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"Who shouldn't think I'm only resting in their presence, yes. I built this resort, so I‘m the one working on the front line. Where else would my employees gain the motivation to always give their best?“
The words Kaden chose were so different from the ones that had been spread about him in the media. Not that I'd ever believed the claims of a money-grubbing bachelor, I simply knew him too well for that, but hearing it from his mouth now soothed my conscience in a way I hadn't even known I needed.
"Am I not an unwelcome distraction for you?"
His expression told me he could not believe what he had just heard from my mouth. I thought he would grab my chin and force me to look directly at him.
Instead, he clenched his hand into a fist and leaned back in his seat.
"An unwelcome distraction," he repeated, letting out the breath he had been holding. "Nika, if I hear anything like that from you again…"
"So you have time to cook with me, right?" I replied, barely able to hide my grin.
Kaden's eyes narrowed as he realized I had just maneuvered him into a trap without him seeing it coming.
Still, he gave me no answer.
Kaden
Ihad always seen more advantages than disadvantages to living in an apartment within the resort. However, as soon as we arrived on O'ahu, I realized I could not come up with a reasonable excuse for having Nikau stay with me. The only sensible thing to do was to give her one of the other vacant apartments and hope to see her enough to carry on with my plans.
She had agreed to have dinner together at the restaurant, but by the time we reached the resort it was already late. Both of us were tired from the eight-hour flight, which I did twice in one day, and after a quick tour of the apartment and an explanation of how the resort works, I sent her to bed.
However, this was not the point at which I fell into a sleep coma. I noticed Kaia's missed calls as soon as we landed. Even though she was a grown woman and quite capable of making her own decisions, I knew she would not call me several times in a row for no good reason.
So I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed her number. It didn't even take her five seconds to pick up the phone.
"So two tickets back to Hawaii, huh? How did you convince her so quickly?"
And I hadn't told Kaia about my plan. So either she knew me damn well… or she had done the math in the hours I had been gone.
"And that's why you called me five times in a row?"
"I don't want to miss something important happening in my brother's life."
"You mean apart from the things that have happened in the last few years?" The opening of a luxury resort and all my other achievements in the business.
"Well, maybe next there will be a story about Kaden Haoa falling head over heels in love and finally finding the one."
I shook my head. "That's not what this is about," I replied emphatically.
"It isn't? Then enlighten me."
Perhaps this was where I should tell her about the arrangement between Nikau and myself that had been in place for ten years, and which had undergone a significant change today. But I preferred to keep this little secret to myself. Firstly, it was none of Kaia's business, and secondly, I didn't want to hear her make fun of me. Her brother needed a hell of a deal to convince a woman to stay by his side for more than a few weeks.
"There's nothing to sort out," I finally said. "Nikau's here; if everything goes as I think it will, she'll stay here."
And while she found me a wife, I showed her what she had been missing with her boring sex life. A win-win situation for both of us, wasn't it?
"Is that how it is? But you didn't force her to be here, did you?"
"Of course not!"
"I just wanted to make sure. You never know what's going on in that clever head of yours," she murmured.
I ignored her comment. "By the way, I'd like you to find her a job. And one that makes her happy."
Kaia would make of that whatever she wanted. After seeing the restaurant where Nikau had worked for the past few years and meeting the people who also staffed it, I wondered even more how she had survived in Iowa.
