by E. C. Hier
Three Weeks
by E.C. Hier
Table of Contents
Summary
ALSO BY E.C. Hier
Chapter 1 - Olivia
Chapter 2 - Olivia
Chapter 3 - Kieran
Chapter 4 - Olivia
Chapter 5 - Kieran
Chapter 6 - Olivia
Chapter 7 - Kieran
Chapter 8 - Olivia
Chapter 9 - Kieran
Chapter 10 - Olivia
Chapter 11 - Olivia
Chapter 12 - Kieran
Chapter 13 - Olivia
Chapter 14 - Kieran
Chapter 15 - Olivia
Chapter 16 - Kieran
Chapter 17 - Olivia
Chapter 18 - Kieran
Chapter 19 - Olivia
Chapter 20 - Olivia
Three Weeks by E.C. Hier
Copyright © 2017 Stolworthy Publishing, LLC
Stolworthy Publishing, L.L.C.
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Summary
Olivia’s life is mapped out; she has a thriving business, a comfortable apartment in a great area, and she has a collection of life-sized superhero posters to keep her warm at night. So, when the fire-haired Irishman walks into her at the coffee shop she isn’t prepared for the deep desire that hits her.
Kieran’s jade-green eyes and sexy accent make her hottie posters pale in comparison but should she take a chance on a three-week relationship? What’s the worst thing that can happen?
***Read the Prequel to Three Weeks***
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Olivia: A Short Story Prequel to Three Weeks
ALSO BY E.C. Hier
Their Place in Time
Olivia: A Short Story Prequel to Three Weeks
Chapter 1 - Olivia
Olivia Carlton had lived on the outskirts of the city for three years and it had changed drastically since she’d first arrived. Her small apartment had tripled in value and the neighborhood was looking brighter every day. New developments were popping up all over but her neighborhood was the quickest to develop and the little coffee shop she’d purchased from her inheritance was now making enough money for Olivia to have two days off. A whole two days free was a luxury that she no longer knew what to do with.
“What are you doing here?” Louise said shaking her head.
“I’m just visiting and I’ll have a cup of coffee while I’m here,” she said sneaking behind the counter before Louise could barricade the way.
“Do I have to pull up the definition of leisure time on Wiki?” Louise asked, not for the first time this month.
“Nope, it’s just coffee,” Olivia said.
“Well, I might have to take a more drastic approach,” Louise moaned.
“I just missed your sunny smile,” Olivia replied grinning as Louise scowled.
When Olivia had first turned up on her day off, Louise had thought she was checking up on the staff but now she knew that Olivia didn’t know how to do downtime and that was somehow worse. Now, all the staff and many of the customers lectured her on how to spend her time off; she’d even had offers of dates, mostly unwanted but she had never been much of a dater. Once bitten, twice shy was more like she had her heart ripped from her body, never doing that again, ever.
Life on her own wasn’t so bad, partly because she loved her business and it occupied most of her time and partly due to the fact that she had a subscription to three instant movie streaming sights. She spent her evenings, nights and the occasional day off watching sci-fi movies with the odd horror thrown in. She even had framed posters of Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine on her living room walls.
Her latest poster of Will Smith as Deadshot was hanging above her desk in the coffee shop to remind her that gorgeous men were often dangerous. If she could get away with it, she would have put posters of her boys on the walls of the coffee shop but being that the majority of her customers were male she figured it wouldn’t go down so well.
As she stepped out from behind the counter with her favorite coffee mug filled with a caramel latte, she walked into a firm body. The firm arms attached to the body steadied her and her coffee and when she looked up to apologize, all words flew out of her mouth and down the street. The man was tall, lean and had a full head of red bed-hair. She licked her lips and shivered as his gaze went from her eyes to her lips.
She didn’t believe in love at first sight but lust at first sight was now a proven phenomenon. He was beautiful in a warm and striking way. He had sea green eyes and a splattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose and cheeks. He made her legs feel like jelly and her panties loose. Damn, where was her voice and why was she standing there staring at him when she could be smooth and sophisticated?
“Are you okay?” He asked.
She nearly melted into a puddle on the floor. His voice was the stuff of legends. It was British, Scottish or Irish. She couldn’t tell, all she knew was that he was going to feature in her dreams for the foreseeable future, especially the naughty ones. She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. When a person has been quiet for a certain amount of time, things begin to get awkward so she needed to speak sometime soon.
“I’m fine, thank you,” she said and smiled.
“Let me help you to a seat,” he said and guided her arm to a table nearby.
He seated her and then gave her the brightest smile she’d seen since watching Captain America on the widescreen. Her heart did a mad little flutter before dropping to the pit of her stomach as he turned and left her there.
