“To a fortune.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes.”
Well, color him unperceptive. How had Billy and Javier both guessed that she was rich and he’d been a blind fool? She had yet to explain how she was related to Daniel Gladwell but if she was an heiress and they were related, that must mean Daniel came from serious money too. And here he’d bought all those stories in the press about Daniel being a self-made man. He really was naïve.
Lucia reached out a hand and placed it on top of his.
The simple touch set his body on fire and Ryan’s mind chose that moment to become a muddled mess. Dammit, he couldn’t think straight when she was this close. Her eyes were locked with his and all he could find himself thinking about was how beautiful her eyes were—the color of dark chocolate, with a depth that made him feel like she could see right through him. There were far more pressing matters to be considering but there it was. He was fascinated. They were captivating.
She was lovely, there was no doubt about it. From her soft voice with its Italian accent, to the long wavy black hair and doe eyes, the woman before him was compelling in every way. Sweet and stubborn, she was ridiculously fun to tease. She was perfection—like everything about her had been created just for him. That thought sent a chill down his spine. He couldn’t be thinking of relationships and romantic emotions, not when his family was such a mess and he had a revenge plan to enact before he could finally be free to start a life. But like it or not, this girl sitting before him—she was his perfect woman.
And she’d just proposed.
“Ryan,” she prodded. “What do you think?”
Ryan pushed himself back from the bar. “I think that might be the least romantic proposal I’ve ever heard.”
Lucia sighed and tossed the bar rag at him. “I’m serious.”
And she was. From the way she was sitting and the hard tone, there was no denying she was serious. But she clearly wasn’t in her right mind. No sane person married a relative stranger so they could access their trust fund. It didn’t happen—at least not outside of the movies. The whole idea was crazy.
Ryan leaned over the bar again, and this time he was the one who stared her down. It was time for some reason. “Look, I’m flattered, I really am,” he started.
She rolled her eyes again but didn’t interrupt.
“But I don’t think you’ve thought this through.”
Lucia’s eyes narrowed at that. “Don’t be condescending.”
“I’m not!” Ryan held his hands up in defense. “I swear, I’m not. I just don’t think you’ve thought of all your options. I mean, there have to be better ways to make money.”
Lucia let out a little laugh at that and Ryan tried not to be distracted by the sound or the direct correlation her laugh had on his groin.
“Tell me, oh wise one, what other options can you come up with to make millions overnight?”
The word “millions” seemed to hang in the air. Ryan opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t think of a response. Millions overnight was still playing on a loop in his brain.
Apparently Lucia sensed his hesitation because she leapt up from her seat, shedding her coat, all the while watching him with wide, questioning eyes.
“Look, Lucia—” The words died in his throat as he took in the sight before him. Lucia was standing there clad in a flimsy slip of a camisole and figure-hugging leggings of some sort and the sight left him speechless.
She was stunning from the tanned smooth skin of her shoulders to the rounded hips. Forcing his eyes back up, he willed himself not to look at her body, but that did little to help. She was staring at him in concern now, her brows pulled together to create a cute little crease above her nose and those lips….they were pouting at him in a way that was positively, unintentionally suggestive.
He spun around so he was facing the till once more, his back to Lucia and his erection safely hidden from view. Taking a long deep breath, he ordered himself to get a grip. This woman was sexy and feisty, but she was also young and naive…and she’d just proposed marriage. Now was not the time to turn into a teen going through puberty.
“Are you okay?” Lucia was right next to him behind the bar. Her scent washed over him and he was powerless, completely wrecked.
“Yeah, fine,” he managed. She took a step toward him and he found himself inching back as though she was a tiger and not a five-foot-nothing slip of a girl….who just happened to be talking crazy at the moment.
Shoving a hand through his hair to keep from reaching out for her, he let out a sigh. “This is nuts. We can’t get married.”
She put her palms on her hips, which thrust her chest out further, making the flimsy camisole strain against her breasts, causing his erection to strain against his pants.
“Why?” she demanded. “Why can’t we?”
The sexual frustration made his voice gruffer than he intended. “Because I don’t even know who you are.”
Lucia flinched and her arms dropped to her sides as an awkward silence fell between them.
All of the frustration he’d been feeling since the moment he’d realized she’d been lying to him and that she was somehow related to Daniel, came bubbling up to the surface. “Seriously, Lucia, who are you? Clearly you’re not the down-on-her-luck poor girl you claimed to be.”
“I never claimed that,” she mumbled. She was looking down at her feet now as though the answer could be found in the bar mat beneath her.
He was being a hypocrite and he knew it….and he didn’t care. He may not have been upfront about his motives for being behind the bar but he had opened up to her—about his family, and his father. Something he rarely did. No, something he never did.
And it wasn’t just any secret she’d been hiding. She was related to Daniel Gladwell, the man who’d ruined his family’s life and the man he was hell bent on exposing. He could hear his brother’s voice whispering in his ear. This was his chance. Lucia was his ticket to get to Daniel. Daniel had spelled it out clear as day. This girl standing before him was a weakness, a chink in Daniel’s otherwise steel-clad armor.
