by Maura Rose
Kate had said of course.
It was a huge sign of trust on Kate’s part, Kathleen knew that. She could theoretically be spying for her mother or causing problems for the Sokolovs. Tentative allies of the McCourts they might be, but ‘friendly’ was a bit of a stretch and there was always competition between families.
But she didn’t want anything out of it. She just didn’t want to be in her own territory anymore. She wanted to be away from the prying eyes of her mother and two younger brothers.
There was a lovely bookstore and café that she liked to go to, just a twenty-minute walk away from her home. The walk did her good, getting outside in the fresh air, and she got to actually say hello to people and interact with strangers who she knew for a fact weren’t spying on her for her mother.
She got herself a spot at one of the outside tables on the patio, ordered a coffee and a muffin, and got out her notebook.
It was silly, she knew, but she’d always wanted to be a writer. She’d been scribbling story ideas down in notebooks and diaries for as long as she could remember and sometimes it felt like she had so many fictional characters and worlds inside of her that she was going to burst with them if she didn’t get them out into the world through her pen and paper.
The odds of her making it big as a writer were, she knew, small. She wasn’t holding her breath to become the next Toni Morrison or Michael Ondaatje. She wasn’t even hoping to be the next Stephen King.
But if she could make a little something off her writing, if she could make just enough to get away from her family… Mom controlled everything. Kathleen couldn’t even get a job without Mom’s say-so. Oh, sure, legally she could, but Mom would find a way to stamp that out right away. She wanted Kathleen to keep helping her as her bookkeeper and assistant and god knew it was only a matter of time until she married Kathleen off in a political alliance with someone.
Her mom had always dismissed her writing though. Said it was a harmless hobby. So if she could just get something written, and published… it could all be done online, querying agents or sending manuscripts. And if she had to meet someone she could do it here, in Sokolov territory, where she’d be safe.
If only she could get the damn stories finished.
She was currently rearranging some parts of one of her stories, tearing out the pages and rearranging them, putting them back together. And perhaps she should have made sure that they were properly weighed down with her coffee mug before she stood up and collided with the waiter—but a strong gust of wind came along and sent the papers flying.
“Oh fuck!” she blurted out, running after them, hastily picking them up. Fuck, shit, fuck—
She bumped into someone else, ran into them really, and the man stumbled back. “Whoa, whoa, where’s the fire?” he asked, his Irish brogue thick.
Kathleen had an instinctive moment of panic where she thought that he must be one of her mother’s men, come to fetch her, but he man staring at her seemed to have no idea who she was.
He was also rather handsome, with dark red hair and soft, deep brown eyes. She swallowed, butterflies erupting in her stomach. “I’m just, I’m sorry, I was trying to—my papers—”
She gestured at the papers in her hand.
The man immediately dropped down and helped her finish picking them up. “Must be important,” he joked, handing them to her.
“Very. They’re my novel. Or, well, one of them. If I can just get it finished. I’m terrible at endings. Tying all the strings together.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” The man smiled at her, their hands brushing momentarily as he handed her the pages. “Do you… come here often?” He grimaced. “God, that’s such a bloody stupid line. But I come here about once a week, running deliveries. I thought maybe…”
“I’m Kathleen,” she blurted out before she could think better of it. “And yes, I’m here all the time, I get coffee here and write.”
She could come here and write on other days and then this day of the week could be the day she reserved for talking to him, if that was what he wanted. She’d had precious little time to date, what with her family business and how controlling her mother was.
“Well, hey, let me buy you a coffee, then.” The guy smiled at her. “I’m Brian, by the way.”
“You sure you don’t have…?”
“Nah, I’m all good, I have time.”
They got the papers safely tucked back under her coffee mug, and then Brian got a coffee for himself. “Where in Ireland are you from?” she asked.
Brian nearly choked on his first sip. “How’d you guess? Most people know I’m from the isles… area, but not Ireland specifically. I think a couple people asked if I was Scottish.”
“My family’s Irish,” Kathleen explained. “My grandparents on both sides came over on the boat, so we dropped the accent but we still speak Gaelic at home.”
She neglected to mention that they spoke Gaelic so that other mob families couldn’t eavesdrop on or overhear them, but there was no need to get into that with someone she’d just met.
That was part of why she hadn’t tried to find someone to date. She’d always figured she’d do that once she’d made enough money with her books to get the hell away from her mother. After all, how did you tell a man, you’re great and all but are you okay with my mother running a crime family?
Yeah. Not exactly something you could easily slip into a conversation in between chatting about the latest movies and your favorite foods.
Brian grinned at her. “That’s great. I can speak it, but I hardly ever use it.”
“We mostly just use it at home for private conversations, or when we’re out at dinner and don’t want people to listen in on us.”
“Makes sense. What are you writing?”
“Oh, just… a fantasy novel about a girl. Typical young adult stuff. I just got a little carried away with all the plot threads and now I’m having a hard time tying it all together.”
“Well, hey, most people who say they will or can write a novel don’t ever even start, so you’re already ahead of the curve.” Brian’s smile was warm, and she felt herself blushing.
