Around the World in 80 Men Series Boxed Set 1-10

by Brandi Ratliff

  “Good then, I'm glad ye like it. Let me show ye a wee tour of the place,” Sean began walking down the hallway to the right of the front door and Morgan followed him with her luggage. The first room on the left was the master bedroom, even bigger than the living room. Morgan set her bags down on the floor and made a circle around the room, looking at all his bedroom ornaments.

  Along his long dresser, in the midst of his collection of shot glasses, there were half a dozen photos in black wooden frames. One photo showed Sean and an older woman; a plump fiery red-haired woman. Morgan assumed she was his mother. In another picture was a younger Sean with a blonde haired man; his father. Two of the other pictures were of Sean and his sister. The sixth picture was the one that made her choke on her own breath.

  Finlay. There they were. Sean and Finlay. They were standing in front of a fancy building, on the steps and had their arms around each other, with their other arms flexed into L's, showing off their muscles. You've got to be shitting me. Morgan picked up the picture to get a better look, yep, that's him for sure.

  Sean came up behind her, “that's my mate, Finlay. You know the Campbell project I told ye about, that'll be him there.”

  Morgan set the picture back on the dresser and played along, “oh, that's him? He looks...delicious...nice.”

  “Yep. Been mates for seven years now. C'mon, I'll show you my loves.” He grabbed her hand, and Morgan took another look at Finlay before walking out of the bedroom. So, Finlay is going to watch me fuck his best friend. She made a note to accidentally flip that picture down later.

  Down the hallway came another door and when Sean opened it, they were greeted by two terriers. Scottish Terriers. “This is Olcan, and this is Felan” Sean pointed to each dog, naming them. “Both of the names mean 'wolf', Finlay thought it would be bloody hilarious to name them that. He's the one who got them for me, actually.”

  “Fin..I...uh, Finlay got the dogs for you?” Morgan couldn't understand why he would buy Sean dogs.

  “Aye. I gave him hell for years about having Irish Wolfhounds, so last Christmas I got these two pups at my doorstep. Scottish Terriers. Real funny, eh? But I love 'em. They don't really live up to their names though.” Sean laughed as Morgan was assaulted with furious face licking. Both dogs paused when they caught the smell on her clothing. William and Wallace's scent must have lingered on her, but she would never say it.

  Chapter Three

  Morgan pulled herself away from the lovable fur balls, and continued with the tour. Sean showed her the two smaller bedrooms, and joked that she wouldn't see much of those while she was there because he planned to keep her in his bed as much as possible. They walked through the homey living room, and the thick floral sofa looked like the most comfortable piece of furniture that Morgan had ever seen.

  Then to the one bathroom that Morgan thought was the most perfect room in the old house. The tub was average, the sink was worn, and the flooring was a tile that had to be at least thirty years old, but taking the length of almost the entire far wall was a double window that held the most beautiful scene of River Liffey. She instantly pictured herself lounging in old white tub, as she watched the sunset over the water.

  Sean had to nearly drag her out of the room to show the final part of the house, the kitchen. As Morgan walked around the small beige table, she laughed out loud at the assortment of sheep that littered almost every corner of the cabinets and shelves. Walking sheep, singing sheep, sleeping sheep, posing sheep, and even a three-legged sheep, some were even wearing clothes and shoes. The porcelain, plush, and wooden figures were lined four deep across the kitchen counter, and there were even sheep paintings on the wall.

  “Holy sheep, Sean!” She picked up a plush sheep right in front of her, one that was wearing a rain coat and boots with a tiny umbrella coming from his tiny sheep foot. Sean laughed, and took the sheep from her hand.

  “Ah, it's no' funny! My ma collects these things, and she couldn't fit them all in her new home. So, she had to leave some here.” He went on to explain that he kept them in the kitchen so that she could see how much it cluttered his house, and that kept her from buying more with the assumption that her overflow could be kept at his house.

