Aiden put his arm around Ronan’s shoulders and turned him to face Destiny.
“Ronan Kelly, this is Destiny Rhode Ramirez.”
She hated that name. “Just, Destiny, please. I stopped claiming Ramirez when I stopped claiming the man who came along with it, and Destiny Rhode sounds too much like a song or a path at a new age preserve.”
Ronan laughed heartily, and Aiden looked at her as if she’d sprouted something from the top of her head, but as was his way, he quickly recovered and finished the introductions.
“Destiny, this man is your savior.” He beamed.
“My what?” she choked out.
Ronan held out his hand to hers. She took it limply.
“It’s nice to meet you, but I’m no one’s savior. For God’s sake, Aiden.” He turned a roguish smile on her. “But I am here to help you.”
Unless it was help her bathe, which she’d seriously consider, she wasn’t sure she was interested in help from him or anybody else. She was in enough debt, and couldn’t afford more.
“I’ve taken a look around the place, Aiden. It’s everything you said it was and I can definitely get my teeth into this project. I’ll have to start with a skeleton crew until the Madrid job is finished, but after that, I’ve cleared four months. I think that should be more than enough.”
Destiny was suddenly very uncomfortable.
“Wait, what project?”
“Your resort.” Ronan looked from her to Aiden as if looking for some kind of sign as to what to say next. “Aiden, what did you tell her about me?”
“Nothing.” Aiden smiled like a five-year-old who thought that would be enough to get him out of all trouble.
She snorted and immediately covered her mouth with her hands, sort of hoping no one noticed, but the two men seemed pretty focused on one another currently.
“Great, so I’m one big surprise?” Ronan made an exasperated motion with his hands. “Shouldn’t the lady get some say in who’s going to be fixing up her place?”
“She does.” Aiden actually straightened up a bit taller. “But she also gets the benefit of my experience, knowledge, and contacts.”
Destiny wondered if she just quietly stepped away, they’d even notice she’d gone.
“And come on, Ronan, aren’t you the best? How many hotels have we worked on together?”
Ronan made a growly sound and ran his hand through his hair. “More than I can count, and of course I’m the best. That was never in question.”
If you do say so yourself. She snickered quietly. She was actually starting to enjoy the display of heated testosterone.
“What is in question is whether or not the lady wants me.”
Destiny’s cheeks burned hot as the little shiver of desire, something she hadn’t felt in more years than she could remember, snaked through her body. Now she was wishing she’d followed that earlier instinct and walked away.
“I don’t want you.” She hoped she sounded serious enough. She turned to Aiden. “I don’t want anyone.”
“Pity.”
Something in Ronan’s tone made her turn her head back to him fast. For just a split second she caught the man staring at her ass. She decided to ignore it.
“Aiden, I’m eyeball deep in debt as it is, I can’t take on anymore.”
“Destiny, you have no chance of staying afloat the way things are. Why do you think the last owners were going under? You have to make improvements, advertise, hire people, stock the bars. Did you really think the bank loan would be the end of it?”
She sat back down, feeling sick, stupid, and defeated. “Yes.”
“Don’t pout.” Aiden put his fingers beneath her chin and tugged her gaze upward.
“I’m not pouting.”
She probably was, but she wasn’t going to admit it.
“It looks like pouting from over here.” Ronan’s tone barely held back the humor he clearly felt.
He made her want to laugh, but she resisted. She had no come back for him, so she just glared. Then he did bust out laughing.
Men.
“Destiny, I wouldn’t in my life throw you in the deep end of the pool and say ‘sink or swim, babe.’ It’s not who I am. I’m going to stay on here and help. I’ve already talked to Cass. She’s bringing Bella, and we’re staying here until you’re on your feet. Ronan is going to oversee construction. We’ll find someone to do design…”
“Wait one minute!” She stood, feeling pissed off now, hands on her hips. “Aiden Grand, if you wanted to buy this hotel, then why didn’t you? Facts are, this is my hotel, and the decisions are mine to make, right or wrong. I appreciate your help…fuck…”
Ronan chortled, but when she looked at him, he had the most serious expression on his face while he appeared to be examining the leaves of a philodendron. She didn’t have time for him. She had a point to make to Aiden, so she turned back on him.
“Okay, fine. I need your help, but Aiden, sink or swim, to use your analogy, it’s my pool. I have to be the one to decide these things. You can’t take care of me, you can’t fix everything, and you can’t decide to move your family in and run the place. Just because I slept with you once doesn’t mean I owe you anything!”
She really regretted that last part the second she said it.
It sounded as if Ronan had choked on something, but she refused to look at him.
Since she knew Aiden was happily married, she couldn’t entirely understand why he would do all this for her strictly platonically. The thought had been circling the back of her head, wondering if he was still interested in her in some way. Yes, it was a thought with Oscar’s voice attached, but she couldn’t shake it regardless, and though she had no high ground to stand on, she wasn’t going to pick up their affair where it had left off. Maybe it was simply time to clear the air between them. She needed to know he was telling her the truth.