As she watched him sit with a group of men who were all dressed in steel toe-capped boots and dusty cargo pants, she realized that they must be construction workers from one of the new developments, she also realized that her colleagues were eyeing her like they knew what she was thinking and given that little tingle he made her feel in her core she didn’t need their attention.
Olivia glared at her colleagues and they eventually turned back to their business leaving her to resume her study of the red-headed hottie. He turned just as she looked over and their eyes met. The corner of his mouth twitched up and she couldn’t help it when her own did the same. She was lucky her caramel-colored skin hid the blush that was creeping up her neck but his creamy skin had a healthy pink to it that could be a blush or just a reaction to the cold weather. He looked back and smiled before he left with his group and she audibly sighed when he disappeared from view.
“He’s a pretty one,” Louise said as she cleared the table next to hers.
“The pretty ones are trouble,” Olivia retorted.
“Sometimes, but think about the fun you’d have getting into trouble,” she whispered and both women giggled.
“You’re a very bad girl, Louise,” Olivia said winking at her.
“I used to be, and now I like to live through others so have some fun and tell me all about it,” she said.
Olivia wanted to have fun, but she also wanted a guarantee that she wouldn’t get hurt and there wasn’t any such thing. Being in love was like machine washing an exquisite, handmade silk dress, you hoped it would come out the other side unscathed bu
t you knew deep down that it wouldn’t, only there was nothing you could do to stop it.
She went home and searched for something to watch, finally settling on an episode of Dexter. She tried to tell herself she wasn’t in it for the red hair but who was she kidding? Dexter might be a serial killing science geek but he was still hot. She briefly wondered if she should add him to her poster collection but that might be seen as weird given that the rest of her boys were superheroes, although, Deadshot was a serial killer too so maybe she would get away with it.
Her thoughts eventually went back to that night when her heart was ripped from her body in spectacular fashion. David had been smooth, charming, and a really good liar. She hadn’t seen it coming because his sweet talking could smooth over any problem and he had an answer for everything. He couldn’t charm his way out of what she’d seen with her own two eyes although he tried too many times.
His dark long legs had been intertwined with the blond bimbo’s shapely pale ones. Their sweat soaking Olivia’s sheets and what hurt her most was that he’d told her he liked her small boobs yet the blond bimbo’s bosoms were two plump pillows bouncing independently like water balloons while David’s head had nestled between them.
Olivia had briefly toyed with the idea of having implants but her grandmother, a busty woman, had begged her not to mess with what nature had given her and told her to enjoy having a slim figure and the ability to wear dainty lacy items that bigger boobs couldn’t fit in. Her mother was always right; she listened but it still hurt because he had known of her insecurities and it had been like a double sting, not to mention that she’d had to move out of her apartment and buy a new bed; she had felt violated, and it was the worse feeling in the world.
There was a reason why Olivia worked so hard and it had nothing to do with money. Her extreme work ethics had more to do with keeping busy and not giving her memories a chance to sneak in and smack her around. Once they were there, it was hard to remove them and what she really didn’t need were visions of big breasted women doing naked things with her ex-boyfriend or the memory of those long few minutes where she’d silently waited, trembling, while David and his strumpet had dressed and removed themselves from her apartment. It had felt like hours of torture when it had really only been minutes; the woman hadn’t even bothered to bra her girls up.
Chapter 2 - Olivia
The next day she was up early, dressed and fed. Not only was she desperate to get to work after a sleepless night but she was secretly kind of hoping that her tall ginger construction worker would come in for coffee. The anticipation of him coming into the coffee shop had led her to change her outfit three times but knowing that she would be wearing the company apron on top of the outfit had stopped the fourth change.
She usually let Louise take the early shift so the woman could get off early but today she arrived before her. She tried to tell herself that it had nothing to do with her wanting to see if he came in for a pre-work drink.
When the coffee shop first became hers, the hours had always been ten until six. She had quickly changed that because the area was full of newly filled offices and factories who wanted good strong coffee to start their working days and they needed it before ten. She had devised a shift system and now stayed open until seven to take in the latecomers or early night shift workers too. Business was booming.
It didn’t take him long to arrive with another man who slumped straight into a chair by the radiator. The handsome redhead was keeping his eyes on his phone and Olivia was wondering if she’d imagined the whole moment of attraction. When he called out something to his friend after reading his phone she figured he was already in work mode.
“How can I help you?” She asked ignoring the butterflies that danced in her stomach.
“One medium pumpkin spiced latte for my friend and a large tea for me to take away, please,” he said slowly as if used to being misunderstood.
“Okay,” she replied smiling.