  Morgan nearly doubled over laughing, “I guess that's one way to do it!” She tried to imagine Sean navigating the field of sheep all over his kitchen just to make a bowl of cereal. Her laughter got louder, and she had to sit down to catch her breath.

  “I said it's no' funny!” Sean put his arms around her from behind the chair, and threatened to make her sleep with every stuffed sheep in the kitchen if she didn't stop. But the man wasn't good with playing hard ball, and he ended up laughing just as hard as she was.

  A dozen snorting fits, several bad sheep jokes, and a few more threats later, they had gathered themselves enough to plan the rest of their day. The first part of their plan was to eat, and Morgan realized that the man had the appetite of Tanner. With the memory, Morgan's heart raced for several seconds, then she pushed the thoughts as far away as possible. What the heck was she doing thinking about Tanner in that way? She questioned herself, then pushed that away as well.

  Sean moved a few sheep out of the way and checked the pantry, then the refrigerator. With a sigh of disapproval, he told her that there wasn't enough food there for even a modest meal. “I'll go out and get us something. Do ye like Indian food?” When she said that she did, he grabbed his keys and gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head. “I'll be right back.”

  Morgan watched him pull out of the small driveway, then onto the street. A sudden feeling of sadness hit her, and she pressed her head against the small glass window on the front door. The feeling that a family lived there, and woman probably watched her husband leave from that very driveway, year after year. Although it was the adult Sean's home, she could almost feel him as a child, running to his parents and laughing at everything in his world. “Will I ever have that?” The thought nearly shook her to her core, because until that very moment, she had never thought about actually having her own family. Hell, I could barely get a date.

  Her pity party was boldly interrupted by two new friends who told her with force that they needed to use the outdoor facilities. She looked down, and laughed at their little fuzzy faces. “Okay, okay..hmm..I don't want to let you out by the street.” She walked through the house, and to the back door. She smiled when she saw the entire garden was securely fenced. Morgan opened the door, and the dogs bolted into the back yard.

  She followed them out, drawn to a stone bench in the corner of the yard. She started to sit on the cold seat, but took her phone out of her pocket first. Looking down at it, she noticed that she had missed several calls. Four of them were from Julianne, and one from, “Fin?” After a few seconds worth of a mental debate, she called Julianne first.

  In typical Julianne fashion, Morgan's boss jumped right into the conversation with the normal 'hello' preceding it. “How's Sean?”

  Morgan laughed at her phone welcome, “he's great, and we're having a lot of fun. I'm currently in Dublin awaiting my Indian meal, courtesy of said client. How are things with you?” Morgan smiled into the phone.

  “Well, I'm a little put out today, because there's a Tanner Collins that will not stop calling me! He wants your number, and I refuse to give it to him.” Morgan's heart pounded quickly, and she put her hand over her chest as she listened. “I figured if you wanted him to have it, you would have given it to him. So, I told him that I would give your number to him and you could do with it what you wanted. But please, make the man stop calling me, I do have a life ya know.” Morgan could hear the humor in Julianne's voice, but the young girl couldn't get past the words. She also remembered giving Tanner her number before she left, but it was easy to assume that the careless man had lost it since then.

  “He..he wanted to talk to me?” Morgan's voice was barely above a whisper. She cleared her throat, then asked, “did he say why?”

 
; “Morgan dear, the man has the hots for you, it's that simple. Now call him and lead him on, put him out of his misery, or whatever, but I need to get going. I already sent a text with the number, use it.” The call ended with the Morgan's phone still against her ear.

  Olcan and Felan, once again, were quite efficient in distracting her. They must have been at her feet for awhile and had grown tired of waiting for her to see them. Felan barked several times, and Morgan looked down. He had brought his favorite green ball to her and was waiting for her to throw it.

  “Oh, ya wanna play, huh? Okay cutie..,” she threw the ball and laughed at their scruffy butts as they ran across the yard. Her mind then went right back to Tanner. She knew that there hadn't been a problem, at least she assumed as much. They had fun, and he would have told Julianne if he had been unhappy. “He has the hots for me?” She laughed at the woman's choice of words, but she knew that it wasn't true. Tanner was a great guy, who enjoyed every minute of his life. He could have women lined up all over the world if he chose to. No, she decided, it had nothing to do with that, he probably just wanted to keep in touch with her since they got along so well.