No. He pushed that thought aside. Lucia had nothing to do with his family’s problems or his plans to get even. But still, the connection couldn’t be denied.
“Daniel said you were related,” he said. He watched Lucia shift uncomfortably before him and tried not to stare at the skimpy lace string that threatened to slip off her shoulder. “How are you related?” he pushed.
Lucia looked up at him then and the guilt in her eyes was nearly his undoing. She looked so sad and apologetic he almost backtracked and told her to forget it, to keep her secrets.
“He said that?” Before he could ask anything more, she took another step toward him so they were almost touching and shook her head like she was brushing off the question. “It doesn’t matter. That’s not important.”
Not important? He nearly laughed aloud at that.
“What matters is that we both have the same need, the same wants,” she pushed on.
She was looking up at him with hypnotic eyes and her lips were slightly parted and….holy hell, he’d completely lost track of what they were talking about.
“The same needs?” he echoed stupidly. She couldn’t be talking about sex…could she? Did she feel it too, this physical connection….the electricity between them that—
“Money,” she said.
The word was cold water in his face and it brought him back to reality with a jolt.
Money. Right. Of course it was about money. She was related to Gladwell, after all.
“Why can’t you ask your family for the money?”
Lucia’s lips clamped shut.
“Seriously, why can’t you ask them for a loan at the very least. If you’ve got millions tucked away in a trust fund, your family is obviously loaded.”
“They wouldn’t give it to me.” Lucia chewed on her lip before she added, “Besides, I need to do
this on my own.”
Ryan laughed in disbelief. “Right, doing it on your own…aside from using your family’s money.”
Lucia’s brows drew together in a scowl.
So she was getting annoyed. Good. “How are you related to Daniel?” he asked again.
“I don’t want to talk about Daniel, and I don’t want to talk about my family.” Her chest rose as she drew in a deep breath. “Will you marry me or not?”
The fact that she yelled the actual proposal might have been funny if he wasn’t so on edge, bristling with anger and a frustration that ran so deep he could barely see straight.
She moved even closer so mere inches separated them and she rested one hand against his chest. Those soulful eyes were staring up at him. “Please, just think about it.”
That little bit of contact broke his resolve. Closing the distance between them, he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her up against him and crushed her lips with his own.
The contact was so electric, so hot, he heard a little moan escape Lucia before she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with a passion he’d never experienced.
Lucia tilted her head back giving him more access and he took advantage, his tongue claiming her mouth. The kiss was blinding in its heat. The world slipped away as he held her close, reveling in the feel of her breasts pressed against his chest, her warm skin beneath his hands, her soft lips moving against his, matching the urgency that was nearly overwhelming.
He moved her so she was perched on the ice machine and she wrapped her legs around his hips, holding him close, pressing against him with a little whimper that was unbearably sexy. He moved one hand around to cup her breast, which was straining against the material. She moaned and her head fell back, exposing her neck. He trailed kisses along her neck, her shoulder, and his thumb flicked over her hard nipple.
God, he wanted this, he wanted her. Here. Now.
The ice machine chose that moment to make a loud, tumbling sound, jarring Ryan back to his senses. He froze. ‘Here and now’ was behind a bar. And not just any bar, it was the bar where he worked. For Daniel. Who was somehow related to this woman in his arms.
Ryan pulled back, though moving away from her was like defying gravity. Her eyes were hazy with passion as he gently disentangled her arms from around his neck.
He watched her fall back to earth and the lust and passion that had left her flushed and dazed was quickly replaced by an embarrassed awkwardness as she tried to shift away from him and straighten her clothes. Moving back so she could hop off of the ice machine, he shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching for her again.
What was wrong with him? This woman was the last person on earth he should be getting entangled with. She was related to the devil himself. She was on the other side of huge divide and if she was anything like Daniel, she would be as ruthless and cold as the great tycoon who’d destroyed his father and his family without a second thought. If she was anything like Gladwell, it would always just be about money for her.
As if to prove his point, she spoke up then, her voice was breathier than usual but that was the only giveaway that she was rattled by their kiss. “Think about my offer, Ryan. This could be your opportunity to help your family—”
Hearing her mention family stoked the fire of an anger that had been a part of his life for longer than he could remember. She knew nothing of his family or their problems. How could she? She was a self-described heiress. There’s no way she could fathom what it was like to go from wealth to poverty overnight—to give up your dreams to help your family get what they rightfully deserved. Worse, she was related to the very man who’d destroyed his family. How dare she claim to have sympathy, when it was her relatives who’d taken advantage and left them to rot?
His next words came out through gritted teeth. “You don’t know anything about my family.”
Lucia stared at him for a moment, clearly taken aback by his sharp tone. “Fine. But I know that you need money as much as I do.”
Ryan shook his head. “I need money. You want it. There’s a difference, but I wouldn’t expect a spoiled brat to understand that.”
Even Ryan was shocked by the harshness of his words but he couldn’t bring himself to take it back. Because it was true. He may not know her circumstances but she clearly came from wealth and had the world at her fingertips. It was only her pride in the way….and impatience. It was people like her—like her family, rather—who took what they had for granted and pay no heed to the consequences of their actions.
