Chapter 6

Plus, she was in love with Nathan Wholly and solely in love with Nathan So, until Nathan told her they could never be together again, he was it for her and she would keep her heart open for when he was ready to see her as more than just his best friend.

In the meantime, Irish would just be a fairytale, a sweet memory, a fantasy to relive when she was lonely. He wasn’t perfect - no guy was - but he could remain the perfect guy in her imagination, someone she could look back on fondly and remember the one hot night they’d shared. And when Nathan finally rode in on his white horse to sweep her off her feet and declare his everlasting love to her, she would let the fantasy fade like a wonderful, but forgotten dream.

Brian waited all day for her call. He checked his phone compulsively, willing it to ring or for her to at least send him a text. He couldn’t get thoughts of her out of his head and he was distracted and moody all day. Flashes of memories from the night before assaulted him throughout the day and by the end of it his cock was hard and his balls ached for release, preferably buried deep within Blue.

He continued to wait all week for her call and as the days wore on he got increasingly harder to work with and be around. His assistant, Madeline, had had to step in to prevent him from firing some of his best employees because they’d said or done something to piss him off.

Brian was known for his quick temper, but it was also known that his bad moods blew over just as quickly as they appeared. He wasn’t one for slow burning anger or letting resentment build. Not hearing from Blue was driving him to distraction. Why the fuck hadn’t she called?

Even the news from CASA that he’d been given the Colleen light hadn’t improved his mood and by Friday he was ready to punch holes in something. If he’d been home in Melbourne he would have headed straight to that bar and staked it out hoping to see her again. Unfortunately, he was stuck in the nation’s capital until CASA had signed off on everything, which would still be a few more weeks. They might have Colleen-lighted his planes, but there were still hoops to jump through.

So, he buried himself in work. A week had come and gone and she hadn’t called, so he came to the conclusion that she wasn’t going to and he couldn’t waste anymore mental real estate thinking about her. He knew she was on the rebound before they’d headed up to his suite, as she’d told him she’d been dumped. He’d been a rebound fuck and he’d gone into it with his eyes wide open. No use bitching about it now.

But he had a hard time believing that she would be happy with the arrangement that her jerk of a boyfriend had offered her. Blue was spectacular and any guy who didn’t want to come home to her every night was a moron. Why settle for only having her once a month?

Brian sighed and pinched his eyes. They felt gritty and dry and he was bone tired. It had felt like days since he’d slept and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten.

As if summoned by his empty stomach, Madeline knocked on his office door lightly before walking in and placing a wrapped sub on his desk. He looked up and thanked her with a tired smile. She was a good - no, great - assistant and knew him better than he knew himself most of the time.

“There’s an email from the PR firm in Melbourne that I need you to look over and your mother is on line two.”

“Thanks Madeline,” he replied. “Are our flights home booked for tomorrow?”

She nodded and smiled. “Yes, the pilot has been notified and we are cleared to take off at five. Your last meeting is scheduled for three-thirty and a car will be waiting to take us straight to the airport as soon as it wraps up.”

“Excellent,” he said, unwrapping the sandwich. “Thanks.” She nodded and left the office.

Colleen Aviation had offices in Canberra and Melbourne and he split his time between the two, taking Madeline and other key staff members with him. His father had started the company with one private plane and his pilot’s license. Brian had expanded the operation and they now had forty-seven luxury charter planes catering to the rich and famous who didn’t want the continually draining expense of owning their own private plane and pilot. His next step was to provide first class air travel domestically and eventually internationally. Australia currently had two major airlines that serviced their domestic market and they were overfilled sardine cans. Brian’s planes were fitted with large, comfortable leather seats and seated no more than eighteen passengers. This wasn’t economy air travel and it wasn’t cheap, but he knew the market was there.

He swallowed the last bite of his sandwich and picked up the phone, punching line two to talk to his mother.

“Hi mum,” he said cheerily. She could scent tiredness and stress like a bloodhound and the last thing he wanted was for her to worry.

“Brian Colleen,” she admonished, “have you been avoiding me?”

“No, Mum,” he said with a sigh. “I’ve just been really busy. CASA has been making ridiculous demands, but I’m happy to say that it looks like we’ve got it all ironed out.”

“Congratulations,” she said and he could hear the smile in her voice. “I have good news too.”

“Oh, really?” he asked as he clicked on his laptop and opened the email that Madeline had asked him to have a look at.

“Your brother is getting married,” she said cheerily.

“Stepbrother,” he corrected.

Brian’s mother, Maree, had gotten remarried to a property developer in Queensland a few years after Brian’s father had died from a terminal illness. He didn’t hate his new stepfather, but he really didn’t like his stepbrother Nicholas. The guy was a sleazy playboy wannabe who seemed to have a revolving door on his bedroom.

“Nathan is getting married,” she said again, her cheerfulness forced, “and he wants you in his wedding party.”

Brian couldn’t help the snort, but tried to cover it with a cough. “He what?”

“He wants you to be one of his groomsmen,” she repeated.

“Why?”

“Brian, don’t be like that.”

Brian sighed and tried again. “Mum, look, Nathan and I aren’t exactly close. We don’t even like each other, so why would he need me in his wedding party?”

“He’s doing it for me,” she said softly. “I really want you here and I know that if you don’t have an ironclad reason, you won’t be.”

He closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose. “He doesn’t want me to be his best man, does he?”

“No,” she said.

“Okay,” he replied, “I’ll be there.”

“Thank you, Brian,” she said quietly. “I miss you.”

“I know,” he replied, “I miss you too.”

They were silent for a moment and then he heard her take a breath.

“So, is there anyone special in your life?” she asked.

He immediately thought of Blue and felt the stab in his gut knowing that he wouldn’t ever see her again.

“No,” he replied, “I’ve been too busy.”

“Maybe there’ll be someone at the wedding to catch your eye,” she enthused. “Ainsley has some lovely friends.”

He chuckled, “We’ll see,” he replied.

“Okay then. The wedding is a couple of months away and we’ll need your measurements for the suit. It would be really great if you could be here for the week before the wedding. Ainsley and Nathan have organised a few different get togethers over the week and then there is the bachelor party, of course.”

“Of course,” Brian replied, “but it’s probably better if you send all the details to Madeline. You know how bad I am at remembering things.”

She chuckled softly into the phone and he felt a pang of missing her. He really did love his mother and he was glad that she had found someone to spend her life with. God knows he was too busy for even his own social life to take care of her.

“All right then,” she said. “I’ll speak to Madeline and between the two of us we’ll get it all sorted.”

“It was really great to hear your voice mum,” he said softly. “I’m already looking forward to spending some time with you.”

“It has been far too long,” she agreed. “Okay, I’ll let you get back to work. Put me back through to Madeline and I’ll fill her in on the specifics of the wedding.”

“Thanks mum,” he said before transferring the call back to Madeline’s desk.

He loved the work he did, but it was hell on his private life. It had been months since he’d seen his mother and then it had only been a flying visit. He’d been honest when he said it would be good to see her again.

He turned his attention back to the email from the PR company that they had contracted to handle their media releases and marketing. It was a small boutique firm, a bit like his airline, and he liked what they had produced so far. He hadn’t yet met Cassie Smith, the account manager assigned to Colleen Aviation, but her emails and the work she had done so far were knowledgeable and innovative. All going well, they could make this an ongoing partnership.

He read through the email and hit reply answering her questions and adding some other insights that might be helpful to her. He also added an open-ended invitation for her to fly with them when the airline was officially off the ground. If everything went according to plan, he would be able to fly one of the first flights north to his stepbrother’s wedding.