by Anna Castor
Jacob had chuckled and said, “I like her, Donovan. She’ll fit right in with us.”
Donovan was described by Mike as a hacker who could make anyone disappear in a blink of an eye, untraceable online and starting over somewhere with a brand-new identity. Kayla knew it probably wasn’t the best of ideas to tell her colleagues on her first day that she’d been on the run for over a month now and that she might need the services of Mills Security. But for now, she knew she was safe, and the fact that she had these four big guys as backup was definitely reassuring.
Her day passed quickly, scheduling appointments for Donovan, assisting Mike in an interview for a bodyguard job, answering several calls from the women’s shelter when Donovan was out, and assisting Jordan in sending out outstanding invoices.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Kayla. Thank you for your help today. I guess your suggestions from yesterday worked out real nice,” Donovan said, interrupting Kayla’s thoughts.
She looked up from her desk and answered, “No thanks needed, Donovan. That’s why you hired me.”
Donovan smiled at her words, and they said their goodbyes.
After arriving at her apartment, she was eager to get in the shower. She tilted her head under the spray and let the water pour over her face. For the first time in close to two months, she could really breathe and no longer felt like a person on the run.
She had a job with a great boss and three coworkers who acted like big brothers with their continuous banter. She had Maureen and Caitlin as lovely neighbors with whom she’d had coffee and now even celebration dates. Life could be a lot worse.
Then Duncan entered her mind and she smiled. He was just so bossy, arrogant, and a total jerk, but she’d realized over the past weeks when they’d talk over lunch that he also was one of the good guys—a real sexy, hot, panty-melting good guy.
His stories about his dedication as an MMA fighter and now as a dojo owner made him even more attractive. Kayla had learned that Duncan was ambitious, and she’d always searched for that in a guy she was dating—except they weren’t exactly dating. Not yet. She would meet him tomorrow for a first date, and she’d already pictured the contents of her closet to figure out what she would wear.
After she stepped out of the small shower stall, she saw her phone lighting up on the pink sink with a few text messages from her brothers and sisters, but she decided to answer them after her night out.
As she dried her hair with a pink blow-dryer, it occurred to her that her former colleague’s grandmother’s favorite color must have been pink. Even though her social life was picking up, she was still getting used to the apartment that was decorated with ugly pink knickknacks.
As Kayla walked into the master bedroom, she considered what she would wear tonight. As she was dressed in business suits all week, she opted for casual tight-fitted jeans and a simple white shirt. Her knee-high black boots gave her outfit a less simple feel and gave Kayla a few inches more height, as she was barely five foot five.
Maureen and Caitlin were already standing in front of Danny’s Diner when Kayla arrived. Maureen wore her signature Coco Chanel suit along with leather gloves in the exact same pink shade, and Caitlin was dressed in a dark green dress which made her dark brown curls stand out more.
“Hello, dear. Is it okay if we ride in my car? I figured you girls might want to stay longer than me, and I really need my beauty sleep. You can’t look this good at seventy-six without a good sleep at night.” Maureen winked.
Kayla chuckled and agreed to carpool. In the back of her mind, she figured she wouldn’t be staying without Maureen or Caitlin. After a fifteen-minute drive, Maureen parked her old Chevrolet El Camino in front of a pub called The Lucky Irishman, which sure looked the part of a real Irish pub.
It had a dark green exterior with its name painted in yellow above the doors, but she couldn’t see inside because of its dark windows. She’d always loved Irish pubs, as she had Irish blood herself, and back home she often went to one with her brothers and sisters.
Inside the pub was a mostly dark mahogany interior with the look and feel of a family atmosphere. A younger couple played pool in the back, several people chatted in booths, and some older men sat on barstools at the bar. While they made their way through the pub, Maureen and Caitlin greeted several patrons by name, and they all congratulated Maureen on her birthday. It seemed that Maureen and Caitlin were part of this crowd and were loved by every single one of them.
“Come with us, Kayla. We’ll be sitting at my regular spot.” Maureen ushered her toward the bar, only for Kayla to stop dead in her tracks when her eyes fell on the bartender. How was this even possible? Another Mills brother?
