Читать книгу Keir O'connell's Mistress - Сандра Мартон, Sandra Marton - Страница 8

BEYOND the perimeter of the Desert Song, the Strip was as brightly-lit, as busy and noisy as if it were midday instead of midnight, but everything was hushed deep within the hotel gardens. The lights in the oversized pool had been dimmed and emitted a soft, fairy glow.

Nice, Cullen O’Connell thought, as he drifted on a float in the warm, silky water. You could even see the stars. Not the way they blazed in the blackness over the vast grasslands of the Rift Valley or on a rare, clear night high on the snow-laden slopes of Mount McKinley, but nice, nevertheless.

Even in Vegas, it was nice to know that the stars were still there.

“You counting stars again, like when we were kids?” Sean O’Connell spoke softly, from a float just a few feet away.

“Better to count stars than count cards like you were doing at the blackjack table a little while ago,” Cullen said lazily.

Sean chuckled. “Now, Cullen, would I do that? Counting cards is illegal—if you do it when you play a hand, and I was only watching, not playing.”

“Counting stars is safer,” Cullen said with a smile in his voice.

“Considering that we’re back in Sin City, maybe the only thing we should be counting is babes.”

“Like that summer, you mean?” Cullen smiled up at the sky. “When I saved my allowance the whole year so I could buy a telescope? And Pop found you using it to girl-watch instead?”

“You mean, Pop found us using it.”

“Yeah, well, I was easily corrupted.”

Sean gave a soft laugh. “I’d almost forgotten that. Remember the blonde in the corner room on the fourteenth floor of the east wing?”

“How could I forget? She was the reason the old man threw out my telescope and paddled my behind so hard I couldn’t sit for a week.”

“Two days, and admit it, she was worth it.”

The men drifted in silence for a while, and then Sean spoke.

“How many times you think we sneaked out here at night, buddy? I figure it must have been at least a couple of hundred.”

“Heck, we probably got caught a couple of hundred.”

“Yeah. And got our bottoms warmed. Never stopped us, though, from sneaking out again.”

“That’s ’cause it was worth it, coming out here late at night, getting to use the pool without sharing it with a couple of trillion strangers.”

The brothers sighed, at ease as they drifted on the water and three decades of shared memories.

“So,” Cullen said, “where were you when you found out about Ma’s engagement to this guy?”

Sean turned over on the float and cushioned his face on his folded arms.

“Monte Carlo. At a private casino. I was up fifty grand when I got the cable.” His voice roughened. “I must have lost ten years of my life, just opening the envelope. I thought—”

“—that Ma had had another heart attack. I know. It was the same for me. I was downloading my e-mail and there was this message marked ‘urgent,’ with the Desert Song’s address on it and I figured…” Cullen sighed. “I was so relieved that it took me a while to start worrying about the actual message, you know? That she’s marrying this Dan Coyle, a man nobody knows.”

“Keir knows him, and seems to like him.”

“True.”

“And Ma’s crazy about him.”

“Well, those are both good signs, right?”

“Right.” Sean sighed. “It’s good to be back.”

“Temporarily.”

“Oh, yeah. That goes without saying. I wouldn’t want to live in this fishbowl again.” Sean dropped his hand and let his fingers glide through the water. “We owe Keir.”

“For taking over here, after Pop died? Yeah. Big time.”

“He looks…I don’t know. Edgy.”

“You think?”

“Maybe that’s the wrong word. I just get the feeling he’s got something on his mind.”

“The fox in the elevator, maybe.” Cullen grinned. “Man, what a scene to walk in on. Keir, holding an armful of female, looking at us as if he wished he could have dropped right through the floor of that car…”

Sean rolled off his float and into the water. “You think there was something really going on there?”

“In an elevator, in the Desert Song? That’s not big brother’s style. He’s too buttoned up to try something like that.”

“Too bad we didn’t get much chance to torment him about it.”

“Yeah. Bree’s and Meg’s timing sort of screwed things up.” Sean’s voice warmed as he spoke his sisters’ names. “It’s good to see the two of them. Last time we were all together was, what, Christmas?”

“I know. Well, it’s tough, with you traipsing around the world, me in New York, Bree in San Francisco, Meg in Boston, Fallon God knows where—”

“Paris, last I heard, for what she calls a fashion shoot.”

“Meanwhile, Keir’s trapped here in Vegas.”

“You think that’s the way he feels?”

“It’s the way I’d feel, in his place.”

Cullen hoisted himself out of the pool and dragged the float up beside him.

“You know what? I’m going to get him alone and ask him. I mean, maybe he wants to go on managing the Song, but if he doesn’t…Ma’s okay now. She looks wonderful, in fact. Seems to me it’s time we made other arrangements, like convincing her to hire someone to take over.”

