The Seduction of Destiny Rhode [The Seduction 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (7 page)

“Destiny!” The tall, thin blonde squealed her name and rushed across the lobby with her arms wide.

Destiny tried to fake some enthusiasm for her sister’s unannounced visit, but she just didn’t have it in her after having to keep her defenses in place with Ronan.

“Abby, why are you here?”

Last she heard from her sister had been nearly a year ago, and she’d been in Prague with some man.

“Nice, Des. Love you, too!” Abby faked a smile and waved her hands in the air in some theatrical gesture.

Destiny felt more irritated than scolded, but figured she needed to at least play nice until she figured out what Abby wanted. Although she pretty much had it all figured out already. Abby must be in between men, which meant between places to live. Their mom must have told her all about Destiny’s latest screw up, too, and how she now owned an albatross of a hotel.

“I’m under a lot of pressure here, Abby. A call would have been nice. Unless, of course, you’re here to dig in and help.” She smiled as if she believed what she’d just said.

“I won’t lie to you, Des. I’m sort of in a fix, and I need a place to stay.”

Destiny looked over her sister’s polished appearance, Gucci bag, Dior dress and what she was pretty sure were Louboutin shoes. All presents from men, no doubt, as Abby had the knack of how to work a man to get whatever she wanted from one. The man before last had gone so far as to buy her a nose job.

“Until when?” She was short, but they’d played this game before too many times not to know already how it was going to turn out. She had neither the time nor patience to coddle a little sister who only had the time of day for her when she needed something.

“Just until I get my feet back under me. Roberto turned out to be a real prick, so I left him.”

Code for, “He was cheating on me, I caught him, and he threw me out.”

Destiny just stood silent and smiled as if she were interested.

“So now I just need a safe place to land while I figure myself out and where I want to go next.”

Also code for, “I want to live off you, Destiny. Feed me, clothe me, shelter me and if I ever do have any spare money, I’ll spend it on perfume, hair, makeup. You know, the necessities.”

“Fine.” Destiny really didn’t have the time for games, but before her sister’s smile spread all the way across her face, she added, “But you’ll work for your keep or so help me that boney ass of yours will see the sidewalk.”

She made some sound that was just short of a shriek and stood there with her mouth open.

“I’m serious, Abby. I have enough on my plate without taking care of you. You are twenty-nine years old, you have no marketable skills. You traipse around the world going from man to man. Maybe it’s time you grew up and developed some self-respect, at the very least. If you want to stay in this hotel, you will work for it. Period.”

She had no idea when she’d grown a backbone, but
damn
, it felt good!

“Work? What kind of work?” Abby sounded shaky and unsure.

“You can jump in like the rest of us and go where you’re needed, painting, front desk, cleaning rooms, guest…”

“Cleaning rooms! Painting! Oh my God, Destiny, you can’t be serious. How about I stand up front and direct people, or I answer phones, or…I’ll call mom!”

Destiny actually laughed. “Go right ahead, hon, and if you decide not to stay, you can ask Valerie there at the desk for other hotel recommendations in the area.”

She gave her sister a quick hug and started to walk away. “Let me know what you decide.”

She could only imagine the pinched look on her sister’s face right about now, but this wasn’t a hobby or family outreach she was running here, and it wasn’t just her own interests at stake. Aiden had cosigned that loan. If she went down, she’d be taking him with her. He had always been way more loyal to her than her sister ever had been. If forced to choose, she would choose Aiden.

If only her situation with Ronan were that easy to resolve. She figured it wouldn’t be. Although she’d told him no, he didn’t strike her as the kind of man that gave up easy. In fact, he struck her as the kind of man who was a force of nature and it was simply best to go with the flow, or stay the hell out of the way.

She just wished she wasn’t completely torn between which of those options she wanted to go with.

From the corner of her eye, she caught Mrs. Murphy standing by the newspaper rack reading a paper. She made eye contact and smiled, attempting to be nice to the woman, but in return Mrs. Murphy instantly made a gesture that was coming to be known as the
push your boobs
up maneuver. Destiny continued to smile, but in truth she was merely gritting her teeth.

“I hear you, Mrs. Murphy. Thanks!” She waved and continued to walk on.

As soon as she was out of sight of the lobby, her sister, and Mrs. Murphy, she found a wall to lean against and tried to regain some composure. The pressure on her continued to mount, but she had no choice other than to handle it. She and Aiden had meetings with vendors scheduled all afternoon, and that night she’d set aside time just to spend with Max and Austin, although now Abby would most likely crash. There was no time in her day, or in her life, for herself and though it had always been that way, she found herself starting to question why.

Then there was Ronan’s offer, and as much as she tried to convince herself, and him, that there was no way anything would ever happen, there was a very real part of her that wanted something to happen and her reasoning for fighting him was falling apart rapidly.

She drew her gaze across the mass of violas in the flowerbed at her feet. It all seemed strange. Everything was so different now. She couldn’t even look at a flower and simply enjoy it. She had to examine it to see if it needed replanting, watering, or if the bed needed weeding. Aiden assured her as the resort got more and more on its feet and she hired a staff she could trust, the burden would lighten, but right now it was immense and seemed never–ending. So was it really so wrong to want to have a meaningless affair with a sexy man who not only wanted her, but knew how to connect with the deeper parts of her?

She dropped her head back against the wall and closed her eyes, moaning. If she were capable of running a resort, she was capable of running her own life, and if she was capable of both those things, then she was capable of making her own decisions where men and sex were concerned, and quite frankly, she wanted Ronan—plain and simple as that.

