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“Sure, and you weren’t moaning the big boss’s name either,” Allison chirped. Then her expression sobered. “Girlie, it’s okay for you to move on from Mr. O’Brien and go and find some other guy. I won’t tease you again.”
“I doubt that.”
“But if you really want to follow your heart, then I’ll support you there too. We spend so much of our lives locked into plans. We’re already deep in figuring out where to apply for MBA programs and making time tables for the best time to start a family with the perfect two-point-five kids and a dog. The best thing you can do for yourself and your final year in Dublin, hon, is do anything that makes you happy.”
“What if it’s a Goth boy?”
“Don’t knock one till you’ve ridden one,” Allison laughed.
“I think I’ll keep to my own style.”
She nodded and came to sit at the foot of my bed. “And does that style include tall, dark, and hella handsome billionaires who have massive real estate portfolios?”
I put my head in my hands and groaned. “It might, but that means I’m completely screwed. You know that I have no shot with him. None of this makes any sense at all. You get that, right? Everything I’m thinking is crazy.”
“Half of this city is crazy. If you’re not going to go for broke in your wild college years, Iris, when are you?”
I sighed and looked up at her. “I don’t know.”
***
I was able to spend the bulk of the day doing busy work. Anything Mrs. McCabe said do, I did. If there were a hundred three-ring binders to add labels to, I was there. If coffee needed buying for half the office, I was waiting in line at the local coffee shop. And I’d tangled with the copier three times already and lived to tell the tale. That was no small feat; that damn thing was a monster. I figured after yesterday and me “getting lunch on his dime” that Mrs. McCabe was working extra hard to be a bit of a chaperone and make sure Callum and I stayed separated. I think I appreciated that. After the dance floor and my crazy-intense dream, I had no idea how to deal with Callum.
I knew what I wanted, what I craved with every fiber of my being. At the same time, I knew it was impossible.
“Miss Kilshimer.”
“What?” I asked.
“Miss Kilshimer,” Mrs. McCabe asked, even though a pinched expression made her face look unusually haggard. “Mr. O’Brien has requested you this afternoon to take dictation. I offered to handle it myself, but he was quite insistent that you work with him.”
Great, the frown on her face couldn’t be more pronounced, and I hadn’t even done anything in the office. What happened in my dreams and in a dark club when we were both a bit tipsy could stay there. Yet, I was still being suspected as the easy gal on deck.
Perfect.
“That’s alright,” I said, picking up a pen and a legal pad. “I can always do something else. I think this floor was running low on supplies and—”
Callum poked his head out of his office suite. “I don’t want you, Frances. I believe I directly requested Miss Kilshimer.”
Mrs. McCabe sorted her look to neutral and then nodded. “I understand, sir.”
“See that you do in the future. Now, Miss Kilshimer, my time is precious. Hop to.”
I felt my palms grow sweaty as I slipped into the office. He shut and locked the door behind me, and I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to grip the pen with how nervous I was. Turning around, I eyed Callum. “About last night…”
“So, you were thinking about Hooligan’s too?” He smirked back at me and circled me as a shark would its wounded prey. “Because it’s all I fucking thought about last night. I went home to an empty bed, and I never do that. There’s no woman I’ve known in years who would turn me down.” He stopped circling and ran a finger down my throat. “It’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever experienced.”
“By saying ‘no,’ I made you want me more?” I said, my voice so quiet that I was amazed he even heard me.
“I’m saying that I went home and had incredible dreams, that I wanted nothing more than to fuck you insensible, over and over, luv. You’re a goddamn vixen, Iris, and you don’t even know
it. You come off as coy, but everything you do can drive men absolutely wild.”
I swallowed. “I doubt that. No one in college has really paid that much attention to me.” High school either, but I’ll be damned if I admit that I’m a virgin to him. “I…you could have any woman you wanted.”
He leaned closer to me and this time, before he spoke, his teeth grazed over my earlobe, sending a direct electric jolt to my clit. It took everything I had not to scream with pleasure. God, that was the last thing I needed Mrs. McCabe to hear.
“I only want you, vixen. I want the way you make me feel, the way you require a chase.”
