Maybe he should’ve spoken to them.
No.He’d survived—no—thrived without his family to drag him down.
The door to his office flew open, and Suzie stalked inside.
“I strongly disagree but will stay.I’ll work for you without further protest.You will pay me a fair wage and give me time off.You’ll let me go into the village if I want, and you will pay for a music course so I won’t lose six months.I love my music and refuse to give it up.Do we have a deal?”
Niall dissected her expression while his mind worked the angles and requests she’d asked of him.He’d already promised Saber he’d help with her music.“Give me a list of the music courses you’d like to take.Yes, it’s only fair to receive remuneration.Yes, you can go to the village.Check with the pastor because they sometimes have musical concerts and recitals at the church.If you have any problems, please ask me, and we’ll have a reasonable discussion.Is that agreeable with you?”
Suzie wore a frown but nodded.“I’ll trust you, but no funny stuff.Secretarial duties and nothing else.”
“I understand.”Niall winced when his bear started chanting.On the plus side, only he could hear the annoying protest.“I might require your presence at functions.Business dinners and a charity ball.Is that acceptable?”
Suzie thrust out her hand.“We have a deal.”
“Excellent.I want to review my strategy for the honey’s release and decide on a name and label.”
They spent an enjoyable three hours refining Niall’s plan.Enjoyable for him.Working with an intelligent woman made him incredibly happy.His bear was happy.He was happy.The plan was a winner.He felt it in his gut, and part of that confidence came from the ideas they’d sparked together by imagining what if.Exciting spins on the traditional that he thought would grab the public’s attention.Once they tasted his honey, he was confident it would sell itself.
Angus had sent sandwiches and coffee from the kitchen, but now it was late afternoon.Niall glanced at Suzie and wondered if she’d like to take a forest walk with him.His bear sighed happily, and Niall verbalized the idea before analyzing the pluses and minuses.
“I could use some fresh air,” he said.“Would you like to walk in the woods with me?”Niall cringed.That sounded like a corny pickup line.A walk.Huh!
But to his relief, she beamed.
“I would love that.Do I have time to change into shorts?It’s such a lovely day.”She paused.“Or will we run in our animal forms?”
“Mine.Mine.Mine!” his bear chanted.
Niall’s heart leaped because that sounded like heaven.He’d love to see her feline in person, but no, he could make do with her bare legs.Shifting wasn’t possible since humans walked and rode their bikes along the paths.“That sounds lovely, but not this time.The woods are a shared one.I like to walk there because the bluebells bloom in the spring.It’s a lovely sight.”
She grinned, and his bear released a loud sigh.Loud enough to make her blink.
Heat invaded Niall’s cheeks, a novelty since nothing threw him.“My bear,” he said, avoiding Suzie’s gaze, then giving in to his need to see her reaction.“He loves the woods.Sometimes, I’ll go at night when shifting is safer.”
“It sounds delightful, and I’d love to go for a walk.I exercise often at home.My friend and I take exercise classes with Isabella, and she’s a hard taskmaster.”
“I’ll rendezvous with you at the elevator in ten minutes.Is that long enough?”he asked, praying she wasn’t a woman who preened for hours.
“Ten minutes is plenty of time,” Suzie said.
Niall took his time, changing from his suit into a more casual polo shirt and shorts with old and comfortable boat shoes on his feet.
Suzie was waiting when he arrived, and he braced for his bear’s habitual chant.Instead, a lustful sigh echoed through his mind.Yeah, that was something he and his bear could agree on.While Suzie was of average height, she had gorgeous, toned legs.His palms tingled with the urge to touch.
Instead, he placed his hand on the small of her back and urged her forward, his nose twitching at her enticing scent.She wore white shorts and a green blouse that matched the color of her eyes.She’d tied her hair back in a high ponytail and wore sensible shoes.Not the spiked heels one of his past girlfriends had worn to walk in the woods.She’d shrieked on seeing a squirrel, and their date had gone downhill from there.
Niall ushered Suzie into his car, and they drove through the village to the wilderness.
“I love the village,” Suzie said.“It’s like the traditional English towns I imagined before arriving.Your castle is beautiful, too.How did you come to own it?”
The question took Niall back to when he’d first arrived in Scotland.He’d scrimped and saved to get the airfare.He’d recognized the move would be difficult, but he’d also known his family would suck him dry if he stayed.The bullying he could take, but Niall refused to sink to their level.They lived by conducting scams and outright thievery, and each of his older brothers and sisters thought of him as weak because he’d wanted to go to school and learn.His breaking point had come when he’d met a girl he liked a lot.They’d been dating for six months when his brothers—Euan and Colin—had come across them at a cafe.At first, their appearance had alarmed him, but his brothers had acted charming.That should’ve warned him for a start.Instead, he’d been grateful his brothers weren’t treating him like crap.Millicent—his girlfriend—had told him his brothers were lovely.
He hadn’t discovered until it was too late that Euan and Colin had followed them when he’d escorted her home.They’d arranged meetings that had seemed casual to Millicent.She’d mentioned running into them at the market, but he had thought little of it.Later, when he’d examined the past, it had been a big blaring sign he shouldn’t have missed.Either Euan or Colin or hell, knowing his brothers, both had seduced Millicent.They’d dragged her into their world of booze and drugs, and despite him warning her, she’d gone willingly.
The blazing row they’d had before they’d broken up had stunned him.It had destroyed him because he and his bear had cared for her, even though she was human and unaware of his world.Euan and Colin had taken care of that.They’d blasted away her rose-colored glasses and dragged her into the chaos.Not that she’d argued much from what Niall had witnessed.Six months later, Millicent had died in a motor vehicle accident, but the designer drugs and booze had already done the damage.
The Millicent he had known had vanished.
