Wild Embrace (Wilder Irish #11) - Mari Carr Page 0,7

their home to accommodate them all so Vince and Clint, thirteen and eleven, were still together in the same home. Yvonne had just had a baby girl, Reba, a couple of months earlier, so the unconventional yet wonderful family continued to grow.

“You know, you could try to surprise us every once in a while. Rather than being so predictable.”

“I prefer consistency.”

Yvonne and Darcy had invited Ryder to countless Collins parties over the years, but he always turned them down, claiming he had too much work to do either here at the office or at the house. From what Darcy could see, the man worked twenty-four-seven, his cell phone constantly in his hand. She suspected he probably slept with the damn thing under his pillow at night. And when he wasn’t working, he was with the boys.

Ryder had zero social life, a concept that seemed downright foreign to Darcy, who lived for her family’s crazy, fun parties.

Tonight was their annual Halloween party, and it kicked off what Darcy referred to as “the social season.” The holidays were her absolute favorite time of the year, and the Collins clan did it right. This year, like every year, they were hosting get-togethers for Halloween, Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve, either in the family’s pub or above it in the Collins Dorm, the apartment Darcy shared with her cousins, Colm and Oliver, as well as Oliver’s foster brother, Gavin.

To make the season even crazier, they’d added an extra party, a Boob Voyage party for Darcy’s godmother, Bubbles, who was having breast reduction surgery in December.

It was going to be two months of madness starting tonight, and Darcy couldn’t wait. She put her coat on, and then grabbed her purse and the vodka.

Ryder waited patiently, looking as hot as ever in his tailor-made black suit and pressed, crisp white dress shirt. Today, he’d at least attempted something whimsical and completely out of character by wearing a black tie with tiny orange jack-o-lanterns on it. In the boring world Ryder chose to exist in, the tie was downright madness, and she loved it.

Darcy silently chastised herself for her never-ending fascination with the man. She was two of the world’s worst clichés. The woman who had a crush on her too-hot-for-words boss, as well as the babysitter with a crush on the dad.

Jesus.

Darcy wished she could kick her feelings, but they clearly weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. So here she was. The twenty-four-year-old virgin with—fuck—a crush on her older boss.

Sadly, Ryder didn’t see her as anything more than said employee/babysitter.

To him, she was stuck solely in some sort of limbo land where she was more than an acquaintance, but not quite a friend; someone special not because of his feelings toward her, but because of his sons’ feelings for her, and a bit more than just an employee because of a longer, more personal association.

Basically, she was a whole lot of nothing.

About the best thing she could say was that he didn’t seem to view her as a kid-sister type, because that would have driven her insane. She already had a big brother and too many overprotective male cousins. She didn’t need one more of those.

They walked to the elevator side by side, neither of them talking, which was strange for her. Him not talking was actually the norm. Ryder’s side of any conversation between the two of them was usually him responding to her questions or comments. He was a quiet, introspective man, and Darcy wondered if that was part of his appeal. She was part of a huge family of boisterous, can’t-get-a-word-in-edgewise people—the male relatives as loud and talkative as the women, especially when sports and wagers were the topics.

Ryder seemed to spend a lot of time in his own head, alone with his thoughts, and Darcy was dying to get a glimpse inside. He also projected an air of alpha male that she found super sexy. She’d spent too many nights recalling the way he’d wrapped that belt around his hand the evening he’d come home drunk all those years ago.

Since then, Darcy had become fascinated by the concept of domination and submission. Her cousin Caitlyn had married a Dominant man, and she had probably answered at least a million and twelve of Darcy’s questions about their relationship in the past couple of years.

Of course, Ryder wasn’t all work and no play. Darcy had caught more than a few glimpses of his playful side with Clint and Vince. The way he teased