Intractable Souls : Book 1 of the Bound for Ireland Series

by Tricia Daniels

  “Orange! With dual black centre stripes.” She waits nervously to see if Ethan will object.

  Jim flips through the glossy sales brochures. “I’m not sure this model comes in Orange anymore.”

  Ethan looks at Olivia in amusement and she shrugs her shoulders. “The lady would like orange, Jim.” There’s that authoritative tone. The one that makes her tummy feel funny. The one that lets everyone know that Ethan O’Connell means business. Apparently, he’ll not be denied what he wants in any facet of his life. Desirous feelings stir deep inside her and moisture gathers between her legs making her squirm uncomfortably in her chair. Ethan gives her a half smile and she wonders if he knows what’s going on inside her pants. Of course he does!

  Her eyes dart back and forth between the two men waiting for someone to speak. Jim taps his pen nervously on the desk, his stare locked in a power struggle with Ethan. He needs this sale, the four growing children in the family picture behind him, tells the story and Ethan has already figured it out. Sensing the deal could go sour at this point, Jim becomes very accommodating and breaks the silence. “Of course, we’ll look into it for you.”

  Ethan picks up one of Jim’s business cards and slides it into his shirt pocket. Taking out his wallet, he gets out one of his own, flips it over and writes something on the back of it. Jim pulls a large document out of a folder on his desk. “We just need to fill out the finance paperwork.” Ethan very confidently picks up the sheet of options and accessories and places his business card on top of it. Lining it up in the top corner he picks up the stapler off the desk and attaches them together. “Finance papers won’t be necessary, Jim.” He puts the papers back down on the desk in front of him. “I’ll be paying cash, and that’s what I’ll be paying.”

  With that, he turns to Olivia and holds out his hand. “We’re done here.”

  Damn that’s hot! She has a brief fantasy of wrestling him to the ground and having her way with him right there. Or maybe inside the car? Jim can watch if he wants, she really doesn’t care, all she can think about is getting him in between her legs and finally put an end to the relentless throbbing there. She blushes at the thought as she takes his hand and follows him out of the office.

  A rather stunned salesman finally speaks. “Mr. O’Connell, I think you’ve made a mistake. I couldn’t possibly sell you this car with all these options for this price.

  Olivia begins to feel anxious. “Ethan? Should we go back and re-negotiate.”

  He squeezes her hand in a reassuring manner. “Don’t say a word. Just keep walking.”

  Ethan drives her home, puts the car in park and turns to her. “Thank you for coming with me today. It was… quite an experience.” The corner of his mouth begins to curl into a smile.

  “Are you referring to the car shopping itself or my test drive?” For her everything they did today was quite an experience.

  “Ah, well the test drive was an adventure on its own.”

  “Yes… well I like my music loud… my cars fast and my men in...” She halts herself and looks over at him.

  He raises his eyebrows in amusement as he finishes her sentence. “IN CONTROL?”

  She puts her hands to her face embarrassed. “I can’t believe I almost said that out loud.” She’s horrified. She has become so comfortable with his companionship today the words just popped out of her mouth.

  “Don’t be embarrassed, Olivia. That wasn’t a secret.” He gives her a cocky grin.

  Horror strikes at her. “I should go inside now.” Undoing her seat belt, she picks up her purse and tries to get out of there quickly in order to avoid an awkward conversation that she doesn’t want to have.

  Ethan can’t stand the thought of too much time passing before he sees her again. Needing to find a way to spend more time with her, he reaches over and puts his hands on her knee. The electricity travels through them like a closed circuit, making her nerves tingle every time he touches her. “Don’t run away, I want to ask you something.” She stops, looks down at his hand on her thigh and then looks up into those dangerously green, bedroom eyes and waits.

  “I need to start looking for a permanent place to live. I’m going to book some appointments to go look at apartments. Would you go with me?

  She’s surprised by his invitation. “You want me to go with you? To look at apartments?”

