Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 86510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
I head back to the table, where Ronan has polished off his slice. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I was checking on Brenda.”
He raises his eyebrows.
“Sorry, I mean Lotus.”
“Ah,” he says. “Does anyone at the club know your real names?”
“The owner and the head of security, Claude. They have to approve all the applications. Then it’s up to Brenda and me whether we tell anyone else our names, so you can’t let on that I told you hers.”
“My lips are sealed.”
I’ve finished my slice, and one slice is a lot. I think about ordering another, just to make my hands look busy, but then I don’t.
For some reason, I don’t feel the need to make small talk with Ronan or to pretend like I’m busy eating. I feel comfortable with him, which makes no sense at all, since I’ve been out of the dating scene for so long.
“Are you going to get another?” I ask.
“No, I’m done. I actually ate a pretty good dinner before I came to the club tonight.”
I can’t help a chuckle. “Then why on earth did you just eat a huge slice of pizza?”
“I’m a growing boy,” he teases. His eyes twinkle. “I have a huge appetite. Always have.”
“From what I saw tonight, there’s not an ounce of fat on that body.”
“I work hard, lassie,” he says, imitating a brogue again. “Throwing blocks, Scottish games.”
I shake my head, still laughing. “I have to say, Ronan O’Connor, I’ve never met anyone quite like you.”
“Nor I you, lassie.”
I take the last sip from my bottle of water. We’re done eating, and we could go. But I want to keep talking to him, learning more about him, and he doesn’t seem eager to go, either. “So you said you’ve partnered with Braden Black’s company. What is it that you do?”
“I took over my father’s company last year,” he says. “O’Connor Enterprises. We’re real estate developers, and we build high-end resorts all over Europe. When I was growing up, my father traveled overseas a lot. He was making a killing, and he wasn’t interested in breaking into the American market at that time, despite the fact that we lived here. But Black, Inc. has decided to build a new resort and casino in Las Vegas.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Don’t they manufacture work goggles?”
“That’s their key product,” Ronan says. “What put Braden Black on the map all those years ago. But they’ve diversified since then. You don’t become a billionaire by producing construction goggles.”
“I suppose not. I’m surprised they haven’t gotten into the hotel game before now.”
“Their company has many other branches. Once this came across my desk, I couldn’t say no. Besides…it was a good time for me to leave Glasgow. To leave the UK altogether.”
“Why is that?”
He doesn’t speak at first, and I wonder if I’ve overstepped my bounds.
Then he says, “My relationship, if you can call it that, ended.”
“Do you feel like elaborating?”
“Not really.”
Definitely a story there, but he just met me. I can’t blame him for not wanting to spill his guts. Still…I’m curious. I want to know his story. I want to know what makes him him.
He rises. “You ready to go?”
Yeah, I must have overstepped. “Sure,” I say.
He reaches into his sporran and pulls out a money clip. So he does have cash, after all.
And the clip is full of hundred-dollar bills. Damn. I resist the urge to let my eyes go wide. There’s having cash, and then there’s having cash.
He pulls out a crisp hundred, places it on the table.
“You don’t have to tip here,” I say.
“We ate here, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, but it’s not—”
He holds up his hand. “I believe in being generous.”
“That’s beyond generous—”
He holds up his hand again. “I do it because I can. Because I know it means a lot to the people who work in service positions. One day, if I can no longer do it, I won’t. But while I can, I will.”
I cock my head, look up into those gorgeous blue eyes. He’s genuine. This isn’t a flex. It’s simple generosity. He can, so he does.
He’s a good man.
A good man who’s affecting me in ways I can’t quite understand. And even though he’s ready to leave this place now, I’m still not ready to say good night yet. I’m pretty sure I offended him before by getting too personal, and I don’t want to end our night on that sour note.
“Ronan,” I say, my mind turning over an idea, “would you like to see something amazing?”
His eyes sparkle as he meets my gaze, but his lips don’t curve into a smile. “I’m looking at something amazing now.”
My cheeks go hot…again. “I mean…you just got here. I’m wondering… Have you been to the Top of the Rock?”
“What rock?”
I let out a short laugh. “The observation deck at Rockefeller Center.”
“Is it higher than the Empire State Building?”