On Dublin Street The Bonus Material - Samantha Young Page 0,6

with anticipation.

3

Braden’s POV – The Third Meeting

On Dublin street

“Hullo Miss. Carmichael,” Braden answered his phone after the second ring, gladly walking out of La Cour now that Erik, the chef, was done with him. He’d called Braden in to discuss a menu change but Braden’s mind wasn’t really with Erik and the chef could tell. With the clichéd temperament of a man at his level, Erik wasn’t in the least intimidated by Braden and he could feel the burn of the chef’s glare on the back of his head as he departed the restaurant.

“Hello, Mr. Carmichael,” Ellie answered lightly, sounding bemused. “You seem to be in a good mood?”

“Oh I am,” Braden murmured. Not only had Thomas been in contact to arrange another meeting between them to discuss the sale of La Cour, but Braden was still savoring the mental image of Jocelyn naked in the hallway yesterday. He didn’t care if that made him a randy bastard. The woman was fucking gorgeous. He couldn’t stop thinking about her naked if he wanted to. The image of her was burned on his brain for life.

Braden approached the taxi waiting outside for him with a smug smile on his face, thinking it was the best month of the year so far. By far. He got in and gave the driver his address as Ellie continued, “Well, I was just phoning to make sure you remembered we’re having drinks at Tigerlily in a few hours.”

“I remembered. Adam and I will pick you up.” Jocelyn’s striking eyes filled his head. “Will your flat mate be coming?”

“Joss? No. She’s working tonight. Next door, actually.” Braden ignored a twinge of disappointment. “Joss said you met yesterday. What did you think? She’s nice, right?”

He grinned. Jocelyn obviously hadn’t told Ellie what really happened between them. “Oh, we met. We… well, I certainly got more than I bargained for.”

There was silence on the end of the line. Then Ellie asked, “What exactly does that mean?”

Braden told her exactly what that meant and had to pull the phone from his ear as she burst into peals of laughter. “Are you done?” He eventually asked over her heehawing.

Ellie sought to breathe normally. “Oh, that’s brilliant. It’s so funny I think I may have peed a little.”

“Charming.”

“I can’t even… oh dear.” She giggled again. “Joss is so composed. I can’t imagine her reaction.”

“She wasn’t amused, but she was fairly self-possessed considering the situation. I was impressed.”

As if she sensed his interest in her flat mate, Ellie’s next question was shrewd. “Did you tell Holly you saw my flat mate naked?”

Not only was the question sly, there was an edge to it; an edge Braden knew spawned from Ellie’s dislike of his current girlfriend. In fact, his sister didn’t like any of his girlfriends. That was fine with him since he had no plans to make any of them a permanent fixture in his life. “Why would I do that?”

She scoffed, “Do you two even talk to one another?”

“Do you really want to have this conversation with me? Your big brother?”

After a moment of silence, she sighed. “I guess I really don’t.”

“Good choice because I wasn’t having it with you, anyway.”

“It would only disgust me and crush my romantic idealism.”

“And we wouldn’t want that.” Braden really wouldn’t. His little sister was a rare creature of optimism and romanticism, despite their father’s negligence and her last boyfriend’s duplicity. He wouldn’t do anything in the world to crush what made someone as vulnerable as Ellie so strong.

“Anyway, I was thinking you and Adam could come around to get me ten minutes early so we could drop in and say hello to Joss at her work.”

“Definitely.” Don’t sound too eager. “I’ll see you soon, Els.”

As he hung up, Braden felt that exhilarating rush of anticipation course through his veins at the thought of seeing his American again.

“So where’s Holly?” Adam asked as Ellie led them downstairs to Club 39. It wasn’t their usual spot. A pity. Braden might have come across Jocelyn a lot sooner had he paid more attention to the trendy basement bar.

“Still down south.”

“Do you even care at this point?”

Braden gave him a half-hearted smile. Adam knew him better than most people, and he wondered if his friend recognized the telltale signs of Braden’s waning interest.

“I’ll take that as a no.” Adam nodded at the doorman who let them pass and trained a firm eye on Ellie. “You know, it occurs to me that maybe we need to stop dicking around.