Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (24 page)

“I
don't want to leave,” she crawled back into the bed after
taking care of the pain and wrapped her arms around the large man.
Finlay had told her the day before that he'd have to go back to
London Sunday afternoon to finish up a big deal, so she had booked a
flight for Hawaii and was already packed up for her noon flight out.

“Mmm,”
Finlay opened his eyes at her words and turned his head to look at
her. “Let's no' think aboot it...” He pulled her into his
chest and kissed the top of her head. He was already dreading saying
goodbye. Each time was becoming harder and harder. They laid in the
warm bed for as long as they could afford, then finally,
begrudgingly, Morgan had to leave the bed to get ready.

At
ten o'clock, Morgan and her bags were downstairs. When Finlay came
down the steps, he stopped and sat on the bottom stair to watch the
happy girl say goodbye to her furry friends. She had her camera out
and was trying to get them to sit still long enough to get a good
picture, but without fail, each time one or both of them would move
all she'd get a picture of was furry blur.

“Make
them sit!” She looked over to Finlay and threw her arms in the
air in defeat.

“Aye,”
he nodded. “William, Wallace, come.” Both dogs stopped
acting like cats who had gotten into a batch of catnip and turned
toward their owner at the same instant, then went to him. He
commanded them to sit and Morgan gasped when the dogs sat down on
either side of him.
He's the freaking Alpha of everything!
She
laughed at the sight in front of her. Finlay was not a small man by
anyone's standards and to see the dogs' heads tower far above his own
was remarkable.

“Okay...just...stay,”
she whispered and brought her camera up to meet her eyes. “Stay,”
she whispered again, then snapped the picture. “Oh my God, look
at this! It's great!” Morgan ran over to Finlay who laughed at
the perfect shot of the three of them. He told her it was her turn to
get a picture with the dogs and after a bit of arguing of her saying
they'd never sit still with her, Finlay proved her wrong. He
commanded Will and Wallace to stay and told Morgan to wrap her arms
around the beasts. She did and he got a picture just as perfect as
her own.

“Thanks,
Fin!” She took her camera back and kissed him. “Perfect,”
she said after looking at the picture. She was happy that her bruises
couldn't be seen because that picture and the one with Finlay were
both going into her scrapbook.

In
another half an hour, Morgan and Finlay had said their goodbyes and
Burke was loading the young lady's luggage in the car to take her to
the airport. Fin had a few things to take care of before his four
o'clock flight, so he couldn't spend three hours going to the
airport, then back home, just to go right back to the airport. He
also couldn't take care of what he needed to do at the airport, or
else he would have just gone and waited with her.

Their
goodbye was the same as always. Emotional. Finlay had felt awful for
not going with her to see her off, but Morgan understood. She
couldn't expect him to be with her down to the last second.
Although,
that would be nice,
she thought as she climbed into the limo.
I'll see you soon, Fin. I love you.
She still wouldn't say the
words to him, but at least she was being honest to herself. Angel's
words rang in her head and she imagined him scolding her for not
telling him.
Love them all, Sticky Buns.
She laughed.
But
that doesn't mean I need to tell them.
She shook her head at her
own thoughts, she felt that she didn't deserve the love and
friendship from any of them, but as long as she was honest, then the
ball was in their court.

Finlay
gave Morgan a final wave as the limo circled around the driveway,
then she was gone. The car disappeared from sight and Fin went back
into the house. He went to the kitchen to grab a drink before
organizing his trip and that's when he saw the envelope on the
counter. On the front, in beautiful cursive lettering was the name of
his butler. Of course he had to know what Morgan was saying to Burke,
so he picked up the off-white rectangle. “Oh, lass,” he
whispered when he saw what was inside. He flipped through the money
quickly and knew all of it was there. Every dollar from the money
that he had given her. When she asked him to take out money, he had,
but he had used his own money instead. He had to laugh that it was
now in an envelope addressed to Burke.

He
wondered for a moment why she would give him money and he ran his
hand through his hair as he thought about it. When he went to close
the envelope up, he saw there was a folded note inside.

Burke,

I
overheard you talking on the phone to your wife. Here's the money for
your granddaughter. I hope she gets what she wants. Sorry for
eavesdropping and um...sorry for the peanuts. Merry Christmas to you
and your family.

Morgan

When
Finlay folded the letter back into a small square, he had to fight
the burning in his eyes. It was the nicest gesture that he'd ever
seen from one person to another and he felt awful that Morgan seemed
to know more than he had. With a little change in plans, Finlay made
a quick trip to the bank and withdrew another two-thousand dollars,
then stuffed it into the envelope with Morgan's money.

When
Burke returned from the airport, he was going to tell him to take two
weeks off and spend Christmas with his family in Northern Scotland.
He'd have anther one of his butlers, the backup, he liked to call
them, come around to watch up on William and Wallace during that time
and Burke could take the break he deserved.

*****

Morgan
still had half an hour before her plane started boarding so she
decided to go ahead and get a head start on her next client. It made
her a bit uneasy as she opened up her laptop, but she knew she'd have
to get over it.
Not all men are like that, Morgan. And he was a
yellow flag. We won't be choosing any yellow flags.

