10. Cormac
Chapter Ten
CORMAC
I left the office less than six hours ago, but I'm already back, sitting behind my desk after sleeping for only a couple of hours. But that's nothing new.
I've always been prone to insomnia, though it's gotten significantly worse since I've been back in New York. Every time I close my eyes, I picture Scout in various scenarios that cause me to wake in a panic, covered in sweat and struggling to breathe.
The obvious solution would be to fly him out to New York to be with me, but I'm not about to risk his safety just because I need to sleep. Sacrifices are just part of being a parent.
So, I decide to make the most of the early hour and get to the office before anyone else to try and get a head start on things.
Running Sullivan Investments has been more intense than I expected. I knew it would be a lot of work, but after arriving home last night, I ended up taking calls until one a.m. when I finally collapsed into bed with a pounding headache.
Add to the fact that I don't know where my uncle is or what he's planning, I'm on the verge of some kind of mental break.
The pressure is suffocating. But Ronan and Kieran trusted me to keep the business afloat while they take a step back, and I'm not about to let everything go to shit just because I can't handle the pressure. I would rather swallow a bullet than admit to my brothers that I'm struggling.
Something else I will never admit to them, or Fiona for that matter? That having an assistant is actually proving to be helpful.
She has taken a lot of the busy work off my plate, which I thought would help alleviate some of the suffocating pressure I've been feeling.
But it turns out it's just made room for bigger things to creep to the front of my mind at all hours of the day and night. Like wondering what the hell Lorcan is up to.
In the hopes of making some progress on the search for my uncle, I decide to bypass the quarterly projection graphs and load up the spreadsheet that Brennan and I have been compiling of possible alliances he could have contacted since our run-in with Sal Romano.
So far, we have about twenty names listed, but between running Sullivan Investments and interviewing for an assistant, I've barely had a chance to make much progress.
It seems now is as good a time as any to work through this list before the rest of the world wakes up and starts bothering m?—
Right on cue, my phone starts incessantly buzzing on my desk.
The only people who would be calling me this early are either Ray or Kieran, both of which have my pulse spiking.
I snatch up my phone and let out a string of curses.
"Seriously?"
I scroll through a bunch of messages on one of the many chats that Brennan likes to create. I swear, he was only born to annoy the shit out of the rest of us.
I long ago stopped trying to remove myself from them because it doesn't work. He either re-adds me or creates a whole new chat. I've made a point to permanently mute them because the last thing I need is constant access to Brennan's stream of consciousness.
But, apparently, I forgot to mute this one.
Bros before Hoes
brENNAN: Good morning, Sullivan fam!
KIERAN: It's six a.m.
brENNAN: Hell yes, it is, brother! Early bird gets the worm and all that.
RONAN: Please tell me that's not some kind of sexual innuendo.
brENNAN: It can be...
CIARA: Ew, gross. You do know Riley and I are in this chat?
brENNAN: You're one of the bros.
CIARA: Charming...
RONAN: Was there something you wanted, Brennan?
brENNAN: Not really, I just wanted to say hi <3
KIERAN: Bye.
brENNAN: RUDE!
RILEY: HI brENNAN!!!!!
brENNAN: HI RILEY <3<3<3
CIARA: Get a room.
brENNAN: Happily ;)
Kieran has removed Brennan from the chat
Huffing a laugh, I silence my phone and tuck it back into my pocket.
I turn my attention back to my computer screen just in time to see Fiona disappearing into her office. I check the time on my laptop.
It's barely six thirty.
I have no need for her to be here this early, but I wanted to test how far she would go to please me. It seems quite far.
Interesting...
I don't know why I like pushing her buttons so much. Maybe it's because watching her silently seethe while trying to hold it all together brings me great amusement.
So far, she has taken every ridiculous demand in stride, never dropping the smile from her face.
I would find it infuriating as hell if I didn't find her work ethic so admirable.
For most of the morning, I stay locked away in my office.
Fiona walks past a few times, and I catch her looking in, but I purposefully ignore her. When I'm in one of these moods where I'm lacking sleep and running off nothing but espresso, it's best for me to be alone.
I keep our communication strictly through email, which she always responds to within seconds of me hitting send.
She is good, I'll give her that.
At eleven, I decide to make myself yet another coffee to get me through the midday slump.
If the rest of the day goes as smoothly as the morning, I might take the afternoon to work from the penthouse to try and put some distance between myself and the office. I don't know how my father did this job for so many years. I'm barely a week in and feel like I'm drowning.
Then again, he was prone to explosive outbursts and heavy drinking, so maybe I need to switch the espresso for something stronger.
As I sink back into my chair and settle in for a few more hours of emails, my phone lights up, and I swallow a groan at the sight of Kieran's name.
"Seriously, you don't need to keep checking up on me," I snap the second the call connects.
"Are you sure about that? Because I have an angry investor on the phone that says otherwise."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the meeting you just blew off."
"What meeting?"
I put the call on speaker and load up my calendar on the monitor. I scan through everything I have scheduled for today. When I don't see the meetings I asked Fiona to reschedule for today, I frown.
She assured me she would take care of it.
I'm just about to make a note to reprimand her for making such a small mistake when I realize my error. "Oh, fuck."
All morning I've been looking at my schedule for next Friday.
I quickly click through to the current day, and that's when I see it, front and center. The meeting with the Stratford Group.
"Yeah. Oh, fuck!" Kieran practically yells down the phone.
"It was an honest mistake."
"You're a Sullivan, we don't make mistakes."
"It will be easy enough to rectify."
"It doesn't matter. What you just did has set an impression of our company as being unreliable. That's not something you can just rectify, Cormac. I thought the whole point of you having an assistant was to take care of shit like this."
