Reckless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 2) Read online

  After all the pain and suffering the Farrells had caused her family, she couldn’t believe that she had gone and kissed one.

  The second she’d gotten home, she’d brushed her teeth three times and washed her mouth out with that stupid mouthwash that made her entire mouth burn.

  Now that the whole embarrassing situation was behind her, she could stop acting like a fourth grader who thought they had cooties and move on like a rational adult. It wasn’t as if they’d slept together, thank goodness.

  And Lord knew she’d been close. She’d never, ever slept with a man she’d just met, but something about Robert had her seriously debating breaking her normally chaste life. Stupid Farrells. They were probably so used to getting everything they wanted that the very idea of a woman saying no to him had probably driven Robert crazy.

  She smiled at the thought as she tied the boat to the cement docking station. Her mother might never have been able to land any substantial blows to the Farrells, but this one little thing would be her victory. She’d given Robert Farrell blue balls. High five to her.

  After she secured the boat, she did a quick glance around the boat. It was cleared of all of Chris’s personal items and ready for her passengers to sit down and enjoy the views.

  For the day, she was required to be a cheery and informative Hawaiian, and she could manage that. All she had to do was make sure she didn’t think about Robert Farrell at all.

  Which would’ve been easier if she didn’t turn around to see Robert Farrell walking right toward her.

  Malia grabbed the boat rail to cover her sudden loss of balance as the man she swore she’d never see again walked toward the boat. Damn, there wasn’t even enough time to untie the boat and make a run for it. Yeah. That was totally the mature way to handle this.

  He was dressed in swim shorts and a white t-shirt. Not a normal, cheap white t-shirt. The fabric looked exceptionally soft to the touch and the v-neck was just deep enough to show off his chest and high enough to not be too douchey.

  Should she be freaked out? This was stalkerish. She hadn’t given him her number or even her last name. Hell, it was a small island. He probably hadn’t had to try that hard to get her number. Damn it.

  Robert wasn’t alone, though. Behind him, a couple walked hand in hand: a big guy about the same height as Robert and a pretty woman with dark hair pulled into a high ponytail and wearing short cutoffs and a black bikini top. Malia was half surprised Robert didn’t show up with a gaggle of hot, bikini-clad women. From everything she’d read about the Farrell family, the boys rarely went without a woman hanging on their arm.

  Robert met her eyes from across the pier and he smiled at her. He probably expected her to be happy to see him, but she could barely conceal her anger. Instead, she turned her gaze to the couple next to him. She tried to force a smile, but it probably ended up looking like a bad case of constipation face.

  “Malia?” asked the woman as they got closer.

  Malia opened her mouth to say yes, but nothing came out, so she just nodded.

  “I’m happy we found you okay. The drive was so pretty, I thought we’d get sidetracked and never make it.”

  Robert’s eyes moved up and down over her body, and once again Malia had to fight the urge to run. Words. She needed to form words.

  “At least there’s only one highway that goes through the island, so it’s not like we were going to get lost,” said Robert.

  Malia looked back at the open ocean. If she did want to make a run for it, it was now or never.

  “I hope it’s okay that I tagged along. I know my assistant booked you for two people but I heard it was only a hundred bucks extra per person and figured I’d tag along.”

  She’d have to talk to them eventually. She turned back to the party. “I didn’t realize I was dealing with an assistant. I don’t like working with third parties.”

  The woman behind Robert stopped and her smile faltered. “Is there a problem? We can leave if there’s a hassle...”

  Damn, she looked sad. Just like the Farrells to pull innocent people into their shit.

  “No, it’s fine. It just surprised me.” The smile she’d been trying for finally managed to find its way to her face. “Let me help you in. Just put your first foot here and grab my hand. This railing isn’t steady enough to lean on, so grab me instead.”

  “Okay.” The woman gingerly leaned forward to take Malia’s hand and follow her instructions as she stepped onto the boat. “I’m Jean, by the way. This is my, um, boyfriend, Colin.”

  Malia nodded a hello to Colin as Jean got onto the boat. Like most guys, he didn’t accept her help while stepping into the boat and Malia moved out of the way. “If you brought any drinks, I have a cooler with fresh ice here. I also have some chips and fresh tuna jerky.”

  Robert was the last one on the boat. “Tuna jerky? That sounds amazing.”

  Oh, it was amazing. She was now offering her world-class, fresh, homemade sundried tuna jerky to Robert Farrell. Ugh. She climbed onto the pier and started to untie the back end of the boat and climbed into the boat before she untied the front end. Once she had the ropes in the boat and moved behind the wheel, she motioned to the front end where she’d just been standing. “You two can have a seat up there. Those are probably the best seats on the boat.”

  “Where do you want me?” asked Robert.

  Malia chose to believe there was no sexual meaning in those words. “You should stay behind me so the boat is balanced.” And there were no seats behind her, so he’d effectively have to stand. Her little way of getting revenge.

  Colin and Jean took their seats as Malia backed the boat out and turned it around. She kept the speed down as they left the harbor and got closer to the sandbar. The tide was getting higher, so all the sand was covered for the moment, but during low tide, the sand was exposed, leaving a great place for sunbathing or partying.

