Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (22 page)

“Don't
be, it's my fault. He was a yellow flag and I should have paid more
attention. I knew he wasn't....nice....I just didn't know he was
that bad. I'm the one that's sor...”

“No!
Don't you do that! You did nothing wrong, do you hear me? Nothing!
There are sick assholes in this world, whether one is in this
profession or not, and that has nothing to do with you!” She
was stern, but Morgan could still hear that she was crying.

“I
know. I mean, I know there are sick people out there. But I think I
need a little more experience before I take on a yellow flag.”
Julianne agreed, not that she didn't think Morgan could do it, but
the girl didn't need to worry about new clients when she had seasoned
girls that could take the jobs. Hoping, of course, that none of them
met up with another Carlos type. “Aiden went well, and so did
Jake...but I'm just..”

Julianne
cut her off again, she understood and that was the end of it. “So,
you're probably going to need the next week off for your monthly
visit that's coming up, and then you're still going to Hawaii for
Christmas, right?”

“Oh
my god, I forgot! I
will
start soon...so...yes, I'll need
time off for that, and yes, I'm spending Christmas in Hawaii, so
maybe it'll just be best to take a couple of weeks off? I'll be back
on the map by the first.”

Julianne
laughed and was more than happy to give her all the time off that she
wanted. “Aren't you forgetting something though? Another
holiday, perhaps?”

Morgan
thought for a second. “No, I don't think so? Well, New Years,
but I don't mind having a client by then.”

“
Your
birthday?”

“
Oh,
shit! I..uhm...I forgot about that,” Morgan admitted. She never
celebrated her birthday so when the time drew near, it was never much
of a thought. She usually just sat and watched the ball drop and went
to bed. Having a birthday on New Years Eve never really felt special
when the whole world was throwing a party.

“Well,
it's your big day, Morgan. Go somewhere nice, treat yourself. You
deserve it,” Julianne told her.

Somewhere
nice. Hmm.
She remembered
watching the beautiful New Years celebration in England the year
prior, so why not go there?
“How's
London looking? I can pick a client for the week after Christmas,
then celebrate while I'm there!”

“
London
is looking good, dear,” Julianne smiled into the phone, happy
that her best girl was going to do something nice for herself.

“Great! Then...I'll get in touch with you soon.”
Finlay, along with William and Wallace, walked into the room right as
the two women were saying their goodbyes.

“Ye
hungry?” Finlay handed her cup over as he joined her on the
side of the bed. She shook her head as she took a long sip.

“No,
but I think my big buddies are.” She laughed at the dogs who
were giving her bag a look, one that clearly told her that they
hadn't forgotten where her peanuts were. She took the bag out again,
and smiled at her buddies. Finlay shook his head, and told her that
they couldn't have them.

“Gives
'em the gas something awful.” Then he stood again and gathered
some clothes to take to the bathroom. “I'm takin' a shower,
try to rest, love.” After a quick kiss, he left the room.

She
looked back at her friends and tilted her head as she saw their
pitiful faces. “Alright, just one more and that's it.”
Morgan took two more little treats from the bag, and cracked open the
shells as they nudged closer to her, Wallace actually put his large
head on her knee as he waited. “One for you....,”
Wallace gladly accepted his, “and one for you.” William
licked it out of her fingers and swallowed it quickly, then he sat
down like a good boy and waited for another. “Sorry guys, no
more. But I love you...yes I do...oh yes I do.” They finally
took the hint that no more treats were coming their way, so they left
the room, checking the door to the bathroom to make sure their man
was still in the house.

Morgan
turned her head as she sat on the bed and caught her reflection in
the long dresser mirror across the room. She looked terrible, but
the bruising on the side of her face had already faded to the point
of no longer being able to define a hand print, and it was a start.
Morgan turned her head in several directions, and the rest of her
face forced a long sigh from the girl, and she fell back on the bed
and closed her eyes.
Let the good things define you, learn from
the bad.
Her eyes were still closed but she still smiled when she
felt the bed move around her.
Hi boys.

“How's
yer coff..” Finlay closed his mouth the second he turned the
corner of the bedroom, and saw his Morgan was already sound asleep,
with nearly four hundred pounds of protection on either side of her.

Chapter
Nine

“What
the...” The next morning, Morgan awoke from the light scraping
sound of plastic against the floor. Her eyes popped open and she
flipped the blanket off her head and sat up on her elbows to look
around the room and identify the sound. “No! Oh...no, no, no!”
William had his big nose all the way inside of the peanut bag, the
empty peanut bag, and he was pushing it across the floor, trying to
lick the crumbs on the bottom. “William!” She
whisper-yelled, noticing Finlay was still sleeping beside her.

The
dog stood upright, almost in show dog fashion, but the bag remained
over his nose and Morgan had to cover her mouth with her hands to
avoid waking up Fin with her laughter. “That's not funny! Come
'ere!” The dog lowered his head and walked over to Morgan and
allowed her to remove the bag. It was then that she noticed the
floor. “Holy shit!” She sighed loudly at the mess. There
were seemingly thousands of tiny bits and pieces of peanut shells all
over the bedroom floor, fanning out into an eight foot diameter.
Wallace walked into the room and at first she wondered if he had
contributed to the mess, but the bits of shell that were lodged in
the thick hair of his cheeks told her he had indeed had his share of
the salty snacks.