“Someone is going to take over,” Keir said, stepping out of the shadows. “Under the duchess’s supervision, of course.”

“Of course,” Sean said, smiling. “How’d you get her to agree to that?”

“Actually, she suggested it.” Keir loosened his tie and tucked his hands into his pockets. “Her doctors gave her a clean bill of health and she’s been chomping at the bit, wanting to get back to work.”

“She’s up to handling things alone? Well, with the help of a Chief of Ops?”

“She won’t have to. She’s going to be a married lady this time tomorrow, remember?”

“Actually, we wanted to talk to you about that. This guy Coyle. He’s okay?”

“Yes. Definitely okay.”

“He’d better be.”

“I think he was pretty okay to you guys when you tried that CIA interrogation at dinner.” Keir grinned. “Considering he’s a retired captain of detectives with the New York City P.D., he let you get off easy.”

“Hey,” Sean said, straight-faced, “you can never be too careful about a man you’re going to call ‘Daddy.”’

“Tell him that, why don’t you?” Keir said, his tongue firmly tucked in his cheek.

“I did. That’s when I decided he was probably all right.”

“Because?”

“Because he said he’d slug me one, if I ever tried it.” The three brothers laughed. Then Sean climbed out of the pool, dumped his float over a chaise longue and thumbed his wet hair out of his eyes.

“So, let me get this straight. Ma’s going to hire somebody to manage the place, and he’ll report to her and Dan?”

“That’s the plan. Just to set your minds at ease, I trust Dan completely, not only because I ran an in-depth check on him before I brought him into the Song a few years back but also because I’ve gotten to know him well. He’s definitely one of the good guys. And he knows the Song, inside and out.” Keir shoved aside the damp towel Sean had tossed over a lounge chair and sat down. “That sound okay to you two?”

“It sounds fine,” Sean said.

“Fine,” Cullen echoed. “But where does that leave you?”

Keir cleared his throat. “I’m, uh, I’m moving on.”

The simple words stopped conversation. Until now, Keir hadn’t realized how ominous they sounded.

“Moving on?” Sean said. “Where?”

Keir hesitated. His mother had looked at him as if he’d lost his sanity when he’d told her his plans. Would his brothers?

“I’m going east. I bought a business in Connecticut.”

“You serious?”

“Dead serious. It looks like it’s going to be a lot of work. I mean, it’s small, but I think, given time, I can build it into something.”

“What kind of business?”

Keir shrugged. “A small one, like I said.”

“He’s being deliberately vague,” Sean said to Cullen, as if Keri weren’t there.

“Yup. In fact, I get the feeling BB doesn’t want to tell us what this business is,” Cullen replied, his grin hidden by the darkness.

“Don’t call me that!”

“Can you imagine? He doesn’t want to call him BB and he doesn’t want to tell us what this business is.” Sean gave a deep sigh. “What’s the good of having a brother if he won’t let you in on his secrets?”

“A Big Brother,” Cullen said solemnly.

“Uh huh.” There was a pause. “With a pair of capital B’s, for short.”

“Will you stop calling me that? And I didn’t say it was a secret!”

“Should we tell him he didn’t have to?” said Cullen. “Should we remind him that we’re his very own flesh and blood and we can read him like a book?”

Keir looked from Cullen to Sean. Despite all their teasing, they were worried about him. He knew, because he’d overheard more of their conversation than he’d let on. Well, why not tell them now? Get it over with, instead of dragging it out until after the wedding tomorrow. That was what he’d planned but being pronounced insane by all five of his siblings at once might be just a little intimidating.

“Okay.” He took a deep breath. “You want to know what kind of business I bought?” Another deep breath. “A vineyard.”

For what seemed an eternity, neither Sean nor Cullen said anything. Sean was the first to break the silence.

“Did you say, vineyard? As in, where they grow grapes and make wine?”

“That’s right. With a small restaurant as part of the setup.”

“A vineyard,” Sean repeated.

“Yes.”

“In Connecticut,” Cullen added. “With a small restaurant as—”

“Dammit, will you stop that? Yes. A vineyard. And a restaurant. And I don’t care if you guys think I’m nuts or what, I’m glad I bought—Hey! Hey, what’re you doing?”

What they were doing was clapping him on the back hard enough to have sent a smaller man to his knees.

“Man, that’s terrific,” Cullen said happily. “I mean, it’s crazy as hell but it’s time you did something crazy. Right, Sean?”

“Absolutely. It’s so off the wall, it sounds like something I could have done.”

“And that’s a compliment?” Keir said, laughing.

“Damn right. Listen, you need to get in touch with anybody who’s into wine, let me know. I took a marker I never got around to collecting from a guy playing chemin de fer last summer. His family owns a vineyard in Burgundy.”

