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  She softly responded to Aiden’s questions and stayed alert through the next few minutes. I listened to the one sided conversation, feeling a whole hell of a lot better knowing her brother was doing her assessment.

  “Yes, Aiden. Yes. The pain is lessening. I know, I know. Aiden, for God’s sake, I know. Yes, he is, and no, not like that.” There was a pause in her side of the call, but I could hear her brother’s voice rising. “Aiden, do not put her on the phone. I’m fine. Aiden Murphy, no!”

  I lifted a pair of concerned brows and she in turn waved me off.

  “Hey, Gray.” Her voice softened and she visibly relaxed. Gray Fairfield. Her best friend, girlfriend to her brother Aiden and mother of August, Keeva’s newly branded goddaughter.

  “Yes, there’s a man here and no, he’s not just been violent with me. Tell Aiden to go drive someone else crazy with his insanity.”

  Violent with her? Shit. I stared at her, narrowing my eyes, trying to convey my irritation at that assumption. Logical Nixon knew that she came with a pack of brothers who would jump to conclusions like that, but illogical Nixon felt the pressing need to defend himself against blind attacks against his honor.

  “Gray, no. Absolutely no. You have no idea.” She laughed softly and her smile returned to her face. “Okay, that’s also not gonna happen. Please, I’m fine. Tell Aiden Mark isn’t here to ax murder me, and convince yourself he’s also not here to sleep with me and we can all move on to getting some rest.”

  I could hear laughter coming through the phone. “Okay, night Gray. Kiss Auggie for me, but not that idiot of a brother. My head hurts too much to even think about you and him together. And wait until I hang up the phone before you make those kinds of noises. Ew, please. Goodbye! Call you tomorrow.”

  She ended the call and threw her phone on the floor. “You’re supposed to wake me up every two hours. Just set my phone alarm and I’ll text you tomorrow.”

  She rolled off the edge of the couch and started to shuffle towards her room, giving me a view of her perky rear end and subsequently lighting my eyes on fire. I grabbed her blanket and lunged to catch her as she swayed at the doorway, covering her as best I could while holding her up. “Whoa there. I’m not leaving you tonight, so let’s just get you and your naked self-dressed and into bed so I can get set up on the couch.”

  She looked at me, offered up a single shoulder shrug and leaned into my side, evidently too tired to continue arguing. I got her into her bed without any more of her body being exposed and looked around, trying to decide where to start looking for a T-shirt and underwear for her.

  “I sleep naked. Not gonna put any clothes on. Deal with it.”

  And with that distressing piece of information, she burrowed into her covers and promptly passed out, leaving me with a raging hard on and a freshly pounding headache.

  Chapter 8

  Keeva

  The sun shone down on me the next morning, temporarily letting me pretend I was on a holiday in the sunny south. My alarm started blaring, abruptly shoving reality into my face and forcing me to confront whatever came my way today.

  I turned to my right and screamed. “Mark! Oh my God! What are you still doing here?”

  He set down a large glass of water and two pain relievers and my hand immediately flew to my head. Giant-sized lump? Check. Headache from hell? Check. Memory slowly coming back? Unfortunately, double check.

  I flopped back onto my bed and instantly regretted it. The searing pain behind my eyes was a brutal reminder of what an idiot I had been. I could hear him softly laughing and shuffling around my room, drawing my curtains, humming to himself as he searched my drawers for something.

  “What are you doing? Why are you invading my privacy?”

  “Aha!” He grabbed an old T-shirt and while ignoring me, continued his pilgrimage through my clothes.

  “Hey, creeper! What are you doing?”

  Another exclamation, this one whispered under his breath so I couldn’t hear it had him spinning around with a pair of my panties strung around his index finger and my t-shirt in his other hand.

  “I’ve got to run. Are you going to be okay now? No pressing need to fall back asleep?”

  “What in the hell is going on? Why do you—” I stopped as I suddenly had the need to feel myself up, confirming what I was suspecting. I was naked and probably had been since last night’s shower and show. “Shit,” I whispered.

