The Seduction of Destiny Rhode [The Seduction 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More)
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The Seduction 3
The Seduction of Destiny Rhode
Destiny Rhode took a leap of faith to end all in buying a run-down resort in Florida, determined to turn the business around and build a new life for herself. The day contractor Ronan Kelley comes on board, her entire world flips upside down. Ronan is sexy, dominant, and a very serious temptation. She finds herself drawn to him. Though most women would probably run from his “just sex” offer, for Destiny, it’s exactly what she needs.
In the opinion of Ronan Kelly, nothing in the world radiates more beauty than the perfectly submissive woman. In Destiny, he sees more than the smart, compassionate creature who puts herself last every time. He sees a woman he craves to have in his bed, under his dominance. Determined to help her discover her true nature, can he also teach her that submission is not about weakness at all, but the ultimate strength?
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 70,451 words
THE SEDUCTION OF DESTINY RHODE
The Seduction 3
Samantha Lucas
MENAGE AND MORE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage and More
THE SEDUCTION OF DESTINY RHODE
Copyright © 2012 by Samantha Lucas
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62241-048-4
First E-book Publication: August 2012
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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www.SirenPublishing.com
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DEDICATION
To the staff and management of the Orlando Sun Resort who've given me a home and friendship to start my new life in Florida!
THE SEDUCTION OF DESTINY RHODE
The Seduction 3
SAMANTHA LUCAS
Copyright © 2012
Chapter One
Destiny had feared this moment since signing the papers that, for all intents and purposes, had changed her life two days previously. She stood anxiously awaiting the reaction of Oscar Ramirez in the living room they used to share once upon a time, a living room that looked like it was ripped right off the set of Mad Men. She would have thought, shared in happier times, but wasn’t sure there really ever had been any happier times for the two of them.
In many ways, even divorced nine years, they were still the same as they had been in high school. He was in charge. What he said went. Period. Didn’t matter how she felt about it, what she thought, or how it would affect them as a couple or, after they had the boys, as a family. Oscar’s word was law and for some reason, still was.
She knew him too well and could see him fighting hard to hold onto his temper. People said redheads had a temper. Well, Oscar’s temper had outmatched hers from day one, despite the color of her hair. Today he wore the brown pinstriped suite she thought made his eyes more chocolate in color. She remembered how they always looked like the perfect couple, he in his expensive suits, she in her colorful dresses. It was just a shame that in truth they were the shining example of “don’t judge a book by its cover.”
Uncertain that he ever even liked her, she sometimes wondered why he ever married her in the first place.
Sometimes she wondered why she married him, but then she remembered her mother’s high regard of the union and her own never-ending need to please that always seemed to get her into more trouble than she could handle.
Now, however, she was beginning to wonder if he was going to say anything at all, or simply stand there silently pinching the bridge of his nose until she gave up and left the room.
She brushed her palms along her flared, yellow, fifties-style skirt and glanced at each of her boys for moral support.
“You did what?” Oscar finally looked up, expression clearly disapproving, and spoke, strain evident in his tone.
If it weren’t for the fact that she was already in this thing too deep, she would have backed out. There wasn’t any out, though, so she stared straight into the eyes of the man she used to love with all her heart and soul and repeated herself, calmly and clearly.
“I bought a hotel in central Florida.” She hated how timid she sounded.
His face started to turn red at the edges, and for some sick reason, she decided to give him the last nudge he would need to topple over the edge into furiousness.
“It’s more of a resort, really. Seven hundred rooms, restaurants, shopping and sixty thousand square feet of convention space, all on seventy-seven acres of prime Orlando real estate.” She kept her tone level and flat. “It’s an amazing investment, and I’m going to make it work.”
She tried not to show it, but she felt queasy at the thought of all she’d taken on. Her mind wandered back to the phone call she’d made to Aiden to tell him about the property. Something about the place spoke to her. Though sadly neglected, it had good energy. For the life of her she’d never know why, but she wanted to help it. She called Aiden, thinking maybe he’d want to buy it. How on earth it ended up her property she didn’t think sh
e’d ever know, but that Aiden could be a smooth fast-talker when he wanted to be. Of course she already knew that about him, didn’t she?
