“I’m going to hunt down Auggie.” He leaned over and planted one on Gray. “Be back soon, babe.”
Gray turned her eyes on me, glaring and crossing her arms under her aforementioned ample bosom. “Keeva, what in the hell? Why haven’t I heard from you lately?”
“I’ve been in New York.”
“Yes? And before that?”
“Busted. I’m sorry, I’ve just got this new account, and it’s huge and I’ve been working like a maniac getting ready for my day one on Tuesday.”
“That isn’t an acceptable excuse. I was texting you and you didn’t bother to reply.”
Shit, she was pissed and I felt like a terrible human. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m a piece of shit.”
She dropped her arms and drew me into a hug. She was such a softy. “It’s okay. But, damn, I was worried and I’m exhausted and everything seems so much worse when you’re tired. I was so close to making Aiden drive to your place to make sure you were okay.”
“Gray. I’m sorry. Man, I feel like a dirtbag. I’ll do better, promise.”
She let go and turned her beam of sunshine at me, erasing in an instant all the crappiness I was feeling. This was my very best friend. She and I had known each other since college and I was the reason she had moved to Ireland. On that one fateful night, I had dragged her out in the Temple Bar district, Gray had met her fate. She had hooked up, unbeknownst to me, with my lothario of a brother and the end result had been little August, seven months later.
“It’s okay, Keeva. Just, next time I text you for an update, even if you’re busy, give me a quick holler.”
“I will.”
“So, how was your flight home? You must be exhausted.”
“I am and it was just as nerve wracking as all the other flights. Oh,” I grabbed her hands and squeezed. “But, this time, I was sandwiched between two guys, so that wasn’t all bad.”
“And?”
“And nothing. The story ends there. One was incredibly hot. Think Clark Kent hot, glasses and all, but that’s it. It was a nice distraction from my paranoia.”
Gray frowned, and I quickly added, “Hey, none of that. This lone wolf doesn’t need a mate, little one. There’s enough of that going around this family, so the rest of us won’t need to worry about that shit for quite some time.”
“Oh Keeva.” She smiled and shook her head. “I look forward to your day.”
“My day for what?”
She just walked away with this smirk I hadn’t ever seen on her face before. Stupid Aiden must have been rubbing off on her.
The rest of the day and night evolved into a classic Irish celebration. Lots of beer, lots of whiskey, lots of shouting and a huge headache the next morning.
THE NEXT DAY I DRAGGED my bags into my tiny Golf and hugged my sister goodbye. I was usually in quite the hurry to get out of Dodge, but today something was making me feel weird.
“Bye, Ash. Be good.”
She laughed and pushed me towards the car. My sister was one tiny step away from moving into a nunnery part-time. If it wasn’t for her eternal love of her damn horses, she’d for sure go. It wasn’t that she was into church or something. It was that she was so damn good. Beside her, I might as well have been sporting two red horns and cloven feet.
I turned left and put the Murphys in my rearview mirror and headed north to my home, Galway. There was no way I could live any closer to the rest of them. Well, Brennan anyway.
I zoned out and spent the next few hours making plans for my business meetings the next few days. I had a fair bit of work left to do for my first big meeting with NR. I had finally landed a huge client and I was wishing for more than a couple of days to prepare for our first meeting. I had no idea what would happen, but I knew I needed this account, badly. Things were way too inconsistent lately with many weeks leaving me not sure how I was going to pay Robert, my tech guy, who I desperately needed as I had zero technical abilities. I had a lot riding on this meeting Tuesday, and I sure hoped I didn’t blow it.
I let my mind wander and for some reason it landed on mystery Mark from the plane. He had been peeking out at me in the deep and dark recesses of my mind since I had left the airport yesterday. My lonely lady bits started to hum and I was struggling more than normal to sit still. I wiggled around, trying to relieve the pressure down there. I needed to have sex, like, pronto. I was now imagining sexy strangers in the car, hungover and trying to focus on work. It was time. I sighed deeply again and pulled in my lane, squeezing my micro car into my overpriced parking spot. Well, the spot was free, it was my mortgage that was overpriced.
