Page 8 of Devil's Luck

On the drive back to Houston, Fergus let me know that on no uncertain terms, that he would not be taking me to get my car from Remi and Tadhg’s house. “Your car is already in my garage,” he informed me. “And don’t plan on driving it for at least seven days.”

He wasn’t kidding.

We stopped at my apartment for what I thought would be just to swap the dirty clothes in my suitcase for clean ones, but I was wrong. After he saw what few items I planned on bringing, Fergus marched out of my bedroom with his phone to his ear, barking orders in Irish to who I later realized was his head of security, Corrin. I had met Corrin a few times before, because his brother Cian is Tadhg’s best friend and right hand man, but it wasn’t until that moment I realized both brothers worked for the O’Carroll’s.

Corrin lives in the apartment above the garage here at Fergus’s house. It has a private exterior entrance, as well as one leading into the house through the garage, so I’m never really sure when he’s around until he just appears. It scared the bejeezus out ofme the first time I collided with him in the middle of my second night here.

I woke up thirsty and headed for the kitchen to grab a water bottle to bring back to bed, only to fall flat on my naked ass as he walked around the corner. Talk about embarrassing!

I’ll never tell a soul, for Corrin’s sake and mine, but he may have touched my butt and squeaked like a mouse when he realized where his hand was.

And don’t even get me started on my man’s reaction to me scrambling to my feet, as Corrin tried to help me up while keeping a hand over his eyes. Fergus roared louder than a damn lion when he saw what was going on, then tossed me over his shoulder like a damn bag of potatoes and stomped back to the bedroom, feet thumping along the way like a toddler being put in time out. It was that night I learned what it was like to be with a possessive man. I think I won in the end on that deal—except I didn’t get my bottle of water until the next morning.

It wasn’t thirty minutes after Fergus started barking orders into his phone, that Corrin and two other large, muscular, and tattooed men I’d yet to meet came waltzing in my front door like they’d been here a million times before. All three were carrying broken down cardboard boxes and a plastic shopping bag full of packing tape. When I tried to tell Fergus that I wasn’t going to pack up all of my belongings right then and there, he stopped my words with one hell of a kiss then toldmeI wouldn’t be lifting a finger. Other than putting anything private I didn’t want the guys seeing in my one duffle bag, everything else would be taken care of for me.

When I asked what that meant, he marched me back into my bedroom, pulled open my nightstand drawer, and looked at me with what I’ve come to learn is his signature raised eyebrow don’t-fuck-with-me look. That same expression makes my panties damp every time he does it. I swear the asshole does it on purpose now because I told him what it does to me.

If I wasn’t halfway to loving the giant brute, I’d clock him upside the head and tell him to shove his sass where the sun don’t shine.

“Ugh! Men!” I fall back on the big sectional couch in Remi’s living room and lay my arm over my eyes.

“What did my grumpy ass, meanie brother-in-law do this time?” Remi asks with a laugh as she plops down beside me and pats my leg.

“It’s what he won’t let me do,” I reply with a huff. “Damn man hid my car keys and hasn’t let me go to work all week. I haven’t even left the house unless it was with him . . . and he has one of the guys drive us everywhere, so I have no say in where we go.”

With a sigh, Remi stretches out on the other side of the couch, kicking her feet up so they are next to mine. “Yea, that did take a bit to get used to.”

“And yes, I know I can work from wherever I can get online, ‘cause I’ve been doing that, but I’d like to go to the office at least one day a week to make sure there isn’t any mail that needs attention. It doesn’t help that no one else in the office can be bothered to sort through the pile to see if anything has their name on it.”

If it weren’t for the amazing salary, great benefits, and having the flexibility to work from home, or wherever I have internet access, I’d probably quit my job. For the last three years I’ve been doing data entry for Hill & Associates, a law firm owned by Jordan Hill, a friend of a friend I knew back in college. The firm has three other lawyers, along with a dozen paralegals, but all their bullshit gets seems to just get added to my plate.

While it’s my job to organize billing receipts and organize paperwork into the correct case files, forward any emails that mistakenly end up in my inbox to the right lawyer or paralegal, and also sort through any inquiries that come through the firm’s website, I feel like everyone in the office uses me for their dumping grounds. This is not what I thought having a business degree was supposed to be like.

Any email they don’t want to reply to . . . forward it to Nola.

A client is being unreasonable and won’t listen to the legal advice they’re being given . . . forward their call to Nola.

Remi kicks my foot to get my attention. “Have you heard a single thing I just said?”

“No.” I chew on my thumbnail as I give her a sheepish look. “I’m sorry. What’d you say.”

“I said . . . I know we’ve talked about it before,” she smacks me in the head with a pillow as she sits up, “but have you thought any more about finding a new job?”

“She doesn’t need a new job.”

“Ahhh!” Remi and I both screech. I jackknife up and sit tall like I got caught looking at something I shouldn’t be.

“What the hell is going on in here?” Tadhg walks in behind his brother, who jump started my heart with his stealth appearance right above me. “Why are you ladies squawking?”

“Where the hell did you come from?” Staring straight up at Fergus, I ask him as my heartbeat starts to slow down. “When did you become a ninja?”

“He got that skill at about five years old,” Tadhg answers for Fergus with a laugh as Remi skips over to him to steal their baby from his arms. “Someone just woke up from their nap and missed her ma.”

Pulling my attention back to him with a finger under my chin, Fergus leans over the back of the couch and drops a kiss on my forehead. “Do you have something to tell me, álainn?”

“I don’t know.” I turn and kneel on the cushion so I can face him. “I was just venting about my job and how you won’t let me go to the office.”

“I can’t help it that I like having you in our house all the time,” he says with a smirk and that sexy eyebrow lift. “It also keeps you at my beck and call when I need some—”

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