  He laughed and my body suddenly started buzzing at the sound. “Yeah, shit. Don’t worry, I didn’t see much. I think you’ll be fine. I just gave your brother his last report. You’ll have to take over that job from here on out. I’m done being threatened by him for today.”

  I grimaced. My brothers were a pain, but when push came to shove, fiercely protective. “Sorry, it’s all kind of coming back to me now.”

  He crouched down so I wouldn’t have to keep moving my head to look up at him and I could see the bags under his eyes. Somehow though, he still managed to look insanely hot and his newly formed stubble gave him a level of danger that was doing crazy good things to my body. In my imagination, anyway.

  He reached out and tucked a stray hair off my face and I closed my eyes so he couldn’t see how his touch affected me. I felt like a royal idiot and his kindness was making me feel pretty guilty about being so angry with him.

  He stood and turned to go. “Get some rest, Keeva. And take those pills, drink the entire glass of water and text me later. If you don’t, I’ll be forced to repeat last night’s break and enter of your place, which by the way, was way too easy. You don’t do something about that, and I’ll have to let your brothers know you’re living here without proper security.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “Oh.” He smiled with a glint of evil mixed in. “I think I would.”

  I stared at his ass in his tight jeans and smiled to myself as he walked away. There was more to Mark than I knew and maybe, just maybe, I wanted to peel away those layers and take a peek at what was lying underneath.

  I THREW BACK THE COVERS and dragged myself into the bathroom, determined to wash away all the tingles my bits and pieces were feeling right now. My overactive hormones weren’t doing me any favors getting themselves all riled up.

  I showered, ate some breakfast, took the pills for the incredible headache I had given myself and went downstairs to my office to try to get some work done.

  As was the norm, Robert wasn’t in. God forbid he actually show up on time, let alone early. I flicked on the lights, fired up my computer and went out the front door, heading to my favorite coffee joint. It wasn’t easy finding all my coffee needs in an Irish town where beer and tea were more accessible than water, but I had been so excited when I found The Cup while exploring my new neighborhood.

  Only a few short minutes later, I was in a much better mood, having gotten my caffeine and cream fix and walked back to the office. I went to unlock the door and was surprised when it swung open without needing to be unlocked.

  Slowly walking in, I peeked around the corner to Robert’s station to find him studiously working away. He had his headphones on, so I loudly walked over to his door and gave it a hard knock. He jumped a mile and grinned sheepishly when he saw it was only me.

  “What are you doing here already? Lord, you’ve never made it into work before ten.”

  He nervously fidgeted with his mouse pad, all the while avoiding eye contact. I was completely used to this, but still, if he wasn’t comfortable with me yet, I wasn’t sure he ever would be. “I wanted to ask you for some time off this week, so I thought I would come in early to get ahead of the work.”

  “Who are you and what have you done with Robert?”

  Nothing. He clearly had zero sense of humor, as I had suspected all along, but come on. Not even a tiny smile. “Okay, then. Work away. When do you need off? We’ve got the NR campaign to work on, right?”

  “Yeah, I can do that remotely if needed. And I’ve nearly completed the tech you need for i
t.” He shifted around in his seat, looking anywhere but at me. This, I was also used to. He had some social anxieties and had a hard time looking me in the eye. He still lived at home, in his mom’s basement, dressed like a homeless person, and had no ability to sustain much in the form of conversation with me, but he was kick ass amazing at anything I asked him to do and then some. He had a mind for matching code with art and I wasn’t interested in losing him as my one and only employee.

  “Okay, sounds great. So, when were you thinking?”

  “Well, the rest of the week?”

  “Whoa, okay, well, you’ll have to use your vacation time. Unless, ah, are you sick, Robert?”

  He looked at me for the first time during this conversation, a shocked, wide-eyed expression on his face. “No! Um, sorry, just, no. I need to do something for a friend.”

  I needed to be done with this conversation before I became the boss from hell. “Alright, well, I guess that’s fine. Just keep me up to date on your progress, please. And next time, I’d like some notice please.”