Lucia’s face was flushed and he saw her chest rise and fall rapidly. For one terrifying moment he thought she was going to cry but instead she turned on her heel and marched back the way she’d come, pausing only long enough to call over her shoulder, “Screw you, Ryan.”
Chapter 6
Lucia would have loved nothing more than to wallow in bed after a sleepless night but now that her secret was out, Ivy and Daniel had insisted she stop by for breakfast. Daniel left for work shortly after they’d eaten, leaving Lucia and Ivy to lounge on the hotel suite’s overstuffed couches as they took turns entertaining Baby Anna.
“It was a disaster,” Lucia said for the millionth time. She’d told Ivy everything—well, almost everything—about her fight with Ryan the night before. She’d left out the part where she’d proposed. She wasn’t quite ready to hear anyone else’s lectures on that particular topic. Not yet, at least. Ivy had listened without interrupting but once she was done, Ivy handed her the baby and picked up her phone to call her sister, Holly.
“She needs to weigh in on this,” Ivy said. “No one has more experience with mysterious bartenders than Holly.”
Lucia conceded with a sigh as she gently pried her hair from Anna’s fist.
“….so then Lucia went to the bar last night to apologize—” Ivy was saying.
“Ooh, romantic,” Holly interrupted.
“Right. So romantic. But the hot bartender was not having it and they got into a fight.”
Lucia listened as Ivy summed up her story, minus one very important little fact that she wasn’t willing to share just yet.
“I need more details!” Holly’s voice came from the phone on the coffee table.
Here’s a little detail I may have left out. I proposed. Lucia trusted these two women with her life but she wasn’t ready to explain her impulsive and, possibly borderline insane, proposal the night before. Besides, it didn’t matter anymore. He’d said no.
Lucia winced at the memory. The rejection was disappointing but that wasn’t what really stung. It was the look of revulsion on his face when it had sunk in that she was wealthy. Heck, she was way more than just “wealthy.” She was heir to a dynasty. But considering how disgusted he’d seemed to be when he thought she was related to Daniel, it was probably best she’d kept her true family connections to herself. Daniel was successful, but her grandfather and their family business were in a whole other stratosphere of affluence. If he thought being related to Daniel was bad, he’d despise her if he found out her true background.
She looked up from the baby to see that Ivy was waiting for her to speak. Right, they were waiting to hear some juicy details. Lucia sighed. “Here’s a detail. Ryan is a condescending, irritating jerk.” That much was true. Every time she thought of his last words to her, she wanted to punch him in the face. But a nagging voice in the back of her brain was mocking her. Why had his words hurt so badly? Because they were true. She was a spoiled brat.
“And then she kissed him,” Ivy called out to the speakerphone, interrupting Lucia’s self-pitying thoughts.
“Oooh, this just got good.” They heard some crunching on the other end of the line and Lucia would bet money that her friend was munching on popcorn as she listened—like Lucia’s life was an episode of a telenovela.
At least her disastrous life was amusing to her friends.
“What are you going to do now?” Holly asked
.
That was the question Lucia was still debating. What on earth would she do now? She swallowed the lump in her throat. Now she had no options. It wasn’t like she could approach a complete stranger and ask him to marry her for her money. She’d spent her whole life trying to avoid gold-diggers, did she really want to go seeking one out? She let her head drop back against the couch. That was why Ryan had been so perfect. A bitter laugh escaped her as she realized that his disdain for her wealth was exactly what made him such an ideal choice. But no, apparently his disgust with her trumped his desire for money. She tried to figure out what she should do next but her options were depressing. She could go back to Italy with her tail between her legs like her mother had done. Her heart sank at the thought. Not only would she be following in her mother’s miserable footsteps but she’d be giving Marco and her grandfather the satisfaction of admitting she’d failed. She couldn’t do it, she just couldn’t.
Lucia shrugged and tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill. Ivy moved to her side and wrapped an arm around her.
“If this is about money…” Ivy started.
The fact that Lucia had been waiting tables for money rather than letting her friends help her had not gone over well at breakfast. At all. Particularly with Daniel. And now it seemed that Ivy was going to take up the cause.
Lucia waved her away and swiped at a tear. “I can’t take your money.” Pride had her lifting her chin resolutely. “But thanks,” she added with a smile.
Ivy clamped her mouth shut and Lucia could all but see her fighting an inner battle. She relented with a nod. “Okay, but if you need anything—”
“You’ll be the first person I go to,” Lucia promised.
When Ivy continued to study her with concern, she added with all honesty, “It’s not just about the job or the money….”
“You like him.” Holly sounded like a judge handing down a verdict. She sounded so serious, Lucia almost laughed. Almost. She was too stunned to make a sound.
She turned to see Ivy nodding, her eyes filled with a motherly concern that was her undoing. She couldn’t lie, not even to herself. Her reaction to his words and his judgment….she cared what he thought. And why wouldn’t she? Aside from last night, he’d been nothing but kind to her. He made her laugh, and that kiss….good Lord, that kiss had done things to her she hadn’t known were possible. That kiss had been sensational. Lucia muttered a curse under her breath. That kiss was amazing….and she wanted to do it again.
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