Skin Deep (10 page)

“I have no intention of disrespecting your mother, sweetheart,” he said, kissing her gently. “In fact, I intend to win her over while we’re here.”

“Why?”

He wouldn’t tell her it was because he intended to forge a relationship with his future in-laws while they were here. The truth might prompt her to bolt. “Let’s just say it’s easier to make friends than enemies.”

“Ha! Have you met my mother?”

“Ssh,” Ryan said when Mrs. Miller turned around. “Keep in mind this is your brother’s wedding. Let’s try and keep things civil for his sake.”

She giggled loudly enough to draw the attention of the passengers across the aisle. “You’re really taking your duties as best man seriously, aren’t you?”

“I want to make something clear, Alana. I accepted your brother’s offer because I genuinely like and respect him. I consider him a friend, and I was honored that he asked me to be a part of this.”

She reached up to stroke his cheek, smiling. “That’s sweet. I’m glad you feel that way. I have to admit, I wondered whether you might have had an ulterior motive coming here.”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t anxious to see you again, but I wouldn’t use this opportunity to make inroads with you.”

She plucked an invisible piece of lint off her cotton pants. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, anything.”

The pilot interrupted them, taking a moment to tell them the local time and weather conditions.

“You were saying?”

She pulled the hoodie she’d slipped on at the start of the flight tighter around her mid-section. “Why didn’t you ever call?”

He was tempted to pick up the phone every day for the past three months, but he refused to come back to her until he could claim he was a better man than the one she’d kicked out of her apartment that night. “You told me not to. I was trying to respect your wishes.”

“Hmm,” she said, tightening her seatbelt. “Good to know.”

“Honey, I’m not saying it was easy. Staying away from you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Sighing, he took her hand. “You were right when you told me to keep my distance. I didn’t deserve you. I’m still not sure I do, if you want to know the truth.”

She pulled her hand away, settling it in her lap. “Does that mean you lied to me earlier? Have you been with other women the past few months?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have to atone for a lifetime of sins. If my daughter ever fell in love with a guy like me, I’d probably take a hit out on him.”

The ghost of a smile tugged at her lips. “Any idea why there were so many women? Why you couldn’t be satisfied with just one?”

“Would it sound like a line if I told you I hadn’t found the right one?”

She chuckled. “Probably.”

“It’s the truth. When I first laid eyes on you a year ago, something changed. Sure, I slept with a couple of women in the time it took me to find the courage to come to your dealership, but it was all about the sex. I thought about you…” he whispered, lowering his head, “when I was having sex with them.”

“Don’t say any more…” she said, closing her eyes. “I don’t want to hear this.”

“Every time I closed my eyes, I’d imagine you were the one lying beneath me, you were the one sucking my cock.”

“God, I hate you,” she whispered.

“Baby…” he said, reaching for her hand. “I didn’t mean to…”

“Shut up,” she said, withdrawing her hand. “Don’t touch me.” Her bottom lip trembled as she said, “You’re no better than he was. It was all about the sex for him too. He swore it didn’t mean anything. He said he was thinking about me while he was fucking them.”

Shit.
He’d dug himself another hole, reminding her that he was cut from the same cloth as that prick that’d cheated on her. “Look, forget I said anything, okay?”

“Like I could.” By the time the plane touched down, she was the first one out of her seat when the seatbelt sign was turned off.

When he tried to grab her wrist, she shook him off. “Don’t you speak English? I told you not to touch me, and by that I meant ever.”

Holding it together while they checked into the resort took everything in Alana. She tried so hard to pretend everything was fine while ignoring Ryan. Apparently, she hadn’t fooled her brother.

“Hey, why don’t we grab a drink before we head upstairs?” Justin asked. “I think I saw a Ping-Pong table in the games room. It might be fun to kick your butt for old time’s sake.”

She appreciated his effort to make her feel better, but it wasn’t working. She wanted nothing more than to pull the covers over her head and shut out the rest of the world, but she knew with Ryan’s room just down the hall, that would be impossible. Besides, her younger brother was getting married in just a few days, and while she loved Jackie like a sister, she wanted to make sure he wasn’t having any reservations about his decision to get married. “Sure, why not?”

He looped his arm around her neck as he led her into the games room. A few tables were positioned around the TV and a bar in the middle of the large room. Billiards, air hockey, and Ping Pong tables dominated the space, with several arcade games lining one wall.

Alana thought it seemed like the perfect place to hide out and escape your problems for a while.

“What’ll you have to drink?” Ryan asked.

“Chardonnay sounds good,” she said, claiming one of the empty tables. She hadn’t had a drink in months and she could definitely use one tonight. She watched a hockey game on the big screen TV while Justin ordered their drinks at the bar.

He returned, setting the drinks and a bowl of pretzels in the middle of the table. “Okay, you want to tell me what happened with Ryan today?”

“Nope,” she said, popping a pretzel in her mouth.

“One minute you two were sneaking off to make out, and the next you couldn’t get away from him fast enough. What’d he say to piss you off?”

She looked her brother directly in the eye. She knew if she didn’t tell him the truth, he would harass her about this for the next week. “He reminded me that he’s exactly like Todd.”

Looking skeptical, he took a long pull from his bottle of beer as he leaned back in his chair. “Okay, I’m listening.”

Justin knew the whole story about Todd, how much he’d hurt her and how long she had taken to get over his betrayal. Some days, like today, she questioned whether she was over it. “He told me sex with other women didn’t mean anything,” she said quietly, leaning forward. “He said he thought about me when…”

Justin held his hand up. “Okay, I get the picture. Shit, that was probably the stupidest thing he could have said to you. Does that mean he has been sleeping around the last few months?”

