Bared for Me(6)

“Chin-up peaches, it’ll sort itself out.”

Not if she didn’t make some changes.

“We’ll have dinner when I get back if you can wait that long,” he said. “You can access the menu on the iPad over there. Just phone down and order.”

“Are there any personal movies I might want to enjoy on here?” She nudged the iPad with her finger.

“I’m not your brother.”

She chuckled softly. Logan’s infamous sex-clip was apparently one of the most viewed ever. “You want me to order you anything?”

“They know my usual. Get them to send it all up in an hour or so. You might as well put through your breakfast order at the same time. Pancakes, waffles, anything you want.”

“Wow, so generous,” she mocked. “Is this what you offer all the women you bring here?”

“I don’t bring women here.” He didn’t even blink.

“Men, then? Oh!” she slapped her hand on her forehead. “You should have told me sooner already. Saved me embarrassing myself.”

“No men either.”

“No partners at all?”

He shook his head.

She frowned, thinking it though. “Oh I get it. You go back to her place so you can escape easily.”

He gave a non-committal shrug, but she knew she had him.

“You’re a runaway too,” she waggled a finger at him. “Fancy, we have something in common.”

“No,” he said, starting to walk towards the door. “Not much in common.”

But Dani had realized something else. “So all your staff will be thinking this is something really special,” she grinned gleefully. “That’s really funny.”

The look he sent her was not amused.

“Oh the irony. They’re all downstairs thinking the boss has finally gotten his act together. That he’s finally getting some. Whereas we’re up here doing nothing but talking.”

“Talking is right.” He grimaced as he got to the door. “Don’t you ever stop?”

“Sure.” She glanced at the menu she’d pulled up on the iPad. “You never cook?”

“You see a kitchen? Why, you want to cook your own?”

She shuddered. “I never cook either. Fancy, another thing in common.”

“Give it up.”

She chuckled. “Over easy or sunny side up? You think we’ll have that preference in common?”

He went completely still, then spun round to face her, pointing his index finger like a dagger at her. “You’re going to starve at this rate. I won’t let them serve you anything.”

“You’re already starving me.”

He so looked shocked she had to laugh.

He didn’t. “One day, Dani, you’re going to land yourself in real trouble.”

“I can’t wait,” she muttered after him as he left the room. “It’s got to be better than boring.”

As soon as Rocco closed the door behind him, she went to her bag and rifled for her wallet. Her brother might have mocked her but she knew what she was going to do.

Pete Boulder, one of New York’s most celebrated photographers, and known for his ultra-edgy, push-the-boundaries work, had been at her parents’ party. They’d employed him as the official photographer—so they could vet what pictures were presented to the world. He’d approached her during the party and shown her the picture he’d taken of her. At the time she’d been mortified. But now she used the hotel room phone and dialled the number written on the card he’d given her.

A portfolio with Pete Boulder could set her career in motion. So what if he was creepy. He could get the job done. She’d see if she could meet up with him tomorrow or sometime soon. She was not going back to Summerhill.

“Pete,” she said as soon as he answered. “Danielle Hughes. We spoke at my parents’ party at Summerhill the other night. You asked me about posing for a spread? I wondered if we could talk more.”

“Danielle,” Pete’s voice sounded loud in the empty room. “Whereabouts are you?”

“In Manhattan, actually. At The Trove. Only for the one night, but I have time tomorrow—”

“I have time right now.”

He did? “Uh... okay. You want to come here?” Good lord, she wasn’t anything like ready. But she could be.

“I’m only five minutes away.”

Seriously? Was something actually going to go right for her today? “Fantastic,” she breathed. “Then I’ll see you in the bar shortly.”

After she hung up she scuttled to the bathroom to do some kind of emergency work on her hair. Two minutes into it she gave up. Pete was going to have to see her in her ‘raw’ state. The other night she’d been decked out in a full on seduction number, hoping to catch Rocco’s eye.

It seemed she had. But he wasn’t going to do anything. She had yet to get to the bottom of that, but she bet it was because he thought she was too young, too much his best friends’ little sister...

Pete Boulder might just be the man she needed to help Rocco see that she’d all grown up. Hopefully the photographer would still think she had potential despite her student-on-the-run gear and straggly hair.

Her mouth drooped a little. Did she really think she could make it as a model? Did she really even want to? What Logan had said had resonated—she knew it wasn’t easy or glamorous.

But she squared her shoulders. Too bad whether she wanted to or not, she needed money fast.

Desperate times called for desperate measures.





Chapter Five





ROCCO QUICKLY TRIED to read over the copy his assistant had prepared for him. Least he could do was sign it off so the woman could get home and not worry about it all night. But he wasn’t concentrating.

All his attention had been sucked up by Dani. He figured the fastest way to kill her crush was to get her to hate him. But damned if he wanted to do that to her. She’d had enough of a rough day as it was. He’d winced when Logan had shredded her. She’d cleared out just at the point when he’d been about to interrupt and tell his friend to go a little easier.

He remembered when she’d been a skinny termagant, shrieking at her mother years ago because she didn’t want to go back to boarding school. Logan had reckoned they were crocodile tears. Rocco hadn’t been so sure. Logan hadn’t been around much then, and even when he was, he’d been preoccupied with his own issues—much as he was now. So how would he have known?

Nothing was as it seemed in that house. The superficially perfect home hid utter unhappiness. He’d recognized her genuine distress—and its source. He knew what it was like not to be wanted. To have your presence merely endured. And ultimately, to be pushed away.

After his father died, his mom had met Bill who she’d hired to manage the family restaurant. They’d married horribly soon. Rocco’s mom had stepped back from the restaurant, had a couple of boys.

But Bill hadn’t liked the permanent reminder of his wife’s first husband. It was bad enough that the restaurant was named after him. But the place was so successful Bill couldn’t change that. But he could change the family line-up.

Rocco’s presence had barely been tolerated by Bill from the beginning. And in the end the bastard forced Rocco’s mom to make her choice.

She had.

Rocco went out on his own the day he turned thirteen. Roughing it for a while before Connor and Logan stepped in and became the brothers he’d lost. Not that their parents had liked it. Old man Hughes was ruthless. He demanded the best, accepted nothing less, no matter the situation.

Rocco sighed and headed back upstairs, summoning self-control. He could handle Dani. And himself.

He liked sex but desire didn’t rule him. Sure, he’d enjoy a one-nighter when he needed a screw to ease off the strain. He wasn’t as voracious as Logan, but who was? He picked up a willing woman in a bar and went back her hotel room for a few hours. Invariably he targeted women who were only in town for a few days. Though never a guest in his own hotel. Never a female associated with any of his friends.

Logan and Connor were more than friends, they were now the only family he had. And Rocco always abided by the brotherhood code—mates before dates, friends before fucks.

Dani wasn’t a date, definitely not a contender for anything more or less. She was utterly out of bounds.

Two minutes later he walked into his ominously quiet suite and cursed long and loud.

She was utterly out of the room.

Cursing more beneath his breath, he headed straight down to reception. “You seen Dani—my guest—leave here?” he asked the guy on reception, knowing his staff had all had a good, long look at her when he’d brought her in. Word would have travelled at warp speed that he’d ensconced her in his suite.

“I believe she’s in the bar.” The guy briefly glanced up at him, then was palpably relieved when he had to answer a phonecall.

She wasn’t even fucking legally allowed to drink. What did she think she was doing—going to the bar to meet someone?

Rocco strode into the bar, blinking a few times to adjust to the dimmer light. Who’s dumb idea had it been to create such an intimate mood in the place?

Oh yeah. His.

He stalked past private nooks, peering as discreetly—yet efficiently—as possible.