Free Juice: The O'Malleys Book 1, contemporary Adult Romance by Michelle McLoughney

and wanting to smack him silly. Feeling a small bit of guilt at how much he had enjoyed riling her up, he tried to look contrite. He knew that he really shouldn’t tease her but he enjoyed her many facial expressions a bit too much to stop. This woman could hide nothing. Every flicker of her face told a different story, each emotion played out in front of him. It thrilled him.
    “Oh…oh…welcome. I didn’t realise it was you. I thought it was Grace I was meeting.” Rory uncrossed his arms. “Grace is my secretary. Let's start over." He offered his hand.
    She took his hand and felt the familiar zing of electricity. Again?…seriously!
    Marie cleared her throat. “Mister O’Malley, let me take your coat and please sit into the meeting room. Would you like a coffee? Or some tea, maybe?”
    Rory looked at Marie and smiled warmly.
    “A coffee would be great Marie, with cream and one sugar please and call me Rory.
    I’m not big on formalities.”

    Cassidy looked at Marie and gave her wide accusing eyes. Marie was too busy to notice, as she blushed and nodded at Rory. For heaven sakes ! Married much!
    “This way Rory. Mind your head, the ceilings are quite low in this part of the building.”
    Marie led the way and Cass watched as Rory’s tight arse clad in a pair of trousers that probably cost more than her entire wardrobe, walked through into the meeting space up onto the mezzanine of the gallery. Cassidy smiled tightly and secretly wished he would bang his smiley and perfect, ego filled head off the beams. And what the hell was wrong with Marie? She was tip toeing around him all giddy and, “Yes, Mister O’Malley. No, Mister O’Malley. Oh please call you Rory? I forgot. Oh thank you Rory, hee hee hee.”  Grrrr, this was getting ridiculous, was no one immune to this man and his over the top, hotness? Looks like he had both Duffy and Marie eating out of his hands!
    “So, Mister O’Malley. I mean Rory. What exactly are you looking for?" 
    Cassidy sat at her desk and leaned forward, genuinely interested.
    “I am looking to make my life more beautiful Cassidy and my wallet a little lighter.” The way he said her name made her bite the inside of her cheek and Cass dropped her head. Not before she saw his top lip twitch in amusement and was drawn to it like a firefly to the light.
    He was mesmerising, such beauty in a man. She had never seen it as pronounced or stark. Oh she had seen good-looking men before, sure. There were men who modelled for the life drawing classes they held in the gallery that would make you stop and gawk at them. But, this was different. Rory O’Malley looked like a statue craved by one of the masters. His eyes were heavily lashed with long thick black lashes and his face was rugged with stubble. And oh Gawd, those lips. Full and lush and perfectly formed. He was so tall and so broad Cass figured that he must stand out wherever he went. And there was something else, something more, he had a presence that commanded respect, a man really shouldn’t be that perfect.
    “How much art are we talking about Mister…Rory?" Cassidy hoped he would stretch to a hundred thousand. It would really get them started. A ten percent commission would really set them up for the next six months. The rent was low enough, but the owner of the courtyard was itching to sell and retire. The new owner could put the prices up or worse sell up altogether. The ten grand would cover the rent for the next year.
    “My budget is five million.”
    Cassidy held her coffee cup in mid-air. She looked at him with her mouth sagging open and dropped the cup nosily onto the saucer, before folding her arms quickly.
    “Are you serious?” She cocked her head to the side and examined him. He couldn’t be serious. Could he?
    “Totally serious,” he said. He took a long sip of coffee before laying the cup gently onto his saucer. He laid his hands on the desk in front of him and laced his fingers.
    “I never, ever, joke about