TWELVE
“We don’t have any reason to go back to the resort right now,” Aiden explained to Cat the following morning. “Declan and Kellan are busy doing the final weed-out, so we’re better off to just let them get the job done. It’s the people who remain afterwards that we need to worry about. So, if you really wanted to, we could stop over at your father’s hotel and see if there’s anything of yours we might be able to rescue.”
“I doubt I’ll be able to save the clothes, but there are a few keepsakes I wouldn’t mind pulling out of there,” Cat told him. “Only by now, my dad might have already moved my things over to his girlfriend’s house.”
“That’s fine, we’ll just go down and find out,” he shrugged. “You could give him a call to figure out if stopping by the hotel is worth it, if you’d like.”
Cat smirked. “I think it would be more fun if it was a surprise.”
“There’s those claws I like,” said Aiden, drawing her close. They were standing in his kitchen but had yet to discover if there was any kind of food they could eat for breakfast.
“Meow,” she said innocently.
The trip down took a bit less than an hour, and the pair stopped off at the hotel first. Aiden looked at the missing side panels and wall, shaking his head. “This old horse is ready to be put down.”
“My dad said something about getting a loan, but I left before I found out if they’d decided to send somebody out, and he only called me one time the whole week, just to ask if I was doing all right.”
“I see,” said Aiden grimly. “But I doubt any bank will want to touch this thing. What do you think he’d say to getting a loan from me?”
“Really?” Cat gasped. “You don’t have to do that to impress me.”
“Hey, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for impressing you, but that’s not my reason,” Aiden grumbled. “I’d just hate to see him lose his dream. I know exactly how he feels.”
Cat felt her throat begin to tighten with emotion. “To be honest, I’m not sure how he would take the offer. But if the banks haven’t been helping him, he may be desperate enough to lose some of the edge on his pride.”
Aiden chuckled. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“Shut up,” she grumbled, bumping her elbow into his. She then spared a thought for the fact she’d just bumped elbows with a guy who had enough money to buy three of these hotels without even batting an eye, and wondered how she managed to be standing by his side. She was amazed, really, and yet ironically she felt completely comfortable.
The service access to the building could only be accessed using a key code, which Cat typed in as they approached the door. The two of them stepped inside and began to look around.
“At least the floorboards still seem solid,” said Aiden. “I don’t think we need to worry about falling through.”
“Thank goodness for small miracles,” Cat agreed, smirking because she was picking up his habit of using old adages all the time. Aiden smirked too, obviously picking up on the reason behind her amusement even though she didn’t say a word. She liked that about him. She liked it a whole lot. “Come on, my room is upstairs. I haven’t been in it since we got back, so I have no idea how it’s going to look.”
“Just walk carefully, Cat, okay?” Aiden suggested. “We don’t know if this building is unstable.”
“I’m on it,” she replied as she headed for the stairs. As they went through her bedroom door, she was pleasantly surprised. “Wow, the damage wasn’t nearly as bad up here. That’s wonderful. And it looks like all of my clothes have disappeared. My jewelry box is MIA as well. Daddy must have paid a visit in here.”
“Do you see anything that you do want?” Aiden asked her. “That’s a mighty fine picture of Legolas up there.”
Cat giggled. “A girl’s got to have a few guilty pleasures. But how much wall space is there in my employee room?”
“Enough, if that’s really where you want to hang it up for now,” he shrugged.
“Aiden, I told you, I’m not going to stay with you in your condo this soon,” Cat sighed, turning to look at him. “We really need to slow down on all of this and get to know one another first. Besides, you’re still working on that divorce.”
“I know, I know,” he grumbled. “It’s just—well, I really loved waking up next to you.”
“I loved it too,” Cat admitted, remembering just how awake the man had been. “And we can work toward that being more permanent one of these days. It’s just that right now we’ll both be going through a lot of adjusting, getting used to new roles and saying good-bye to our old ones. A person needs a bit of alone time for such things, I always find.”
“My brain knows you’re right,” he sighed. “It’s just the other brain that’s trying to complain.”
“Well, tell it to be good, or I’ll have to give it a spanking.”
“And this is supposed to incite it to behave?” Aiden scoffed, chuckling.
Cat started giggling, and she moved against him, cupping his cock as she tiptoed up to kiss him. That’s when they both heard the clearing of a throat. Cat let go so fast it made her head spin as she turned to look at her father.
“Oh, hi Daddy, I didn’t know you were here.”
“Obviously,” he said, his expression somewhere between disgusted and amused. “This must be that guy Scott you mentioned in your texts, I assume?”
Cat blushed hotly.
“You told your dad about ol’ Scotty, kitten?” Aiden teased her. Then he stepped forward and shook her father’s hand. “Hello, Mr. Addison. I’m actually Aiden. Aiden Whitney, to be more precise.”
His face fell and he gaped for a moment. “Del,” he replied as he took his hand. “But I don’t understand. What happened to Scott, baby? You made it sound like he was the real deal.”
“Dad, could you stop?” she pleaded, her face crimson now. “Aiden is Scott. He’s been doing some incognito observation thing. And you’ll be happy to know I’m now part of his administrative team.”
“Glad to hear you held out for more than laundry,” he scoffed indignantly.
“That is not what’s happening, sir,” Aiden defended her. “I can assure you that I didn’t select Cat for the job based on any performance other than those which are normally required.”
“But you’ve obviously slept with her,” he grumbled. “My daughter doesn’t go around grabbing every cock in the room. Well, not that I’m aware of anyway.”
Cat’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?” she gasped. “You did not just go there.”
“Well, in case you didn’t know, Cat, your new boyfriend’s been all over the tabloids this morning,” he told her. “Sounds like he’s about to go through a pretty high-profile divorce from the look of things.
“If you mean did I tell her about my divorce, yes sir, she knows,” said Aiden. “But what about the tabloids? I’ve been roughing it all week, so I’m sort of out of the loop.”
“Most of Cat’s stuff’s already been brought over to Tilly’s house,” he replied stiffly. “I’ll show it to her when the two of you stop by.”
“Sir? I want you to know that my intentions toward Cat are completely honorable,” Aiden told him then. “She tells me that you’re a dreamer, like me. Looks like this place could use a few bandages. Have you had any luck with the banks?”
“Not one penny,” he sighed.
“I’d like to help you out, if you’ll let me,” Aiden tried.
“We can discuss it while we eat,” he said decisively. “I insist that the two of you stay to dinner tonight. I’d like to find out what about you has possessed my daughter to completely lose her mind.”
“Come on, Dad, that’s pretty harsh,” Cat complained. “Aiden is good people. He’s just going through a tough time right now, all right?”
“Sure thing, I believe you,” he shrugged. “Aiden, if you’d let me load the SUV too, it would save me a trip or two. What d’you say?”
“That suits me just fine,” Aiden agreed readily. “Just show me some things you want loaded, and I’ll even help you bring them out.
Now her father smiled, clearly impressed that a man with so much wealth didn’t mind a little work as well. “Sure. All right.”
Not afraid of hard work, Cat pitched in too, and before they knew it they were headed out. The tension between the two men wasn’t completely gone, but at least they’d started to cast each other a few uncertain smiles. Hopefully, this was going to work.