She shrugged and took a sip of her wine. “Who knows? He said he hasn’t, but I can’t believe him. He’s already proven he’s not trustworthy.”

Justin started to peel the paper label off his bottle. “Tell me again, how did he do that?”

“He sleeps around, just like Todd.”

Holding his finger up, he said, “Right, but Todd was your boyfriend at the time; Ryan wasn’t. He’s not the one who betrayed you, Al.”

“You still think I’m judging Ryan based on Todd’s actions, even after what I told you?”

Justin laughed. “Do you honestly think he’s the only guy who’s banged a chick while he’s getting off thinking about the one he really wants?”

Sipping her wine, Alana considered her brother’s words. “Are you saying you’ve done that?”

“Sure. When Jackie and I broke up awhile back, I was with a couple of different women. I wanted her, but I knew I couldn’t have her because she wasn’t ready for a serious relationship until she finished school. That didn’t mean I would live like a monk while she moved on with her life.”

Alana gulped instead of sipped her wine. “I don’t know what the hell to think anymore. I’m so confused.”

“You need to understand something about medical school, sis. It kicks your ass. If you don’t have an outlet, you’ll go crazy. For some, it’s booze, others, drugs, and for guys like Ryan, who can get any woman they want, it’s sex.”

“What was your outlet?” she asked, not sure she wanted to know.

Looking her in the eye, he said, “Gambling.”

“What? Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I got myself in pretty deep back in the early days. I had to go to Dad to bail me out. Thank God I learned my lesson.”

“Wow, I can’t believe neither one of you ever said anything to me about it.”

“You were dealing with your own shit at the time. We didn’t want to burden you with my problems.”

She reached across the table to grab his hand. “I’m your big sister. That’s what I’m here for.”

“I love you, you know that, right?” Justin said. “I just want you to be happy, and I wouldn’t sit here defending Ryan unless I believed he was the real deal.”

Alana raised her empty glass to get the bartender’s attention. “I know you only want what’s best for me, hon.”

Justin waited until the bartender replaced their drinks before he said, “Finding your soul mate is the hardest thing in the goddamn world, which is why I think so many people just marry the first person who comes along, because they don’t want to end up alone.”

“Kind of like Mom and Dad?” Alana asked quietly. They’d never discussed their parents’ marriage or the reasons they chose to stay together now that their children were grown, but they knew they hadn’t had the best example of a healthy relationship growing up.

“I think Dad married for love and Mom married for money,” Justin said, taking another swig of beer.

“Yeah, so why’s she still with him now that the money’s dried up?” That was part of the reason Alana refused to marry for the sake of security. No one deserved the kind of treatment her father had to endure acting as her mother’s personal ATM for the past forty years.

“Maybe she’s afraid of being alone. Let’s face it. She’s not the stunning beauty she was when they got married. Her options are pretty limited now.”

“That’s why I never wanted to be like her,” Alana said, downing half of her glass of wine. “I never wanted to be dependent on a man to take care of me.”

“Honey, that’s what a relationship is about, learning to take care of each other and compromise. One person may carry the financial burden, while the other partner shoulders more responsibility at home, raising their family. It’s not always a fair or equitable split, but it doesn’t matter if you’re working together as a team to build a life together.”

Smiling, she said, “When did you get so smart?”

“When I found my soul mate.”

Fighting back the tears, Alana raised her glass. “Here’s to Jackie.”

He touched his bottle to hers. “Here’s to Jackie and finding
your
soul mate.”

Chapter Eight

A knock on the door woke Ryan from a fitful sleep. He cursed when he swung out of bed and stubbed his toe on the edge of the bed in his haste to get to the door. Only one person would bang on his door in the middle of the night, and he didn’t intend to let her get away.

“Hey, man,” Justin said, leaning against the door. “Do me a favor, will ya?”

Ryan rubbed his eyes to clear them. If he didn’t miss his guess, Justin was hammered. “Yeah, sure. What is it?”

“Go down to the games room and save my sister. The little hustler’s got herself in a whole mess of trouble with this sleaze who’s challenging her to a game of strip poker.”

“Son of a bitch,” Ryan muttered, reaching for the jeans he’d tossed aside earlier. “Has she been drinking?”

“Yeah, that’s why I thought you’d like to handle it. I told the guy to back off, but he thought I was just the over-protective brother. Have a feeling it might mean more coming from you.”

“Thanks, buddy, I’ll take care of it.”

Justin smiled. “I had a feeling you would. G’night, Ryan.” 

Ryan cursed a blue streak all the way to the elevator. Of all the stupid, asinine things she could do, Alana got loaded and baited some drunken stranger in a bar. His mind raced to the worst possible scenario. The horny bastard could slip something in her drink and lure her up to his room. Hell, he could be a serial killer for all they knew. Didn’t she watch the news? Didn’t she know that beautiful young Americans were killed in tropical paradises like this all the time? Imagining someone hurting her enraged him.

After stalking into the dimly lit room, he spotted them right away, tucked away at a small round table with a pile of poker chips and cards between them.

Alana didn’t spot him right away. She was too engrossed in her companion to notice much of anything.

“Alana,” Ryan said, bracing his fists on the table next to them. “Don’t you think it’s time to call it a night?”

Glaring at him, she held her cards higher. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“Who the hell is this guy?” her opponent said, hooking a thumb in Ryan’s direction.

Not jumping over the table and throttling the guy using a card game as a ploy to get his woman out of her clothes took everything in Ryan. “Mind your own fuckin’ business, asshole,” Ryan said, trying to provoke him. He would love nothing more than to lay him out and take the decision of whether or not to abandon the game out of Alana’s hands.