Dana watched him thoughtfully for what seemed like an hour but was probably less than a minute. Then she shrugged and ate a few bites before replying. “Thanks for the apology; I appreciate it. And I shouldn’t have been so defensive. My weight has been a touchy point for me on and off so I assumed the worst. Plus, given our history, it seemed as if the comment would be negative instead of positive.”
“I get that,” he replied before pausing to enjoy some of his own meal. “I meant what I said by the way. You’re beautiful and you have a figure that would make any man drool. I hope that I’m not the cause of your body-image issues because you should have none. I’m ashamed to admit that I just picked on the one insecurity that I know most women struggle with. It had nothing to do with me thinking you were overweight, because you’re not.”
He shifted uncomfortably, not used to sharing this type of honesty with someone. He was absurdly grateful when she joked, “Wow, you seem almost human. Damn, I bet that whole confession hurt.” Looking him over, she asked, “Are you breaking out into hives yet? If you have any suspicious rashes, you could probably attribute them to nerves this time and skip the STD check.”
Unable to stop himself, he chuckled at her audacity. He wasn’t used to anyone other than his brothers and Rosa speaking to him like that. Well, aside from Lisa, Dylan’s assistant. She took a lot of pleasure in busting his balls. “I can assure you I’ve never even had a scare in that area. I believe in wrapping it up.”
Dana raised her glass of water and tapped it against the one he had picked up. “Good boy. You wouldn’t want that sucker to fall off. Think of all the airheads in Florida who would mourn the loss. Although you could probably convince most of them that it was divine intervention rather than a disease.”
“You should know that I have dated intelligent women as well. I realize that meeting Brittany would make you question that, but not all of my dates have been crazy. In fact, I recently escorted Erin, who’s a public defender, to a charity function.”
Raising her brows, Dana commented, “I’m impressed. Were you needing some free legal advice? Maybe on a pesky and embarrassing paternity issue? Is there a little Ashey running around out there? That would be tragic to inflict upon the world. But look on the bright side, you could buy both your kid and your date a Happy Meal for less than ten bucks.”
Shaking his head, Ash tossed a piece of his bread at her. “Cut me some slack. I have no offspring and I’ve already told you that my dates don’t usually eat. Now the playground at McDonald’s is a different story. Brittany had her last birthday party there. She just loves the slide.”
“Oh brother,” Dana murmured under her breath. “I know that’s a joke, but I can easily picture it. It’s sad that Claudia would be a step up for you. Well, if it wasn’t for the whole relative thing and all. Bart might not like his baby going out with you. I mean, whose lap would she sit on at family functions, his or yours? That could get confusing.”
“Don’t even go there,” Ash groaned. “But while I attempt to scrub that image from my head, we should talk about her. Specifically how to keep you out of her crosshairs. She might have barely made it through school, but she’s an expert when it comes to being a bitch. The fact that she pulled that shit in the shop today should tell you something. She’s not afraid to attack you. Now that she’s had the added humiliation of being carted out of the hotel in front of her buddies, she’ll be out for blood. Probably both yours and Zoe’s.”
Dana put her fork down and gave him a serious look. “That’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t want her to mess with Zoe. Maybe if I drew more attention to myself, then it would distract her. You’ll take me to dinner again and I’ll—”
“Dammit, did you hear nothing I said?” he snapped. “You need to lay low and let this blow over. In the meantime, I’ll go over and have a serious talk with both her and Bart. She might be his little princess, but he also loves the lifestyle that this hotel affords him. I’m sure he could be persuaded to deal with his daughter if it were threatened.”
“Don’t you think that’ll just make it worse?” she asked. “It’s obvious that she’s very close to her father, so that might not be the best approach to take.”
“Then let her come after me for it.” He shrugged. “I couldn’t care less. What’s she going to do, make my life a living hell? I think that ship has already sailed. I can handle her shit, but you shouldn’t have to. Dylan will raise holy hell if she messes with Zoe again as well. I’m sure he’s already planning a visit to talk about that very thing. As much as I hate it, she’s a member of the family to some degree, and as such, it’s our job to deal with her. It’s my fault you were at the family dinner in the first place.”
“It was me who kicked her chair over,” Dana pointed out. “You weren’t exactly counting on that. And I’m not one of your damsel-in-distress-type dates that needs saving. I’ve dealt with my share of vindictive girls like Claudia. I would have taught her a lesson the moment she showed up here, but I was trying to get rid of her before Zoe could get involved. In the end it didn’t work out. I didn’t know Zoe would pick that particular moment to go all Rambo on her.”
“Be that as it may, I’m still responsible for you coming into contact with her at all. Therefore, I’ll handle it. In the meantime, you don’t have to worry about her coming back to the coffee shop. Between Dylan and security, she wouldn’t dare.”
“Ash,” she said quietly, “I don’t want to cause a problem for you with your mom. It sounded the other night as if things might be changing there for you. How long will that last if you make an enemy of her husband?”
He shocked them both by laying a hand atop hers. “I’ve been dealing with Bart since they got married. My mother isn’t stupid, nor is she blind to the type of man that he is. She won’t take sides in this and there’s no love lost between her and Claudia. In fact, I figure she’ll get a lot of pleasure out of me putting Claudia in her place.”