  Once they were farther out, she kicked up the speed so the motor drowned out most of the sound. That left Jean and Colin to cuddle together up front as Robert moved to stand closer to her. “I’m sorry if I surprised you today.”

  Malia kept her eyes on the water in front of them. Partly because she didn’t want to look at Robert’s handsome face and partly because she needed to make sure she didn’t wander into shallower waters by accident. “If you were sorry, you would’ve called me your damned self.”

  “I really didn’t get the idea until after you were gone. I remembered Jean and Colin were coming in and wanted a knowledgeable tour guide.”

  “You have no idea if I’m qualified as a tour guide.”

  “Is it really so bad to want to give my sister a good time?”

  That broke Malia’s concentration and she jerked her head to look at him. “Don’t lie to me. You don’t have a sister.”

  He raised a brow. “So you know who I am then?”

  “You gave me your card.”

  “I guess you haven’t been reading the tabloids then.”

  “Tabloids aren’t on my reading lists, sorry.”

  He smiled. “See, that just makes me like you more. Tabloids aren’t normally that good to me.”

  “Don’t be too happy. I don’t need a tabloid to tell me about your reputation. I also know you don’t have a sister.”

  “Didn’t until last year. Once Walter croaked, he left a chunk of the estate to Jean. This trip is my way of trying to get to know her better.”

  “Her and her boyfriend.”

  Robert let out a groan, telling her that he wasn’t too excited about Jean’s choice in men. “They’re a package deal at the moment.”

  “You better realize that this isn’t any sort of double date. I’m working right now. You just have to go and relax and leave me alone.”

  His brows drew together and he pressed one hand against the wheel as he moved in closer. “I think I missed something. Are you pissed off at me?”

  “You’re a borderline stalker right now. How did you expect me to react?�
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  “I don’t know, but I feel like there’s something you’re mad about that you’re not telling me.”

  Malia pressed her lips together and pointed to one of the gorgeous mountains on the island. “Check this out,” she said loud enough for Jean and Colin to hear. Robert got the hint and backed up a few steps. “The Jurassic World film crew got a few helicopter shots right here, so if you watch the movie, you’re going to see these in the background of the park. Also, if you notice all those grooves and striations in the mountains, those all turn to waterfalls during heavy rains. It’s really remarkable.”

  Jean’s face lit up and Colin whispered something in her ear that flushed her cheeks with red. Great. This was going to be one of those trips where the lovebirds kept to themselves and she was going to be stuck with Robert.

  “So have you always lived on the island?”

  She supposed that if she wanted to get out of this, she was going to have to have some semblance of normal conversation. “I came here in my late teen years with my mother. So I’ve been here almost ten years now.”

  “Wow. I got the idea you were a local.”

  “That’s what happens when you don’t know anything about a person.” She shot him a pointed look but he didn’t seem fazed.

  “Okay, then tell me something about you that I should know.”

  She debated giving him some shallow fact but she decided to go with something juicier that would surprise him. “I lived in New York City until I was ten.”

  That got his attention. “No shit. No wonder you know who I am.”

  There was a very good chance that even if he knew her mother’s name, he would have no idea of the significance. Her family had probably been nothing but a blip in the radar. A little

  speed bump to be rolled over.

  “Yep. You came all the way to Hawaii and found the one other New Yorker to stalk.”

  “I’m not stalking you.”

  “Isn’t that what all stalkers say?”

  “I’m not going to get anywhere in this argument, am I?”

  “Not at this rate you’re not.” She stopped talking as she navigated through a narrow channel.

  “So what’s the line between a guy seeing something he wants and going for it and a guy being a stalker?”

  “Normally it’s how the woman feels about the whole thing.”

  “Damn. I’m screwed then, aren’t I?”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

  “Well, if I want you to like me, how can I get that to happen if you won’t talk to me?”

  “Maybe you have to get used to the idea of not getting something you want.”

  He squinched his face as though he was giving serious thought to that option. “No. No. I’m too used to getting what I want to let this go.”

  Malia rolled her eyes and really wished she didn’t want to smile at his cockiness. “I guess you’ll have to live like the rest of us, who don’t get everything handed to us on a silver platter.”

  Robert bent in. “Or maybe you can hang out with me and get a taste of what it feels like to get whatever you want, whenever you want it.”

  Malia’s muscles tensed. Nope. Normal conversation wasn’t working for this.

  “So did your assistant give you a rundown of what we’re doing?” she asked loud enough for everyone on the boat to hear.

  Once again, involving his “sister” worked perfectly to get him to back off. “It sounded like we could kind of pick where we wanted to go.”

  “Yep. The sandbar is right here if you want to spend the day relaxing. You can sunbathe on the boat or fish farther out. I have two rods that can be shared. If you want to do more, we can head out past Chinaman’s Hat and check out the sea turtles, and I know a private beach we can do lunch at.”

  Colin set an arm around Jean. “We can relax and sunbathe at the resort. Why don’t we try to fit as much in as possible?”

