Seducing Bran

by Jules Barnard

  Ireland had learned a long time ago that a relationship with a man who was only slightly interested wasn’t worth it.

  “Are you sure Hunt would go out with me?” Ireland said. “I’m not putting out, if that’s what it would take.”

  Cali snapped out of her Jaeg haze, her gaze swinging back to Ireland. “Hunt’s not like that. He seems to enjoy the company of women—all women. Besides, that man doesn’t need to work on getting laid. Women drop their panties left and right for him. A date with you would be a palate cleanser.”

  Jaeg chewed a bite of their leftover pizza and wiped his mouth, resting his bare forearm on the table. “You interested in Hunt?”

  “Not exactly,” Ireland said.

  “Ireland just needs…” Cali distractedly trailed her fingers down Jaeg’s arm. Where they lingered. She flattened her hand, squeezing and running it up and down his muscular forearm.

  “Cali,” Ireland snapped.

  “Right.” Cali removed her hand from her fiancé. “As I was saying,” she paused and looked at Jaeg as though she hadn’t just been feeling up his muscles, “Ireland needs to go out on a date or two to break the seal. She’s been cooped up with video game nerds who have no social skills.”

  Ireland raised her finger. “I’ve been known to play video games. And my social skills are just as deficient as theirs.”

  “Exactly,” Cali said. “It’s like the blind leading the blind. And in your case, I mean that literally.”

  Truth. Ireland couldn’t see shit without her glasses. But she was trying to change her image from massive nerd, to only slightly nerdy. And she wasn’t lying about the contact lenses. They bugged the crap out of her eyes. Until she got new ones, or braved surgery, she was as blind as a bat.

  “If you want to date Hunt, I can put in a good word,” Jaeg said, then took a swig of Cali’s beer and eyed another slice of pizza. Apparently massive appetites went hand in hand with large men, because Jaeg always seemed to be eating. Ireland and Cali could throw down in the food department, but Jaeg’s appetite made them look like small eaters.

  “No.” Ireland shook her head. “That’s embarrassing.”

  “It won’t take much,” Cali said, and looked to Jaeg. “Right?”

  “Nah,” Jaeg said. “I won’t make it obvious. I’ll tell him we want to show you around Tahoe. See if he knows of anything fun.”

  Ireland folded the napkin she’d been shredding. “I guess that’s okay.”

  “You see?” Cali said, and squeezed her hand. “It will be super chill. Hunt’s a nice guy.”

  “When was the last time you got laid?” Hunt said.

  Bran’s brothers were always bugging him about his personal life, and the conversation got old.

  He pulled down the bill of his baseball cap. He could see just past the rim at the crowded pizza joint. “I don’t need to get laid. I’m content on my own.”

  Hunt snorted. “Fuck content. Have our parents’ fates taught you nothing? Life’s too short. You gotta live it to the fullest while you can.”

  Bran, Hunt, and their three brothers had lost their mother when they were kids. Poor Hunt had been a toddler at the time. Their father’s passing to cancer at a relatively young age too meant it was just the five of them now. No aunts or uncles or cousins to reach out to, since their father had cut off communication with extended family after their mother’s death.

  Bran shot Hunt a look. “I don’t want the kind of fun you have.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Bran tipped his head back and looked toward the ceiling. “Let’s see…first, there was Levi’s girlfriend.” Hunt hooked up with their oldest brother’s girlfriend when Hunt was only eighteen. That had been a nightmare.

  Hunt shifted in his seat. “That was ages ago, and Levi has forgiven me.”

  “Because he fell in love with Emily.”

  “Exactly.”

  Bran shook his head. Emily had knocked some sense into their oldest brother Levi, softening him and making him realize how important family was. She’d helped smooth things over between Levi and Hunt. Still… “There’s also the fact that you sleep with anything on two legs.”

  Hunt curled his lip back. “Now that’s just rude. I have standards.”

  Bran raised an eyebrow.

  “Granted, not the same standards you do, but you haven’t gotten action in years. We’re all curious about your standards, given they prevent you from getting close to the opposite sex.”

