Keir O'connell's Mistress

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.

CHAPTER FOUR

Bradley Airport, Connecticut, six weeks later:

CASSIE’S plane touched down on the runway just as the first bolt of lightning tore the sky apart.