"You're the one who wanted me to hire an assistant! I never wanted one in the first place."
"So, you're saying this was her fault?"
I release a breath as I rub at my jaw. "No. It wasn't."
Kieran scoffs. "Unbelievable. If you can't handle the responsibility?—"
"I can handle it," I say through gritted teeth.
"Can you?"
"Yes."
"Don't make me regret making you CEO." He hangs up.
I tighten my grip on the phone, wanting nothing more than to launch it across the room.
I never asked for this position, and I'm starting to think Kieran only put me up for the job to prove that I'm the weak link of the family. And I'm not exactly doing a good job of proving him wrong.
A knock sounds at the door, and I bristle, the last of my patience evaporating. "What?"
The door tentatively opens, and Fiona appears, clutching a stack of paperwork.
"I have those client reports you asked for."
I frown, noticing the flush to her cheeks.
It's the same flush she had last night when I caught her outside my office.
"You have got to be kidding."
"Excuse me?" she asks as she tentatively glances at me.
"You were listening in on my conversation."
"I..." Her gaze falls to the floor, which is enough to have me seeing red.
I get to my feet and slam my fist down on the desk so hard that the monitor rattles. "First last night, and now this! Do you not understand the concept of privacy?"
Fiona stands frozen for a beat, staring at me with a look of panic in her eyes.
But then something changes, as if she flicks a switch.
That panic morphs into something else.
"People two blocks away would've heard you two arguing," she suddenly retorts.
Fiona Callahan is playing a very dangerous game right now.
My voice lowers. "What did you just say?"
I expect her to quickly apologize, to scuttle from the room like she did last night.
But she doesn't. Instead, she simply folds her arms across her chest and glares at me as if I'm somehow the one in the wrong.
"Don't blame me for eavesdropping when you have the cadence of a foghorn."
That does it.
I step around the desk and stalk toward her, letting the fury show on my face.
Fiona doesn't so much as flinch as I approach.
"I wanted those files hours ago. You've been here for three days now, and yet you can't seem to manage the simplest of tasks."
"You seemed to think I was competent enough to hire me."
"Clearly, I was wrong."
"So, you can be humble?"
I hadn't realized I'd taken another step closer to her, but her body is so close to mine that all it would take is for her to take a deep breath, and her breasts would rub against me.
The thought sends a rush of blood straight to my cock.
"You've got some nerve talking to me like that."
Back down, Fiona.
"You might be my boss, but I'm not going to let you walk all over me. I have treated you with nothing but respect, and the least you can do is offer me the same."
Fuck. She has no idea how much she's turning me on right now.
No woman has ever stood up to me like this, and, apparently, I enjoy it far too much.
"You have to earn my respect," I say through gritted teeth as I try to ignore the dull ache in my pants.
"Same here."
Fiona lifts her chin and holds my gaze.
Her boldness, the way she dares me with just a look, lights a fire in me that I can't ignore.
Before I even realize it, I'm closing the distance between us, leaning in until my lips crash onto hers.
I know I need to stop, but every rational thought evaporates the second my mouth finds hers.
Her lips are so soft and warm.
Every instinct in me screams to deepen the kiss, to claim her mouth fully, but I hold back, waiting for her to push me away.
Instead, she parts her lips slightly, and that's all the invitation I need.
I wrap my hand around her neck and gently tilt her head back to deepen the kiss, swallowing a groan as I slide my tongue against hers.
I can only imagine how it would feel to have her soft lips wrapped around my cock, her tongue swirling around the tip, just the way I like it.
Would she be as eager to please me then? Would she let me spill into that pretty little mouth of hers?
A guttural sound builds in my throat as I try to keep my hunger for her under control.
But this seems to awaken a confidence in Fiona that has her fingers sinking into my shirt, tugging me closer until her breasts rub against me.
I instantly break the kiss and take a step back before I do something stupid like tear her clothes off and fuck her right here on the floor of my office.
"You have no idea what you've done."
Fiona just looks up at me with slightly glazed eyes that have me swallowing a groan.
I ball my hand into a fist to stop myself from reaching out and correcting the smudge of lipstick at the corner of her mouth. Because if I touch those lips, I'm going to want to kiss them again, and if I do that, I don't know if I'll have the strength to stop myself again.
I take a step back and fold my arms across my chest. "You should get back to work. What just happened will never happen again. I'll make sure of it."
Fiona looks a little taken aback by my harsh tone. Hurt flickers in her eyes, but I say nothing.
This is for the best. I never should have crossed that line in the first place, but what's done is done. What I can do, moving forward, is make sure it never happens again, no matter how badly I want it to.
"Of course." She lowers her eyes to the floor.
I don't watch her leave. I don't need the temptation. Not when I can still taste her on my lips. Instead, I collapse into my chair and rake a hand through my hair as I let out a string of curses that would have my mother turning in her grave.
What the fuck did I just do?
It's like I blacked out, and all of a sudden, I was kissing Fiona. And it wasn't just a quick peck on the lips. It was the kind of kiss that leads to mind-blowing sex up against a wall or on a desk. The kind that is fast and dirty, leaving you both sweaty and gasping for breath.
Fuck, I haven't had sex like that in a while. Not since Scout's mom...
"Get it together," I snap at myself.
I didn't think this day could get any worse, but now I've gone and done this.
It's not just the fact that kissing my assistant is a sexual harassment suit waiting to happen. No, that's not what really bothers me.
What does is the fact that Fiona Callahan has managed to do what nobody has been able to do in a very long time.
She's gotten under my skin.
The only problem is, the last woman to do that ended up dead.