Dana still didn’t look convinced. Almost as if she wasn’t aware of doing it, she turned her hand over. Before he knew it, their fingers were linked together and his first inclination was to pull away. He wasn’t the type for intimate gestures, and this hand-holding suddenly felt very intimate. But it also felt unsettlingly good, which was scary as hell. But hadn’t he started the whole thing by touching her first? “You know them better than I do,” she conceded. “My method hasn’t exactly been a success thus far, so if you think you can do better, be my guest.”
Clearing his throat, Ash nodded. He was both relieved and disappointed when she broke away from his hold. As if by mutual, unspoken agreement, they didn’t mention Claudia again as they finished dinner. The conversation flowed with surprising ease, and Ash found that he enjoyed himself immensely in her company. Once they’d finished, they loaded their plates in the dishwasher and Dana teased him about actually knowing which buttons to push to operate it. “I’ve been a bachelor for a long time,” he said, grinning. “Plus, Rosa gets pissed when I don’t make an effort to clean up the small stuff. I try to keep her happy because she scares me when she’s angry.”
“I’m sure she does.” Dana nodded in agreement as she wiped down the table. When they were finished tidying up the kitchen, he found himself reluctant to say good-bye to her. But short of asking her to stay, he couldn’t come up with a reason to prolong their evening. And she seemed to be of a similar mind as she picked up her purse and walked toward the door. “Thanks for everything. I had better get going, I have to get up early in the morning.”
Ash picked up his door card before saying, “I’ll see you to your car. It’s gotten late and you shouldn’t be in the parking garage alone.” She shrugged her shoulders and stepped out into the hallway, waiting for him there. He locked up and hit the button for the elevator. “I had a nice time tonight.”
I need to stop saying things that could make her think this was a date. I sound like a nervous schoo
lboy hoping to score a kiss.
“Er—me too,” she replied, appearing startled by his statement. “I like your apartment. It’s got a great view of the ocean.”
“Yeah, it’s okay. I’d rather have a house though. Considering I live in the hotel, it’s as if I never leave work. That means my staff doesn’t think twice about calling me over every little thing since they know I’m so close by.”
They remained quiet for the short elevator ride down to the lobby. Ash then found himself once again staring at her phenomenal ass as he followed behind her to the parking garage. He slid his hands into the pockets of his pants and shifted from one foot to the other as she stopped beside her car. She turned, giving him what looked like a nervous smile. “So I’ll see you tomorrow, I’m sure. I mean, not that I expect to or anything. But you normally come by for coffee. Well, unless you have it delivered, which you sometimes do. So I might see you and I might not.” She continued rambling for another few seconds before coming to an abrupt stop. “Crap, that was painful.” Releasing a loud breath, she added, “You should probably go back to insulting me. I don’t know how to deal with this nicer version of you. It kinda freaks me out and makes me more awkward than usual.”
Ash found himself relaxing enough to laugh. “Damn, me too. I can’t remember the last time I was this uptight around a woman. You’re right, we did handle it better when there were ugly words flying back and forth between us. Now it’s as if I’m meeting you for the first time and have absolutely no game at all.”
Quirking a brow, she asked, “Why would you need that? Ahhh, are you trying to hit on me, Ash? If you’re flirting, the moves could use a little work.”
Lazily reaching out, he tapped her shoulder. “Oh, you didn’t just say that. I’ll have you know that you’re only saying that because I haven’t unleased my charm on you yet. Those panties would be dropping if I had.”
She giggled as she opened the door to her car and slid in the seat. He assumed she was going to leave without responding until she rolled her window down. “Hey, Ash?” He quirked a brow and she winked before saying, “I’m not wearing any underwear so there’s no danger of that happening tonight.” With a wicked smile, she started her car and left him standing there with his mouth hung open and his dick saluting.
“Well, hell,” he murmured as he turned to retrace his steps. This had been an interesting evening, to say the least. And he’d come out of it certain of one thing. He might have spent the better part of a year in denial about his attraction to Dana, but there was no longer any lying to himself. He wanted her—badly. Unfortunately he knew that was a fucking disaster in the making. Not only did she work at the resort, but she was also best friends with his sister-in-law. His casual approach to sex could certainly get messy with Dana. But he had the impression that she had a similar approach to dating . . . if he was direct about what he wanted and she was interested, then where was the problem? Even as he tried to rationalize it, he had a sense of foreboding. No, he needed to keep things strictly business between them. There were plenty of other women out there without ties to his family. No need to fish so close to home. She wasn’t even his type. End of discussion. If all of that were true, he had to wonder why he didn’t feel more confident in his ability to stay away from her.
Because you’ve been infatuated with her for months. You just can’t admit it.
And there was the whole problem.
Seven
He’s driving me crazy,” Dana admitted to Zoe as they walked through the local shopping mall. It was a rare day where they’d both managed to schedule a few hours off at the same time and they were making the most of them with a leisurely lunch followed by some window-shopping at a few of their favorite stores. “He’s being too nice. There are times when he slips up and the old Ash makes an appearance, but it doesn’t happen that often.”
