It felt odd to say he was proud of his older brother, since Reese had always been the one to push him, but that’s what Tag felt: proud.
“When are you coming home?” Reese asked.
“Few days.”
“Thanks for pinpointing that for me.”
“Hey, you know me.” Tag was distracted by Rachel again, this time because she’d started viciously scrubbing the bar top. Her ponytail was coming down, her arms damp, her breasts swaying as she worked a particularly stubborn spot…
“…over dinner when you get back.” There was an unnaturally long pause in the conversation before Reese said, “Hello?”
“Here.” Tag blinked and looked away from Rachel, rubbing his eyes with his fingers. “Sorry, I’m here.”
“How’s your advisor?” Reese let his tone dip to show he knew exactly what had Tag so distracted.
“She’s a terrible surfer,” he offered.
Reese let out a hearty laugh.
“I have a question for you, actually.” Tag had thought of calling sooner, but he’d been so mired in work and Rachel, he hadn’t taken the time.
“What’s that?”
“Did Mom ever give you advice? Like on women?”
“Women.”
“You were older than me. I wondered if she ever brought up girls.”
There was silence as Reese thought it through, and in that silence, Tag could feel the heaviness. Since Reese was the oldest, he had the most memories of her. “She told me to be respectful. Honest.”
Sounded like Mom.
“Why, did she ever say anything to you?” His brother’s voice had softened. They all missed her so damn much. It didn’t matter how many years had passed. She was gone and it hurt whenever they remembered her smiling face.
“She said the right one would challenge me.”
“No shit,” Reese said in agreement.
Tag had to grin. “Merina a challenge, is she?”
“If there is a button for it, she pushes it.” Reese didn’t sound upset about it, though. “Buttons no other woman bothered to locate.”
Tag was beginning to understand what that was like. Someone taking time to get to know him, to figure him out. To have new and different experiences with him.
“So being out of your element…” Tag fished even though he was giving his oldest brother a lifetime of ammo to use against him. “Not knowing what comes next…”
“Completely normal.”
When silence stretched again, Tag opted not to say more. He didn’t know what he was dealing with when it came to Rachel, not really. No sense in trying to work it out on the phone with his brother, who was thousands of miles away. Tag didn’t have the words for what was between him and the blonde currently tightening her ponytail.
“I’ll let you go. Enjoy the tropics,” Reese said.
“Will do. Thanks.”
“Oh, and, Tag?”
“Yeah.” Tag smiled at Rachel, who was heading his way, ponytail swishing behind her, short shorts showcasing legs he’d had wrapped around him on more than one occasion. Damn. He was lucky.
“We’re due for a drink. The four of us,” Reese said.
“Four?” His eyebrows closed in.
“Yeah. Bring your girl.”
“Bring…Rachel?”
“The challenger.” Reese’s laugh was low. “This I gotta see.”
Tag hung up on his brother. He really shouldn’t have brought up Mom or girls or feelings. Reese would never let it go. Of course, Tag didn’t let up when Reese went doughy around Merina, so turnabout was fair play.
“Did I hear my name?” Rachel cocked her head as she stood in front of him.
“Hey, how’d it go?” He placed the laptop on the table next to him and set his phone on top of it, hoping his question would distract her from the other question.
“Where are you ‘bringing’ me?” She sat on the lounger next to his, facing him, her elbows on her knees.
Challenging, indeed.
“Oh, uh. My brother invited us to cocktails when we get home.”
“Cocktails.” She pressed her splayed fingers to her collarbone. “With the CEO of Crane Hotels.”
“What, the guy who runs Guest and Restaurant Services doesn’t impress you any longer?”
She squinted one eye and seesawed her hand back and forth.
He reached out and took that hand. He couldn’t be this close to her and not touch her. “He’s like me.”
“No.” She shook her head and assessed him. “You’re different.”
Threading his fingers with hers, he admitted, “So are you.”
She smiled at him. “What’d you have in mind for tonight?”
“Full report on the bar over dinner. Then we’ll go back to the room and we’ll see what other tricks you have up your sleeve.”
“Tag!” She swatted him playfully. Then she peeked over her shoulder at Karina, who was bustling in circles around Craig behind the bar. “Did you know Karina likes you?”
“She…what now?” He caught Karina watching him, and her eyes widened before she looked away.
“Likes you, likes you,” Rachel continued. “I’m probably lucky I escaped with all my hair.”
Karina was pretty—dark hair, full mouth—but her demeanor was more military than soft. She was curt and abrupt, which made her a great manager, but dating potential? Even if there was a notable amount of attraction between them—and there wasn’t—her personality and Tag’s didn’t mesh.
“She’s not for me. I like women who—”
“Aren’t entangled with your work?” Rachel cut him off.
He yanked her over to his lap and caught her when she would’ve lost her balance. He tucked her close, one arm around her back, the other palming her jaw.
“You are entangled in my work, honey.”
“I’m guessing this isn’t something you normally do.”
That was true, too. He preferred the subtle blow-off. Sleeping with the people he worked with wasn’t only frowned upon, but it could also make future encounters awkward. He didn’t want to do his dates any damage, but neither did he want to continue leading them on when he knew things wouldn’t amount to anything long-term.
