Forgotten Honeymoon

“This is a home. Their home. The staff lives on the premises. And it was my home, too, when I was growing up.”

Well, that would explain some things. Kristina was unaware that her voice had taken on a patronizing tone. “And I’m sure that to the boy you were, it was a great place, but—”

Max felt his temper flaring. This wasn’t why he had sought her out. Not to argue, but to convince, and if that failed, to compromise. It didn’t look as if it were heading in that direction. Max surprised her again, this time by abruptly placing his finger to her lips.

“Why don’t we table this for a while? Let’s just go to dinner. We can continue negotiations over a good steak.” He saw a smug, superior look enter her eyes. They would have been beautiful eyes, but for that. Think it’s all settled, don’t you? Well, think again. “Or are you a vegetarian?”

By the way he posed the question, she knew he didn’t think very highly of that persuasion. Kristina was tempted to say that she was, just to annoy him. There was something about him that pushed all her buttons in a perverse way. Maybe it was his attitude toward her, as if she were a little girl, playing games. Or maybe it was just that he was so damn good-looking, the way David had been.

Actually, if she was to be impartial, Max was better-looking than David. But that wasn’t going to get in the way of anything. All it would do was solidify her resolve. If he thought he was going to use his looks to get her to change her mind, he was in for a surprise, she thought confidently. Her mind was made up.

Kristina’s eyes held his. “No, steak’ll be fine. Rare.” It was what she considered one of her few weaknesses.

It was his turn to be surprised. Her answer coaxed a smile to his lips. “Finally, we agree on something.”

It was a very sensual smile. Her own lips seemed to tingle where he had touched them.

Kristina tossed her head. It was an action depicting arrogance and defiance. Yet, just for a brief moment, Max thought it was tinged with an element of insecurity. Probably his imagination.

“We’ll agree about this,” she told him, gesturing about the front room as they walked through it. “Eventually.”

He smiled at her without saying another word. When pigs fly jet planes.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw June watching them. Like a mother hen, he thought, concerned that the wolf was going to eat the chicks. Not this wolf. Not if he could help it. He nodded at June as they entered the dining room.

The spacious room, with its polished wooden floor and knickknack-lined shelves, was at the rear of the inn. It had a fantastic view of the ocean through large adjacent bay windows. Though the meals here were excellent, they were considered secondary to the scenery.

Kristina had made note of the view as she took her quick tour of the inn. Now, as a brooding storm hung over the distant sky, it struck her as magnificent.

Max saw the look on her face and interpreted it as a point in his favor.

“Like the view? Or would you like to improve on that, as well?” he couldn’t help adding.

Her jaw tightened. She had developed her present sharp-tongued way of dealing with people because she’d discovered that no one bothered to listen to her opinions or follow her suggestions if she voiced them politely. They thought of her as “Kate’s granddaughter,” or “Nathaniel’s little girl.” She was that, but she was so much more. She was her own person, and if it took a heavy hand to make her point, then a heavy hand was what she had to use.

“Only by making sure the windows were cleaner. They could stand a washing,” she attested casually.

Max wondered if killing her now would make the other guests lose their appetite, or if they would wind up applauding him.

Sydney approached their table. Sydney, like Antonio, doubled as a waiter during meals. Max nodded toward her. “Tell Sam we want two filets mignons. Rare.”

“Anything to drink?” Sydney asked, placing an order of bread in the middle of the table.

He could do with a Scotch, a double, right about now. But he knew he was going to need a clear head to take on this woman fate had seen fit to saddle him with. “Just water. Two.”

Kristina bristled at his presumption. “I can order for myself, Cooper.”

He raised his hands, as if pulling them away from a sacred artifact he shouldn’t have touched. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to tread on your territory. Go ahead.”

“Iced coffee, please,” Kristina told Sydney as she took her seat.

“How appropriate,” Max muttered under his breath. Their eyes met and held. He saw a flash within hers, and felt a measure of satisfaction. “Given the warmer turn of the weather,” he added.

For the moment, Kristina said nothing. Sydney turned toward Max. “Will there be anything else?”

“No, just see if Sam can hurry it up.” The chef had a tendency to let guests linger over their drinks. Now that he was sitting opposite Kristina, he wanted this over with as soon as possible.

Sydney gave Max a wide smile. “Sure thing, Max.” The smile turned frosty as she nodded politely at Kristina. “Ms. Fortune.”

Kristina spread her napkin across her lap. Not waiting for Max, she cut a slice from the loaf. The bread should have been warm, she noted. She glanced up at Max, then thought better of bringing the fact to his attention. Minor details like that would be lost on him.

Others, however, had to be made known. “You know, you really shouldn’t let her call you Max.”

He tore off an end of the loaf, a little abruptly, though his tone remained mild. “Funny, I was just thinking that you shouldn’t insist on being called Ms. Fortune.”

Kristina’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t take criticism well, especially if, in her opinion, it was unwarranted.

“Why?”

He would have thought that it was self-evident. But maybe not to someone like the ice princess. “Puts distance between you.”

She still didn’t see what he was driving at. Delicately she pushed aside the bread. Never a big eater, she wanted to leave room for the main course. “That’s exactly my point.”

Max took a deep breath. He was stuck with her. That meant he was going to have to try his best to educate her. She obviously had no experience in dealing with people who didn’t have silver spoons in their mouths.