I hopped up the stairs to my flat that was actually the upper level of a converted storehouse. The lower level housed my offices, so it was super convenient for me to eliminate my morning commute. However, it also meant I was always a few steps away from work. Bad for the aforementioned sex life. All work and no play made Keeva cranky.
Opening the large industrial barn door, I breathed in the smell that greeted me. I was a scent person and I always made sure my home smelled amazing, whether I was there or not. This month, I was on a huge vanilla kick. I threw my luggage in my room, made a pit stop in my fabulous bathroom and then locked up and headed downstairs to get started on finalizing the details of my first meeting with the head of NR Industries.
They were an international security organization that specialized in online software that could be used to derail nearly any hacker out there. I hadn’t met with any of the corporate managers in person, but through technology, I saw the whole genius system they had. They were relocating their head office to Galway from the United States and needed a brand and marketing strategy, which happened to be my forte.
I opened the office and settled in at my desk to make sure everything was in order for tomorrow, eventually, letting my mind wander. Of course, it landed on Mark yet again and I gave the lock around my heart and privates a good righty tighty turn. It was like he had turned on some sort of switch inside of me that had been out for a long, long time. Who knew a few hours on a rocketing-through-the-air piece of metal could have turned me into one of those looking-for-love-in-all-the-wrong-places sisters-in-law.
I heard keys jostling at the front door and turned just in time to catch sight of Robert walking into his office across the hallway. That was weird. He never worked on Sundays.
I walked the short distance to his doorway and leaned in, watching him fire up his computer.
“Hey.”
He jumped a solid mile and quickly turned around to look at me.
“Hey, yourself. What are you doing here? I thought your flight got in tonight?”
“Nope, flight got in yesterday morning. I was only in Kerry for the christening, remember? I might ask you the same question. Why in the world are you here on a Sunday? You never work Sundays.”
“I work Sundays.”
“Riiight. Maybe at your other job.” I raised a teasing eyebrow. I didn’t think he had any other jobs, but the look on his face was interesting. Maybe he moonlighted at Club Lapello. His face looked shocked and I think he had started to sweat profusely as his glasses were seriously sliding down his nose.
“I don’t have another job. Who told you that? I’ve never said I have another job.”
“Relax, Robert. I was just joking. Jeez, what’s up with you today? First, you show up here on a Sunday and now you’re acting all weird.”
“Nothing’s up. I just don’t have another job.”
“Okay, fine. I’m just finalizing the NR model for Tuesday. Don’t forget, you promised me those website mockups by tomorrow at noon.”
He waved a hand in the air, clearly dismissing me as he gave me his back. “Got it, boss.”
What a strange and annoying man. He had come to me from a recruiting agency and seemed pretty good at his job and God knew, I couldn’t tell an HTML code from my pin code but sometimes it got super lonely working here with just him for company. He wasn’t all that good at girl talk and o
ften had a strange odor hanging around him, that if I was getting real with myself, I would admit was totally due to his pot smoking habits. I had plans to eventually replace him, but for now, he was all I had.
I wandered back to my office and dove into perfecting my materials and making sure this account wouldn’t run for the hills once they started working with me. My family had no idea this was where I was at in life. They thought I was wasting my college tuition on a whim. It would be with great pleasure that I could enlighten them as soon as the clients starting rolling in and I could grow my empire. Yeah, I said it. My empire.
A long while later, I noticed the room getting dark and when I looked up to check on Robert, he was nowhere to be found.
“Wow, stealth employee.” I hadn’t heard him leave and that kind of creeped me out.
Stretching, I decided to pack it in, grab a hot bath and then get some sleep. My body had no idea what time zone it was and I figured a solid eight hour sleep, if I could manage it, would do me a world of good.