  “Yes, why do you sound so surprised? You were a great help shopping for a car. Why not an apartment?”

  “Is this apartment for you to live in?”

  “Yes of course. That’s an odd question?” He looks at her perplexed.

  “Not really odd. You could be looking for an apartment for a girlfriend that’s coming over from Ireland to be with you.

  “There is no girlfriend.” He’s exhausted at the number of times he needs to reaffirm that. ”So, will you go with me?“

  “I suppose.” She says apprehensively, as it questioning her strength and ability to continue to resist him.

  When she walks up the pathway to the back door, she glances back at him several times. He waits until she’s inside safely, feeling very pleased at the knowledge that she’s drawn to him when he takes control. Olivia will soon discover that Ethan is more competent in his seduction skills than he is at negotiation, and he ALWAYS gets his way in negotiation.

  Olivia puts her phone down on the table and plops herself down on the couch with a very large glass of wine. Drinking half way through the glass in just a few minutes, she’s already feeling a little buzz. Turning on the radio, she heads back into the kitchen to grab the bottle and stands at the counter, flipping through mail as she becomes aware of the lyrics of the song playing. Is it just the wine or does every song that’s played in the past 10 minutes have explicit lyrics about sex? She changes the station several times and can’t find one that doesn’t. The wine helps encourage the hormones that she’s been wrestling and she’s painfully aware that she must take care of this need soon. But Noah seems like a no go. Taking another large swallow of her wine, she wonders about Ethan. Butterflies!

  She powers up her laptop. Hmmm Facebook. Her hand moves the computer mouse so it hovers over the link and hesitates briefly. Why is she doing this? Being with Ethan would be a mistake right?

  She types in his name and clicks on his profile picture and waits. In seconds she’s on his page and not surprised to find security locked down tight. He would never give just anyone access to view private information meant for friends. She sighs in disappointment. Her hand subconsciously moves the mouse over the button “add as friend”. She takes another huge mouth full of wine as her finger clicks, sending the request. She closes her eyes and freezes for a moment. Already regretting what she’s done, she tips the bottle and refills her glass.

  Within seconds, she receives his acknowledgement and an update that reads ‘Olivia James is now friends with Ethan O’Connell.’ Ethan is running on the treadmill in the basement, smiling at his victory. Tucking his phone back in his pocket, he ramps up the speed.

  Now having access to his profile page, she begins to creep through his information and pictures. She’s shocked at his friends and followers 797 in total… almost all women she notices as she scrolls down the page. His relationship status says “single” but his profile page is full of virtual flowers and flirts sent by his many female admirers. Olivia rolls her eyes at how cheesy they are. She closes the page, deciding that maybe she really doesn’t want to know any more about all the women in his life.

  With the wine weighing heavily on her eyelids, she wanders up stairs to get ready for bed. She stands staring at the bed in her room for several minutes before finally sitting on the side of it. Laying back she tries to get comfortable, staring at the ceiling for what seems like forever and thinking about Ethan. Feeling empty, after spending an incredible day with him she picks up her phone and sends him a message.

  From Olivia: Goodnight Ethan

  Ethan has finished his workout and is sitting in the dark on the patio, watchin
g the stars and thinking about her, when his phone beeps. He’s filled with nervous excitement when he sees her name. Wow! He has never felt like this before.

  From Ethan: Goodnight princess. Sweet dreams

  From Olivia: I keep meaning to ask you why you started calling me princess.

  From Ethan: It was something you talked about when you were sick.

  From Olivia: How embarrassing

  From Ethan: Does it bother you?

  From Olivia: No, I was just curious. Good night

  From Ethan: Bonne nuit ma belle. Tu es dans mes pensee. Je reve de tes yeux jour et nuit.

  Holy shit! He speaks French? Of course he does, she thinks, mocking herself for being surprised. She knows that Aurora Technologies has an office in France because Scott has had to go there. Being the SVP of international sales would surely require Ethan to know the language.

