Relentless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 5)

by Mallory Crowe

  Katy might be in over her head. Because when she’d made the teasing comment about being with any man she wanted to be with, something more than annoyance flashed across Nathan’s handsome face. “What are you doing out here? I’m trying to get work done.”

  “By work, do you mean having lunch with Mr. I Don’t Know When To Shut Up?”

  Katy raised a brow. It was just so weird—one, for Nathan to pop up out of the blue like this and then for him to be interacting with people in her life. Her life that was so very different from the time when she knew him. “Levi can be a little brash sometimes, but he’s been a friend of the inn for years now.”

  Nathan didn’t say anything. Just stood there staring where Levi had gone with that same look of disapproval on his face.

  “And who are you to give me crap about who I have lunch with? I read the papers, Nathan. It’s hardly as if you’re the expert in picking dining mates.”

  Instead of looking defeated, he got a cocky grin on his face. “So you’ve been following me?”

  “You’re impossible to avoid.” She started for the front of the inn.

  Nathan followed and she tried not to let her annoyance show. Considering she was in heels and a good six inches shorter than Nathan, it was easy for him to keep up with her fast pace.

  “Let me take you out to dinner.”

  “I’m really busy, Nathan.”

  He sped up until he could move to stand in front of her, blocking her path. “I’m not going anywhere any time soon, so why don’t you just do this?”

  “I love that you’re threatening me to get me to go to dinner with you. You haven’t changed at all.”

  He didn’t look abashed. “I’m threatening to be annoying. Come on. It will be a nice dinner. I’ll pay. Then you can kick me out and be done with me.”

  “Nathan, I told you, I’m busy.”

  “I haven’t said which day. Or time.”

  “I’m busy all the time.”

  “No. You just don’t want to be around me. Now, I know we don’t have the best history, but it’s not that bad. We never did anything. I don’t get why you aren’t even going to give me the time of day.”

  Katy clutched the papers in her arms closer to her chest. Of course he wouldn’t understand. She barely understood this knee-jerk reaction she had just to being in his proximity.

  But Katy knew that she had a long track record of making good decisions. She had been a great kid, and once she’d moved in with her older brother after her parents died, she’d been pretty much a model teen. From there she’d been a stellar college student and managed to graduate a full year and a half early, leading her to be a hotel manager at the insanely young age of twenty-six.

  However, there was one very large blemish on her history of making stellar decisions. That blemish was Nathan Farrell. The one time she’d ever done anything remotely morally questionable. The one time she’d ever lost control of herself.

  So, yeah, to a guy like him who left a trail of broken hearts and promises wherever he went, what they had might seem muted. But to her it was a big deal. And now, when her life was in such a good place, she didn’t need a variable like him to come in and shake things up.

  She planned her next words carefully. “I don’t know how to make this more clear. I’m busy. Very, extremely, overwhelmingly busy. I’m not saying this to trick you or to insult you. It’s a fact. I don’t have time for distractions and, as you’ve already overwhelmingly proved, you’re a distraction. So if you don’t mind, I need to get back to—”

  “I mind.”

  Katy rubbed the corner of her eyes, careful not to mess up her makeup. When she opened her eyes again, Nathan had moved closer. Really close. Too close for a stranger. Too close for a friend.

  She was just about to tell him to back off, but then she inhaled his scent and she swore nothing had changed. They said smell was the sense tied in with memory more than any other, and at the moment she totally believed it. He smelled like soap, fresh clothes, and something uniquely him that she couldn’t quite place. “I need to...”

  She wasn’t sure whether he was psychic or whether her voice had wavered, but he must have sensed that she was weakening, and he brought a hand up to rest at the nape of her neck. His thumb softly brushed back and forth against her jaw. The soft touch seemed to radiate through her, simultaneously proving why she needed to be far away from him and making it impossible to move.

  “If I thought you didn’t want me,” he shifted his weight, bringing his face just inches from hers, “I would leave in a heartbeat.”

  That would be pretty damn quick, considering how fast hers was beating at the moment. So for the first time, she was completely honest with him. “I don’t want the things that come along with you, Nathan. You’re a package deal.”

  “What’s in that package?” He seemed to move closer, and through the cool spring air, she could feel the heat from his body.

  “Trouble,” she breathed. He was so close that she could whisper and he could hear clearly.

  “Come to dinner with me.”

  No. She knew she needed to say no. There were so many reasons to say no and so few to say yes. She managed to get the words into her throat. “I can—”

  Nathan kissed her. Even though they’d been standing in what could only be called an embrace, she still managed to be surprised. The kiss was Nathan exemplified: confident, carefree, and unapologetic.

  Just like no time had passed, Katy kissed him back. It was impossible not to when she was being sucked up into the tornado that was Nathan Farrell. His hands went to the small of her back and held her against him. She kept a hold on her papers, managing to keep her hands from exploring his body, but her mouth had a mind of its own.

  When he tilted his head for better access, she tilted hers. Her lips pushed against his, and when his tongue eased into her mouth, she sucked on it as though she was exactly the woman he wanted. The one he came back for.