  Bran hadn’t asked for his brother’s opinion, not that it made a difference. He received regular feedback whether he wanted it or not.

  It wasn’t so much that Bran had standards that ruled his life, but that he practiced a careful assessment of his actions before he did anything stupid.

  Like he’d done in high school.

  Which had changed the way he viewed the world.

  But Bran wasn’t missing this opportunity to give Hunt a hard time. “My standards are simple. I choose understated over flashy.”

  Hunt pointed at Bran. “And that’s your problem, right there. Nothing wrong with flashy. Flashy is fun. Remember that, brother? Fun? I seem to recall a time when you knew what that was, but it’s been so fucking long my memory is hazy.”

  It had been a while since Bran had let loose. Because it typically equated to trouble in his book. Past experience proved his judgment sucked, so he chose to ignore fun altogether. “What’s your point?”

  “Don’t you think it’s time you loosened up?” Hunt shrugged like a boxer preparing for a fight. “I don’t want to call you uptight, but…”

  Bran rolled his eyes then scanned the restaurant for the waitress. Where the hell was his beer?

  Bran’s brother Wes blocked his view and pulled up a chair. “I can’t stay long. Kaylee’s exhausted and I’ve got baby duties to take over so Kaylee can get some rest. What’d I miss? Heard you talking about fun.”

  Their brother Adam rolled up next, looking eagerly between Wes and Bran. “Bran’s having fun?” Adam flagged the waitress with a flick of his polished, Armani-covered wrist.

  Adam wore suits to work every day, and he didn’t mind it. The same couldn’t be said for Bran and the rest of their brothers, who preferred casual to Adam’s designer duds.

  “No, and that’s the problem,” Hunt said, and craned his neck. “Where’s Levi?”

  They peered toward the front of the restaurant right as Levi walked in with his girlfriend, Emily, who worked with them at Club Tahoe.

  Perfect. They were all here now, and primed to give Bran shit.

  Levi and Emily took seats across from Bran. “Can’t stay long,” Levi said.

  “Story of the evening,” Hunt grumbled. “None of you are any fun. Remind me to not settle down. It’s turned you all into bores.”

  Levi glared at Hunt. “It’s got nothing to do with settling down, though you could stand to work more and play less. Some of us are trying to keep the club running and continue to make the place a source of employment for the community. Oh, and we’ve matured with age. But I guess you wouldn’t know anything about that.”

  Levi and Hunt might have rebuilt burned bridges, but some things never changed. They still got on each other’s nerves.

  “Work more?” Hunt said, ignoring Levi’s comment about growing up. “I work full time at the club, just like you. But when I’m not working, I’m playing. Because I know how to have a good time, unlike you sorry saps.”

  Levi shook his head and looked at Bran. “He’s a lost cause. How about you? The new ordering system up and running?”

  In an effort to drum up more restaurant business in a competitive resort community, Bran had convinced Levi to invest a crap-ton of money in new technology for the restaurants. Bran was in charge of all four Club Tahoe restaurants and estimated they could fulfill significantly more orders with the new equipment. Only the system was a huge learning curve for his staff.

  “For the most part,” Bran said. “The empl
oyees are still training.”

  “What about technical support from the company? They helping out?”

  “They’re helping, but I have over sixty full- and part-time employees to manage. It’s a process to get them up to speed.”

  “Noted.” Levi looked at Emily, his hand resting possessively on her leg. “Have you checked out the system?”

  Emily’s eyes lit up. “Of course I have. You know how much I love my tablet. And the restaurants’ table tablets are spiffier than mine, with all sorts of fun features to keep the guests entertained. We’ve already seen an increase in affiliate money with the new keno app we installed.”

  The waitress handed Levi his beer, and he took a swig. “Good call, Bran. As long as nothing goes wrong, I don’t see how this could hurt the club.”

  Bran rubbed his jaw. The new technology had all the signs of a win, but Bran had a difficult time trusting his instincts, and this investment had been based purely on a gut feeling. If the investment failed, the blame would be on him.

  “Look who’s here,” Hunt said, grinning, and stood to shake Jaeg’s hand.