Her mother would never approve.

Oscar would be cruel.

But no one would have to know.

“Miss Destiny, there you are!” Someone rushed up to her, waving.

“Mr. Hinkley, what can I do for you?” She’d met the sweet little man two days prior when he checked in with his daughter and grandkids. Her head was killing her, and she wanted very much to make her way back to her desk where she kept a commercial-sized bottle of naproxen.

“I brought you something.” He smiled and was missing one of his front teeth.

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and carefully unwrapped it, presenting to her a lovely purple stone with white veining. He pushed it toward her.

“It’s for you. Lady at the store said it would bring you great passion.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Oh, good grief!

She gasped.

“Mr. Hinkley, I don’t know what to say.” She wasn’t sure if he was being sweet, or hitting on her.

“Don’t have to say nothin’. Just take it.” He held it up again.

She carefully reached out to take the stone from him.

“This really wasn’t necessary.” She didn’t want to sound ungrateful, but neither did she want to encourage him.

“Not a big deal, and for the record”—he winked at her—“I like the quiet types no matter what that old bat Murphy says.”

Her mouth dropped open, and she felt her eyes widen. “Mr. Hinkley!”

“Gotta go. Meetin’ my kid for lunch. Catch ya later, though!” He quickly waddled off.

“I’m losing my fucking mind.”

Without waiting for anything else to happen, she headed for her office and intended to stay locked inside until Aiden showed up with the vendors. She was going to read that book he had given her on management, and she wasn’t going to worry about Austin’s school paperwork and she wasn’t going to think of Mr. Hinkley or Mrs. Murphy, and she wasn’t going to think of her sister, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to think of Ronan Kelly, not for one damn second!

Destiny closed her eyes and knocked. It was the middle of the night. She had no idea what she was thinking. Maybe the two bottles of wine she had shared with Aiden and Cassidy over dinner had impaired her judgment. Maybe it had just been watching Aiden and Cassidy. They weren’t overtly sexual with one another, but in everything they did or said, their love was right there as a live, vibrant undercurrent. Maybe it was the fact that Aiden mentioned Ronan had turned down the dinner invitation causing her to spend the entire night wondering why. Whatever it had been, or perhaps combination of it all, here she stood, outside his door in the wee hours of the morning knocking, hoping for...

Hoping for what?

She wasn’t naïve enough to think a woman went to a man’s door at this time of night for any other reason than she wanted to get fucked, but at the same time, she couldn’t entirely bring herself to admit that was why she was there.

She knocked again. If he didn’t answer this time, she would scurry back to her own room and in the light of day, she was certain, she would regain her sanity.

When a groggy, and what appeared to be naked, Ronan answered the door with a sterling silver-colored sheet wrapped around his hips, she suddenly got the very bad feeling she’d interrupted something.

“Oh, good God, I’m so sorry.” She turned to run, only to have him grab her arm and hold her in place.

At least she wasn’t facing him anymore. She couldn’t see his amazingly carved chest, six-pack abs, or rock-hard biceps, and he couldn’t see how red exactly her face had turned.

“Wait a minute.” He tugged her hard enough that she was forced to take a step backwards. “You don’t get to come up here at God knows what time in the morning, wake me up, then say
good God, I’m sorry
and run. For the love of Pete, woman.”

He started to turn her to face him. She covered her eyes with her free palm.

“I just thought…”

“Would you stop acting like a five-year-old?” He pulled her hand away from her face, but he couldn’t force her eyes open, so she still felt she won somehow.

“I just thought maybe I’d interrupted something.” She opened one eye, hoping for some sign it was safe, and in all honesty, hoping to hear him say he didn’t have a woman in the room with him. Though, she hated that she felt that way, and she knew she had no business getting possessive.

“Well truthfully, you did interrupt something.” He lowered his voice and looked behind him over his shoulder back into the room.

“Oh God!” She moved her hand fast back over her eyes.

Ronan’s laughter filled the hall. She was coming to love that laugh. It was so hearty and real. It folded itself around her and hugged her, making her feel like everything was not as dark as it seemed.

The next thing she knew, he smacked her ass and was pushing her into his room. “You interrupted a very erotic dream featuring a very sexy hotel magnate.”

She was knocked so off guard by all of it, she was inside his room, door closed, before she even realized what had happened.

“Now that you’re here, though, you can help me act it out.” He winked at her.

She never knew whether she should slap him or fling herself at him. He kept her in a constant state of confusion, and why that was appealing to her on any level made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

“I am
not
going to act out anything with you,” she whispered, as if they were in an area full of people rather than his empty hotel room.

Before she knew it, he had her pushed up against the wall again, had his hands in her hair that was hanging loose down her back, and moved to kiss her. She stuck her hand between his lips and hers.

“It’s just sex, right?”

“Just sex, baby.”

Her stomach flipped. She’d never been so abrupt and cut-and-dried about sex before, but damn he was fucking gorgeous. Also, for some reason, probably simply because she was the only real option, he was into her.

“People have just sex all the time, right?” She searched his eyes, hoping for some sign that she wasn’t being a complete whore.

“All the time.” He started to run his hand up her thigh beneath the skirt of her green-print sundress.

The moment of truth had arrived. Sex? Or not? When his hand grabbed her bare ass and squeezed, she instantly grew wet and a sound came out of her throat that was half-purr, half-moan and sounded sexy as sin. She almost wanted to look around to see if there wasn’t some other woman in the room because she never remembered making a sound like that before.

“You strictly vanilla, Destiny, or can you handle a little kink with your
just sex
?”