“And if you need legal advice, I’m your man,” Cullen said. “I know you have your own attorney but since you’ll be doing the deal closer to my turf, back east—”

“Wait a minute.” Keir stepped back and looked from one of his brothers to the other. “So, you don’t think I’m ready for a rubber room?”

“Well, of course we do but then, we’ve always thought that. Right, Cullen?”

“Absolutely right.” Cullen gave Keir a light punch in the shoulder. “Seriously, congratulations.”

“Yeah. I mean, thanks.”

“Just for the record, I’m impressed.”

A smile curved Keir’s mouth. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Sounds like an interesting proposition.”

“Well, that’s good to hear because the vote, so far, is three to one that I’ve lost all my marbles.”

“Who’s voting?”

“The duchess. My accountant. And my lawyer pretty much made it unanimous.”

“Ma’ll come around. As for the accountant and the lawyer—all the more reason to dump them.”

“You think?”

“Absolutely. Megan’ll be your CPA. I’ll be your attorney. We’ll only be a couple of hours away and besides, why deal with people who’ll look for the hole in your head each time you sit down at the table?”

Keir laughed. “You have a way with words, pal, you know that?” His smile tilted. “You want to know the truth, there’ve been moments I’ve doubted my own sanity.”

“Just because you’re starting to live dangerously? Hey, that’s what life’s all about.” Sean elbowed Cullen. “You got all this straight? The man’s bought himself a vineyard. He bought himself a restaurant. And if it hadn’t been for us, he’d have made it in the elevator with Cinderella.”

Keir’s mouth tightened. He’d been expecting this ever since his brothers walked in on the scene with Cassie.

Then why did the teasing words make his belly knot?

“We were not about to make it in the elevator, as you so delicately put it.”

“Whatever you say, big brother.”

“I hardly know the lady.”

“Well, that’s good news for me. Just tell me her name, give me her number—”

“Keep away from her.”

Keir’s voice was suddenly tense with warning. Cullen and Sean stared at him. He glared back, and then he groaned.

Cullen was only kidding but even if he wasn’t, so what? If he wanted to hit on Cassie, let him.

“I mean,” he said carefully, “we embarrassed her enough. Besides, she’s an employee. She works in the hotel. She’s a cocktail waitress.”

“Well, that certainly explains why the two of you were wrapped around each other. Doesn’t it, Sean?”

Keir folded his arms. “You’re never going to leave me alone about this, are you?”

“No,” Sean agreed pleasantly, “we’re not.”

“Look, the elevator stopped and Cassie was in it. And—“

“And?” Cullen said, with a lift of his eyebrows.

“And,” Keir said briskly, “her heel was stuck.” Two pairs of eyebrows lifted. He decided to ignore the warning signs. “Somebody from Maintenance had left some plywood on the floor, and her heel got wedged in a knothole.”

Sean gave a deep sigh. “Dangerous combination, plywood and elevators.”

Despite himself, Keir’s mouth twitched. “Listen, I’m warning you both—”

“No, it’s cool,” said Cullen. “We understand. As some men get older, they need more of, uh, more of a stimulus before they can get it on.”

“Older? I’m one year older. One year!”

“He’s right,” Sean said. “It wasn’t senile male hormones, it was a galloping case of ZTS.”

“Okay. It’s not going to work. I’ve explained what happened. You want to get some more mileage out of it, go on. Be my guest.”

“Trust us,” Sean replied solemnly, “we will.”

Keir looked from one of his brothers to the other and saw the laughter dancing in their eyes. A familiar warmth spread through his veins. This was the way it had always been, two of them needling the other, and it had never mattered which two it was because it changed from day to day. Hell, it changed from minute to minute.

But what bonded them together would never change. Shared memories and shared blood would always unite and sustain them, just as it had when they were growing up. Being the sons of Ruarch O’Connell had not been easy, despite the duchess’s misty-eyed memories.

He felt a catch in his throat. He’d missed his brothers. Missed this. The teasing, the laughter, the knowledge that nobody in the world knew him the way they did.

“All right.” He nodded, sighed, offered all the signs of peaceful surrender. “You guys want details, you’ll get them. Just come in a little closer…”

He moved fast, as if they were all still kids and these were the old times, when they’d played their own version of touch football whenever they’d been in one place long enough to find a flat field. He took Sean out first, his shoulder connecting with Sean’s flat belly and then he spun and got Cullen before he could sidestep. Both of them yelped and fell backward into the pool hard enough to raise a geyser of water that rivaled Old Faithful.

A spill of feminine laughter erupted behind Keir. He swung around and saw his three sisters standing next to one of the softly-lighted palm trees that ringed the pool.

“Hey.” He grinned. Briana, Fallon and Megan grinned back.

