Breach of Contract (Kavanagh Family Romance Book 1)

by Elizabeth Miller

  “In My Blood” 3:29

  Jayce

  I EXPECTED BEAUTIFUL. Maisie is always that. I imagined her smiling and slightly dazed. Most women would be after walking into the Kavanagh family home, especially since she had little time to prepare for the occasion. I envisioned her on the nervous side, but interested in getting to know my siblings. Maybe even slightly overwhelmed by the size of the brood and longtime camaraderie.

  What I get is so much better. She exudes warmth, and the perfect amount of confidence with the lift of her chin and straight spine as she greets Declan. And then Quinn who fails to let go of her hand. I kick his damn foot to get him to step back. Flynn, the dick, brings her in for an embrace and I growl my displeasure. Her smile digs a dimple in her cheek and they’re all mesmerized. Who wouldn’t be? Then it’s Maggie’s turn. She squeals and the two hug like they’ve known each other for years. Long-lost friends finally reunited.

  It’s Quinn who breaks up their fun. “I’m off to get Dad.”

  “And I’m going to pick up Emma.” Declan grabs his coat from the back of the couch.

  “Last I heard, Emma has a driver’s license and owns a car,” I point out as the corner of my mouth tugs up. Declan has had a thing for Emma for as long as I can remember. An unrequited thing.

  “It’s snowing, fuck-face.” That’s his response, with a quick follow-up directed at Maisie. “Oh, sorry. I mean, it’s snowing, dear brother. I’m looking out for her welfare.”

  I laugh and take Maisie’s hand. “Safe travels during those two very long blocks. We’re headed to the Christmas fair. Mags, Flynn, you interested?”

  Shaking her head, Maggie says, “Thanks, but no. I’m finishing up my wrapping.”

  “And I’m sleeping. It feels like I haven’t since the bar opened.” Flynn waves on his way to the stairs. “Wake me up for game night.”

  Four of us trudge our way out of the house. Quinn and Declan to their respective cars, Maisie and I on foot the short distance to town. The snow is mid-calf from a recent storm, with another four inches expected overnight. It’s falling now, a light dusting on the cleared sidewalk, but she’s dressed for the occasion in her pink puffer coat and hat.

  I flick my collar up to avoid the chill. I point out some houses. Most are old craftsman style with wraparound porches, and I tell her stories of the friends who’ve lived there. It’s not long before we’re in the city center, transformed into a Christmas wonderland. Lights are strung everywhere. There are warming tents with burn barrels, roasted chestnuts, and hot chocolate abound.

  “Oh, ice skating. Can we?” She hops up and down, squeezing her hands in front of her. And how can I resist? She’s completely adorable.

  We stop for skates. Sitting on a bench along the rink, she laces them up with sure fingers, so I stand and move to the ice before she’s ready. Big mistake.

  She takes a tentative step, wobbling on the edge of the blades. I reach for her to keep her steady and laugh as she careens to the left. I twist with her, struggling to keep us upright. “I thought you wanted to do this?”

  “I do, but I never said I was good at it.”

  I grunt in agreement and squeeze her tighter while pushing us forward. “Got it. Michelle Kwan you are not.”

  “How are you such an expert?”

  “I was born in upstate New York. We skate before we walk around here.”

  “Hmmm, well maybe being stuck in your arms was my devious plan all along. Now you have to hold me up.”

  “You’re welcome here anytime.” I tuck her under my chin. “All the time.”

  She snuggles in as I glide us around the ice. Neighbors I haven’t seen in a year stare while we track the edge of the rink. Laughter and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” blares through speakers as we just coast, content.

  “Why did you bring me to Hamilton on Christmas?” Maisie murmurs into my chest. “I mean, I’m totally glad you did. This is the best day. But are you saving me from another disaster with my mother?”

  I shake my head, pulling away just enough to see her eyes. They shine in the early afternoon sun. Her lips are red and still swollen from my rough treatment in the car. I smile and kiss them. Because I can. Because she’s my girl and the memory of her riding the shit out of my dick is still fresh in my mind. She’s a woman with a mission, one who goes after what she wants. I like that. I like her.