  I walked back over to my side of the office and flopped into my giant, cozy desk chair, savoring the last drops of my coffee and my sanity before I had to deal with he-who-shall-not-be-named. He claimed to be a techie. Why couldn’t he be more like Robert? Why did he have to be the hottest nerd on planet earth? I absently rubbed my head where I had hit it last night and started blushing.

  I had successfully pushed most of the memories into the box in my brain that held the locked up stuff I wanted to pretend hadn’t happened. Me, unconscious and naked and being nursed by Mark? In there, locked down tight. I crossed my legs just to make sure my lower half got the locked up tight message.

  I responded to a few emails, finished up the social media plan for NR and gave myself a big pat on the back for only thinking of Mark once every minute for the past hour. My phone chimed an incoming text and flipping it over, my heart skipped a little bit ahead of me. Ahead of my brain, anyway. “Heart, get a hold of yourself. It’s a text from him. Not a proclamation of undying love.”

  I opened the potential text bomb and steeled myself against whatever he had to say.

  Hey. How’s the head?

  Well, that wasn’t too bad, but I think I clearly had told him I was fine and didn’t need him checking in on me. At least, that’s what I had wanted to say to say to him. I was quite busy checking out his rear view to think straight.

  I flipped over the phone and went back to work, fidgeting and giving my phone side glances, teasing my heart and trying desperately to get my brain back in the game.

  Another chime signaled a follow up text. Well, I had better check in case it was someone else with a huge family emergency. I wouldn’t want to be the one to blame for missing something vital because I was afraid of my phone.

  Not talking today? You’ve got to respond or else I’ll have to come back over to check on u

  Oh, he didn’t play fair, at all. Heart was all over the keyboard, trying desperately to respond to

  his siren song of concern for me. “Brain, step it up. Tell me what to do.”

  As usual, my brain was away again, on an extended vacation, as I found my fingers tapping out a quick reply.

  I’m fine.

  Ha, ha! I smiled a self-satisfied smile. Take that. I sat there, holding my breath, waiting to see what he would come back with. Minutes went by, and there was nothing coming from his end. I threw my phone down on my desk in a fit of frustration. Why wasn’t there someone out there who taught twentysomething women like me lessons in the art of texting and matters of the heart. Just once, I wanted to get a win here.

  I went back to work and the hours passed by without so much as a single word from him, or anyone for that matter. I was starting to feel quite unloved, until Robert rescued my poor heart and sat down beside me.

  I glanced up at him to find he was nervously playing with his pen and giving the serious stare down, something I had to as yet to experience from him.

  “Something I can help you with?”

  “Um, yeah. I’m done for the day. Is it okay if I take off now?”

  “Sure. Can you send me the files for my meeting tomorrow with NR?”

  “Uh, yeah, sure.” He got up and I guess that was that. He left and I locked the door behind him. I would never admit it to anyone who asked, but I hated being here alone at street level. My building was in a safe enough district which actually had quite a bit of residential buildings, but still. It was a big, old space and as the day wore on, and the sun was setting, I occasionally got the heeby-jeebies.

  I Skyped with some clients, replied to my inbox messages I had received while online and stretched and decided to call it a day. I needed to get a cat or a dog or something or else I was going to start talking to myself. Since I had moved up to Galway, I hadn’t had much time, or let’s be honest, inclination, to make a lot of friends. My options were pretty slim for the night and I wasn’t interested in becoming some sort of pathetic fixture in the pub down the street. It was bad enough one of the bartenders had slept with me a few months ago out of pity.

  I had sat on one of his stools, crying into my whiskey a little too long and had ended up making another notch in my bad decision belt. The sex had been amazing, but when a guy looks down at you after he’s all good to go and you’re crying your eyes out and moaning about what a relationship would do for you, it’s no wonder he started running without even fully pulling up his pants. Another example of my damn heart, consuming alcohol yet again, and swallowing the closest male whole.