He looked up and his green eyes sparkled like jade. The butterflies were doing multiple backflips now and she could hardly catch her breath. His lips turned up, and she was treated to the best smile ever. She had to grab the counter to steady her knees because she had just turned into mush.
“Just to be clear, the tea is for myself and the girly drink is for my friend,” he said grinning.
“You don’t drink coffee?”
“No, it’s disgusting. Even coffee drinkers don’t like the stuff that’s why they put vegetables in it. I drink tea, its manly and I’m not sweet enough so I like a couple of sugars in it,” he said showing dimples in his cheeks that were the most adorable and yet sexy things.
“Well, I’m glad you like tea. It would be a shame to start such a cold day on a glass of orange juice,” she said handing him two cardboard cups.
“It would indeed be a shame not to visit you,” he replied winking cheekily, and she felt even more heat flush through her.
She watched him and his friend leave and could honestly say she tried not to check out his retreating behind but it was there and she looked. He turned and gave her a wave before disappearing from view and she was still smiling when the customer in front of her coughed to get her attention. Men were trouble, even men from across the continent with sexy accents and wild red hair.
“He likes you,” one of her regular customers called out.
“Mind your own business, Neil,” she said laughing.
“You are my business. I come here every day, you’re as good as family,” Neil said.
“You’re as nosy as family that’s for sure,” she replied.
She spent the rest of the morning feeling conflicted. She wanted him to come in and talk to her but she also hoped he wouldn’t. She didn’t want the spell to be broken. He was sweet and funny and perfect just as he was and if she got to know him, then he wouldn’t be perfect anymore, he’d be an ass or a girlfriend beater, or any number of horrible possibilities because that was her luck. She didn’t want him tarnished.
Louise stuck her head into the office at lunchtime and startled her out of her daydreams. Her online ordering system was simple but her mind had wandered and her screen saver was now showing instead of the lists that she’d expected to see.
“Your young man has just walked in,” Louise hissed. “I’ll serve him and you can go bump into him again.”
“He’s not my young man,” she hissed back in nothing more than a whisper.
Louise just raised an eyebrow and left her. Olivia dashed to the mirror to check her appearance; no stray cake crumbs or other anomalies. When she stepped out of her office Louise handed her a tray with her favorite mug on along with a large cup of tea and a couple of lattes with full frothy milk. She was confused but Louise leaned over and whispered.
“That’s his order plus your coffee,” she said smiling.
“You do remember who the boss is, right?” Olivia said but Louise just laughed.
She turned around and scanned the room. She couldn’t miss his group because he stood out from the rest of the room with his shiny red hair and his high vis vest. She took a deep breath before making her way to his table slowly and carefully because the last thing she wanted was to make an ass of herself. He looked up as she approached and grinned disarmingly.
“Let me take that from you,” he said in that same careful diction.
“Where’s my cake? Kieran, didn’t you get me a cake?”
“You’ve already eaten a whole packet of biscuits and half my lunch, you’re not having a cake,” Kieran, the hottie with the jade green eyes, said.
“We sell plenty of cakes,” she said wondering if she should get involved.
“Ignore him, his wife’s pregnant, and he’s the one eating for two,” Kieran said with a grin.
“So would you be if your wife was three thousand miles away,” his friend complained and Olivia’s heart skipped.
“If I had a wife I might,” Kieran replied and looked up at her. “Is this yours?”
“Sit with me,” he said taking both his and her cup and placing them on a table nearby. “I look at the guys all day every day and they’re not even handsome like Benedict.”
She laughed and sat opposite him wondering how he’d orchestrated that move so easily. How had he known that she would come with him? Was it written on her face? She didn’t have time to wonder because he was planning on doing most of the talking.
“So, I’m in town for three weeks and I’ve been stuck with those losers for long enough. I want to go to the cinema but I can’t go with them and I’m certainly not going to a restaurant with them, have you seen their manners? No, me neither and that’s because they have none,” he said and she fought to keep up with his accent.
“They don’t seem too bad,” she replied smiling.
“Well, that’s because you’ve only just met them and they’re on their best behavior,” he said. “Please, tell me you’re single and let me take you out.”
His bold approach had disarmed her, and she was speechless for a moment. He wasn’t smiling anymore and she couldn’t decipher his facial expression but the silence was awkward suddenly and he sat back in his chair, shoulders drooping.
“You’re already taken,” he said softly.
“No, I was digesting your words. I’m single and I’d love to go out,” she said finally getting the words out.
“That’s great,” he said and visibly relaxed. “I was worried for a while there. My name’s Kieran.”
“I’m Olivia,” she said.
“I know, I asked your friend already,” he replied pointing to where Louise was watching from behind the counter.