  “You’re strong enough to save yourself, peach. You don’t need me for that. My intentions are purely selfish. I would have missed you too much any other way.”

  The look she gives me? I think I know what smolder means. Her grin is at first brilliant. Then everything about her darkens, devious. I immediately think about her hand gliding over my stomach, and then wrapping around my dick to position herself above me. How did you get so sweet, Mr. Kavanagh? She stroked me, licked her fingers, and did it again. How do you always know what I need? Her breath warmed my ear. Just as her body warmed my cock as she worked me inside. I remember her teeth on my neck, hungry, biting, teasing until I couldn’t take it anymore and I held her hips still and fucked up into her. Hard, fast, urgent. I was intoxicated. I am intoxicated. She’s in my blood. And I like her there.

  “What are you thinking?” she asks and I blink.

  “That having you here is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

  “Yeah?”

  I nod.

  “Give me more,” she says and I laugh.

  “And—hold that thought.” My cell rings, incessant, and I fish it from my back pocket. Ash. I flash Maisie an apology, making sure she’s steady before I skate away to answer. “Everything okay?” I ask.

  “Fine, really. Charlotte has been nothing but kind.”

  “Forgive me if I have doubts.” It’s hard to hide the sarcasm in my tone. Her long-lost half-sister inviting Ash to Christmas warrants it. I don’t trust anyone in her family.

  She laughs, and there’s nothing tense about it so I relax. “I just called Mags to wish her a happy holiday, and then she spilled the beans. I hear you brought a friend for the weekend?”

  I glance at Maisie while she takes a tentative push forward, cringing when she tips toward the ice. “I did.”

  “Good. I can’t wait to meet her. I’ll see you Monday?”

  The play. Her opening night. “Absolutely. Be careful.”

  “Stop being so suspicious. Everything is fine. It’s a pretty great ranch, with horses and everything. Don’t worry about me. Focus on your girlfriend and having a great one.”

  “Enjoy your break.” I hang up as Maisie manages a tentative spin. With her hands in the air, head back, she radiates absolute joy. My chest aches in the best way as I skate over to grab her. She laughs and I twirl us again, faster.

  Grinning, I kiss her forehead. When we stop altogether, she presses her lips to mine and asks, “Was that work?”

  “A friend who normally spends the day at the house, but is visiting a once-estranged relative.”

  “Not a good idea?”

  I shrug, and pocket my phone. For some reason I’m not willing to give more. It’s not the time. My history with Ash is long and complicated and too much for today. Or maybe I’m just used to being overprotective. “Not my decision. Anyway, where were we?”

  Her brow draws in. Questions seem to perch on the end of her tongue, but she lets them go and pushes me away only to grab my hand for balance. “Getting hot chocolate. Spiked.”

  “That’s what we were doing, huh?”

  She gives me the smile I love, dimple too. “Yup. Do you know of a place?”

  “I most definitely do.”

  TEN MINUTES LATER we stop in front of Kavanagh’s. Lachlan painted the exterior wood a dark, shiny green. So dark it’s almost black. Our name is etched in gold block letters across the top, along with Bar, Restaurant and Music Room.

  A sense of pride fills me as we walk in. One, because I’m with Maisie and everyone turns to watch us enter. She’s stunning and too cute in her winter getu
p. But two, because I’m proud of this place and the family that we are. The pub’s bustling today. Surprising for mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve. But waitstaff are back and forth from the kitchen to the occupied high-top tables and booths lining the room. The Pogues are on the jukebox. “Fairytale of New York” streams through the speakers and I am instantly at home.

  Lachlan mans the bar, rows of bottles behind him. Two regulars I’ve known since I worked here as a teen sit before him and we join them. I pause for hellos and Lachlan raises his eyebrow as we settle in. “My brother, Lachlan,” I say by way of introduction. “And this beauty is my girlfriend, Maisie.”

  “Girlfriend?” He chuckles. “Aren’t you full of surprises? And, by the way, nuclear level is an understatement.”

  “What?” Maisie asks while taking off her hat and then piling her hair on top of her head into a knot.

  “Ignore him.” I remember how I described her to Lachlan months ago. “He’s just a dick. A Baileys and hot chocolate for Maisie, and I’ll have whiskey, neat.”