  Speaking of men-I was, wasn’t I?-I still hadn’t heard much from Mark on any front. Of course, there was the text sent out into space, never to be heard from again, and the then there were the emails I had sent for professional reasons. I was dangerously close to texting him back. I needed a diversion but instead I sat back down, turned my computer on again and sent him a giant file of documents I decided I needed reviewed and signed off on, well, by tomorrow at eight a.m. That should keep him busy and annoyed, which really was a much better goal for me than to keep wondering what he was thinking about in relation to me.

  While I was lurking in my inbox, I noticed that I still hadn’t received the file I needed to bring to my meeting tomorrow, that Robert had promised to deliver before he left for his, “vacation.” I was surprised, as even though he wasn’t the chattiest employee, he was reliable when it came to his project delivery times.

  I texted him to see if he could send it remotely. The last thing either of us needed was me logging into his computer and trying to find the damn thing. I was sure to cause undue stress to the system and it would implode the first time I hit enter. In my circle of friends and family, I was known as the “one you never ask to help with your computer.”

  You see, I liked to think of myself as somewhat of an expert on computers and code and the like, but in reality, I’ve been told I’m a bit of a loose cannon when it comes to it. If I touch one in its time of need, there’s a good chance it will die a quick and painful death. It’s true. I’ve seen it happen way too many times. And so, I’ve learnt my lesson and try very, very hard not to reach out and offer my help.

  But Robert still hadn’t texted back and I was getting worried. I didn’t want to be unprepared for my update tomorrow. I needed those files.

  Just then, my phone chimed an incoming text. Flipping it over, expecting to see Robert’s ID, I wasn’t even thinking when I opened up the text.

  I’ve called your brother Aiden to check in with u.

  Son of a...

  And I’m supposed to be thankful? You just signed my family annoyance warrant. Death by constant nagging.

  You should have texted me more info. How was I to know?

  Know what? I said I was fine and I am. Just a slight ache.

  How slight?

  Oh for shits sake. I’m fine. Call off my brother.

  No can do. He should be calling in 5,4,3,2 and

  How in the world he made Aiden call
me at that exact moment was way beyond my abilities.

  I picked it up, eager to end the conversation before it began. “Aiden, I’m fine. Only a slight headache. Do not spread this around, or you’re dead. I would hate to leave Auggie without her father. Do not tell Ash I just said that, but we both know it’s true. Now, stop listening to Mister Shithead ‘I know what’s best for my consultant.’ What in the hell? And, just let me contact you if I need you. We clear?”

  “Crystal. Gray says hi. See ya.”

  That was what I loved about Aiden. He didn’t mince words and appreciated a quick, in depth descriptive and a closing argument. I wouldn’t hear from him again unless it was absolutely necessary. That problem solved, I decided to keep Nosy Nancy hanging and figure out what to do about the files I needed.

  I sent him another text, warning him I was about to dig up his password and dive in to fish out the info.

  I say dive and fish because that’s really what it would be. A fishing expedition. For starters, his area should be zoned hazardous. Food containers, wrappers, litter and other detritus was thrown everywhere without a care for the health of the space. I know, I know. I should tell him to clean it up as his one and only co-worker, and boss, but I just wasn’t good at showing my authority.

  Then, once I managed to tiptoe my way onto his chair and wipe everything down with disinfectant wipes, there was the little matter of getting into his computer and then finding what I needed without messing with anything important he had in there. I had only ever had to do it once before and it proved to be an all-nighter, and not the good kind. I had his password as this was part of my work agreement with him, but after that, it was a maze of epic proportions inside his hard drive.

  My phone signaled another text and this time, I checked to see who it was before opening it from my locked screen.

  Go ahead and grab it. It’s filed under NR/web/02201716

  thx

  “Sweet.”

  I finally sat down, logged in and got busy trying to find my way into my employee’s computer. Which, technically, was mine if you wanted to get real. I could only hope he didn’t have any weird porn stored in it. I didn’t think I could handle it if suddenly the screen was filled with Robert in his birthday suit.