Once
she was on the database, she clicked on England, then on London.
Julianne was right, there were a lot of options. Morgan scrolled
through three pages worth of handsome men until she saw one that
spoke to her. His name was Lucas. Lucas McPherson. In his picture, it
looked like he was sitting on a park bench and beside him was a huge
sheepdog.

It
reminded her of the character on the old cartoons, and she thought to
herself,
I
will hug him and pet him and squeeze him
and rub him and caress him and...well, anyone with a sheepdog can't
be mean, right?
No,
he didn't look mean. He had light brown hair, blue eyes and a big dog
that you couldn't look at without laughing.
Well,
Luke, we'll see.
Morgan
clicked on the button and sent her next choice to her boss, then
closed her laptop and put it away. She didn't want to think about her
next client until the time came around. What she would do is enjoy
her time with Kole and her friends and the family and... “Kole!
I need to call him!” She pulled her phone back out of her bag
and pressed the handsome face.

“Kole!”
Morgan exclaimed when her favorite Hawaiian answered the phone.

“Morgan!”

“Kole!”
she yelled again. They caught up on how they were for a moment, then
Morgan got down to why she was calling. “I'll be there on
Wednesday night,” she lied. She would be there that night, but
she wanted a little time to herself to recuperate and get over her
womanly cycle. “I'll call you when I'm in town!” Morgan
kicked her feet out from under the chair and knocked over her purse
in the process.

As
Kole told her about how excited he was to see her, Morgan bent down
to pick up the contents of her bag. In the cluster of makeup, her
camera, lipbalm and scraps of paper, she saw something that didn't
look familiar. She picked up the square red box and brought it closer
to her face to examine it.

“What?”
she asked Kole when she realized she hadn't heard the last few
seconds of him speaking.

“I
said I can't wait to see you, beautiful!”

“Me
too, Kole. I miss you so much. I can't wait to see everyone again!”
At that point, she was too interested in what was in the box to
continue a conversation with the man she'd see in a couple of days.
She told him she had to go and mentioned again that she'd call him,
then they hung up. Morgan threw her phone in her coat pocket then
slowly opened up the little box.

“I
knew it! Oh, oh my god!” Morgan picked up her bracelet from the
container and spun it around between her fingers. There was a new
addition. “Aw,” she brought the piece of jewelry up to
her eyes to see the piece better. It was a white gold pendant, in the
shape of a perfect heart with one tiny diamond in the middle. On the
back, there was an engraving.

It's
been yours since we met.

Morgan wiped the tears from her face and put the bracelet back on
her wrist, then spun it around to where the heart was on top. “Thank
you, Fin. I'll carry it with me everywhere I go.”

*****

“I
just got off the phone with her,” Kole told Kala with a punch
to the arm.

“Do
you think she will say yes?” Kala leaned forward on his arms,
waiting for the news his brother had.

“Don't
you think so?” he answered Kala's question with a question.

“I
don't know man, it's really soon, don't you think?”

Kole
tapped his fingers on the table and leaned back in his chair with a
long sigh, then sat back up with a wide smile, shaking his head.
“Nah, it's not too soon. It's perfect. She'll say yes, I know
it.” Kole held his beer up and Kala laughed, then clinked his
own bottle against his brothers.

England

Book
Thirteen

Chapter One

“You're
Carlos
Fausto, aye?” Grant narrowed his eyes at the man as he asked
his question and tightened his fists at his sides.

Carlos
quickly pushed the nearly naked girl from his lap and pulled his belt
back together as he stood. “What the fuck are ya doing in my
house?” He was approaching Grant, the tall, big, man who had
just barged right through the door of his mansion. Before waiting for
an answer from the intruder, he called out to his servant. “Armando!”

“Armando?
That was the wee man standing ootside was it?” Grant's laugh
echoed loudly through the wide room. Armando wouldn't be helping his
boss out anytime soon.

Carlos
grit his teeth together and took another step forward. Grant had him
beat by at least a foot in height and nearly double in weight. He
knew he couldn't take on the man alone, but with the help of his
three friends, it wouldn't be a problem. He snapped his fingers and
the three men stood from the couch to join him at his side.

Grant
straightened his body and smiled at the four men standing in front of
him, then took a step forward, closing the distance even more. “Lass,
come 'ere,” he spoke at the girl who was still picking herself
up from the floor. When she looked at him, she had fear in her face,
but what startled him even more were the numerous bruises on her
face, legs and sides. She shook her head back and forth slowly. Was
he there to hurt her too? He shook his own head with another wide
smile and directed his eyes back to Carlos. “Aye, so it's true.
Ye like ta hit women. Ye know, I like ta hit too. I like ta hit men
who hit women.”

“What
are you, fucking Irish?” Carlos laughed nervously. “Look
men, the Irish man has come to save the girl. How sweet.”

“No
mate. I'm no' Irish,” Grant told him, then looked behind him
and gave the cue. “But they are.” Six Irishmen, some
bigger than Grant himself, all walked in through the front door, one
after another and stood at the sides of Grant. “I'm Scottish.
And so are they.” On cue again, another five men entered the
room. Carlos took a step back, then another, his cocky smile was
replaced with something else. Fear; complete with sweaty palms, a
racing heart and eyes that darted between the twelve men forming a
human wall in front of him.