Giving her a confused look, Zoe asked, “How’s that a bad thing? You hated the man when he was being an ass. Now you want that version of him back?”
Running a hand through her hair, Dana sighed. “I don’t know. I’m just not sure how to deal with him anymore. He’s far too irresistible like this. He even flirts with me, which is both amazing and scary as hell.”
“Oh God, don’t sleep with him,” Zoe hissed. “You know how he treats women. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure he’s good at what he does, but then he tosses them aside until he gets an itch again. Plus, you’re so not his usual type. You actually have a brain.”
“Don’t you think I know all of that?” Dana muttered. “I’m not going to be another Brittany. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have the urge to let him do me. I bet he’s amazing in bed. I mean, we’re both adults and all. We could bang it out of our systems and then move on. Nobody needs to get hurt here. As long as I was up front about things, why would it have to be a big deal?”
Zoe dropped her head in her hands. “That sounds like something he would say. Wait—you two haven’t discussed this, have you? You’re not, like, already planning to get it on, right?”
“No—God, no, there’s been no conversation about anything like that. I’m just tossing it out there as an option. He might not even be at all interested in sleeping with me. I’m probably a pity flirt for him. Sometimes I think hot guys can’t help but do that. They walk around letting their sexiness touch everyone in its path.”
Dana had been expecting outright laughter from Zoe over her last statement so she was surprised when instead her friend nodded. “That’s true. I used to think the same thing about Dylan. I believe I even complained about it a few times. He would pass women and they were pulled into his gravitational field. I don’t know if it’s the cologne or something else, but whatever it is, women make complete fools out of themselves over it.”
“I so don’t want to do that,” Dana pouted. “But he’s wearing me down. I’m either going to have to sleep with him or beg him to return to his previous asshole behavior. Because there’s no way we can be friends without me letting him in my pants. There’s too much sexual tension between us. Heck, in another week, I’ll be begging him to sleep with me. I’ve had to change the batteries in my vibrator twice since he turned over this new leaf and it hasn’t even been a week. I’m horny all the time. And it’s his fault because I haven’t been with anyone else since I broke up with Paul, and truthfully I haven’t felt the urge until recently.”
Zoe pulled her down onto a nearby bench before saying, “Okay, so maybe you just need to get laid. Blow the dust off your little black book and make a date or a booty call. I bet Paul would be happy to take care of that for you. Then afterwards you can enjoy the new, nicer Ash without getting naked. Perfect, right?”
“Oh, come on,” Dana groaned. “You’ve seen Paul. There’s no contest between him and Ash. Plus, sometimes Paul has an equipment malfunction that leaves matters . . . unsatisfied. I can’t bring him back into my life and give him false hope. A night of subpar sex is hardly worth that. But Ash, on the other hand . . . you know you’d get yours with a man like that. He could give me a night of mind-blowing sex, then the itch would be scratched. Afterwards we could return to this fake boyfriend-girlfriend thing and I’d be much more relaxed and able to perform my duties better. Even if he were lousy in the sack, I could take comfort in the fact that I’d been missing out on nothing and that I never wanted to do it again. Either is a win-win, right?”
Zoe wrinkled her nose, looking disgruntled but resigned. “I want to go on record as saying this is a very bad idea. You should never eat where you shit.”
Laughing, Dana pointed out, “I believe you mean you never shit where you eat.”
“Shit is shit.” Zoe snorted. “And you know where I’m going with this. If things go bad between you two, then everyone around you suffers for it. What if you fall for him? There’s no way that ends well. Ash doesn’t do relationships. He might mean well with you, but he’d end up breaking your heart. The
n you’d have to see him at the hotel every day. And probably with a bimbo or two trailing after him. Do you really want to subject yourself to that? I love Ash. He’s a great brother-in-law, but I can say that because I’ve never dated him. That’s a completely different matter.”
“I know,” Dana groaned. “Believe me, you’re not telling me anything I haven’t already told myself a dozen times. I should stay far away from him. But then there’s that crazy voice in my head that says I’ll never get past him until I get it out of my system. And in my experience, the only way to do that is to end the mystery and satisfy my curiosity. If he’s great in the sack, then I’ll have a good memory out of it. If he’s lousy, then I’ll get a laugh. But if I do nothing, I’m always going to wonder what he would be like. Plus, I’ve never believed in lust at first sight, but there’s some insane chemistry between us. Sparks fly when we’re together and he feels it too. He was actually nervous last night when I was leaving his apartment. It was like the awkward end to a first date. We said all of these polite things while we tried not to stare at each other.”
“Wow.” Zoe whistled. “I didn’t think Ash ever suffered from anything as common as nerves. He’s too smooth for his own good. But then again, he’s had a different reaction to you from the beginning. I guess it would stand to reason if he stopped the nastiness, he would struggle with the nice part. Maybe what they say is true—when boys are mean to you, it’s because they like you. That would certainly explain a lot where he’s concerned. Because everyone who knows him has been baffled by his asshole attitude towards you.”