King of Masters by Brynn Ford

CHAPTER 10

Murphy

“WHERE THE BLOODY hell have you been?” Cordelia stomps down the front steps of the estate as soon as I exit the car on my return home.

“Great to see you, too,” I murmur sarcastically.

I finish replying to the email on my phone as I wait for my driver to pull my suitcase from the trunk. Bailey races Cordelia down the stone steps and circles around my calves. I reach down to give her a pet as my cousin lands in front of me on the gravel driveway.

“I’ve been calling you for two days,” she hisses.

I raise my eyes to glance at her over my phone. “I’m aware, Cordelia. It’s why my phone has been silenced for the last twelve hours. You’ve been a real pain in my arse.”

I hit send and grab the handle of my black suitcase, lifting it as I pocket my phone and trudge up the steps, Bailey obediently at my side.

“You can’t just disappear like that,” she says, stomping back up the steps behind me. “You’re a Head of House, Murphy. You need to behave as such.”

I stop on the landing and whirl around to look at her as she stops a step beneath me—exactly where she belongs. “I am the Head of House and leader of this family, Cordelia. I don’t answer to you. You have no claim over my time or how I spend it.”

Fiona stands on the landing with her head bowed, waiting to welcome me home. She’s boring, but she’s compliant, easy to master, easy to care for. I put my fingers beneath her chin and lift, dipping to meet her eyes. “Take the night for yourself. I don’t require anything from you.”

“Boyd asked for me to—”

“I’ll remind Boyd that requests for your services go through me.”

I stalk off into the house to end both conversations, but Cordelia can’t leave well enough alone. She chases after me through the foyer and down the hall to my office, her impractical high heels clicking over the tiled floors.

“I’ll remind you that you still answer to the board.”

“I’m aware that I answer to the board. I’ve done nothing that warrants answering for.” I scan my fingerprint at my office door, then type in my pin, the two-factor locking mechanism necessary to maintain my privacy. I open the door and step inside, Cordelia pushing through to follow me before I can slam the door on her.

I sigh as I round my desk and plop into the leather executive chair.

“You took off and disappeared for two days and didn’t tell anyone where you were going.” She gracefully lowers into the armchair angled toward the opposite side of my desk. “What if something had happened while you were gone?”

I lean back in my seat, exhausted from the eight-hour flight. “Declan knew where I was—someone had to look after Fiona. And if there had been an urgent business matter, you would have called my emergency line and I would’ve handled it.”

Her pin-straight strawberry-blonde hair drops over her shoulder as she tilts her head appraisingly. “How could I have had any confidence that you would respond? You’ve never silenced your phone before.”

I sit up and power on my laptop, looking at the screen rather than meet her eyes. “I was taking care of something important.”

Stella.

I was taking care of Stella, and she is fucking important.

I know Cordelia is right. I know I shouldn’t be so distracted, especially not this early into my tenure as the O’Shea Head of House. It was never my intention to meet a woman on that trip to New York two months ago, but I met her and she’s had a hold of me ever since.

After hours of business dealings and tough decisions, regardless of how exhausted I’ve been, I would still find a thrill knowing I’d be on the phone with Stella before long.

We talked every goddamn night.

If it were purely the sexual nature of our texts and occasional filthy video chats, I would write it off and leave it be. I wouldn’t have flown across the ocean just to see her because my stupid fucking heart couldn’t take it anymore.

I needed to lay eyes on her in person, put my hands on her, see what my soul felt being close to her after all this time. My hope was that I’d feel nothing; that we’d have sex, get it out of our system, and let the lust fade, but that’s not what happened.

I fucked her and I wanted more.

Cordelia drags me from my thoughts with a dramatic sigh. “It’s the girl, isn’t it?”

“Hmm?” I play dumb because I don’t want to deal with her bossy attitude right now.

“Bloody hell, Murphy. It’s the girl. I knew it. When were you going to tell us about this?”

“Nothing to tell. And what do you know, anyway?”

She glances toward the bookcase on her right, avoiding my eyes. “It may have slipped to Vigo that I wanted to see your phone records, and he may have told me what he saw. Daily phone calls and texts to a girl named Stella Scott in New York.”

I slam my palm against the desk, making her jump in her seat. “What the fuckis wrong with you? Head of House records are private.” I point my index finger at her. “You could’ve been punished just for asking. What the fuck were you thinking, Cordelia?”

Her eyes narrow on me. “I was thinking that my cousin is struggling in his new role and needs someone looking out for him. Besides, it’s better I review the records and clear things up with you now, rather than one of the other Heads.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Cordelia, you alerted Vigo to the fact that there was some reason to look at my phone records. Now everything I do will be fuckingmonitored.” I shove away from the desk and walk around it.

“Everything you do is being monitored anyway.” She waves her hand flippantly. “It’s why you all have access to each other’s records in the first place. Checks and balances.”

I scoff, “Checks and bloody balances, Cordelia.” I lean my arse back on the edge of my desk, crossing my arms over my chest. “Well good on you and your fucked-up relationship with Vigo. Now this is something I’ll have to address with the board.”

“You’d have to anyway. If you’re seeing someone this early into your tenure, they’ll need to know. It’s required.”

“We’re not seeing each other. Not exactly.”

But aren’t we?

I drop my arms, curving my palms around the edge of the desk at either side of my hips.

“Murphy, tell me the truth. What’s going on? Did you go see that girl?”