“Are you out of your mind, Destiny? You’re a housewife from Kansas. What the fuck do you know about running anything, let alone a resort in central Florida?”
Though Oscar’s tone seemed intended to discourage her, it mostly just pissed her off. They’d played this game before too many times for her not to know all his tricks, but now wasn’t the time to show doubt. Now she needed to pretend she was the secure, confident woman she’d tried to convince herself she was ever since signing the papers.
“I ran this house for fourteen years. I ran the home school co-op for six. I ran the literacy outreach for four. I started the food network at the church. Yes, this may be bigger than all those things combined, but I’m a smart woman. I’ll figure it out.”
“Yeah, you’re always ‘figuring it out.’” He put air quotes around her statement which pissed her off more.
Like always, his first move was trying to dismiss her accomplishments. What she did was a hobby. What he did was work. He made accomplishments. She merely had something to occupy her time with. If she remembered correctly, and she did, his remarks no matter what she did always amounted to, “That’s nice, dear.”
“I think it’s awesome, mom.” Austin dared to put in his two cents’ worth. “Will we all live there?”
He came to stand beside her, and as his height alone attested, he was hardly a baby anymore. In her heart, though, he always would be her baby. She dusted his Justin Bieber bangs out of his eyes and wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m going to live there, yes. You are fourteen years old, and Max is…well, an adult.”
God, was he really about to turn twenty-two?
Had she really been divorced nine years?
Where had all the time gone?
She made eye contact with Max, sitting on the back of the sofa like he’d been told not to do a million times since before he was three years old and who’d been uncharacteristically quiet through all of this.
“You’re both old enough to decide where, and with whom, you want to live.” Though she was secretly praying they’d pick her and didn’t know what she’d do without them, the decision did belong to them.
“I want to go with you!” Austin turned sheepish and looked at his dad. “No offense, dad.”
Oscar grimaced. “None taken.”
She left out the snide remark on the tip of her tongue about how his work kept him in the air and away from home three hundred days of the year anyway and replied, “I know your sister would be more than happy to let Austin stay with her if he wanted to stay here, but in truth, though, it will be easier for you to arrange your life and schedule to come down there, than it would for me to come back up here.”
“So, you’re just going to pack up and move to Florida? What about your mom? What about all your charities and outreach groups. What about the church banquets and ‘Mommy and Me’ classes and God knows what else you’re up to?”
He stood there looking smug like he’d won some point, completely unaware how she detested every single one of the activities that for decades she’d willingly given her life’s blood for. There was a small part of her that took this opportunity for nothing more than a chance to start over and do something for herself for a change, but she knew Oscar would never understand that.
“I’m sure they’ll all get along just fine without me.” She deflected with, “Max, you’ve been awfully quiet.”
She was almost afraid of what he might say, because only Max and Austin really mattered to her out of all the people on the planet. His opinion really would impact what she did.
“I’m just thinking…”
Both boys were the best mix of her and Oscar. They got his thick dark, wavy hair, although Oscar always kept his cropped short so the waves never showed, but she remembered him back in high school and how she used to love to run her fingers through that hair. Her boys both had his analytical thinking as well, but they thankfully got her compassion and had a flair for the art and drama of life, too. They were good kids, and she loved them so much she couldn’t breathe sometimes thinking about it.
“That’s understandable.” Although what she wanted to say was, Thinking about what? and badger him until he told her.
“I cannot believe Aiden Grand bought you a hotel.” Oscar’s disgust rang loud and clear.
Destiny cringed. She thought perhaps she had somehow sidestepped this part. Aiden Grand had been a hot button in their marriage, and rightfully so. She really wished she could have somehow left him out of the telling of her resort entirely, but without making up some rich dead uncle, or something equally ridiculous, there really had been no way around it.