  The thought finally seemed to break her from the spell as she stumbled back. Her eyes went straight to the paved path beneath her feet and she could feel the blood rush to her face. She hadn’t been kissed like that since...well, since Nathan.

  “You need to leave,” she said softly as she pushed past him and continued down the path. Of all the times to not have people crawling out of the woodwork to get her to fix something...

  No. This was Nathan. The man was cursed with good luck. Wherever he went, things would just go his way. Well, not today. Not her.

  “Come to dinner with me and I’ll leave you alone.”

  She didn’t believe that for a second. “If I go to dinner with you, you’ll be bothering me at dinner.”

  By now he’d caught up to her and was walking alongside her. “Yes, but I won’t be bothering you at work. I’m sensing that’s a problem for you.”

  “How would you feel if some tramp from your past showed up at the office and wouldn’t leave you alone?”

  “Did you just call me a tramp?”

  “That’s one of many names I have for you.”

  “I’m kind of flattered. Is that wrong?”

  “Very wrong.” They’d reached the front of the inn, and she was really hoping that Nathan would behave himself now that they were in plain view of anyone in the TV room or going in and out of the inn.

  “I’m not leaving until I say what I need to say,” he said, but he at least stayed a respectable distance away.

  “What part of ‘I’m busy’ do you not get?”

  “You’re not busy all the time. I can stop by your house later tonight and we can talk then.”

  She narrowed her eyes. If she wasn’t going to dinner with him, she sure as hell wasn’t going to let him near her home. Home was where there weren’t people to walk by and remind her what a bad idea it was to kiss him.

  So she tried a different tactic. “It’s a small town, Nathan. If I go out anywhere with you, people are going to talk. I can’t be...fraternizing with guests.”r />
  “I can refrain from fraternizing for at least one night,” he said with a little wink.

  “You can barely refrain from fraternizing for five minutes.”

  “Well, if you had given me one inclination that you don’t want me, maybe I would back off.” His words were curt, and for the first time, his calm and confident Nathanness showed a crack.

  “I’ve been telling you over and over again to leave me alone.”

  “Yeah. Your mouth says go but your tongue was saying a distinctly different story.”

  Her cheeks burned and she wondered what was less professional: kissing a guest or slapping him right across his smug face. “You’re an ass.”

  “Dinner. Tonight.”

  “Dinner. Never.”

  “Eight o’clock.”

  “Never o’clock.”

  “What the hell makes you think that this is going to go easier for you if you keep fighting me?”

  “Eight thirty and if you touch me, I call the cops.”

  “Eight thirty and you’re allowed to touch me all you want.”

  “Fine. There’s a coffee shop open late on Main Street. It’s the only one there. I’ll see you then.” As she said the words, she couldn’t help but feel as though she had made a deal with the devil. And when she glanced over her shoulder, the cocky grin across Nathan’s face didn’t make her feel any better.

  “This might be the best week of my life,” said Sheila dreamily as she poked her head into Katy’s office.

  Katy smiled as she lowered the screen of her laptop computer to look at the teen. Sheila could be a bit of a stereotypical teenage girl sometimes, but Katy liked having her around. She brought an energy into every room she entered, and her wide smile always resonated with the guests.

  Sheila was a seventeen-year-old senior at the local high school. Her mother had gotten her a job in the housekeeping department when the girl was just fifteen as a punishment for staying out past curfew. Except the plan backfired. Once Sheila had a job, it just fueled her independent streak.

  Considering her brightly dyed blonde hair, dark-chocolate brown eyes, and amazing cheekbones, this town was going to be in trouble once she hit eighteen.

  “Why? Did Sean break the hose again?” A week ago, Sean had gotten soaked while doing some of the routine maintenance around the inn and Sheila had been positively delighted at the soaked shirt he’d had to work in for the next few hours.

  “No, not him. My week is great because of the hunk I just checked in. The hunk who isn’t staying with a wife, might I add.”

  “You can’t add anything. Hands off the guests, Sheila. Whether they come with or without a significant other shouldn’t mean anything.”

  “It’s legal in my fantasies, okay? And my fantasies have standards. No married guys.”

  Katy let out a laugh even as she shook her head. She never did understand Sheila, and that was one of the things she liked about the girl. “I’ve done a lot of reading about Nathan. It’s probably best you keep him firmly away from your reality and fantasies.”

  “Nathan? Oh, no, no, no. You don’t even know the best part.” Sheila came fully into the office and pulled up the blinds to let in the bright sun. Katy loved that her office had a view, but the glare made working on the computer screen almost impossible, so the blinds were almost always down. “Take a look at this.”

  “Look at what?” She swiveled around in the chair. Except it soon became evident what she was looking at.

  “Isn’t he yummy?”

  Yes. Yummy might be the best word to describe the man pulling a suitcase out of the trunk of a black sporty car she couldn’t identify from here. He had a jawline she could see even from here, black hair cut short to allow all of his features to show through, and he walked like someone who knew exactly how good he looked. “Who is that?” She squinted to get a better look.

  “His name is Austin Miles. Just checked in for one week, starting today. No one else in the room.”