  As she checked the phone for her messages, she got that feeling again that she felt in Sean's kitchen. A feeling of...missing him? “Do I miss him?” She asked the question mainly to herself, but shared her words with the two playmates that she had just thrown the ball again for.

  She was about to click her first message when she realized that it wasn't Julianne's. “Fin?” He had obviously grown tired of her not answering her phone. She opened it, and read it to the dogs, “Morgan, I can't work. I'll pick you up at Sean's. Call me.” As the words left her mouth, Morgan felt anger like she hadn't felt in years.

  “How fucking dare you!” She yelled at her phone, and stood to pace the yard with her fluff ball buddies trailing each step. “You ditched me...AGAIN! Work came first, remember? But MY work isn't important, is it Finlay? No! I'm supposed to drop everything and run to your side because you're pissed off about Sean...,” she paced faster as her temper near boiled, “I wasn't important enough, but your ego is! All of a sudden, you don't HAVE to work, is that it?”

  She had finally lost the ability to speak, and her mind raged with white hot fury at the nerve of the man. He willingly left her to see to a job that he could have sent someone else to do. But now that she was with Sean, he ditched his job to bring her back to him. Yes, she decided, he was exactly like the guys that she had always dated, and if she continued any further relationship with Finlay, then it would be on her terms.

  Just about the time she was tempted to throw her phone across the yard, she stopped and took a deep breath. “Tanner, I need his calm reasoning about now.” She took a few more cleansing breaths, and opened Julianne's text. With his number in hand, she called the gorgeous Aussie.

  When he answered, the sound of his voice broke the wretched mood that she was in, and a smile quickly stretched across her face. “Tanner? This is Morgan....I...uh...heard you were trying to get in touch with me, what's up?” She sat back down on the white stone bench, and waited to hear his voice again.

  “Ah, my beautiful, Morgan. How are ya?” She answered with the standard, 'good' and waited to hear what he wanted.

  As it turned out, he didn't want anything specific beyond the need to keep in touch. He told her how much he missed her, and that he hoped to see her again so that she could see more of Sydney. Morgan asked about his cast, which he still wore at the time, and he assured her that he was healing well and it should be removed soon. Morgan nearly giggled into the phone when he told her how he had attempted to take his boat out and lost his balance as he refused to use his crutches. She did laugh out loud, however, when he admitted to falling in the water and how that time, he, “wasn't happy to be swimming with the fishes.”

  “Oh, Tanner! I've missed you!” The words that so easily left her lips made her close her mouth quickly and go silent.

  “I've missed ya too, doll. Very much.” Then he too, went silent.

  After a few awkward seconds of silence, Tanner was the one to begin again, “ya sound a little sad, what's going on?” At first, she had no intentions of telling the man her personal business, but when he asked again, the whole story with Finlay came pouring out. She had no idea why she was telling him, maybe she just needed a friend. Morgan didn't know what Tanner was to her, but at the moment, he certainly felt like the only friend that she had, other than Julianne.

  “So, he sent me a text and told me to leave Sean, and that he would come and get me.” Morgan bit her lip, already worried that she had dumped far too much on Tanner. As she tried to think of anything to change the subject, he offered his advice.

  “If ya like him, then don't ya dare give him what he wants. Ya need to give him a taste of his own medicine, and blow him off completely.” She was shocked at his words. Shocked that he cared enough to offer his opinion, and shocked that he told her how to fix things with Finlay.

  “What do you mean, a taste of his own medicine?” She stood and paced the garden again.