  He nods. “I am. A dick, that is. But surprised too.”

  “Why?” she presses, looking back and forth to my brother while he fills her mug, and then to me.

  I stare at Lachlan, hoping an easy answer will come. It can’t be about Carla and Quinn and the recommendation I owe her to get him out of trouble. It’s exactly what Maisie wants. What she needs. A letter to Columbia Law and I only have one to give. Two would be gratuitous and overlooked by my colleagues. The first would negate the second.

  It was also the reason for our contract. The ridiculous agreement that I asked her to sign, but I never did. It didn’t feel right. Yet I let her think that sex was all I wanted because I didn’t know how to have it all. I still don’t if I’m honest about the circumstances. I’m walking the line as we go. One step at a time. A wrong move and this new relationship could crumble and I’m inches away from it happening.

  I promised Carla a recommendation if she did the work. And she has. So, I can’t give Maisie one too. Guilt stabs me in the gut and I stumble with an explanation. I throw Lachlan a pleading look because he backed me into this corner.

  “Two reasons,” Lachlan says, drawing Maisie’s attention his way. Thank God. “Jayce here hasn’t brought a girl home in over ten years.”

  “Really?” Maisie sits taller, dimple popping in her cheek. “I’m the first one?”

  “Yes.” Lachlan tops off her mug with a healthy splash of Baileys. “And you’re as gorgeous as he said you were.”

  “Oh, Mr. Kavanagh.” She says it like a pet name, purrs it really, and the vibrato goes straight to my dick.

  “Mr. Kavanagh.” Lachlan laughs. “Fuck, that’s priceless.”

  Maisie doesn’t look perturbed by his teasing, not the slightest. One of her hands lands on my knee and the other she uses to catch her cheek and perch her head up. Her attention on Lachlan is narrowed in. “Mr. Kavanagh always dodges my questions. Tell me more.”

  “Love to.”

  I roll my eyes to stare at the air ducts in the ceiling.

  “He’s been denied access to every dating site in modern history. No woman would have him.”

  “Why’s that?” Maisie plays along.

  “Too hairy.” Lachlan nods, solemn.

  “A beast.” She motions between us. “We’ve talked about this before. I’m rescuing the entire Manhattan population from his hideousness.”

  “You’re a hero. A heroine. And God bless you, Maisie, for taking him on. You’ve rescued him from spinsterhood.”

  “Dick,” I say, but Maisie points out, “You mean bachelorhood.”

  “That too.”

  “What else?” she asks.

  “He likes blue Sour Patch Kids, only the blue ones, and he thinks we don’t know he pulls them out of the bag.”

  “That’s why he’s so sweet.”

  “I was thinking tart, but if you say so.”

  “I do. What else—what’s the second reason you’re surprised?”

  “Well.” Lachlan leans in, elbows on the bar as if he’s about to release classified information. “We, as in, the Kavanagh brothers, haven’t had the best outcomes with working relationships.”

  “Oh?”

  I think I groan. I’m fairly certain Maisie hears it because she squeezes my knee. The glare I give Lachlan doesn’t faze him as he continues.

  “Not your Kavanagh,” he clarifies. “But Quinn and myself. Not the greatest examples of success.”

  “Like, it ended badly?”

  “So bad, it could have ruined our jobs.”

  “Oh,” Maisie says. “Oh. This makes so much sense. That’s why we had a contract.”

  I groan again, hanging my head while Lachlan laughs. “You didn’t.”

  I glower, but nod.

  Maisie leans into me and smiles against my neck. Then she makes everything better, because her heart is so big and understanding. “I get it. I really do. But contract or no contract, I would never do anything to jeopardize you or the firm. You’re safe with me.”

  I pull away so I can see her. Tilting her chin up, I find her gray-blue eyes. So clear. So honest. “I know I am.”

  She smiles, just a little twist to the corner of her mouth. “I wish you would tell me more things. You ask all the questions and I give all the answers. Maybe we can do quid pro quo from now on?”

