He stared at her ass as she exited the office, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. Ireland had him behaving in ways he hadn’t since he was a kid, carefree and careless.
Hopefully, not too careless.
Which reminded him… He picked up his phone and called one of the cooks in charge of his restaurant.
“Hello, Cindy?” he said. “It’s Bran. I’m checking to make sure you received an order I placed through the online ordering portal.” Bran described the food. He’d seen the evidence in the database, but there was nothing like verbal confirmation.
“Got it right here,” she said. “Is the system running again?”
Bran closed his eyes. His girlfriend was a genius. How had he ever doubted her? “Looks that way.”
Bran called the rest of the managers, and anyone else who needed to know the system was running, including the Tech Banquet CEO.
The man praised Ireland and asked to have James briefed by her on the updates she’d made to resolve the issue.
Thrilled his restaurants were back online and would soon be running smoothly again, Bran grabbed his keys and went to find Ireland.
She was sitting at Prime bar, drinking a soda.
“How did you do it?” he asked
“Oh,” she said, “that was easy. I scrapped James’s program and rewrote the back end. Way faster than trying to fix the labyrinth he’d created.”
Bran scratched the side of his head. Knowing how arrogant James was, the guy wouldn’t be pleased, but whatever. Not Bran’s problem. As far as Bran was concerned, Ireland was the better woman for the job. Tech Banquet should hire her and fire James. “You know what this means?”
“What?” she said as he leaned over to kiss her cheek and stealthily squeeze her ass. “Celebration time. The system’s up and running. And I have free time on my hands. Though I should probably call Levi and Emily. I also need to make sure the restaurant staff has someone checking numbers and orders to ensure everything is running okay—you know, just in case. Not that I doubt you,” he added quickly. “I just don’t trust software after what I’ve been through. I need to make sure there aren’t any glitches.”
She smiled. “I understand. You’re smart to keep an eye on things. Glitches happen. Though if they do, I’m certain I can fix them quickly. So basically, what you’re saying is I won’t see you until next week, with all the things you have to square away.”
His gaze dropped to her breasts, primly contained in another one of her buttoned-up blouses. “Two hours. Give me two hours, and I’ll be by to pick you up.”
“But it’s after ten p.m.”
He walked out of the restaurant backward. “Booty call!”
Thankfully, the restaurant was nearly empty, or everyone would know exactly what was on Bran’s mind. He was ecstatic at getting the new ordering system up and running, and horny. He was damn horny after he’d kept his girlfriend up late working for Club Tahoe for days and unable to soothe his sudden insatiable appetite for her.
Thank God the dry spell was about to end.
Chapter 21
After Bran left to make sure all the restaurants were on board with the software back and running, Ireland waited for a to-go order from Prime. She grabbed her food then made her way to her car, walking on a cloud. Nothing was more fulfilling than solving a problem that helped hundreds of people. Except solving a problem that helped thousands, or tens of thousands of people. God, she loved her job. And she was finally working with good colleagues.
She grinned as she relived the look on Bran’s face as he left Prime with promises of picking her up later. She didn’t need another night of little sleep—and there wouldn’t be any sleeping with Bran—but she’d missed him. Her body jittered, amped and anticipating their midnight rendezvous.
She pulled the keys from her purse and pressed the fob, the lights on her car blinking a few feet away.
“You messed with the wrong man.”
Ireland frowned, then spun. And lurched back. James stood not three feet away. “What?”
He stepped closer, inches away now, his twisted gaze bearing down on her. “I go away for a few days, and you come in with your” —he scanned her body— “whorish wiles and convince the billionaire to allow you to fuck with my software. Have you lost your mind?”
Ireland glanced around. The parking lot wasn’t entirely dark, but no one was there, and she felt isolated.
Chills ran down her spine. James had always reminded her of the assholes she’d put up with at her old job, but tonight he truly frightened her.
She wanted to sink back, to run. Her breath caught, and she choked on any words she could have said.