“You want me to read it for you?” he asked. “I mean—I know it’s probably personal and we just met, but I’m impartial. Maybe I’ll see something in there you don’t since you’re so close to it.”
That made sense. “Sure.” Why not?
Brian winked at her, and Kathleen’s stomach did a dangerous flip.
Oh, she was in trouble.
Chapter Three
Brian was going to have to come clean to Denis at some point and submit to his brother’s rant of I told you so.
He hadn’t planned on meeting any girl in the States, but especially not the gorgeous Kathleen. The moment he’d bumped into her, he’d felt a rush of heat. She had strawberry blonde hair and these soft hazel eyes that just took his breath away. He’d wanted to grab onto her, to demand her name, to ask if she’d let him get to know her. One look and he’d been, well… smitten.
Didn’t help that she was playfully flirtatious, looking up at him through her lashes, biting on her lip, giving him these sly little smiles that made dangerous things happen to his heart and his ability to stand upright. Several times he’d wanted to pull her into his lap at the damn café where they would meet, kissing her senseless until she melted in his arms.
He knew shit about reading, was the thing—but Bridget’s sister-in-law, Sinead, she loved reading. He brought Kathleen’s book to her and she read it over and made a bunch of notes. Brian read it too, but he didn’t think his comments would be as helpful as Sinead’s.
“It’s really good,” Sinead told him. “A solid start. I’ve made some notes of plot threads she can cut out to save herself the trouble of trying to get it all together in the third act. And the climax comes a little early, I think she could build up in a couple points, so I’ve marked them.”
Kathleen was ecstatic when he gave her the notes. “I real
ly loved your main character,” he told her honestly. “She’s a plucky one. Like you.”
“Okay, now you’re just trying to get into my pants,” Kathleen shot back, going over the notes Sinead had left.
“What, I can’t be trying to get into your pants and honest about liking your book?”
Kathleen laughed.
They met once a week, after he’d completed his run. Sinead was dying to know who this girl was that he’d met. “She’s not connected to the Sokolovs, is she?” she asked. “We don’t want to tangle political alliances any more than they already are.”
“No, she’s not, she’s an administrative assistant and accountant for a brewing company,” he replied. Kathleen clearly didn’t like her job. It was a family thing, she said, and her mother wouldn’t hear of her taking up another profession.
“My father was an asshole,” she told him honestly, on their fifth meeting. Or, well… date. They were dates. “Hit me and my mother and brothers. Mom doesn’t hit but she can whip you with her words. It’s just awful. If I could get a book deal, get money from that, just enough to get away—I’d buy a plane ticket to anywhere.”
Brian couldn’t just up and leave out of the blue; Sean depended on him. But he could certainly give notice and leave, if Kathleen gave him enough warning. “You wouldn’t have to go alone,” he promised her. “If you needed someone with you to help you feel safe…”
The look Kathleen gave him was soft, but full of heat. Like he’d turned her on with that comment and she was imagining doing something about it.
Brian raised an eyebrow at her. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were having some rather naughty thoughts, there.”
“Maybe I am,” Kathleen replied.
It took seven dates, though, for them to have sex. Partially because they were always meeting in public places.
But when he saw Kathleen waiting for him in a soft pink sundress, her hair coiled around her shoulders, he just couldn’t resist. He walked up to her and kissed her hello, his hands falling to her hips, pulling her against him.
Kathleen sank right into the kiss, pushing back eagerly, like she’d been waiting for this for ages. She was so sweet, wrapping her arms around him, already tasting like the cinnamon scones she loved because she always got to the coffee shop before he did and couldn’t resist eating something.
“Somebody’s eager,” he whispered, even as his body responded, getting hot and bothered, his hands itching to slide over every inch of her. They’d barely touched, given the newness of this and the public setting, but fuck—he’d give anything for a little privacy right now.
“I’ve been thinking about you,” she whispered. She sounded shy, almost embarrassed to be admitting this.
“Don’t spare me the details,” he murmured. “C’mere, let’s grab a table.” He kissed her neck. “You can tell me all about it.”
He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been thinking about her in the shower at night. He’d been doing that from the first moment she’d collided into him, her big hazel eyes wide as she stared at him, with that pretty smile and her soft flirty dresses and little kitten heels. She was far from the first pretty girl he’d seen in his life but there was something so earnest about her that made him want to hold her close and protect her, right from the start.
Not that she was innocent. Kathleen was a straight shooter and had no problem telling someone what she thought. They’d had some lively discussions about books that had Brian laughing at her sarcasm.
Kathleen laughed. “What, you want me to dirty talk you in the middle of a coffee shop?”
“Well hey, if you’ve got another idea…”
Kathleen looked around, as if making sure that nobody was paying attention to them. She did that a lot. Brian suspected that it had to do with her family.
She’d told him about her dad and what a shit show he’d been, and about her mother, who was controlling as fuck. Personally, he wanted to go to her house and tell her mom a thing or two about where she could shove it. But he wasn’t going to fight Kathleen’s battles for her unless she asked him to. Right now, the best thing he could do to help was give her Sinead’s and his thoughts on Kathleen’s book so she could make it the best that it could be and get it published and making some money for her to get out, to live her own life on her own terms.