“And to think,” Fallon said archly, “that Mom sent us to find you gentlemen because she was afraid you were sitting around, having a long, solemn talk about what would happen now that BB’s leaving.”

Keir raised one dark eyebrow. “You see those guys in the pool? One of the things that put ’em there was calling me Big Brother.”

Megan rose on her toes and peered past Keir. “Poor babies,” she crooned.

Something in Briana’s smile made the hair rise on the back of Keir’s neck.

“What?”

Bree fluttered her lashes. “Enjoy your swim,” she purred.

He yelped as his brother’s hands clamped around his ankles. Keir hit the water hard, went under and came up, sputtering and laughing, between Sean and Cullen.

“Is this the respect you show your big brother?”

Cullen sighed. “All of a sudden, he wants the title back.”

“Damn right.” Keir smiled. “You know what? It’s great to have you home.”

“We agree,” Sean said, and he and Cullen proved it by shoving Keir right back under the water.

Keir awoke at five minutes before six the next morning. He reached out and shut off his alarm clock before its shrill cry could pierce his foggy brain, then sat up and swung his feet to the floor.

Four hours sleep was all he’d had. He and his brothers and sisters had ended up here in his suite, where they’d sat talking and laughing for hours. There’d been a lot of catching up to do. Only the prospect of having to look bright-eyed for their mother’s wedding had finally sent them scattering at almost two in the morning.

Keir yawned, got to his feet and walked into the bathroom. The wedding wasn’t until noon but he needed time to check on things, make sure the flowers, the music, the food and champagne were as close to perfect as he could get them.

It wasn’t every day a man had the chance to oversee his mother’s wedding, he thought as he stepped into the shower.

He had some last minute things to do for himself, too. Falling asleep last night, he’d decided there was no sense in delaying his departure. The sooner he left Vegas and began his new life in Connecticut, the better.

This morning he’d phone his attorney, tell him to fax some documents to Cullen’s New York office, then instruct his accountant to fax his files to Megan’s office in Boston. He’d already arranged for Deer Run’s vintner to stay on, but the woman who managed the restaurant had accepted a job in Florida.

“Too many cold New England winters for me,” she’d said.

That meant he’d need a new manager.

The restaurant was handsome and the food was great. Service had been a little erratic—his main course came out at the same time as his soup—but all that could be dealt with. Instinct told him there were probably other details that needed improving.

He didn’t know what, specifically. Restaurants weren’t his specialty. For the last six years his talent had been managing people and if he’d learned one thing, it was that the key to success was finding the right people, then trusting them enough to do the job.

Finding the right people was relatively simple. Whenever he’d needed a manager, someone with the necessary combination of talent and brass, he’d turned to the TopNotch Employment Agency.

They’d never let him down yet.

Well, why not continue dealing with TopNotch? They had contacts everywhere; they’d sent him people from virtually every state in the union.

Keir stepped from the shower and wrapped a towel around his hips.

Okay. He’d phone TopNotch, lay out what he wanted in a manager for the restaurant and leave finding the right person in their more than capable hands. Then he could devote himself to this new challenge. Deer Run. Wine-making. Life in the quiet hills of Connecticut, instead of the fast neon lanes of Vegas.

Maybe he’d even find himself a woman. Someone special. There hadn’t been anyone special, not for a very long time.

Swift as a heartbeat, an image flickered in his mind. He saw a woman in a long, old-fashioned gown that clung to her lush curves with each whisper of the wind…

“Hell,” he said, and blanked his thoughts to everything but his mother’s wedding.

Promptly at noon, he stood with his brothers and sisters at one side of the altar. Mary had insisted that all her daughters and sons give her away. Dan’s grown children stood near their father. Everyone was smiling.

Smiling—and quietly weeping.

Keir could hear his sisters sniffling into their lace hankies. He glanced at his brothers. Their eyes glittered in a way that told him their throats were as tight with emotion as his.

“…pronounce you man and wife,” the justice of the peace said.

Dan took Mary in his arms. Keir hugged his brothers, kissed his sisters…and suddenly found himself scanning the room filled with family and friends for a glimpse of a woman with sea-green eyes and coal-black hair.

She wasn’t there. Why would she be? And why should he be looking for her? There wasn’t a reason in the world to see her ever again.

“Keir,” his mother said.

He turned and took the duchess in his arms.

“I’m happy for you, Ma.” Dan held out his hand and Keir shook it. “I’m happy for you both.”

Mary laid her hand against his cheek. “You’re leaving soon, aren’t you?”

Keir drew a breath. “Yes. Tomorrow.” He smiled at Dan. “Now that I know you’re safe in good hands, and happy.”

“I want you to be happy, too, Keir,” Mary said softly.

“I already am.”

His mother’s eyes filled. “You need something more.”

Hours later as he packed, Keir thought about what his mother had said, and wondered if she was right.