Keir O'connell's Mistress

“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.