She
couldn't be mad at them, after all, she's the one who'd left the bag
sitting on the floor, next to her purse, rather than inside. “Oh,
you're rotten! Yes, you are!” She pointed at William, knowing
he had probably been the original culprit, then slowly stood from the
bed, then knelt down on the floor. With a piece of paper from her
scrapbook, Morgan began crawling around the floor and sweeping the
contents onto the paper with her hand. Just when she had the last of
the pieces of shell on the paper, Wallace walked into the room,
jumped up on his back feet, then back down on all fours and barked
loudly.

“Wallace!”
she scolded in her same whisper-yell, then looked over to Finlay to
make sure he was still sleeping. He wasn't.
Shit!
Morgan
quickly slid the piece of paper covered in peanut shards underneath
the bed, then put her hands on the ornery dog, acting as if she were
on the floor to pet him.

“Wallace...”
Finlay moaned at his dog and stretched out. “Good morning,
lass,” he told Morgan when he finally noticed her on the floor.

“Good
morning, Fin,” she smiled back and answered, then stood,
keeping a hold on her side. Being on the floor had made it cramp up,
but it was nothing compared to the pain of that first day and she was
happy to be getting better.

Morgan
went over to her bag to find a robe and Finlay went to the bathroom
to attend to nature's call. When he came out, he looked at the time
and sighed, with a head shake. “What's wrong?” she asked.

“Well,
lass, I've got to go to work,” he answered her.

Oh.
Well, yeah. Of course. I wasn't supposed to be here after all.
“Oh,
I understand. I...I didn't mean to get in the way of your work.
Will...will you be back or do you want me to...” She was asking
if he wanted her to leave or not.

“No,
no. I'm just going for the day. Be back before dinner and I'm taking
the rest of the week off to be with ye.” Finlay placed his
finger under her chin and told her not to leave and she nodded with
another smile.

He's
changing.
Morgan knew Finlay wasn't the type of guy to take off
work, and considering what they had been through in the past, it was
a pretty big deal for the man to put her first. “Thank you,
Fin. For everything. But, you don't have to call off work to stay
here and babysit me.” She felt like she was inconveniencing
him.

“Morgan
Holland?”

“Yes?”
She put her hands on his chest and looked up to him.

“Shut
up.” Morgan burst out in laughter and nodded. She had a
tendency to say more than she needed to. They shared a kiss, then
Finlay got dressed as she openly watched. He shook his head and
laughed as he left the room and she listened to him clunking down the
stairs in his boots before going back to the bed to retrieve the
peanut evidence.

Morgan
threw it all into the toilet, then watched it disappear with a flush.
“There. They'll never know. That is, if you don't tell on me,”
she wagged her finger at Wallace, who was standing in the bathroom
with her. Morgan shooed the dog out , then got herself presentable
for the day. She was happy with the rate her face was healing. Makeup
still couldn't cover it completely, but it definitely helped and it
made her feel better.
At least I won't want to throw up when I
catch a reflection of myself. Yuck!
She looked forward to getting
her normal face back, but her overly powdered face would have to do
until then.

Morgan
went down the stairs, dodging the two big Wolfhounds that insisted on
weaving around her the whole way down. “Fin?”
Did he
leave already?
She waited for a reply, but didn't hear one.
Damn.
She sighed because she had hoped to say goodbye, but smiled
because she'd see him later. When she walked toward the kitchen to
search for something to eat, she heard someone on the phone around
the corner.

Burke?
She crept closer and verified, it was the butler on the phone.

“I
know. No. It's only two weeks away, hen.” Morgan tried to
figure out the context of the conversation by his words. What was two
weeks away?
Christmas?
She listened again, leaning forward
enough to hear, but not be seen. “I doona have the money. I
wish we could too. Right, maybe for her birthday, but no' for
Christmas.”

Morgan
understood. There was something the man wanted to get for someone for
Christmas, but they didn't have the money. She listened a little
while longer, enough to gather that the gift was for a granddaughter
and the fact Burke was speaking to his wife. When she had enough
information, Morgan slowly backed out of the kitchen, then ran toward
the stairs. Before she hit the staircase, she hit Finlay.

“Ow!
Oh, shit. Ow!” Morgan held her side as the pain from running
into his arm coursed through her side. “I...oh, shit, that
hurts...Fin, hold on...” she panted, then yelled for him to
stay there as she hobbled up the stairs. Two minutes later, Morgan
returned with a credit card in her hands and slid it into the Scot's.
“I need cash, can you do that for me?”

“Aye.
I can.” He eyed her curiously, but he did not ask. With another
kiss, Finlay told her he had to go and they said goodbye. Right as
the gorgeous man walked out the front door, all hell broke loose in
the kitchen.

“AW!
Bloody hell! Ye've got ta be kiddin' me! Ye gave them peanuts! Ye
did! Oh, Christ...that's powerful!” Burke didn't know what to
do. He had his shirt pulled up over his face, blaming Morgan
exclusively for the incredibly foul odor that had filled up the
kitchen. “Get oot of 'ere ye big mutt. Ye smell like arse, the
both of ye!” He tried shooing the dogs away, but they only
looked at him with their heads cocked to the side in confusion.

By
the time he made it to the large sliding glass door, Morgan was in
absolute tears with laughter. The smell from the dogs' gas hadn't hit
her yet, so she backed away slowly, hoping she could miss it
altogether. Burke opened the door and pointed outside, but the dogs
wouldn't budge. Instead, they came over to Morgan. “No, no,
no...don't you bring that to me!”