huge fan of cooking, so I agreed. I also hoped being around my family would help distract me from seeing Devin again.
“We went to the library, mommy,” Andrew said coming into the kitchen while I set the table for my mom.
“Did you get good books?” I sat in a chair and pulled him onto my lap.
“Yep. I got one on airplanes.”
“Oh good. Maybe you can show me later tonight.”
“I swear that boy is going to be an engineer,” my mother said, setting a platter of spaghetti on the table. “Andrew, can you let Grandpa know dinner is ready.”
“’k.” Andrew squirmed off my lap and ran into the living room.
My mother watched him in a way that made me think she was wondering about his father.
My father appeared in the doorway. “I’ve been sum
moned for dinner.”
“Yes, yes, take a seat. Oh…did you and Andrew wash your hands?”
My father held up his hands to show her, winking at me. “I think your mother forgets I’m grown up sometimes.”
“When are you grown up?” my mother quipped.
My father waggled his eyebrows. “Late at night—”
“Oh stop,” my mother said quickly, her cheeks blushing.
I rolled my eyes. “How is it that I’m an only child?”
Andrew ran into the kitchen and climbed into his chair that had a little booster seat my father rigged for him.
“So, how was your day?” my mother asked, serving me and Andrew spaghetti.
“Good. Nikita asked me to help put on a party for Tony Gallagher.”
My father whistled. “Big time.”
“Did you meet him?” my mother sat in her chair.
“Not today, but she did ask me to help at the party.” I made sure Andrew’s napkin was tucked into the neck of his shirt to avoid getting tomato sauce on it.
“So, they’ll be lots of celebrities.” My father handed me the bowl with garlic bread.
“I suppose.”
“That will be so good for your career, I bet,” my mother said. “Where is the party being held?”
“At Roarke’s.” I turned my attention to Andrew to make sure there was nothing in my expression that hinted at my association with the Roarke family.
“I’d love to take you there sometime, honey,” my dad said to my mom.
My mother waved his comment away. “Why pay ten times too much for food I can make right here at home?”
“Why is it so expensive?” my father asked.
“Part of it is that they have higher-priced items, but mostly it’s the ambiance and brand,” I said.
“I hear it has quite a view,” my father said.
“It is nice.”
“Can you see airplanes there?” Andrew asked.
“Probably. It’s way up high.” All of a sudden, it occurred to me that Roarke’s was Andrew’s inheritance. I remembered Devin talking about going into the family business, suggesting he didn’t have a choice in the matter. He didn’t seem averse to business, but he was annoyed at being told what to do all the time by his father. Is that what it would have been like for Andrew? Would he have a choice in careers if he was a Roarke?
An Irish Affair Page 3