  I study her for a minute and all I see is the truth. She is it for me. “Deal.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Kid in Love” 3:45

  Maisie

  I DIDN’T KNOW what to expect in Hamilton with the Kavanagh family, or with Jayce. Besides a boyfriend, fun is what I get. And honesty. And real growth. No contract for one. Skating in public is another. Quid pro quo, dare I say, is spectacular.

  I keep him talking. He spills all the secrets. From prom king, which I tease him about mercilessly, to high-school star quarterback and losing his virginity at the drive-in movies when he was fifteen. He knows my story so we laugh and kiss and drink and forget everyone around us.

  The last woman he brought home was Olivia and she broke his heart. I silently promise not to do that. I don’t like the flash of hurt in his eyes. But it’s gone in a second and then there is only light and warmth.

  The ukulele is his instrument of choice because he wanted to learn the guitar but he was little and a ukulele was a better fit. I make him promise to play for me. He tells me about Harvard and Drake. About opening the firm and working so hard over the last ten years that he hasn’t thought about anything but clients and Kavanagh’s, his dad, and his family. He’s ready for different and that’s me. I’m his fresh start and new beginning.

  Joy is Hamilton. I ride piggyback from the bar to the house. He insists it’s because the sidewalks are slick. I think he just likes to hold me, but whatever. Lachlan makes strong cocktails and I’m tipsy. I tell him so as he walks beside Jayce. He laughs and says, “You’ll thank me in about thirty minutes.”

  It doesn’t take long to understand what that means. This group is serious about their games. They forgo dinner to play. Laying out snacks to keep hunger at bay, they eat and drink and roast each other with stories only a family would know. I love every minute. As it turns out, Maggie and Emma are my charades partners, the brothers pair up, and his dad guesses each time. I kill it when I get “Baby Got Back.” And then Maggie dares me to sing it. So I do. Declan runs through the entire song with me. The whole family cheers when we’re done and I fall breathless into Jayce’s lap, happier than I have been in forever.

  We break for midnight mass. The elder Mr. Kavanagh is long asleep, and we slip out of the house and walk the few blocks to church. I’ve never been, but I find comfort in their faith and the ease with which they speak to God. It makes me feel like I could too. When we make peace, Jayce kisses my lips and wishes me a merry Christmas. My heart soars. This whole day has been so freeing. So real and good. I enjoy the ritual and sense of community, and really, I would go anywhere with
Jayce. Truth be told, being in a place of worship with him makes me feel worshiped. Like I’m good enough. I’ve always been good enough.

  The walk home is quiet. With my hand clutched in my boyfriend’s, I’m giddy like a kid in love. Lights brighten the way and it’s perfect. An hour in and it’s already the best Christmas I’ve ever had. When we arrive at the house, we whisper our goodnights and grab our bags before Jayce leads me to his room, a loft over the garage. Totally separated from the rest of the family, he locks us in.

  “It hasn’t changed much since I lived here. Hence, the mattress on the floor.” He aligns his chest with my back, kissing my neck.

  All I see is heaven. I’m with him, and nothing could be better. The windows are on an angle, following the slope of the roof. His bed lays beneath them. To the left is a dresser, mirror, and chair. The small tree in the corner casts a soft glow. It’s completely romantic and I turn in his arms to tell him so, but his mouth finds mine before I can form the words. His kiss is slow, deep, and I scrape my fingers over his abs, ribs, and his pecs to circle his nipples through his Henley. I scratch him there because I know he likes it and I like the vibration of his moan.

  But still, I break away with my hands hanging loose on his shoulders. “Thank you for this. It’s the best present anyone has ever given me.”

  His gaze falls to my lips and back to my eyes. “I haven’t given you anything yet.”

  I shimmy closer, his hard dick pressing into my stomach. “But you have. You gave me your family for a day. They’re fabulous and . . . so different from mine.”

  “You can have them anytime you like,” he offers, lifting my sweater. He’s quick to strip me to bra and underwear. He’s next. With one hand he grips the back of his shirt and tugs it over his head. His jeans follow it to the floor.

  I’m back in his arms as he takes a step. I move with him, one foot at a time until the bed is behind me. I’m breathless when he pushes us down. We bounce and I laugh. But my smile straightens as I look up into his serious face.