Looking at Rachel now made him realize he hadn’t had a single thought like that about her. Hadn’t worried she was getting the wrong idea or that he should start laying the groundwork for disentangling himself from what was rapidly becoming an “us.”
“This isn’t normal for me, Dimples,” was all he said. He palmed the back of her neck and pulled her lips to his, tasting her gently before letting her go. His eyes on hers, he watched as she studied his mouth.
“Me neither,” she whispered.
“Because you dated a guy in marketing who never treated you like he should’ve?” It was information she’d given him during their beach walk.
“Right,” she agreed, putting another soft kiss on his mouth. She reached up and stroked his beard with one finger. “He was clean-shaven with short hair and only a few inches taller than I am.”
“Sounds like a sissy,” Tag teased.
Her grin faded. “He didn’t appreciate me. I should have left sooner.”
She should have, but pointing that out wouldn’t do her any good.
“You’re out now.” He swallowed the urge to promise her she wouldn’t have to deal with any other guy like that again. Wanting to explore what was between them was one thing, making promises was another.
“Still want to work a day shift while you’re here?” he asked.
“You know, I would. I think it would give me a better idea of what you need to do to make this place a success.”
“You care, don’t you?” His heart swelled. “About this place.”
“Isn’t that why you invited me?”
Yeah, but she cared for more than that reason.
“I’m paying for dinner tonight, too.”
“I’m capable of—”
He put a finger ov
er her plush lips.
“Shut up and enjoy it, Dimples.” Enjoy me, he wanted to say, but didn’t. He wasn’t sure what was going through her head. He wasn’t one for holding back, but this was new territory. The first time he’d suspected he liked a girl more than she liked him.
Rachel held back constantly, until she didn’t. He’d like more of her moving toward him instead of away. Even after Hawaii. A wave of certainty and nausea swept through him. Maybe it was being here that had made him sentimental, but he was sure something new was happening.
With her being the first woman in a long, long, long-ass time he was interested in moving toward, not away from, he wasn’t about to let her go.
Chapter 16
Their flight out of Hawaii was scheduled to leave early. Rachel was awake at dark packing her bags when Tag appeared in her doorway, cup of steaming coffee in hand.
“Oh, you’re an angel.” She reached for the mug, but he stepped away.
“You’re drinking this on the beach. Sun’s up soon. Let’s go.” He tipped his head and vanished around the corner.
Groggily, she slipped into her flip-flops and shuffled ahead of him as he grabbed a coffee mug for himself. She opened the door for him and pushed the button on the elevator. In a few short minutes, her feet were sinking into the sand at the shoreline, where there was a reserved pair of beach chairs waiting at the ideal spot.
“Really going to miss this kind of treatment,” she told him as he handed over her coffee.
“You’ll have to come back then.”
With him? She couldn’t reconcile who she thought he was with his behavior. He’d seduced her as hard as he’d wooed her. Her lips pursed in thought. Had she ever been wooed before? Shaun half-assed everything with her. “No need to go out for Valentine’s Day, right, Rach? We don’t need to go out to dinner to know we love each other.”
But she sort of did. Not because she was a princess who needed to be pampered, but because if he’d have made any effort at all, or appreciated hers, she would have felt loved by his actions.
She started to sit, and Tag stopped her with one hand. He plopped into the sand and gestured between his legs. “Sit here, Dimples. We’re doing this right.”
“You don’t act like a billionaire.” She arranged herself and rested against his solid chest.
“I take it you weren’t impressed with the whisking-you-away-to-Oahu-by-private-plane bit? Because I have to tell you, that’s my go-to move.”
“You know what I mean.” She clucked her tongue.
“Having money means getting to do fun things.” He rested his hand with the coffee mug on one knee and leaned in to kiss her neck. “Thanks for coming here with me.”
She reached her free hand behind her to cup his face, his soft facial hair brushing her cheek. “Thank you for asking me.”
In silence, they sat, sipped their coffees, and watched the sun lift over the ocean. Her fantasy was rapidly coming to an end, during a sunrise rather than a sunset. Soon they’d be back to cold, windy Chicago and…and then she didn’t know what came next.
Well, yes, she did. Work at the Andromeda, pound the pavement for a new marketing job, then apartment hunting. She let out a sigh, feeling the heaviness of what was to come.
Part of her never wanted to leave the crook of Tag’s legs, or Hawaii.
He reached forward and threaded their fingers together. “We can talk strategy for the bars on the flight home. Unless you had something else in mind?”
She knew the wicked lilt of his voice when he was thinking of her naked, and she had to admit since she’d met him, she often thought of him the same way.
“You know…” She gave him her weight as she relaxed against his chest. “I think we can fit in both.”
“I like the sound of that.” He kissed her neck and again, the thought of returning to Chicago made her melancholy. “Do we have time to stop by a store to pick up a few souvenirs?”
“Sure. For Bree?”
“Yes, and my cousin. Her wedding is coming up, and I’d like to buy her something unique. She’s getting married at my parents’ house the month after next.”