  French is an official language of Canada but she only studied it until high school. She loved it and wanted to continue but dropped the university course in favor of another subject. A decision she has always regretted. The thought of him whispering sweet nothings into her ear in French makes her insides burn with desire, something she might admit to him some day. But not today…

  From Olivia : My French is a little rusty. Did you just say that my nuts are beautiful and that you are attracted to squirrels? and then something about egg yolks, that I'm certain I don’t want to know about.

  Ethan shakes his head and laughs. He’s in so much trouble with this woman. She makes him think of nothing else but her, and now he finds himself thinking about sharing the rest of his life with her. Dangerous thoughts! Thoughts that he never expected to have. EVER! Wanting to hear her voice one last time before he goes to sleep, he hits dial on his phone. She answers instantly, laughing into the phone.

  “Not even close.” He says, trying to suppress his laughter. “But then I’m pretty sure you’re just messing with me again.”

  “Me? Messing with you?” She feigns innocence.

  The night air is cool and damp, making his voice raspy. “ I said… good night beautiful. You’re in my thoughts. I dream of your eyes, night and day.”

  She takes a deep breath. Reading it in French was pretty sexy but hearing him say it in English in a low sensual tone with his Irish accent is so much more. She’s not even sure if there is a word that exists to accurately describe the feeling that makes her experience the simultaneous belly flip, heart flutter, wet panties.

  It seems like forever before she can find her voice. “Good night, Ethan.” She finally says, still trying to hide the way he affects her.

  “Good night, Olivia.” He grins from ear to ear. She’s not hiding a thing. He’s getting under her skin. He can tell.

  Chapter 8

  Thrilled to be back to work finally, Olivia spends her morning chatting with concerned co-workers who stop by to see how she’s feeling. Since she insisted on working from home, her backlog is at a minimum giving her time to settle back in slowly.

  Rachel shoots into her office with a couple of files and hands them to her. “Hey slacker! Welcome back.”

  “Thanks! What are these?” Flipping open the files, she starts reading through the papers.

  “It’s a conundrum.” Rachel laughs.

  “Thanks, that tells me absolutely nothing.” She scowls at her and then raises her eyebrows waiting for her to elaborate.

  “Trent was working on this one and he’s come to an impasse. The Client has some specific needs regarding their accounting procedures and he couldn’t find a business solution with the software they purchased.”

  “AND?”

  “AND… the big boss is confident that you can resolve the problem.”

  Olivia sighs. “Ok, leave it with me and I’ll look at it.”

  “You’ll need to call the client and find out exactly what their needs are. The only feedback we got from them was that Trent was a moron.”

  Olivia shakes her head. “Oh great, I love projects that start out with smoothing over someone else’s mess.”

  “Thank you!” Rachel is already half way out the door as she says it.

  Olivia has a brilliant mind for problem solving and a stubborn determination that settles for nothing less than success. Unfortunately, that makes her the go to girl for all the difficult cases. Rachel has begged her many times to start up her own consulting business but Olivia likes working with the clients and helping them find solutions for their business. It’s what she does best and what she finds most fulfilling about her career. Unlike Ethan, she’s not interested in sitting in an office at the south end of the building overseeing operations and negotiating contracts.

  The city of Toronto skyline is reflected in the glass exterior of the high-rise office building that is home to the Canadian branch of Aurora Technologies. Ethan waits impatiently in the reception area for the elevator to make its way to the penthouse floor. When the heavy metal doors finally open, John McCabe strolls out dragging his luggage. Ethan stares at him and looks at his watch. “It’s about bloody time.”

  John pulls his luggage off to the side and out of the way. “If you missed me that much then you should have picked me up yourself.”

  Both men break into a smile and throw their arms around each other, patting the other on the back in a masculine embrace. Ethan pulls away. “It’s good to see you. I have a lot of things that I need your help with. I’ve set up an office for you across from mine.”