  Malia smiled. Her kind of people. She’d never been capable of sitting around and basking in the sun for any period of time. And not for lack of trying. But the second she’d set out her towel, lathered on the sun block and let her head hit the sand, her mind would race with things she should be doing or errands she could be running.

  Probably another reason she worked so many small jobs.

  “Is there a chance to see any whales?” asked Jean.

  “This time of year, there might still be some around, but they’re mostly on the other side of the island. They don’t come in the shallows and this boat doesn’t go into the deeper water. But I have some great recommendations for whale tours if you’re interested.”

  “How many times have you given this tour?” asked Robert.

  “I don’t really consider it a tour. It’s more like a relaxing day out. You can go where you want, within limits, and don’t have to rush or take time.” Her normal spiel included the whole “your wish is my command,” but considering the company, she bit her tongue on that one.

  She’d given the trip enough times to know the schedule for the folks who wanted to see it all. She started out with the sea turtles that were always a favorite. When she’d first come from the mainland, she’d thought all turtles were relatively small. Not the ones in Hawaii. Most of the ones they passed in the boat had shells over three feet long from head to tail.

  The sight of the majestic reptiles even managed to get Robert to leave her alone as he tried to snap a few photos with his phone.

  From there, she steered the boat to the secret beach. It was no secret to the locals, but most people stayed away.

  The water was the perfect depth so that she could pull the boat up close enough to the beach to allow the passengers to hop out into the shallow water while the motor didn’t skim the bottom.

  Malia allowed them to wander around as she anchored the boat and unloaded the food and drinks.

  Before she could maneuver the cooler out of the boat, Robert was behind her. “Why don’t you let me take that?”

  She was torn between refusing any form of help and making the rich boy do manual labor, but she ultimately decided to hand him the cooler. Knowing her unreliable sense of balance, she wouldn’t be a graceful sight as she hauled the cooler out of the boat. She was really good at not falling, but there would definitely be some swaying and stumbling involved.

  After she collected the rest of the supplies, she jumped out of the boat, getting half of her shorts soaked in the process but managing to keep the bags of food above the water. She half expected Robert to start harassing her again once she was on land, but he was on his phone instead, speaking harshly to someone as he went to stand behind a grove of trees where she couldn’t hear him.

  Colin and Jean were already making themselves comfortable. Jean set down towels for them to sit on while Colin met her halfway to take the bags for her. They certainly were a chivalrous group, which was surprising considering who they were.

  Malia glanced over to where Robert was still on the phone. He paced in a small circle as he ran a hand through his hair. It was damn depressing to see someone so stressed out in a place so beautiful. “Does Robert spend a lot of time on his phone?”

  Jean settled onto the towel next to Colin as he opened up a soda for her and handed it to her. The gesture was subtle but oddly sweet. She didn’t have to ask him or tell him what kind she wanted. He already knew and was taking care of her. So many other couples she’d brought out ended up with the women waiting on the men and serving them. It was nice to see the role reversal. Especially with a guy who looked as macho as Colin did.

  Could he really be one of those hotshot executives like Robert? For that matter, Robert didn’t look like a normal executive. Unless it was normal for executives to bench-press over two hundred pounds no problem.

  “From what I can tell, Robert is always working,” said Jean.

  “It’s not his fault,” said Colin. “He’s always been the go-to whenever there’s some mess. Bet you that’s what he’s dealing
with now.”

  Malia looked over her shoulder again and back to Jean. The supposed sister. Every article or news clipping Malia had ever read about the Farrells never mentioned a sister. “It’s nice of him to arrange all this. Are you all a close-knit family?”

  Colin let out a snort of laughter as Jean averted her eyes before she took a deep swig of her pop. “Not that close. I’m hoping we can have some sort of normal relationship.”

  “Normal how?”

  “Well, it’s kind of strange, but I’m Robert’s half-sister. We didn’t know we were related until after our father died, so we only met a few months ago.”

  No wonder Malia hadn’t realized. Her obsession with the Farrells had finally died down in the past few years and, unless it was front page news, she really didn’t pay attention. Well, Jean didn’t seem too messed up. Maybe spending most of her life away from the family had allowed her to escape unscathed. “It’s really cool that you are trying to have a relationship. Lots of people barely stay in contact with the family that they have, let alone new family they never had any relationship with.”

  “I’m still not convinced this whole thing is going to work,” said Colin, resulting in a playful elbow to his gut from Jean.

  “I told you this would be worth it. Robert’s a good guy. I can tell.”

  “You think,” corrected Colin.

  Malia dug her feet into the sand as she studied the two. Obviously Jean had more faith in Robert than she did. Maybe somehow the Farrell sons had escaped the disastrous effects of the family name.

  “Tell him that if he doesn’t sign the damn contract, I will personally come down there and make him sign the fucking thing!”

  Malia tensed at Robert’s harsh words and turned to see him hanging up the phone and walking over to the group.

  In a flash, his charming smile was back in place, no sign of the angry demands from a second ago. “Sorry about that.” He sat between where Colin and Jean were huddled. “Did I miss anything?”