I locked up, Robert hadn’t done so behind him, packed up my laptop and trudged upstairs, getting more and more tired the nearer I got to my bed.
My place was amazing and pretty much my proudest achievement. Old, worn red brick walls, industrial touches here and there and lots of reclaimed barn board balanced out the cold, open feel of the place.
When our mom had passed away, we had each gotten a little sum of money to do something with. Well, except for Brennan. He got the nearly bankrupt pub, but that was his problem. I saved mine until I had finished college, then spent it all on my move to Galway, the up and coming tech hub of the UK and beyond. I needed the vibrancy this city had, without the size of Dublin. Galway was the best of both worlds, if you asked me. A quick drive in all directions could remind me of why I had moved to Ireland in the first place. The ocean.
I had purchased the building, renovated it, started my business and hadn’t looked back. Sinking down into my oversized soaker tub-hey, a girl could dream that one day there would a second who would want to soak in here with me from time to time-I closed my eyes and sank into my zone. Baths just did it for me. They gave me laser focus and soothed my soul and for some reason, my soul was feeling rather damaged right now. I stayed in until the water turned cool, hopped into bed wrapped in my favorite duvet, staring out at the city beyond, both nervous and excited for the possibilities that lay in wait for me this week.
Chapter 4
Keeva
“Keeva Murphy for Mr. Dale please.”
The woman at reception looked up from her laptop and smiled warmly. Welcoming work environment? Check.
“May I tell him who’s here?”
“Ah, Keeva Murphy?”
She laughed and rolled her eyes. “Sorry, I haven’t been on the job all that long. I’ll be right back. I’ll just go and get him.”
She teetered off down the hall on three inch stilettos that could have probably killed a man in a pinch, a la Single White Female. She returned a few minutes later with Tom Dale following her, seemingly not having killed anyone with her shoe today. However, judging by the size of him, I wasn’t sure he would feel anything should she have tried to stab him.
“Ms. Murphy.” He held out his hand for me to take. “Welcome to NR.”
His giant hand crushed mine and I valiantly tried to take control of the meeting, but until he let go of my hand, it was never going to happen. “We’ll head into the boardroom. Right this way.”
He released my hand just before the tears started rolling down my face and led me into what I assumed was the boardroom. I pulled out a chair, sat down and busied myself with my laptop and notes. I wasn’t sure how many would be joining us, but I was ready for anything. PowerPoints were my jam and I had prepared a doozy for these guys.
A door at the other end of the office opened and looking up I forgot all about my perfect PowerPoint. Standing beside Tom Dale was none other than Mystery Mark, my flight partner.
He stood silently before me, letting me make up my mind on how to proceed, the smug bastard. He had certainly cleaned up well. Fitted navy suit with pants that hugged his frame like a glove. He wore a crisp white shirt, open at the collar and tucked nicely into said pants, with the whole look yet again topped off with that glorious jet black hair and his hot as hell glasses.
“Keeva, I want you to meet the CEO of NR, Mark Jackson.” Tom shifted to let Mark into our circle.
“Oh, I believe we’ve already met, haven’t we?” I assumed the pose of female displeasure. Arms crossed, eyebrow raised, bottom lip drawing blood from being bit so hard. I had a choice to make here. A proceed with caution sign was flashing either way I went.
I could choose to let him have it, really bust his balls. Or, I could play nice and adopt the “I don’t care” attitude. I figured if I told him off giving him a huge piece of my mind, my professional career would take a hit. I swallowed my pride and went with appearing not to care. My brothers would never believe it.
He smiled, hands shoved and relaxed deep in his pockets, standing there looking like nothing was happening that should bother anyone. Tom inserted himself between us, seeming to sense the tension in the room. “What? How in the hell did you two meet and how did you not both know that you would be working together?”
Mark, still mute and half smiling, just stood there, the bastard. “We met on the plane over here, didn’t we Mark? Except Mark here must have known who he was talking to at some point during the six hours we were jammed in like sardines and yet he felt compelled to keep that information to himself. Isn’t that interesting?”
