“May, that is a really bad idea.”
“Naw, Eli likes being used. It’s part of his charm.”
“Well, hello, ladies,” he said. Oh, damn he was Australian. He scanned their faces then stopped when he saw Maura. His lips curved. “And hello to you, darlin’.”
“I didn’t know you were back on Oahu,” May said.
He broke his attention from her to look at May. His smile dimmed. “Bossman is here for a procedure. He’s been kind of sickly and I wanted to hop over for a couple days to check him out.”
“Aww, is he at Queens’?”
Eli nodded.
“I’ll get Cynthia to make some of that monkey bread he loves so much and go see him.”
“He’d like that. Now, why don’t you introduce me to your friend.”
“Elias St. John, this is Maura Dillon. Maura, this is Eli. He runs a ranch on the Big Island. Maura’s here visiting her brother.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Then, she remembered him from her trip over before. “I think we’ve met before.”
He cocked his head to one side and studied her. “I think I would remember a stunner like you, love.”
“It was about two years ago.” She sensed Dee’s glance but ignored it. “I had longer hair, and it was dark.”
She knew the moment he remembered. “Yes. And you were with an Irishman.”
Maura smiled and nodded and he stilled his movements. He kept staring at her, then his mouth curved slowly. The silence among the four of them stretched out. She glanced at May and Dee. Dee shrugged but May smiled.
“Why don’t you have a seat and tell us what’s going on over there,” May said.
Dee shot her a look but she smiled at Eli. “Yeah, why not?”
“I don’t mind if I do,” he said, taking the open seat and smiling at her. For a second, she felt all her brain cells freeze. She was accustomed to gorgeous men. Hell, she was having a wild affair with two, but there was something about Eli that stunned her. Women who walked by the table slowed down.
“So, Maura, have you ever been to the Big Island?”
* * * *
“This is going to kick some ass,” Zeke said as he looked at the new set up in Rough ‘n Ready. “I knew some of the preliminaries, but Conner didn’t tell me you had it installed.”
Micah nodded. “He did an excellent job with it. We needed something to keep up with the demand of a growing business. And, well, it sure is pretty.”
Zeke didn’t take his attention from the multitude of screens in front of him. “We really appreciate you moving your business to us.”
“We like to keep it in the family so to speak. At the time, McMasters was the best we could afford. Now that we’ve grown and we sort of count y’all as family, we wanted a change. With Conner trying to gain some business in this part of the world, we figured it would help. We get a lot of businessmen who buy daily or weekly passes.”
“I think that is bloody brilliant, if you ask me,” Rory said. “Especially in a locale like this. People constantly coming in for a small amount of time.”
“It’s been a virtual cash cow for us,” Evan said.
Zeke nodded and started playing with some of the cameras. “I can imagine.”
“What is that asshole doing here tonight?” Evan asked, stepping up behind him.
At first, Zeke wasn’t sure just who he was talking about until he looked at the screen that had caught his attention. He watched as some fucker leaned closer to Maura, smiled as he said something. Maura threw her head back and laughed. Zeke couldn’t hear her, but it didn’t matter. What the bloody hell did that bastard think he was doing?
“Who the fuck is that?” Zeke asked.
Rory came up from behind him and looked over his shoulder. “I think if he touches her, I might have to break his hand.”
“That’s one of our members, Eli St. John. I didn’t know he was back on the island.”
“Well, he can just get the bloody hell off the island,” Zeke said as he strode to the door. He knew they were following him but he paid no heed. Didn’t Maura understand that she wasn’t supposed to be flirting with another Dom? He wasn’t even in the fucking life and he understood it.
He ignored the strange looks as he pushed through the crowd to where the women were sitting. Maura looked at him and grinned, but it soon dimmed when she saw his expression. The jackass who had been flirting with her looked over his shoulder and the fucker was stupid enough to smile.
“Ah, just as I expected. Gentlemen,” he said, standing. He heard the slight Aussie accent, and he saw the warning in his gaze. This was not just some normal client. This was a guy who had seen some action. He looked past Zeke. “Chambers. Ross. I was just talking to the ladies here.”