I lift my palm, as if I’m going to emphasize a point, but the words are lost. Instead, I bring my hand to rub across my beard, letting out a heavy breath. “I went to see her. She’s the girl I met in New York when I went with Declan and Cormac in December.”

She looks surprised. “Do you like her?”

“Very much.”

“So much that you’re speaking every day?”

I raise an eyebrow at her. “You ought to know if you saw the phone records.”

“I thought there must be some explanation.”

“The explanation is that I met a woman, and I can’t get her out of my head. That’s why I left this weekend. I went to see her in New York.”

“Oh, Murphy,” she sighs, leaning back in the chair and setting her arms up on the rests. She gazes off toward the bookcase, her eyebrows dipping in the middle as if she’s thinking of some way out of a sticky situation. “Did you sleep with her?”

“We did a hell of a lot more than sleeping.”

“Well, that’s good then, isn’t it? You fucked her and got her out of your system.”

“Not exactly…”

She raises a brow.

I push off the desk and wander toward the books lining the shelves along the wall. “She’s special.”

I feel the force of Cordelia rising from her chair and crossing the room toward me, coming up on my side. “You can’t be serious.”

I turn my head to look at her. “Do you think I would joke about something like this?”

She rolls her eyes. “I never really know with you.”

“It’s not a joke.” I turn to face her, leaning sideways with my elbow on the shelf. “I went to see her, hoping I could fuck her out of my system, but it didn’t work.” My jaw tenses. “I care about her.”

Delia lets out a single sharp laugh. “You care about her? Some cheap twat you had a one-night stand with?”

My chest puffs out with indignation. “First of all, she’s not a twat. I swear I’ll break your fucking jaw if you talk about her like that again.”

“Talk about her? I don’t even know her. You haven’t told me a bloody thing!”

“And you’ve proven why I couldn’t, tipping off Vigo that he should monitor my phone records. The only cheap twat I know is you when it comes to that man.” I push off the shelf and walk around her toward my desk. “Get the fuck out, Cordelia. I’m too tired for your bullshit.”

“Nothing can come of this. You know that, Murphy. Why are you torturing yourself? Quit talking to her. Cut her off and be done with it. Get back to work and do what’s necessary to put us back on top of the four families. We should be outselling them all by millions, what with Nikolai’s family gone and the changeover with the Americans. Yet we aren’t. Because our leader is off having an affair with a whore in New York.”

“It’s not an affair. It’s so much more than that.”

Her shoulders slump, her expression softening before she crosses to me. “It can’t be more. The board will help you select your wife when you’re forty. You’ll be happy then. The women always do amazing work in selecting wives. You’ll have someone who can make you happy. Just like Boyd and Bridget have each other. And let’s not forget that you have a perfectly lovely talent slave to satisfy you until then. That’s what she’s here for. I don’t know why you don’t use her for her intended—”

“Stop. Just stop. I know you’re trying to be helpful, but you’re failing miserably. Fiona does nothing for me. She’s weak. Complacent.”

“Exactly as she’s meant to be.”

“And it does nothing for me. Stella…she’s strong, smart, capable. She’s kind and stunning, and she fucking challenges me.”

“And that’s the last goddamn thing you need.”

“I can’t get her out of my head.”

She throws her hands up in exasperation. “Well, what do you think is going to come of this? You can’t marry her.”

“Like fuck I can’t.” I can feel my eyebrows pinch together in fury at the challenge.

Her eyes widen and she leans forward, speaking slowly and deliberately, as if I’m a child. “Murphy. You can’t marry her. The board won’t allow it.”

“You don’t know that. You alone don’t speak for the board. What makes you think they’d deny my request?”

She huffs, “You wouldn’t dare ask for such a thing. We don’t know who she is.”

“I know who she is. Why isn’t that enough?”

Her lip twitches. “Nothing is ever enough for the four families, you know that. Don’t be stupid. Don’t try to waste away the best years of your life on a wife. What if she gets pregnant, for god’s sake?”

I cock my head to the side, challenging her with a cocky smirk. “Then I’ll thank my lucky stars.” She opens her mouth to speak, but I snatch her by the elbow, roughly marching her to the door. “Now leave me the fuck alone. I have work to do.” I shove her carelessly out into the hallway, and she stumbles before righting herself, whipping around to face me.

“Murphy!”

I lift my eyebrows at her and slam the door shut, engaging the lock so she can’t get back in. I hear her huff, then the sound of her high heels as she furiously clicks away.

I move to the armchair and drop to sit, leaning my head back and rubbing my hands over my face. Bailey’s nose nudges my knee and I lift my head, pulling my hands away to place them on the sides of her head. I give her a good pet and scruff her ears as I bend close, letting her lick my cheek.

“I’m gonna train you to chase her away every time she comes near me…take a piss on her Prada shoes.”

Bailey’s head tilts to the side as if she understands me, and I smile at her waggling tail. I thought Bailey would be the only girl who could make me smile like that…until I met Stella Scott. She’s crawled inside me like a stray seeking shelter during a winter storm, and all I want to do is keep her warm and cared for.

I’ve never cared for any woman that way before.

Though I’d hoped seeing her again after all this time would’ve been the reality check I needed—a time to fuck her out of my system and move on with my life—I’m more desperate for her now than I was before.

I don’t care what Cordelia thinks. My position entitles me to have what I want, and I want Stella.

So, I’ll fucking take her and make her mine.