  “Easy, fuck the hell out of the Sean guy, and make sure Finlay knows about it. He left you to do his job, and he needs to know that it was his actions that made you be with his friend. It'll drive him crazy, and he'll either forget about you, or learn from it and treat you better. Either way, you'll come out a better person for it.” She could hear slight reluctance in his voice, the type that told her that Tanner believed what he said, but wasn't happy about having to say it.

  “Tanner, I could kiss you!” She smiled again, knowing that he was right and she just had to do what she was being paid to do. Not to mention she enjoyed her job so very much. Just as Morgan started to ask more about Tanner's ankle, she heard Sean's car pull up in front of the house. “I'm sorry, he's back and I have to go. I'll call you as soon as I can, okay?”

  “Anytime. Oh, and Morgan...I really do regret not being able to show you around. I'll make it up to you, I promise.” She thanked him, and said again that she would call him soon.

  Talking to the man had made things so much better, and she looked forward to the new friendship that had started between them. She only wished that they had spent more time talking about him instead of her problems.

  She peeked inside the back window to see if Sean had walked into the house yet. When she saw that the coast was still clear, she sent a quick text to Finlay to answer his question. Finlay, I have to work. I'll get in touch when I get some time off. Morgan. Perfect, all she had to do at that point, was to get back to the handsome man that worked wonders with his...

  “Morgan!” She turned to the door, and smiled at Sean as he motioned for her to join him.

  She slid her phone back into her pocket and walked into the house. Sean was unpacking several large bags of Indian carry out. She was tempted to sit down and dig right in, but she was more tempted for something else.

  Morgan stood behind Sean, and ran her hands around his waist. “You're warm.” Her hands found the bottom of his shirt and she slid her hands along his bare stomach.

  “Yer hands feel nice.” He stopped unpacking and leaned his head back slightly. Morgan lowered her hands, and unbuttoned his pants, then lowered his zipper. With one more quick move, his pants and underwear were around his ankles.

  He moaned softly, as she stood back up behind him and ran her hand along his inner thigh. “Are you hard, Sean?” She couldn't see from where she stood, and she knew that he loved being talked to during sex.

  “I've been hard since the moment we met.” He pushed his body slightly to the side to coax her needed touch. Morgan took the hint, and moved her hand up to the right spot. She wrapped her fingers around his cock and enjoyed the slight curve that made for stroking him that much easier.

  His moans grew louder and she continued running her hand over his length while she managed to removed her own clothing from the waist down. She also took a second to mentally congratulate herself for d
oing it while never stopping the movement of her other hand.

  When she stopped and removed her hand, he turned around to face her. “I plan to be inside of ye now, Morgan.” His sensual smile reached his eyes that burned with raw desire for the beautiful tormenting blonde. “Will I have ye here?” He pulled her close and ran his hands down her back. “Or in the bedroom?” Then his hands covered her ass.

  “Here.” She smiled and turned around. Morgan leaned her upper body over the beige table and arched her back to bring her ass higher for him to enter her. His large hands grabbed her hips and he moved closer.

  “Bloody hell, I've never seen an ass this nice.” He ran his hands over her round cheeks, then back to her hips. His hand wrapped around his long cock, and he brought it up to her moist opening.

  “What now?!” Sean and Morgan both turned their faces to the intrusion; Sean's phone was on the table and was ringing less than a foot from Morgan's face. Sean struggled with his next move. Normally, he would have thrown the phone across the room and got back to what was important, but a week earlier one of his men had been hurt badly on the job site and Sean didn't want to take the chance of missing a call like that.

  With his rock hard part still hovering just out of reach, he grabbed the phone and moved it closer to the edge; which brought it almost directly under Morgan's face.

  He hit the button, and then speaker. “Ya!” He just wanted the other person on the phone to state their business, and hang up.

  The voice on the other end was not what Morgan would have expected. “Sean, it's Finlay. I need ye doon at the site, could ye make it here tonight?” Morgan's body tensed, and the reality of the phone call crashed over her with a whole new flood of anger. He wasn't able to get through to her when he called, and the text she sent back said that she wouldn't leave. Now it seemed as if he was resorting to removing Sean from her.