“He did not buy me a hotel! He cosigned a loan.” Though she still couldn’t understand why, she needed to defend this to Oscar somehow. “Oscar, I have no credit. The house was in your name. The credit cards were in your name. In fact, everything we ever bought or financed was in your name! And since the divorce…” She took a breath. “Since the divorce, you’ve been wonderful about support so I wouldn’t have to work and could stay home with the boys, but I couldn’t get a Target card on my own right now let alone buy real estate.”
Her fault. She should have stood up to him, should have made an issue about credit. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen all the shows, read all the books. He had such a patriarchal view of the world, though, and she had to take her share of the blame in light of her own submissive personality. It ran amok all over her life, allowing everyone—right down to the mailman—to walk all over her like she was a fine Persian rug.
His dominance and her submission should have somehow made their marriage work, but in actuality they were a bad fit from day one. If only she’d been smart enough to realize it back in high school, but back then his I’m the man of this house ways, seemed romantic and exactly what she wanted. Their marriage had never been what she imagined marriage to be like, though. She was still clueless as to why.
Even their divorce hadn’t changed anything, except she wasn’t expected to share a bed with him anymore. In nearly every practical way, they were still a married couple. He still ran her money, and she still waited on him hand and foot when he was in town. She still deferred to him on most decisions, but for the life of her, she didn’t understand why. It just was.
“Aiden knows hotels, so I called him.” She had to stay focused. “He saw the potential in the place, so he helped me get started. That’s all.”
“I just bet that’s all.” His tone dripped innuendo.
This was not a conversation she wanted to have in front of her boys. Her ill-advised affair with Aiden was not one of her prouder moments. If she lived to be five thousand years old she would regret the affair she had with him. She’d been so lonely, but that wasn’t an excuse. It was too late to take back what she’d done. All she could do now was what she’d been doing ever since it happened—punishing herself in every way possible.
“It’s not like that.” She defended Aiden, if not herself. “He’s very much in love with his wife!”
“Right. You call, the man travels across the country, leaving that wife he loves so, and a new baby, might I add, and it’s not like that.”
“How far are you from the ocean, Mom?”
Bless Max’s heart. His timing was impeccable whether he knew it or not.
“About an hour from the Atlantic and maybe two from the gulf?” She really wasn’t sure. She hadn’t been to the ocean on this trip.
“I’ll go then.” He still looked deep in thought, even if he was now participating in the conversation.
Now probably wasn’t the time, but she was a mom, and something was pushing her mom button that she wasn’t getting the full story here.
“I’m not trying to discourage you, but what does the ocean have to do with it?”
He shook his head, and it was like he finally became a part of
the group for the first time. His eyes were clear and he was smiling.
“Mom, I’m proud of you. I don’t care how you got the place, this is huge! You’ve kinda inspired me. I mean, if you can buy an entire resort, my dream is nothing compared to that.”
“What dream?” Oscar asked darkly.
Max just shrugged and pushed his hand through his hair. “I want to be a scuba diver.”
“Holy Christ! The lot of you have gone mad!” Oscar slapped his palm to his forehead and turned away from them.
“I think it’s cool, Mom.” Austin beamed at her from nearly eye level now. It wouldn’t be much longer until he was taller than she was.
“So do I.” Max gave her a smile that said he understood better than she knew.
“Jesus, Max, you’ve never even seen an ocean! And what about school?” Oscar loosened the silk tie around his neck.
“They’ve got schools in Florida, Dad. It’s not a third world country or anything.”
Destiny bit back a smile. Of course she knew what Oscar did not. Max was hating school and not doing well in the formal setting. She hoped though he wasn’t using her rash decision as an escape from his own responsibilities. He was technically an adult though, and it was time for him to make his own mistakes and follow his own dreams. She wished she’d been that brave at his age.
By eighteen she’d already been engaged two months to Oscar and her mother had been planning the wedding of the century. Didn’t matter about her cold feet or indecision that followed, the wedding became an entity unto itself, and by nineteen she’d been pregnant with Max. Though she wouldn’t change her boys for anything in the world, in the end, the life she wandered into had swallowed her, and any dreams she may have dared to dream as well.