Page 10 of Lahaina Noon

“Of course, I remember, it was funny, and it describes you very well. You have a wonderful personality, and it electrifies me when you walk into a room.”

Bridget stared at him, where was all of this when they were working on their proposal and testing the past six months? Had he been flirting with her the whole time, and she just never noticed? Or was this a new development now that the deal was over? She resolved she was going to pay close attention to everything he said going forward, so she didn’t miss a thing. Which was no hardship, of course. His voice was like a warm sip of whisky on a cold night. It reverberated deep in her bones.Wait,what did he just say? Crap, crap, crap, there goes paying attention.

“Sorry, what?” she said sheepishly as she realized he had said something else while she was fantasizing about his voice.

He gave that silky laugh again, which made her shiver deep inside. “I said, Ms. Ridgeway, that I was concerned about you shocking yourself again. That happened this morning in the conference room, didn’t it? Before that, in your office. And you said it had also happened earlier as well? Does this kind of thing occur to you frequently?”

Bridget thought about it. “No, not really. I mean, yeah, if I’m walking across the carpet in fuzzy socks and touch a switch, sometimes it happens, but not this hard and this often. It’s really weird, now that I think about it. Lots of weird things today, if I’m being honest.”

“Are you?” he said quietly. “Are you being honest? What other weird things are happening?” He was looking at her like he knew something she didn’t.

Does he know about the shadows?she wondered. He couldn’t possibly, and she certainly wasn’t going to tell him now. Not when he still considered her somewhat sane. “Oh, you know, getting fired and shouting obscenities at my former boss,” she joked, hoping he believed that.

He leaned back into the seat, smiling. “Indeed.” He turned towards the driver and said, “Liam, let’s get going! You can see the lady is unharmed; stow your fire, and let’s move on.”

Liam nodded and pulled away from the curb, heading off towards the highway.

“Stow your fire,” Bridget repeated.

“Hmm?”

“You told Liam to ‘stow your fire’. That’s an odd thing to say, just thinking out loud,” she admitted.

Vaughn seemed thoughtful, “Well, Liam is of Irish descent and has a bit of a fiery protective streak about him, especially towards women.”

Bridget thought about it, and it made a sort of sense. “So where are we going?” she asked.

“Oh, just a little place I know,” he replied easily.

Bridget studied him, sensing she wasn’t going to get anything else out of him on it. “Well, in that case, you can educate me about something. Tell me more about this Cloud Warrior thing that has my son so worked up.”

“Thing?” He arched his eyebrow at her. “Sure, I’ll tell you about my… thing.”

Chapter 7

Bridget was amazed and,frankly, dumbfounded. Here was a side to Vaughn she didn’t know existed. How in the world had she missed this? She’d gotten to know him, she thought, from the Chesapeake project, but now she had learned he also owned a gaming enterprise. She recalled him mentioning some holdings in other industries as well, but nothing about video games.

Not just any video game, the one her son and millions of others world-wide were absolutely addicted to. It was an online multiplayer role-playing game. It even had its own E-sports league that Vaughn sponsored. She sincerely hoped that Gabriel didn’t try to talk her into joining one of those, she already had a hard time watching him play football each fall.

She glanced around as the car came to a stop. She’d been so engrossed in learning more about Vaughn that she hadn’t paid attention to where they were. She recognized they were close to the area in downtown Dallas known as Deep Ellum. There was quite a nightlife lounge scene here, but she wasn’t sure it was the kind of place Vaughn had hinted at.

He gently grasped her hand and laid the smallest kiss on the back of it before rubbing small circles there with his thumb.

Her breath caught in her throat and warmth pooled low. Could this man get any sexier?

Vaughn seemed to understand the effect he was having on her and smiled a wolfish grin that made Bridget think Jorrie was right about his choice of dessert.

But surely, she was overanalyzing this situation. What could he possibly want from her? She was a widowed single mom from the suburbs who, oh yeah, was not only unemployed but had been fired most humiliatingly right in front of him.

“Hey,” he murmured, “Quit thinking so hard. It will ruin your appetite. You’re going to need it here.”

Liam opened her door. “Miss.” He held out a hand to assist her from the car.

Standing next to him, she realized Liam was exceptionally tall and quite handsome in his own right, with bright green eyes and reddish gold wavy hair that almost reached his shoulders. Not your typical chauffeur.

“Thank you, Liam,” she said with a small smile. “I appreciate your willingness to overlook my brashness earlier. I usually wait until a second date to let the swears fly.”

Liam looked startled at first, then laughed. “You are just as delightful as he said. You’ll be perfect!”

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