He resembled Duncan and Donovan with their broad shoulders, muscular arms, chiseled jawline, and crooked nose. His raven black hair was wavy on top and shorter on the sides like Donovan’s, but his eyes were the exact same light color green as Duncan. The bartender’s eyes seemed sad where Duncan’s smiled every time she’d seen him.
“Come, girls, what can I order for you? Drinks on me. Pick anything you’d like,” Maureen said, touching Kayla’s elbow briefly as she brought her back to the present. Kayla loved how Maureen could get her out of her head with the simplest of touches or anecdotes.
The bartender greeted Caitlin with a simple “Hi, Cait,” who nodded back in return. And he was now looking expectantly at Kayla, so she ordered the first thing that came to mind. “I’ll have a white wine, please.” She was in a bar for the first time in close to two months, and she was glad to have the wine for liquid courage.
After Maureen ordered herself a whiskey and Caitlin asked for a white wine as well, the bartender insisted the drinks were on the house as a way to celebrate Maureen’s birthday. As Kayla sipped her drink and looked around the pub, she almost fell from the barstool at the sight before her.
After successfully asking Kayla out on a date yesterday, he found her sitting here in his pub—well, technically his father’s pub, but this was his home. Lucky was his safe haven where everyone knew him, where he would meet up with his family. Was he ready to let her in? He’d wanted to take her out to a small Italian restaurant tomorrow. He wanted to get to know her without his family butting in.
“Duncan, come here. I want you to meet someone dear to me,” Maureen said.
What the hell? She was here with Maureen? And Caitlin was with them too? How come he’d never seen her here before? And she was someone dear to Maureen? With a frown set on his face, he strode toward the bar. When her eyes locked on his, Kayla nearly tumbled from her barstool.
“Whoa there, no need to fall at my feet, wildflower,” he drawled. Yep, he’d called her wildflower several times now, and she would always scowl, just like she did now.
Her expression shifted from stunned to pissy, causing him to smirk. Perhaps he acted like a jerk, but he took pleasure in poking at her and getting her claws to come out. He was always up for a challenge, and fuck, she even upped the ante by working for his brother and now sitting here in his family’s pub with Maureen and Caitlin.
“Is this the person you were talking about, Maureen? You said you wouldn’t set me up with someone.” Kayla sounded a bit disappointed with Maureen.
“No, dear, that’s not who I was talking about. It’s not like that at all.” Maureen looked a little panicked, and Duncan didn’t appreciate that Kayla made her feel uncomfortable and decided to nip this in the bud.
“Hold on now, Maureen wouldn’t lie to you. Besides, we’re going out on a date tomorrow, so who cares?” he said sternly.
“Oooh, you two are going on a date tomorrow?” Caitlin singsonged and smirked at Kayla, who seemed irritated by Duncan’s words as she ignored Caitlin and shot daggers at him.
Maureen placed her hand on Kayla’s arm. “I wanted you to meet my oldest friend, and he happens to be Duncan’s grandfather. I wasn’t setting you kids up, dear. Come, let’s enjoy my birthday.”
Kayla started to apologize. “I’m sorry, Maure
en. I—”
Maureen was clearly having none of that. “No need to apologize, dear. I would like for you to meet Sean Mills Sr.”
“Step away from the birthday girl, ye boyo,” Pops said, shuffling toward them and grabbing Maureen for a big hug as he congratulated her.
Kayla looked up from Maureen, and the moment she set her eyes on Duncan’s grandfather, he tried imagining what she must have seen in his green eyes, because she was smiling the brightest smile he’d seen thus far on her. It was almost as if she recognized something in his grandfather.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Mills.” Kayla reached out her hand for Duncan’s grandfather to shake.
“Call me Pops.” He shook her hand in his signature strong handshake. He was seventy-eight years old, but Pops still had strong hands, and his handshakes were always so painful that Duncan had hated them when he was a kid.
