Page 7 of Claimed Gem

Stephanie walked down the hallway,stopping in front of the elevator and forcing herself not to go back to the room and take him up on the invitation she’d seen in his eyes. The night before he’d shown her his true colors, and the last thing Stephanie needed was a playboy thinking she was an easy mark.

He’d not hit on her tonight but she reasoned that was mostly because he was so hung-over. She had no doubts that if she was to see him again, he’d be all smooth talking and charming as he tried to get her to offer more than her waitressing duties.

So many of the bar’s patrons seemed to think that waitressing with a smile meant they were also being offered other sorts of services and “happy endings” for a small fee. Stephanie had initially resented that aspect of her job but had since learned to politely redirect their unwanted attention ,and, if need be, she’d simply pass the table off to Terri or one of the other waitresses more adept at handling them. Stephanie could not bring herself to do that and she hadn’t intended to start now.

Not even for a gorgeous Greek with bedroom eyes and a killer smile like Ries.

4

Ries sat down heavilyon the mattress and then pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He glanced at the screen and saw that he had received several messages in the last few hours. All from his oldest brother, Damon.

Sighing, he brushed his thumb over the voicemail icon and then hit speaker, lying back on the mattress as his brother’s irate voice played.

“Ries, what in the name of Zeus are you doing? The tabloids are on fire with your latest antics! Did you forget why you were in Stavros to begin with? I can assure you it wasn’t to have orgies on that yacht of yours.”

There was the sound of Damon shuffling papers and Ries could almost see his older brother sitting at his desk, irritated that he’d had to take precious minutes from his day to make the call to chastise Ries. Again. It seemed Damon was always taking him to task over one thing or another.

“Must I remind you that you are a Kafatos? I could understand your screwing around when you were eighteen, even nineteen, but it’s time you grew up and started acting like the adult you are. I told Nicolai that I didn’t think you could handle this job but he assured me I was wrong.”

Damon made no effort to hide the disappointment in his voice and Ries pushed aside his own feelings. Ries had never been able to quite reach Damon’s expectations and, over the years, he’d quit trying.

“I’m sorry to report that I was right. You know how critical it is that we get a handle on what’s going on with the company right now. Instead of seeing how many women you can have sex with, why don’t you, for once, try to do something right? Find us a location that we can use on the mainland. Can you do that? It’s not a hard task.”

Ries cringed at the sound of Damon’s voice grating over his nerves.Of course, I can do that. I just haven’t seen the point.

“Ries! If you’re listening to this instead of speaking to me directly, you’re just hiding away. Either way, get to work. Find us a place to set up on the mainland and keep your extracurricular activities out of the media’s hands. We don’t need any more negative press right now.”

Damon’s voice trailed off as the message ended, leaving Ries sitting on the side of the bed, his hands clenched by his sides.

So, Damon expected me to fail from the get-go. Great. Whatever happened to family loyalty and believing the best about one another?

Ries fell back on the mattress once more, closing his eyes as Damon’s accusations continued to replay in his mind. The longer he lay there, the angrier he became. For once, he wanted to hear Damon praising him for his efforts instead of belittling how Ries chose to live his life.

With that anger, came a hefty dose of determination to prove his brother – both of his brothers – wrong.

“I am not worthless and damn Damon for even thinking so,” he told the empty room. He pushed himself up off the mattress and headed for the attached bathroom. He leaned heavily on the sink and gazed at himself in the mirror.

“You can do this. Damon will have to eat his words once I’ve taken care of things.”

The thought of his older brother being put in his place brought a smile to Ries’ face. “So, how am I going to prove my worth, not that I need to,” he spoke to his reflection. “You could follow Damon’s dictates and find a suitable location for the company to relocate temporarily, or…you could do something that means something and makes a difference.”

An idea began to form as he stood there, swaying slightly as another wave of sickness swept over him. He swayed a bit, and turned on the water, splashing his face and then brushing his teeth before heading for the bed.

He lied down, his idea continuing to take shape. Damon wouldn’t necessarily think he was helping, once he found out where Ries had been devoting his time, but Ries would be doing something that made an impact. The more he thought about things, the more he was convinced that Damon didn’t even need to know what Ries was up to. He was going to help Stephanie.

Damon certainly wouldn’t approve of his brother trying to track down criminals and bring them to justice. Thinking about the criminals also got him thinking about Stephanie. She’d been really nice to him tonight, helping him back to his room, and she’d seemed to be truly concerned, but Ries knew better.

Women only saw one thing when they looked at Ries – money. The Kafatos brothers were extremely wealthy, and unlike his brothers, Ries made absolutely no effort to hide that fact. He actually went out of his way to flaunt his wealth, having learned the hard way that people only wanted to be with him for what they could get.

Instead of taking a chance and risking having his heart trampled on, he’d found it much easier to just put his obvious wealth right out there for everyone to see. When people fawned over him and placated his every whim, he knew it was because of his wealth and not because of the person he was inside. Knowing the score from the onset prevented him from ever having to risk his emotions getting involved. Stephanie was no different.

He recalled she’d said she didn’t have a clue about his reputation, but she was female and that meant she’d probably asked someone about him.He’s as rich as Midas.

Even knowing that Stephanie had helped him for ulterior motives, Ries decided he didn’t care. The thought of doing something nice for her – of doing the right thing for once, with nothing to personally gain, appealed to him.

With his wealth came a measure of power and the ability to make things happen. Ries could help Stephanie see that justice was done and the criminals were brought to justice, and if she was grateful and wanted to offer up herself as a way of saying thank you, he wouldn’t turn her down.

It wasn’t like he was going to fall in love with some strange American woman who was admittedly gorgeous and struck a chord inside him he couldn’t explain.