“Well…” Kathleen sat down at their usual table with him, but this time she brought her chair around so that they were sitting right next to each other. “I suppose I could tell you…” She put her hand on his thigh under the table. “…that I think about you when I’m alone? When I’m in bed or in the shower. And how much I wish you were there with me.”
Brian laid his hand over hers. “You’re gonna be the death of me, y’know that?”
“Hey, you asked,” Kathleen replied, winking at him.
He leaned in and kissed her jaw, softly. “Then I suppose it’s only fair that I tell you I’d get my hands on you right now if I could. Get them up underneath that dress of yours, see how wet you were for me. Make you beg me to get inside you.”
Kathleen shuddered. “Now who’s going to be the death of whom?” she shot back quietly.
He squeezed her hand. “Kath. Are you sure—I’d take you to a hotel room right now if you wanted. We could have all afternoon…”
She shook her head. “No, I… I have to be here. It’ll be bad enough if she finds out that I’m seeing someone, just in a coffee shop, if she finds out I went to a hotel—and it would mean we’d be gone for too long.”
“She can’t control your life like this.”
“In my world, she can. She controls… everything.”
Brian wanted to point out that even in his world, Sean didn’t control everything. From time to time he and Bridget had some damn big rows over things regarding the business, and Sean’s brother Patrick got a say in things, and their father was retired but that didn’t stop him from sharing his opinion, and the other lieutenants would give their two cents as well. And that was in the mob, where the head of the family was supposedly king.
But that would mean revealing that he was involved with the mob in the first place, and he didn’t think that would be a fair thing to drop on Kathleen right at this moment. He knew he’d have to tell her eventually. He wanted to be with her for the rest of his life, and that meant she’d have to know about what he got up to, what he did for a living, whose family he was a part of. But not right now.
He’d figure out a way to tell her. He didn’t want to keep the secret from her. Especially since it had been weeks. But how did you just drop that on someone? Hey, my family’s in the mafia so if you are with me that’ll mean you’re a part of it too.
Yeah, not exactly the kind of thing that had a woman jumping up and down in excitement.
He didn’t want to ruin the mood with this. They’d been having fun just now, teasing each other.
“Well,” he said quietly, grinning at her slyly, “I’d suggest we disappear into the bathroom here but I’m not sure we want to get kicked out.”
Kathleen looked up at him through her lashes. “I mean… I can be quiet.”
Brian felt a rush of heat shoot through him, his cock hardening in his pants. “Kath. Are you suggesting…”
Kathleen shrugged. “I’ve wanted you to touch me properly for weeks now.”
Brian moved his hand away from hers, up to her shoulder, trailing his fingers slowly down her chest, skimming the top of her dress, then trailing them back up again to her throat. He could feel Kathleen’s breath hitching, her eyes growing dark. “Like that?” he murmured.
Kathleen nodded, looking breathless.
They’d done this before, gotten each other a bit riled up, as much as they could in public anyway. And they’d found a quiet corner a few times and had kissed, slow and deep, their bodies pressed together—but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t ever enough.
“Like this?” he asked again, his other hand moving up underneath the skirt of her
dress, up along her thigh, until Kathleen shook and he saw her bite her lip to hold in a noise.
“Yes,” she whispered.
This could get them in so much trouble, but he honestly couldn’t believe that Kath was letting him do this to her. Their bodies and the table blocked the view, so he slid his hand up higher, skimming the line of her underwear.
Kathleen inhaled sharply and then stood up, so fast that Brian was nearly knocked off his chair. “Count to twenty and then follow me,” she whispered.
She turned, disappearing into the coffee shop—headed for the bathroom.
Brian couldn’t quite hold in his grin. He hadn’t done something this reckless in years. Not since he’d started working hard at the pub back home to try and save up money to go somewhere, to make a new life and get a proper fresh start. And he never would’ve expected Kathleen, so meticulous and responsible, to do something like this.
Fuck responsibility, just this once. They were basically having a secret relationship. They were due a little recklessness, a little fun.
He counted to twenty, then followed her into the coffee shop, stopping in front of the restroom door. It was one of those larger single stall restrooms. Brian knocked, looking around casually.
He heard the sound of the lock being flipped and he opened the door, stepping inside, and then closing it behind him. “What if I’d been someone else?” he teased.
“People don’t ever knock for these things,” Kathleen replied. “They just try the handle, find it’s locked, and then they knock.”
Brian chuckled. She had a point. “So.” He walked towards her, loving the way Kathleen instinctively took a few steps backward, her back hitting the wall. “We’re all alone… whatever will we do?”
He trailed his fingers up her arms, then down her sides, loving the way that Kathleen whimpered in response. He moved his hands farther down, onto her legs, sliding them back up until he was gripping her thighs. Kathleen got two fistfuls of his shirt, pulling him in closer. “Damn it, Brian, don’t tease me.”