  Jaeg joined Bran and his brothers, and Bran’s neck prickled. If Jaeg was at the restaurant…

  Bran glanced around the room. And spotted Jaeg’s fiancée. With her cousin, Ireland.

  Goddammit.

  Jaeg and Bran chatted about the art commission the club had hired Jaeg to do for the steakhouse, and made plans for Bran to check it out.

  Jaeg nodded at Hunt. “What are you up to these days?”

  “Not too much. You got something in mind?”

  “Cali wants to show her cousin more of Lake Tahoe. If you have plans to go exploring in the near future, give us a call. We’d like to join you.”

  Hunt glared at Bran and the rest of them. “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Jaeg and Cali know how to have fun.”

  And Ireland, Bran thought.

  His horny youngest brother would be the fourth to Cali, Jaeg, and Ireland’s third wheel.

  Bran’s jaw clenched. He didn’t like thinking of Ireland with other guys, especially his brothers. The fact it bothered him at all pissed him off even more.

  Chapter 2

  Ireland sipped her morning coffee at the kitchen table, and Cali walked into the great room in her fluffy bathrobe with wiener-dog caricatures decorating the material. She also happened to be holding her wiener dog, Buddy, which made the image comical.

  “Morning.” Cali sneezed and grabbed a wrinkled tissue from a fluffy pocket. Buddy licked her cheek. Her nose was bright red and her face looked unusually pale.

  “You okay?” Ireland asked.

  “Yeah, sure. Just a little sick.”

  “Completely sick!” Jaeg called from the bedroom.

  Cali glanced back and frowned. “But I can still go today,” she said to Ireland. “So, no worries there.”

  An agitated groan sounded from down the hallway.

  Ireland stared past Cali to where Jaeg had emerged, a disgruntled look on his face. “If you’re not feeling well,” she said to Cali, “we can cancel. I’m sure Hunt will understand.”

  Hunt had ended up joining them at the pizza restaurant the other night, after Jaeg had gone over to say hello. Hunt’s brothers had taken off, but Hunt hung out and chatted while Ireland, Cali, and Jaeg finished their beers. He invited them on a booze cruise he hosted every week for the club, and it was scheduled for today.

  “No!” Cali said, her voice coming out in a croak. “I can make it.”

  Jaeg placed his fingers on his hips, muscled arms winged out at his sides. “Cali.”

  She looked back. “What? I promised Ireland.”

  “If this is for me,” Ireland said, “I’m fine staying home.” She’d pull on her own fluffy socks and sweatpants, and she and Cali could binge-watch their favorite Netflix shows. Preferably something featuring hot, sweaty Viking men.

  Cali frowned. “You finally get a date—”

  Ireland’s face flamed. “It’s not a date!”

  “And you’re going to cancel?” Cali’s expression was almost pained.

  Was Ireland that pathetic?

  Yeah, pretty much.

  She’d stayed home every weekend since she arrived—unless Cali and Jaeg had dragged her out—and here she was, about to pass up an opportunity to get out there.

  Ireland rested her elbow on the dining table and placed her chin on her hand. “I guess I could go.”

  Cali’s face brightened and she handed Buddy to Jaeg, who tucked the small dog in a football hold while he walked to the fridge and poured orange juice into a glass.

  He handed the glass to Cali. “Drink, sick girl.”

  Cali sipped the orange juice and sat next to Ireland at the table. “This is perfect. There will be other people on the cruise, and without me there, you’ll be forced to socialize. Plus, you’ll be able to spend time with Hunt, the fun one.” She winked, and Ireland flinched.

  It wasn’t that Ireland didn’t like socializing or Hunt; she was just afraid of being awkward around people. But Cali was right. Ireland had moved to Lake Tahoe to build a better life. “I’ll go, and I’ll be fine. You stay home and rest.”

  Jaeg mouthed a silent thank you behind Cali’s back.

  Ireland made her way past the Club Tahoe pool area and to the beach. She looked across the sand in the direction of the dock and held up her glasses to her eyes. A restored boat was anchored there. The boat was classy, with a third of it covered by beautiful wooden paneling.