He tried to skip shaking his hand once when he was thirteen years old, but Pops wasn’t having that and said, “Come here, ye nutter. No need runnin’ away like a scared little boy.”
His grandfather was born to Irish immigrants, and although Pops was born in the States, he spoke with a strong Irish accent, and he often used some foreign words. Duncan and his brothers were called boyo, as in “little lad,” and if he wasn’t calling him boyo, Duncan knew he was disappointed in him.
With Pops being a widower, he could be found sitting in his chair at the table closest to the bar almost every day. He had the same Mills posture as Duncan once, but now Pops’s back was slightly hunched, and his strong muscles were gone. Instead, he’d developed a big paunch and fat cheeks, and all of his black hair had turned gray.
Sean Jr., Duncan’s dad and the current owner of Lucky, was the jovial one, if you didn’t dare to discuss changes for the pub, that is. Pops was grumpier and acted as if he’d lost his filter when he’d retired from the pub. He swore like an old sailor and often butted in where his nose didn’t belong, offering advice to those who clearly didn’t need it.
That brought Duncan’s thoughts back to this evening as he intentionally sat at the opposite side of the bar, farthest away from Pops’s table where he was entertaining Maureen, Caitlin, and Kayla. Kayla listened to the playful bickering between Maureen and Pops, and she was smiling when she looked over her glass straight into Duncan’s eyes. Shit, he had to be more careful. He instantly turned his head. He didn’t want her to know he had been staring at her for the past hour.
“Shit, bro, just go to her already.” Brennan was never one to sugarcoat his words. “This is getting pathetic, man.”
Duncan glared at his brother, who was rinsing some beer glasses Tori had brought over. Tori worked part time at the pub and was often in for a good time. She tried pursuing Brennan, but he never took the bait, unlike Duncan, who once did when she was new to the job several months ago.
The brunette was model-like; she was thin, had legs that went on forever, and had a pretty face. She had big doe eyes and pouty lips she often used in putting on her charm to gain more tips from the customers. She was not his type, but their one-night stand had been fun. They both knew he wasn’t the one she really wanted, and he wasn’t hurt one bit when she stated it would only be a onetime thing. Duncan was in for some fun, and it was no skin off his back if she wanted to leave it at that.
“Who are you guys talking about?” Tori eyed the room, and Duncan knew the moment her eyes fell on Kayla. Her narrowed gaze flashed to Brennan, checking if he was eyeing her. Seeing he was busy drying the glasses, she seemed relieved and shot another look at Kayla.
“She family of Maureen?” Tori asked, but Duncan didn’t have a clue, so he just shrugged. Kayla came here when he least expected it, and after she was introduced to Pops, they went to sit down at the table she was still sitting at.
There was no reason for him to join them; it would be too obvious, and he had noticed how Kayla reacted when she thought Maureen set her up with him. He figured that Kayla had a story to tell, because he never met anyone this closed-off about their past, or with a higher wall surrounding them, for that matter.
She looked stunning in her business outfit yesterday, but tonight? He was practically salivating over her heart-shaped ass, tiny waist, and big tits in a tight white shirt that just screamed across the room for him to come over and squeeze them. What he wouldn’t do for them to be alone right now.
He would get her in front of him on top of the bar, strip her out of her jeans, put her legs over his shoulders, and feast on her. He would have her panting and screaming his name and—
Duncan felt a strong hand on his shoulder, and when he turned on his stool, he met Pops’s dark eyes. “Duncan, no man has ever won over a girl with daydreamin’. Get off yer lazy butt and join our table.” Leave it to Pops to invite someone over to his table by insulting them.
“I can’t, Pops. She wasn’t too keen on seeing me here as it was.” Duncan tried to discourage Pops, hoping he wouldn’t let the whole pub know what he thought of his grandson.
“Ye met her already?” Pops asked, and Duncan nodded at him. “Are ye a Mills man?” Pops was about to lose his patience, and Duncan knew he wouldn’t drop the subject. “Now, are ye?” Pops slapped the back of his head and looked him in the eye, daring him not to answer the question.