“You want them doing their best for you, not just thinking that it’s a job.”

His reasoning was so flawed, it took her breath away. “But it is a job. And their incentive is their paycheck—and bonuses if they perform well.” After all, she wasn’t heartless—she knew it was difficult to make it in this world.

He dropped the bread, and with it, the last of his appetite. “That makes them sound like trained seals.” Leaning forward so that his face was inches from hers, he observed, “You have a very strange way of putting people off, Kristina. Is it a gift, like everything else you own?”

No, she wasn’t going to enjoy working with this idiot. Kristina squared her shoulders. “You don’t like me very much, Cooper. Fortunately for me, no pun intended, that doesn’t matter. We can work together without liking each other.”

He didn’t have to read between the lines to know what she was saying to him. “As long as I do things your way.”

“If my way makes sense…” Kristina let her voice trail off, leaving him to reach the conclusion that her way did make sense on his own. If the man had any brains at all.

His mouth quirked in a humorless smile. “As in ‘Dollars and—’ Correct?”

She didn’t care for the way he was talking down to her. If he didn’t like the idea of turning a profit, why was he hanging on to the inn? “Most people go into business to make money. This is a business.”

Sydney returned with their meals before he could respond. He waited until Sydney receded again. He didn’t miss the sympathetic look in her eyes as she left.

He nodded toward the plate in front of Kristina, taking advantage of the small diversion. “Eat your steak, Kris.”

She hated nicknames. “The name,” she told him, enunciating every syllable, “is Kristina.”

The name is Pain, he thought, resigning himself to a very arduous evening. “Eat your steak, ‘Kristina,’” he said deliberately.

Looking as if she had won a small victory, Kristina cut a piece of the thick steak on her plate. She had to admit that it did look appetizing. But the serving itself could be improved upon. Smaller portions, more artistically arranged. Honeymooners weren’t all that interested in food, anyway.

She looked up and saw that Max was watching her. “Just look around you. The inn has sixteen bedrooms. Only five of them are filled.” All five couples were in the dining room now. The room fairly echoed with her voice, reinforcing her point about the poor attendance.

The steak was done to perfection, but his appetite had completely waned. “And what you propose would fill them.”

“Yes.” Her eyes fairly glowed as she leaned forward, energy vibrating through her affirmation. “We’ll have bookings two months in advance.”

She knew nothing about the business. How could she be so certain of her ideas? “Sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

There was no hesitation in her voice. “Yes.”

He pinned her with a look. “Why?”

Hadn’t he been listening? “Because I’ve got a good sense of business.”

She was unbelievable. Had anyone bothered checking her for a pulse? “Is that all it is to you, just business?”

“Of course it is.” She looked at him incredulously. “What else could it be?”

Patiently, like a teacher talking to a backward child, Max began again. “I mentioned earlier that it was a home—”

Did he really think she was being taken in by his smoke screen? “Spare me the sentiment, Cooper. It’s just another excuse you’re using not to do anything. I’m sure you’re very comfortable this way. Well, you don’t have to worry. I will handle everything. I’m accustomed to that. You can go on just napping.” Disgust filled her eyes. “We’ll try not to make too much noise for you, especially not when I slip you your share of the profits.”

He’d tried it June’s way. He’d tried being polite. This woman wouldn’t understand anything but a show of force. “Tell me, because I’m new at this—does walking around with a wallet where your heart is supposed to be require any extra care on your part?”

Her head jerked up. How dare he! “I can’t talk to you if you’re going to be abusive.”

That was a laugh. “Talk to me? Lady, all you do is talk at me, not to me.” He raised his voice, for once unmindful of the people in the dining room. “I don’t think you know how to talk to a person so that he’d listen of his own free will.”

Kristina rose, throwing down her napkin. She didn’t have to listen to this, and she certainly wasn’t going to sit here trading insults with him while others listened.

“Tell the chef that the steak was delicious. The company, however, was not. It left a great deal to be desired.”

With that, she walked out of the dining room.

Like the others in the room, Sydney had been looking on. She came forward now to clear away Kristina’s plate. “Don’t let it get to you, Max. If I’d been in your place, I would have decked her.”

Max sighed. Sydney meant well, but that didn’t alter the fact that he was going to have to find some way to work with this infuriating woman.

“Thanks, but you’re not in my place, and decking her wouldn’t have helped, anyway.”

Max looked down at his plate. It was a damn good steak. He wanted to finish his meal, but he knew there was damage control to attend to. With a sigh, he rose, leaving his napkin on the chair.

“Tell Sam this is nothing personal. The steak is great.”

He went after Kristina, aware that the other guests were all looking at him. God, but he wished he was back at the construction site. Steel and concrete were things he knew how to handle. Stuck-up, gold-for-blood rich witches were in a league all their own.

A league Alexis had been quick to join, he recalled, jilting him and running off to marry that fancy executive of hers. When he thought of it, the man Alexis had described to him was a male counterpart to Kristina. No wonder he didn’t like her, he thought.

Max passed June at the front desk. Instead of saying anything, the older woman just pointed toward the door. He sighed and hurried out.

He was in time to see Kristina heading toward the beach.

Good. With any luck, she’d drown herself.

Not that he could let her.

Cursing roundly under his breath, he rushed after her.

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