  Everything about Club Tahoe was classy. Ethan Cade, the patriarch, had spared no expense when he’d designed and built this place.

  Ireland glanced down at her outfit, worried she’d gone too casual. She wore white cutoffs and a denim shirt over her lavender bikini. The words booze cruise were not synonymous with elegance, but this boat certainly was.

  Ireland had originally buttoned her shirt all the way up, but before she had a chance to walk out the door, Cali had unbuttoned Ireland’s top halfway down and tucked the front into Ireland’s shorts, showing off her waist and, in Ireland’s opinion, way too much chest. But when Ireland tried to button the top back up, Cali had slapped her hands away.

  In the end, Ireland figured she would be revealing a lot more in her swimsuit, so what was the difference?

  Ireland blocked the sun with her hand and scanned the boat one last time before shoving her glasses back in her bag. No one sat in the open space, but a man stood inside the covered section. He was bent over and rummaging down low.

  Had to be Hunt.

  Ireland pulled her large beach bag higher on her shoulder. The expedition had called for reinforcements. She was a natural redhead; thus, she came equipped with five tons of sunscreen and a giant hat.

  Ireland bit her lip. Being the first to arrive was never fun. Hunt seemed like a nice guy, but she’d never been alone with him. What if they had nothing to say?

  She took her time making her way over, hoping the others attending the booze cruise showed up soon.

  But luck wasn’t on her side. And wasn’t that typical? She was still the only person there as she approached the boat. And now she was hovering like a dork.

  She straightened her shoulders. “Hello?”

  No longer bent over, Hunt stared out at the water, a baseball cap shielding his face. He turned at the sound of her voice.

  And it wasn’t Hunt.

  Shit.

  Even without her glasses, Ireland recognized that stern mouth. The set of his broad shoulders, his sharp jawline. What was Bran doing here?

  “Why are you here?” he said, mimicking her thoughts, and making her feel like the odd one.

  Despite the harsh tone, Bran’s gaze dipped down her body, thanks to Cali’s careful clothing manipulation.

  Ireland sighed. She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve Bran’s ire, but her typical reaction to confrontation was to kill it with kindness.

  “Hunt said there was room on today’s tour,” she s
aid cheerily. “Cali and I bought tickets, but now she’s sick…” She glanced around. “Where’s Hunt?”

  Bran’s shoulders stiffened and he leaned over and dug his hand inside a large wooden cooler. “Out. Says he’s sick.”

  Cali was sick, and now Hunt? “That’s…too bad.” Ireland twisted her mouth. It really was too bad. Hunt was the nice one. “Must be a nasty bug going around.”

  Bran flashed her a hard look over his shoulder. “You think?”

  Ireland’s eyes narrowed. She was considered a sweet person, but Bran was testing her willpower to deflect asshole behavior. How was she going to get through this boat ride with him in charge? He hated her.

  No matter what, she couldn’t leave. Cali would kill her if she bailed.

  Ireland strategically placed her hands and feet for balance on the boat as she stepped on board and the vessel shifted under her weight. Everyone else would arrive soon. This was going to be fine.

  Bran prepared the boat, and after a few minutes, Ireland glanced up the sand, searching for the late arrivals. “Doesn’t the tour leave at two o’clock?”

  Bran straightened and ran a hand down his face. He glanced out at the water. “The group of six canceled.”

  What the hell! “Excuse me,” she said lightly, her voice shaking. She was the only one on the booze cruise? With Bran? Alone?

  No. No, no, no.

  “Feel free to cancel.” He grinned smugly, as though reading her thoughts. “I’d be happy to return the cost of your ticket. Not like I don’t have better things to do, running four restaurants and all.”

  “Sure, I…” Wait, she couldn’t cancel the one thing she’d finally promised Cali she’d do on her own in Lake Tahoe. She’d never hear the end of it. Besides, for some reason (his shitty attitude) she wasn’t particularly interested in giving Bran what he wanted.

  Ireland might be uncomfortable with confrontation, but she was also so damn sick of being walked on by men. “Never mind. I’m good.”

  She made herself comfortable on the white leather bench and pulled out her sunhat. She peeked from beneath the wide brim at Bran.