Adrian

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you too, old friend.” Victor stuck his hands in the pockets of his black trousers. “Last I heard the docks were a public place.”

“I’m not letting you go down.”

“I didn’t think you would. I’m just here to make sure you don’t kill anyone, including that pretty interior designer over there.” He nodded toward Reese.

I stuck my finger in his face. “You stay away from her.”

“It’s too late for that. She’s already agreed to go out with me.”

My gaze shot to his with a fiery glare. “What?” Surely, I heard wrong. Reese would never go out with him, not after we ... not after the sweet lovemaking we’d shared over the past week.

He chuckled. “Guess she didn’t tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“I’m flying her over to Maui to the Ulalena performance tomorrow night.”

I glanced at Reese. She stared down at her glass of champagne. I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat and winced from the stab to my heart as the dragon came alert, popping a vicious eye open, creating a low growl in the pit of my stomach.

Victor stood beside me grinning like a thief who’d stolen the precious Mona Lisa right out of the Louvre Museum in Paris in broad daylight.

Was this really true or was he simply trying to provoke me? She hadn’t mentioned anything about Victor. Though, why would she? I had no claims on her; no say over whom she went out with. We hadn’t discussed exclusivity, though I thought her feelings for me were mutual and the topic wasn’t necessary.

“Keep your distance from the boat, or I’ll have you arrested.” I glared at Victor before storming over to the crowd of reporters. If she’d wanted to go to the musical, I would have gladly taken her. But maybe it wasn’t about the play and more about Victor. My chest ached, and anger coated my mind. I headed toward the reporters with clenched fists, unable to look at Reese. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

I needed to talk to her and figure out why the hell Victor thought they had a date planned. It couldn’t be what I thought it was. Dammit, I couldn’t have a private conversation with her with all these media hounds surrounding us. They’ll fixate on our relationship instead of the hotel, and I didn’t want to do that to either the hotel or Reese.

Was Victor simply giving me a pile of crap? Trying to rattle my cage before one of the biggest moments in my career? Possibly. But he seemed so sure, so confident about it.

Flanked by several reporters, I headed straight to the boat that would take us to the elevator shaft leading down to the entrance of the hotel. I needed a few minutes to recompose my thoughts. I’d be a bastard to simply ignore the woman I’d become so fond of, especially since I knew this whole experience was frightening her. I glanced up to meet her gaze as she stood on the other side of the ramp. A small, timid smile graced her face. I’d left her alone, she was reluctant to go, yet, here she was.

I stretched out my hand for hers, and she took it, stepping onto the ferry. I looked up just as a reporter approached Victor. When he simply nodded and walked away, I realized the only reason he came out was to gloat about his date with Reese.

He was a snake. I hated snakes.

We all put on the oxygen masks hanging on the side of the elevator. There were six of us altogether. The trip down to the hotel went off without a hitch if you didn’t count the reporter who threw up on the way down, making the twenty-minute elevator ride smell of vomit. Except for the sick reporter, the rest of us kept our masks on until we reached the bottom and stepped out of the elevator. Reese managed to overcome her fears as she found some cleaning supplies in a closet and gave them to the reporter who insisted on cleaning up her own mess in the elevator before we all headed back up. Something we all appreciated. I tried my damnest not to let what Victor told me affect the way I spoke to her, but it was difficult to stay placid.

The air ducts worked fine inside the hotel as well as during the trip down. Reporters snapped picture after picture while I explained about the different amenities the hotel would have. At the moment there was nothing down there except walls and a few of the rooms were already built. My speech was short and to the point.

“The rest of the phases will roll out over the next six months, providing everything goes as scheduled.”

“What will the rooms look like?” one of the female reporters asked.

“For that, I will have to defer you to my interior designer, Reese Briden.”

Her face flushed a bit, but she stepped up and gave a quick rundown of the style we were going with. “Most of the rooms will be furnished with a modern contemporary look, though a few will be done in classic contemporary, but no two rooms will be furnished alike. That was something Adrian thought would be unique and special about the décor and I agreed.” She smiled.

“Adrian,” A tall, dark haired reporter with a nicely trimmed goatee pulled my attention away from Reese. “I heard that eighty percent of the rooms have already been reserved. Is that true?”

“It was, up until this morning. I’m happy to say that as of an hour ago, we are now at ninety-five percent capacity for opening night.”

That fact pleased me, but it was difficult to sound jovial. I was feeling antsy, my patience running low. All I could think about was Reese going out with Victor. Staying focused on each question was difficult and I wanted to be done with the tour. “We should probably head back up now. I want to thank you all for coming and I hope you all come back and stay sometime in the future.”

We all walked toward the elevator. I hung back to make sure everyone was accounted for. Reese stayed by my side, which I was somewhat glad about, despite my anger. 

“This is really amazing, Adrian,” she said when we were standing in the hallway while the last of the reporters checked out a couple of the rooms. “You should be very proud of yourself.”

I nodded, still unable to talk to her for fear of blowing up in front of the others.

“Is something wrong?” she asked as we stepped back onto the dock from the ferry ride.

I shook my head, hoping she’d take it as a sign I didn’t want to talk in front of all these people. As much as I hated the thought of her being with Victor, I wouldn’t stop her. I told her from the beginning to at least give me a try, and if it didn’t work out, I’d leave her alone. I had no right to dictate whom she chose. Maybe this was a good thing. She’d go out with Victor, realize what a snake he was, and come back to me with open arms.

Fuck it. Who the hell was I fooling? Women adored Victor and he did what he wanted without caring who he hurt along the way.  

When Reese slipped into the seat of my car, and I hopped in behind the wheel, I put the key in the ignition but didn’t turn it. I wasn’t ready to talk about Victor, fearing her answer. A headache was building above my eyes. I closed them and squeezed the bridge of my nose with my finger and thumb. Then I opened them and said, “I have to go out of town tomorrow morning on business. It’s something that just came up. It’s already four in the afternoon. I’ll take you to your cottage instead of back to the office.” The cottage she still resided in that was owned by Victor. I’d found her another, but it wouldn’t be ready for two weeks. “I need to go home and pack and get some documents ready for the meeting. I have a lot of planning to do.”

I was still too hurt and angry, and I knew if we started talking about Victor I’d blow up. My dragon was too possessive. I worried that he would insist on making an appearance. Hell, he might anyway. I had no control over him most of the time. All I knew was when it was about to happen I needed to be in the water or I felt like I was going to explode from the inside. That wasn’t something I wanted Reese to see.

“Oh. I thought we’d celebrate tonight.”

“Not tonight.”