LITMIR.BIZ

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we’ll go to an early dinner and talk.” He walked to a closet, opened it and pulled out a black jacket. Shrugging it on, he went back to her side and waited.

      “Talk?” she asked. “About what?”

      He took her arm, threaded it through his and headed for the door. “You can tell me all about yourself and the castle.”

      She’d no interest in talking about herself, but maybe, she thought, she could impress on him what the castle meant to those who worked there and the people in the nearby village, as well.

      “All right,” she said, then hesitated, remembering she hadn’t even changed clothes since her flight. “But I’m not dressed for it, really.”

      “You look great,” he assured her.

      How like a man was all she could think.

      “If we could stop by my hotel first,” she said, dismissing his words, “I’d like to change.”

      He shrugged and said, “Sure.”

      * * *

      She was worth the wait, Brady thought, looking across the linen-draped tablecloth at Aine. She wore a simple black dress with wide shoulder straps and a square neckline that displayed just the hint of the tops of her breasts. Her skin glowed like fine porcelain in the candlelight, and the candle flames seemed to shoot golden sparks through her dark red hair and wink off the tiny gold stars she wore at her ears.

      His insides burned, and watching her smile and sip at her wine was only stoking the flames. She was...temptation, Brady told himself. One he didn’t want to resist but would have to.

      “It’s lovely wine,” she said, setting her glass down.

      “Yeah. Lovely.” He didn’t mean the wine and, judging by the flash in her eyes, she knew it. Damn. This upscale restaurant with the candlelight had probably been a mistake. He should have taken her for a nice casual burger in a crowded diner. This setting was too damn intimate.

      The only way to keep the want clawing at him in check was to steer this conversation to business and keep it there. A shame that his brain didn’t exactly have dibs on his blood supply at the moment. “Tell me about the castle. From your perspective, what needs to be done?”

      She took a breath, then another sip of wine, and set the glass down again before speaking. “It’s true, there does need to be some remodeling. Bathrooms updated, new paint throughout, of course, and the furniture’s a bit shabby. But the building itself is strong and sure as it has been since it was first built in 1430.”

      Almost six hundred years. For a man with no family, no personal history to talk about, that kind of longevity seemed impossible to understand and accept. But as a man with no roots, changes came easier to him than they would to people like her. People who clung to traditions and tales of the past.

      “We’re going to do all of that, of course,” he said. “And more.”

      “That’s what worries me,” she admitted. “The more. I know you’ve said we’d talk about this tomorrow, but can you tell me some small things that you have in mind?”

      Hard to concentrate on the conversation when listening to her speak made that twist of desire inside him curl tighter. But maybe talking about the castle would help give him something else to focus on. Deliberately, he took a gulp of his wine to give himself time to settle. When he could think clearly again, he said, “Our company, Celtic Knot, is going into the hotel business.”

      She nodded and waited for him to continue.

      “Starting with Castle Butler, we’re buying three hotels and reimagining them.”

      “Reimagine sounds much grander than a few simple changes,” she said, suspicion clear in her tone.

      “It is,” he said. “We’re going to turn them into mock-ups of our three bestselling games.”

      “Games.”

      Warming to his theme, Brady said, “The first will be Fate Castle.”

      “Fate...?”

      “Designed after our first successful game.”

      “I know of it,” she said quietly.

      His eyebrows shot up, and he couldn’t quite keep the surprise out of his voice when he asked, “You’ve played it? And here I was thinking you didn’t look the gaming type to me.”

      “There’s a type, is there?” She ran her fingers up and down the stem of her wineglass, but the movement was anything but smooth and relaxed. “As it happens, you’d be right. I don’t play, but my younger brother, Robbie, does. He’s mad for your games.”

      Brady smiled in spite of the coolness in her eyes. “He has excellent taste.”

      “I wouldn’t know,” she said with detachment, “for the idea of using a toy to chase down zombies and wraiths doesn’t appeal to me.”

      “You shouldn’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”

      “What makes you think I haven’t?”

      “You’d like it more if you had,” he said simply. He knew their games were addictive to players. “Our games are more than just running and shooting. There are intricate puzzles to be solved. Choices made, and the player takes the consequences for those choices. Our games are more sophisticated in that we expect our players to think.”

      She smiled briefly. “To listen to Robbie shouting and railing against the game, you wouldn’t know it was a test of intelligence.”

      He smiled again as her voice twisted the knots in his belly even tighter. “Well, even smart guys get angry when they don’t succeed at first try.”

      “True enough,” she said, then paused as the waiter delivered their meals.

      La Bella Vita was Brady’s favorite restaurant. Elegant, quiet, and the food was as amazing as the atmosphere. The walls were a pale yellow, with paintings of Italy dotting the space. Candles flickered atop every one of the linen-draped tables, and soft music sighed through the speakers tucked into the corners of the room. The clink of crystal and the rise and fall of muted conversations around them filled the silence while Aine took a bite of her crab-stuffed ravioli in Alfredo sauce.

      “Good?” he asked.

      “Wonderful,” she said, then asked, “Do you often bring your employees to such a fine restaurant?”

      “No,” he admitted and couldn’t have said, even to himself, why he’d brought Aine here. They could have stopped for a burger somewhere or eaten at the restaurant in her hotel. Instead, he’d brought her here, as if they were on a date. Which they really weren’t. Best to steer this back to work. “It’s quiet here, though, and I thought that would give us a chance to talk.”

      “About the castle.”

      “Yes, and about your part in helping us make this happen.”

      “My part?” Genuine surprise flashed in her eyes.

      Brady took a bite of his own ravioli, then said, “You’ll be there on-site, for the day-to-day changes. We need you to oversee the workers, make sure they stay on schedule, on budget, things like that.”

      “I’m to be in charge?”

      “You’re my liaison,” he told her. “You come to me with problems, I take care of them, then you make sure they’re handled right.”

      “I see.” She dragged her fork listlessly across her plate.

      “Is there a problem?”

      “Have you given thought to who will be doing the work?”

      “We’ve got the best contractor in California lined up,” Brady said. “He’ll be bringing in crews he trusts.”

      She

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