Tom’s eyes widened ever so slightly and he turned to face Mark. “Wow! You never mentioned meeting anyone interesting on the plane. This is a crazy coincidence.”
“Yeah,” Mark said. “Totally crazy. Shall we get started?”
He walked over to the table and sat down at the head of it as if there wasn’t anything completely mind blowing going on. He sat back, shuffled some papers around and looked up at Tom and me standing there looking like idiots staring at him. He raised a single, dead sexy eyebrow at us and like robots, we moved into position and sat down. Myself, directly across from him and Tom a couple of chairs to my left.
“Okay. So, the purpose of this meeting,” he looked up to find me staring at him. “Do we have a problem, Miss Murphy?”
Oh, he was good. Trying to put the pressure back on my end of the table. Well he had met his match. If it was stubborn ignorance of the facts he wanted, I was the master.
“No, Mr. Jackson. No problem at all. I do have a PowerPoint prepared and if I could just get the laptop mirrored to your screen, I’ll get started.”
I fiddled around with my screen, finally getting it reflected on the large television they used as a monitor in the boardroom.
We went over the presentation, occasionally stopping for me to answer any questions they had, and an hour later, I had given them the whole vision I was going for.
“Well, Ms. Murphy—"
“Please,” I said with a painful smile on my face. “Call me Keeva.”
He tilted his head slightly, responding in kind. “Only if you call me Mark.”
I looked over to see Tom leaning back in his chair with an intrigued look on his face, mixed with a smirk and I suddenly wasn’t sure if this was the right fit for my business. The two of them, sitting here with me, all hot-looking and male. That was about the only word I could come up with on short notice. I had a tendency to develop indignant verbal diarrhea when I felt cornered. I couldn’t figure it out, but something wasn’t right about these two.
My eyes bounced between both men and tried not to fill the anxiety inducing silence. Those rotten jerks. They weren’t going to say anything. They were just going to sit there and let me flounder.
“Okay, then. Let’s finish this meeting up with my action plan and you can add in anything you feel that might be necessary.”
The rest of the meeting went surprisingly well and by the
end of the next hour, it was completely clear to me that Mark Jackson was a tech guru and knew what the heck he was talking about. He was sexy intelligence, delivered his decisions with confidence and made no apologies for said decisions. The only thing that remained unclear to me, was why he hadn’t let on who he was on the plane. It wasn’t like I had a common name. Surely he had figured it out pretty quickly. I decided, though, that it would need to remain a mystery. I needed this account and I had found I was really looking forward to creating their brand for them. Me pushing Mark on this issue wasn’t going to get either of us anywhere.
As I was leaving, I heard someone come up behind me and push open the outer door. There was only one man who could be attached to the hand that was now holding it open for me.
“Thanks.” I turned back to quickly look at him and instantly regretted it. It was like his Clark Kent laser beam eyes went right down into my core and bounced around creating all sorts of warm fuzzies. I needed to give my vagina a good slap and keep my distance from this guy.
“Keeva.”
“Mr. Jackson?” Not on my watch, buddy. I was a professional. My mother raised me right. It would be horribly rude to ignore him and keep walking, so I stopped but didn’t turn around. I was having a hard time sticking to my guns when I was actually looking at him.
“I get that you’re probably mad.”
Damn. I was also very, very bad at sticking to my guns. I turned around to find him a lot closer than I thought he was. Digging deep into my professional vault, I attempted to take a step back to put some distance between us.
“Mad? Oh, I’m not mad. I’m actually quite excited to get started on the plan for your business, Mr. Jackson. So, do me a favor and let’s not bring emotions into the boardroom.”
“But—"
I held up my hand to stop him from going any further. “Nope, no need to apologize again for deciding not to introduce yourself on the plane. I’m good. I’m sure your reasons were great reasons. So, I’m going to go back to my office and get started if that’s all.”
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