“Yes, Pops, you know I am.” Duncan sighed.
“Never took ye for a coward, Duncan. Yous met earlier, yer smitten with her”—he held up his big hand when Duncan tried to interrupt him—“and yet here ye are, sulkin’ at the bar and lookin’ at her like a lost puppy. No. A Mills man takes action, ye hear?”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the reason why Duncan loved his grandfather so much. He was right. Where did Duncan leave his balls? He had to take control of the situation, and his feelings even. He couldn’t ignore her presence any longer, so he slipped off his barstool and strode toward Kayla, leaving his brother and Pops behind as Pops stated, “Told ye he’s smitten.”
“Can I have a second of your time, Kayla?” He nodded toward the back entrance so she would know he meant speaking in private.
“I’m sorry, Duncan, but I’m here for Maureen’s birthday celebration. Perhaps we could talk some other time.” Kayla smiled softly.
Even after the last couple of weeks when they’d gotten to know each other, she still had this huge wall surrounding her. They were going on a date tomorrow, but he needed some time with her alone. He already knew he affected her, that she was attracted to him. Their chemistry in the past weeks had been the best he’d ever experienced with a woman, and that was when they’d only talked and flirted at his brother’s office.
“I’m sure Maureen and Cait wouldn’t mind if you favored me over them for just a few minutes. I’ll have you back, safe and sound, before you know it.” He gripped the back of her chair and pulled it away from the table. She looked resigned when Maureen urged her to go with Duncan.
When the back door closed behind her with a big thump, she jumped. Looking back at the door, she didn’t see him coming at first. Her eyes went wide when he stood in front of her and pushed her back against the wall next to the door in the enclosed back alley outside of Lucky.
“One kiss. I need to know if you feel this too” was all he said before he attacked her mouth with his lips.
She gasped at his forwardness, and he took advantage. She worked with him, played with his tongue, and her hands came up to softly scrape his scalp with her fingernails. Goose bumps trailed all over his body, and he couldn’t control his raging hard-on that was pressing against her belly. Duncan didn’t care if she knew how much he wanted her. In fact, he wanted her to know.
“Mmmm, Duncan....” He relished the sound and decided to thrust his pelvis against her. “Oh... Duncan... mmm.” Fisting her long blonde hair, he tugged softly so her neck was right there for the taking. He raked his teeth over her skin and suckled carefully on the spot behind her ear. She followed his rhythm, moving along with his thrusting.
“I.
.. aaaah, Duncan.” Her fragrance was the same as when they first met, and combined with her arousal, it had an intoxicating effect. His hand went over her right breast, feeling her erect nipple pressing against her white shirt.
“You make me crazy, Kayla,” he whispered in her ear.
She took his earlobe between her teeth and gave it a soft pull. Now it was his turn to groan. He wanted to take her right then and there. When he pulled away to observe her state, he noticed her glazed eyes and her chest heaving up and down. God, she was even more beautiful now.
“I... I... umm....” Kayla was stuttering and blinking rapidly in an effort to come out of the haze.
“I know,” he said in a whisper. “I know.”
He was trying to reassure her that he was as affected by her as she was by him. He kissed her lips softly, and it took all of his effort to break away. Leaning his forehead against hers, he stared into her eyes. She was looking straight at him, no pretense or mask in front of her true self. She had opened up to him, and he acknowledged this great gift she’d given him. He knew this was a huge deal for her, and he felt a sense of pride that she would take this step with him.
Oh my God, what was I thinking? She loved kissing him way too much. He stood there staring into her eyes, and she couldn’t seem to get out from under his spell. The way he touched her, kissed and caressed her, it all felt so right.
After her blah experiences, here came Duncan with his strong hands and his determined touches, which he alternated with soft kisses and whispers. He left her whimpering in a back alley, almost pleading with him to never stop. She shook her head to come out of this trance, and after their eye contact was broken, she found the strength to put her palm flat on his chest.
He immediately took a small step back, but he still had his hands on her biceps and was caressing her upper arms with his thumbs. It was making her shiver, and he chuckled at her response.