However, her timing sucked because what she didn’t need was Mister Sexy Ass over there knowing all her personal business.
“Destiny, the fact that we had a very beautiful affair, what, eleven years ago?” —she blushed and nodded—“has nothing to do with why I helped you. Did it have anything to do with why you called me?”
Did it?
Over the years they had kept in touch. Phone calls every few months just to catch up. He always seemed to be looking out for her. They shared a closeness she rarely did with anyone, but not once in all the years since their affair ended had he even hinted about starting up again. Not even for the time when they’d both been available, so it didn’t really make any sense that he would now all of a sudden.
“Look, maybe I should leave you two alone at this point.” Ronan started to back away.
“No, wait.” Destiny waved him back. “I’m just being silly. No, it’s not why I called, and I know it’s not why you helped. I think. And, Ronan, I’m sure you must be an amazing contractor if Aiden has this much faith in you. Aiden, go ahead and move your family in, but you have to respect that this is my responsibility and you cannot go around making the decisions for me. I’ll listen to your input, I’ll take your wisdom and experience, but at the end of the day, I have to make the decisions that seem right to me. Can you live with that?”
Aiden smiled and grabbed her into a warm hug.
“Yes, I can live with that, and I will even admit that you’re right and I owe you an apology.” He stood back and looked at her very intently. “We aren’t business partners, and you aren’t my employee. You are a dear friend that I want to see succeed at something she’s passionate about. You may not have noticed this about me, but I sort of have a rather dominant personality, and I’ve never been in the position of second gun before. I’m gonna screw up, Des.”
Ronan laughed. “He’s gonna suck at it, and you’re gonna need to keep kicking his ass like you just did!”
Destiny felt a little thrill, realizing she really had laid down the law, and Aiden had fallen right in line, and more, that Ronan had noticed. She dec
ided to draw on that thrill and push her luck. She turned to Ronan. “And what about you? Am I gonna need to kick your ass as well?”
A slow, easy grin spread across his face, sending waves of heat straight to her core.
“No, ma’am. No ass kicking needed here. I’ll be a good little boy…as far as work is concerned anyway.” He winked at her and she gasped.
“Stop flirting with her, you idiot. Destiny’s not like that,” Aiden defended her. At least she thought he was defending her.
“Didn’t Ms. Rhode just tell you to stop making her decisions for her? Assuming she wants me to stop flirting with her, I imagine she’s more than capable of telling me.”
He turned to her as if waiting for her to say something, and even though her mouth opened, nothing came out.
At last count she had a resort that needed a major overhaul, debt up to her eyeballs, a long-term tenant wanting her to push her boobs up, an advisor wanting to make all her decisions for her, an ex-husband waiting for her to fail, and now a construction god making her panties wet…good lord, what would tomorrow bring?
Chapter Three
“Are you giving me free labor?” Destiny stormed up to the second floor and stopped dead when she realized she was completely alone with Ronan, something she’d been avoiding for several weeks now. “Where…where are all your men?”
Last time she’d been up there, the hallway and the rooms had been filled with something close to forty men. Why was he up here all alone now?
Ronan stopped wrapping the cord around a circular saw, laid it on the floor at his feet, and with an easy manner she was coming to hate as much as she loved, he folded his arms across his chest and rested one shoulder against the wall behind him.
“One man’s not enough for you?”
The hint of amusement in his expression did not amuse her in the least.
“What? No…I mean yes…I mean…oh fuck.”
Ronan burst out laughing. At that point, Destiny didn’t even care. She was making an idiot of herself and dropped any hope of keeping her guard up around him. She was weakening to him. She could feel it. Surrender was most likely inevitable. She just hoped that whatever occurred between them, she’d be able to walk away in the end with her soul intact.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m real funny. Look, are you giving me free labor or not?”
Ronan sobered, and his eyes darkened. The way he looked at her sometimes made it hard to breathe. Of course, right now it could have been the paint fumes, but she didn’t think so.
“I’m not giving you free labor. I am, however, delaying the cost of the labor until you get more solidly on your feet.” He stepped closer to her and brushed a long strand of hair from her eyes. “And though I do find you adorable, I do not find you funny in the sense you meant. Are we clear?”
“Sure.” She didn’t think she sounded at all sure, but with him standing this close, she had to focus most of her energy into breathing.
“Why are we playing this game, Destiny?”
She drew a quick breath, but her brain had gone entirely fuzzy. His body was pressed against hers now as he pushed her up against the wall. He felt so good, so warm, so hard in all the right places. She half wondered if this was even real or if she were standing in the hallway staring at him like some dumb teenage girl, fantasizing.
“We’ve been dancing around this attraction the better part of a month. I see you staring at me. I know you’ve caught me staring at you.”
It was true. She had—on a number of occasions. Even Mrs. Murphy had mentioned it to her once, along with another urging to push up her boobs. It was also true that she was wildly attracted to him, but she wasn’t about to cross any lines with a man who worked for her. At least that’s what she kept telling herself, and that excuse worked as well as any.
“I haven’t seen any other men in the picture, Destiny. I’ve looked. Is it that you’re hung up on Aiden?”