“Weddings. Yikes.” The statement was throwaway, but for her it dug in like a burr.
“Not one for matrimony?” she asked, frowning.
“No.” His answer was swift and brief. “I avoid any get-together that involves the Chicken Dance.”
“It does get old,” she murmured. It had been on the tip of her tongue to ask if he would be her date, but clearly, weddings weren’t his scene.
“I get invited to a lot of weddings”—a pause while he sipped his coffee—“and I make it a point to avoid them.”
“Didn’t you go to your brother’s wedding?”
He shifted…uncomfortably? “Well, yeah, but I didn’t take a date.”
He’d said that like it was the most obvious statement and Rachel bristled.
“Why not? Surely Reese could afford a plus one.” She was trying not to snap, but her tone had come out clipped.
“It was…you know. The girl I was seeing wasn’t…” He paused as if realizing what he was saying. “Shit, now I sound like a douche.” He took a breath that lifted his chest and pushed her forward a few inches. “Truth is”—he flexed his fingers around hers—“I don’t want to give wrong impressions, and weddings give wrong impressions.”
She turned that over, counting the next three beats of his heart against her back before speaking.
“Makes sense,” she finally said.
“Good. I was burying myself there.” He laughed, back to his at-ease self.
He was a man who didn’t want things to get serious. Not ever. It was a sobering realization, when it should have been a relief for her to hear. With Tag, she’d be in no danger of being asked to stay.
Which is a good thing. So why did it hurt a little?
The truth was, she was damn busy, or would be when she arrived back home. And, she continued justifying, she was in no way ready to settle in with a boyfriend after Shaun—especially one that she’d have to drag along in a relationship.
Living in the lap of luxury would transform back into a pumpkin, and her billionaire prince would find another princess to occupy his time.
Staying had never been on her agenda. She’d come here to enjoy being with Tag and to push her own boundaries. Find her boldness before she launched Rachel 2.0.
But during the quiet times like this one, when Tag’s warmth enveloped her and his lips easily found that spot behind her ear, imagining distance between them became harder and harder.
* * *
After a long but smooth flight Tag unloaded their bags into a waiting SUV in the swirling Chicago snow. The driver, a young guy about half the size of Tag, had tried to help, but after struggling with Rachel’s largest suitcase, Tag had sent her a wink and stepped in.
They climbed into the backseat and Rachel shuddered violently. “It’s freezing here.” Her voice faded into a whine as she laid her head back on the seat.
“You’re zonked,” he observed.
Without opening her eyes, she grunted.
“Kevin, forget that first address. Go to my place.”
“Yes, Mr. Crane. Ms. Foster, there is a vent by your legs if you’d like to adjust the heat.”
The seat shifted next to her as Tag leaned forward. A second later, warm air was blowing on her frozen limbs. She let out a long hum.
She opened her eyes. Wait…did he say…?
“No, I need to go home,” she told Tag. “If I go to your house this late, I’ll fall asleep and won’t be able to leave.”
“Deal.” His slow spread of a smile made her stomach flip.
She should have argued, but she was too exhausted. And he was too…something. Too everything.
“It’s no big deal. I have a big bed. You have luggage.”
She guessed it wasn’t. Maybe she’d been the one hyper-focused on everything between them. Maybe she should chill out. Not hard to do
here in the tundra.
“Thanks.”
“Welcome,” he answered. She rested her head on the seat again and closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his broad palm on her thigh.
* * *
Tag woke his houseguest the next morning by diving beneath the thick comforter. He applied kisses to every inch of Rachel’s body as he stripped her bare, damn near suffocating under the blanket because she complained she was cold.
Soon enough, though, her complaints were muzzled. She’d tossed those blankets off and came—multiple times—under his ministrations.
After Kona coffee at his breakfast bar, she was already working, and on a roll.
“If you push back the bar rather than have it in the center of the two pools, you could create a place for the guests to hang out,” she was saying. “Milling around would be easier if they weren’t in danger of slipping into the swimming pools by taking a step to the left or right.”
She pointed at the drawing with her pen. He could see what she meant. The bar being moved would allow more room for guests who were ordering and, as she’d suggested, offer more seating for guests who already had drinks.
“Even with the swim-up open again, you’ll increase your ability for more traffic if the bar is elsewhere.” She then pointed the pen at him. “And I was right about the setup. Your server’s wells are too far apart. You need one designated area, and preferably one bartender who prioritizes the servers and helps the other two bartenders during downtime.” She put the pen down, fire in her eyes as well as her voice. “Once you have it redesigned, I’m betting you can use this as a template for some of your other hotels. I know Hawaii is a different setup given there are multiple pools, but I think…” She trailed off and broke into a smile. “What?”
He shook his head, dropping his arm from where he’d been resting his chin in his hand. “Nothing. I’m listening.”
“You’re staring.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, fidgeting. Adorably. “Sorry, I’m passionate.”
Didn’t he know it. He hadn’t realized she’d caught him zoning out, eyes on her. Hell, didn’t know he’d been doing it until she pointed it out. He’d been listening to her ideas and watching her draw for the last half an hour, his mind on how perfect their trip had been.
The Billionaire Next Door Page 17