  Turning, Ethan bumps into Hannah and reaches out to grab for her as she topples. “Hannah, I’m so sorry.” As she regains her balance, she throws her weight forward and lands against him. There is an awkward moment as she clings to his chest longer than is necessary. “Are you ok?” Ethan pries her away as he waits for her answer.

  Standing back on her own two feet, she smoothes her dress and adjusts her breasts. John’s eyes open wide as he glances over at Ethan, noting that he’s doing his best to look anywhere but at her chest. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snuck up on you like that. I just wanted to see if there was anything I could do for your friend.” She glances over at John and gives him a seductive smile.

  “Thank you, but we’re fine.” Ethan crosses his arms and waits for John to break his stare. As they make their way to his office, John glances back at her for another look. Standing in the middle of the hallway, she raises her hand, wiggling her fingers at him in a flirty wave.

  When they’re far enough down the hallway, John looks at Ethan and smiles. “How do you concentrate on work with that around all day?”

  “Easy. She’s not my type.” He shrugs his indifference.

  There is nothing in his tone that suggests that he’s joking but John laughs. “Who are you kidding? She’s EXACTLY your type.”

  Swinging open his office door, he lets John enter first. “Not anymore.”

  Sitting down on the couch, John leans back, resting his arms along the top. He watches as Ethan pulls out his chair and sits behind his desk, adjusting his laptop to the side so they can see each other. “And I suppose Olivia James is your type?” Ethan smiles when he hears her name, making John sigh in disappointment. “Jesus, I know that look.”

  A reminder pops up on Ethan’s laptop and he looks down at his watch. “Conference call. Close the door.”

  John gets up and does as he’s asked and then sits down on the chair on the opposite side of Ethan’s desk. “I read the preliminary report from the investigator on the plane. What did you think?”

  Ethan shrugs as he logs in to the video meeting with the Lawyers. “I haven’t had a chance to read it.”

  “Well it might have been a good idea to do that before today’s meeting.” He criticizes.

  Ethan can’t stop thinking about Olivia since John has mentioned her name. Turning his attention to his phone, he doesn’t hear another word of what John is saying.

  From Ethan: I’m taking you out for coffee tonight after soccer

  From Olivia: Well tha
t’s kind of bossy.

  From Ethan: and your point is?

  From Olivia: I’m not going on a date with you

  From Ethan: Ok then, it’s not a date… it’s a beverage. You do get thirsty don’t you?

  From Olivia: No.

  From Ethan: Did you have other plans?

  From Olivia: Does it matter?

  From Ethan: No.

  From Olivia: Some things never change.

  From Ethan: Be there at 7

  From Olivia: I’ll think about it.

  “ETHAN!” Ethan looks up when John yells at him, demanding his full attention. “You need to prepare yourself. They’re going to ask you some tough questions today. One’s you’re not going to like. For God’s sake control your temper.”

  The sound of Shannon Quinn’s voice comes over the speakers. “Hello. Mr. O’Connell? Are you there?”

  Hitting the video conference button, he activates the video cam. “Yes, Mr. McCabe and I are here.”

  “Good. I met with investigators yesterday to see what they have found out so far. I need to ask you some questions as a result of their findings. Ethan, this is a difficult question but I have to ask… and I need you to answer me honestly.”

  “Ok.” Ethan looks nervously over at John.

  “Do you consider yourself to have a temper?”

  Ethan sighs and squirms in his chair. “Yes, I suppose. No more than any other man.”

  “Fair enough. Is it true you’re a boxer?”

  “Yes. I mean no… not really. I box at the gym only as a way to keep fit. I don’t participate in matches or anything.”

  “Have you ever hit Jessica Keane in anger?” Her questions start coming at a rapid pace.

  “NO!”

  “Did you ever get a little too rough and hurt her unintentionally?”

  Ethan starts to perspire under this line of questioning and John starts to worry. Ethan leans forward and positions himself squarely in front of the video camera. “NO!”

  “What about during sex?”