“What?” That sobered her as much as a slap, and she attempted to push him away. “No!”
She shook off his warmth and pulled away from him, stepping across the deserted corridor to put as much space as possible between them. Turning back, she regarded him like the predator he was.
He stared at her as if trying to figure her out. They’d been doing this dance long enough, the soft innuendos when they spoke, the long stares, the heated glances. She thought she could handle it, handle him, but she was coming to realize she’d been wrong. She didn’t like the way his stare made her feel naked and exposed to him. She didn’t like the way he’d gotten under her skin. She didn’t like the way she found herself thinking of him all the time, and she didn’t like the way it made her feel to know he thought she was still into Aiden.
“I am not attracted to Aiden Grand.” She lowered her voice to a stage whisper, not that anyone else was on the floor to hear her. “And even if I was, have you seen how he is with Cassidy and that baby?”
Aiden was the most devoted husband and father she’d ever seen, and it made her realize how wrong she’d been to ever suspect his motives in helping her.
“Yeah, sort of sickening really. Isn’t it?”
She rolled her eyes and took a step closer to him.
“No, actually it’s beautiful. When I was married, I would have given one of my kidneys to have my husband look at me the way Aiden looks at Cassidy. Good God. And he brought her here so he could help me, but not be away from her. Do you have any idea how I longed for time with my husband when I was married? How many nights I went to bed alone because he was in Paris, or Dubai, or wherever the hell! What Aiden and Cassidy have is a rare and beautiful thing not afforded most of us on this planet, and if you were ever so lucky as to find love like that, I hardly think you’d call it sickening!”
Her tirade run dry, she stood there staring at him, waiting for a smart-ass comeback and no idea why in the world she’d gotten so worked up over his statement. The man did something to her, made her irrational. Ever since she’d met him, she’d been having the most erotic dreams and even during the day at times, fantasies about him would just pop into her mind. It was discomfiting. She was used to being the boring, passionless one. This side of her personality she had no idea how to make peace with at all!
“Jealous much, sweetheart?”
She strangled the scream in her throat, but wasn’t so lucky about stopping herself from lunging at him. Both fists pummeled his chest, causing her serious discomfort, but she doubted he even noticed.
“I am not jealous! You complete arrogant jackass…”
He grabbed her wrists and turned her back against the wall, his body pressed hard against hers, his face a mere inch away. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her lips and caught the scent of mint mixed with cigarette smoke.
“Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those steamy romance novels, and I’m not going to kiss you or rip the clothes off you…not that I’d mind, but come on, let’s be real. I just wanted your attention. I don’t give a fuck if you want Aiden’s cock or not. I don’t give a fuck if he and his wife are blissfully happy or merely putting up a front like every other married couple I’ve ever known in all my life. I’m here to do a job. Yes, I’m attracted to you, but I’m not a relationship kinda guy. I’m a fuck ’em and leave ’em kinda guy.”
She gasped at his brutal honesty.
“At least I’m honest about it,” he defended himself.
“Why are you telling me any of this?”
“Because I’m going to be here another three months at least on this job, and you’re the woman I’d like most to fuck then leave. You seem to have your hands full at the moment anyway, so I was guessing no time for a relationship, so what exactly are you doing with all that pent-up need? I thought perhaps this would be win-win for both of us, but if you’d rather sit around waiting for Prince Charming to ride in on a white horse, I believe parade times at Disney are three and five.”
He let her go and stepped back enough so she could breathe again
, think again.
As things went, it wasn’t a bad offer, but…
“Have you lost your mind?” Her head began to throb. “I mean seriously? You want to have an affair…” She gasped, quickly covering her open mouth with her hand as her eyes filled with tears. “Oh my God, what do you people think of me?”
The emotion was rising quickly to the surface. A fierce sense of panic was choking her.
“I made one mistake like a million years ago and…” She couldn’t even finish it.
“Destiny, I have no idea what you’re talking about. All I think is that you are one of the sexiest women I’ve ever seen. Those curves make my fingers twitch. Your lips give me cravings the likes of which I’ve never had. I can’t stop thinking about you, dreaming about you. I lie awake at night wondering how well my cock would fill your pussy and how you taste and wondering how you’d feel in my arms. I thought maybe you felt the same, is all.”
He bent over to pick up several hand tools, now ignoring her completely.
“I overreacted?”
“Perhaps just a bit.” He didn’t even look at her, just continued collecting tools until his arms were full, then started to walk away.
She wanted to say something to stop him, but what? He was getting farther and farther down the hall, and she still had nothing. Did she even really want to stop him? She couldn’t give him what he wanted, but she should probably at the very least explain why.
“Ronan, wait.” She ran down the hall after him.
He stopped and turned around, but the desire in his eyes had gone cold, and his expression remained blank.
“I appreciate your offer…”
He groaned and turned away, starting to walk again.
“Wait!”
He stopped.
She took the few steps necessary to catch up with him. This time he didn’t turn around and forced her to step in front of him so she could face him.
The Seduction of Destiny Rhode [The Seduction 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) Page 3