  Katy didn’t see a computer bag. This wasn’t exactly the kind of place single guys liked to stay at. Bath, Maine didn’t have a party scene and the bars were all so local. The fishing was great, but something told her this guy wasn’t here to fish.

  “Remember, hands off the merchandise,” said Sheila jokingly.

  That made her remember just how hands-on she’d been with the “merchandise” a few hours ago. She was pretty sure she’d blushed through her entire awkward lunch with Levi. The poor guy probably thought it was him who caused the flush in her cheeks.

  She and the inn’s neighbor had never had a normal relationship. She’d always been careful around him. Because of where his property was located, there was always the chance of a guest wandering over there accidentally, and when weddings got too loud, it was great to know he wasn’t going to call the police. But no matter how professional she tried to keep things, she always felt as if Levi mistook her kindness for something else.

  “I will do my best,” she said, hoping to sound sardonic when she was a hundred percent genuine with the words. Though if Sheila found out she was going out for coffee with Nathan, Katy would never hear the end of it.

  But he’d had her back up against the wall. Not in the sexy way that he was more than capable of achieving. But after the kiss, she’d barely been able to think straight. So she’d gone for the option that would allow her to get out of there as soon as possible. Maybe at the end of the day, when she was exhausted and ready to crawl into bed, she’d be able to have a rational conversation without slipping into her sixteen-year-old self.

  While she was looking out the window, a big white truck pulled up. “That’s the rental company. Think you can cover the desk while Sean unloads?”

  Sheila groaned. “What all has to be unloaded?”

  “I think they rented chairs, linens, plates, and a bunch of other things.”

  She shook her head. “People will throw their money away on anything.”

  Katy tended to agree, but she was in charge of making sure the events on site went as planned. So if the client, in this case a bride and groom, didn’t want to use the chairs they had on site and wanted to pay a few grand to have some fancy rentals delivered, then she wasn’t going to argue. It was Friday night and the wedding was tomorrow evening. Even though they had, in her opinion, one of the best ceremony locations in the world with the amazing ocean view and the gentle Atlantic breeze, this particular couple was religious and getting hitched in the family church.

  So they missed out on the views, but they gained a few hours to get the reception site acceptable for guests. Even though tonight was slow, tomorrow they were going to be booked to capacity. It was only sheer luck that one of the wedding guests had cancelled last minute so the shortage of the Tower Room wasn’t causing anyone to be displaced.

  “I’ll go get Sean.” Sheila started to leave. “Maybe I’ll even get another look at Austin.” She winked before she disappeared out of the office.

  Katy was half tempted to get another look at the mysterious new guest but decided against it. She had too much work. But it was curious. Nathan was a young single guy who could work from anywhere and he’d been pretty open about the fact that he’d come to bother her. What was this newcomer up to? Was he working out here? Another writer like Mr. Parker? Either way, her curiosity was piqued.

  Before she could think about it anymore, the phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID but realized this wasn’t one call she could let go to voicemail. It was the owner.

  “Hello, Mr. Burkhart,” she said with a smile as she answered. She hoped it was a nice call, but considering the email she’d sent him, she had her doubts.

  “I’m concerned,” he said without even a hello.

  Yep. This wasn’t going to be a pleasant call. “I’m sorry, sir. Is this about the email I just sent?”

  “There’s water pouring in on my guests! Of course it’s about that.”

  “As I said in the email, I have the construction company who in
stalled the roof for us scheduled to stop by tonight. Because they’re doing another job, they won’t be here until after six, but we should have answers soon. Hopefully the warranty will cover any repairs necessary.”

  “Repairs? What about the lost revenue? What about the guest who is going to think we’re running a halfway house!”

  She would be forever grateful to Mr. Burkhart for taking a chance on her as a manager, especially considering her age, but he had a tendency to become a tad emotional. Back when he’d bought the business, he’d run it himself for years. His wife had only barely convinced him to retire when they hired her. From what Katy could tell, they both liked her. She also picked up that Mr. Burkhart, although he loved this inn with all his heart, had never been a great manager.

  And it killed him that he was off in Florida “relaxing” and unable to actually fix things.

  “While it was unfortunate that a guest was affected, I comped Mr. Parker’s dinner and arranged a new room for him. He’s been a guest for a few weeks now and is already very impressed with the inn. I don’t think we have to worry about any negative impressions.”

  For a few seconds, all she could hear were the sounds of Mr. Burkhart’s loud breathing. Not in a creepy way, but in the way that let her know he was thinking of other things he should be worried about. Finally he said, “I expect to be notified about what they find.”

  He liked to tell her to do things he knew she’d do already. Katy figured it was one way for him to still be in charge. “I will make sure to notify you immediately,” she said dutifully.

  “Okay. Thanks, Katy,” he said. It was half begrudging and half sincere, but she decided to cling to the sincere part.

  “Of course, sir. Have a great day.”

  He said a quick good-bye before he hung up. Katy set the phone down and rubbed the back of her neck. She really hoped the repair was no big deal. Convincing Burkhart to get the new roof had been a bit of a challenge, and the main selling point had been avoiding embarrassing incidents like water falling on a guest while they were sleeping.