Ruin Read online

  But there’s no decision to make.

  I’ve already made it.

  Zeus and I are never happening. Despite his claims that we’re inevitable and his promise to fight until he has me back.

  All I need is some time. Just enough to strengthen myself against him. A few more weeks, and I’ll be fine.

  Or that’s what I’ve been telling myself anyway.

  I’ve managed a week already. Okay, it’s been hard, and he’s tried his best to get me alone, but I’ve succeeded in not letting it happen once.

  He’s here every night with Gigi, putting her to bed and reading her a bedtime story. And, when he’s done, if Aunt Elle’s not here to act as a buffer and it’s just me and him, then I’m conveniently in the shower or bath.

  So, he leaves.

  But then, without fail, about an hour later, he calls my cell.

  And, each time, I don’t answer.

  He leaves a voice message. The same message every time.

  “I’m not giving up, Dove. I love you.”

  Then, I spend the rest of the night pretending like I don’t care while intermittently listening to the message—sometimes crying, sometimes drowning my sorrows in a bar of chocolate.

  Then, I delete the voice mail. And go to bed.

  And the cycle starts all over again the next day.

  But I can do this. I will do this.

  He will realize I’m not going to break. That The Mistake was just that, and we’re never getting back together—cue Taylor Swift’s song.

  And the cycle will break.

  It has to.

  Because I won’t risk my daughter’s happiness for anything.

  I’m rushing around, getting Gigi ready for school and myself ready for work.

  Zeus offered to come and pick her up to take her to pre-K, but I declined, knowing that Aunt Elle wouldn’t be here and Gigi wouldn’t be a good buffer. She’s a kid monster in the morning, and her sole ambition in life is to glue her eyes to the television and ignore everything I ask her to do.

  I’m in the kitchen, making our lunches—peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for us both. I might be twenty-four, but I have the palate of a child—when the doorbell rings.

  I pause as an excited chill creeps down my spine.

  Excited at the thought that it could be Zeus.

  Chilled at the thought that it could be Zeus.

  Messed up, thy name is Cameron.

  “I gots it!” Gigi yells out, sounding a hell of a lot chipper than I feel.

  “No, you’s don’t!” And I’ve also been picking up on my daughter’s vocab. Awesome. “What have I told you about answering the door?” I say sternly as I walk out of the kitchen and into the hall.

  Gigi has stopped just short of the door with a guilty look on her face.

  “That just ’cause it’s our doorbell ringing doesn’t means we knows who it is.”

  “That’s right, Gigi girl. So, what do you do when the doorbell rings?”

  “I’s waits for Mommy or Granny Elle. Or Daddy if he’s here.”

  That last bit stabs into my heart like a shard of glass.

  “That’s right.” I smile at her even though it’s the last thing I feel like doing. “So, now that I’m here with you, you can open the door.”

  Gigi unlocks the door and pulls it open.

  “Daddy!” she screams and jumps at him.

  Zeus catches her in his arms and holds her close, hugging her. “Morning, baby girl.” He kisses her cheek. His eyes drift to me. “Morning, Cam.”

  “Hi,” I say. “What are you doing here?” I try to say it without sounding too accusatory.

  “I wanted to see my girl before school.”

  Gigi slaps her hands to his cheeks and brings his focus to her. “You means, giwls, Daddy. You wants to see Mommy before work, too, right?”

  “Right.” He smiles at her. Then, his eyes move to mine. “I always want to see your mom.”

  The wanting look in his eyes makes my heart go kaboom.

  Welp.

  “Also, I got you something,” he tells Gigi, moving his stare back to her.

  “You dids?” she squeaks.

  “A surprise,” he whispers.

  “I woves surprises!” Gigi exclaims. “What is it?”

  Zeus looks at me. “Am I okay to come in for a minute?”

  I glance at the clock on the wall. “We’ve got only a few minutes,” I tell him.

  “That’s all I need.”

  He puts Gigi down and walks into the hall with her glued to his side. I shut the door behind them and lean up against it.

  Then, he pulls an envelope out from the pocket of his biker jacket, gets down to his knee, and hands it to Gigi.

  “You gots me a wetter, Daddy?”

  His lips tilt into that devastating smile of his. “Kinda. Open it,” he urges.

  Intrigued, I step closer.

  Gigi rips open the envelope, dropping it to the floor. There’s a folded piece of paper inside.

  Gigi opens the paper, and something that looks like tickets flutter to the floor.

  Zeus quickly picks them up.

  “What’s it say, Gigi girl?” I ask her.

  “It’s a picture of Sweeping Bweauty’s castle, Mommy.” She turns the picture to me.

  Huh?

  Zeus hands the tickets to her. “And what are these, Gigi girl?”

  She frowns in concentration. “I dunnos, Daddy.”

  “They’re tickets,” he says. “And who’s that right there?” He points at something on the tickets.

  “Mickey Mouse,” Gigi answers without hesitation.

  “And where would you find Mickey Mouse and Sleeping Beauty’s castle?”

  “Disney World,” I whisper at the same time as Gigi screams, “Disney World!”

  “That’s right, baby girl.” He beams at her. “I got us tickets to go to Disney World this coming weekend.”

  This weekend?

  “You dids?”

  “I did.”

  “You’s the best Daddy ever!”

  She launches herself at him, and he catches her, chuckling as she wraps her arms around his neck.

  And I start to feel sick.

  He’s taking her to Disney. I’ve never been able to afford that.

  And it’s all the way across the country. Meaning he’s going to be taking her away from me. I’ve never spent a night away from Gigi since the moment she was born.

  “Mommy! Looks!” She disentangles herself from Zeus and dashes to me. “We’s going to Disney! I gonna gets to see Flynn Wider! I’s can tell him we gets married when I’s a big girl. I gonna need my pwettiest dress, Mommy! I can’t wait to tell Granny Elle!”

  She’s bouncing off the wall with excitement, and I’m smiling big for her, but inside, I’m sinking.

  “That’s great news, Gigi girl. I’m super happy for you.” I bend down and hug her. “Would you do me a favor? Go grab your reading book from your room for me. We need to take it back to pre-K today.”

  “Okay, Mommy!” She runs off, up the stairs, singing “When Will My Life Begin” from the Tangled movie.

  My eyes meet Zeus, who’s now standing across from me.

  “You should have talked to me first,” I say quietly, an edge to my voice. “You can’t just go off and book a vacation without consulting me.”

  “It’s just a few days in Disney World. And I would’ve run it past you, but I haven’t been able to get five minutes alone to speak to you.”

  He’s got me there. But still…

  “Look, I’m not trying to be a bitch or be awkward, Zeus. It’s just…”

  “What?”

  “I’ve never been away from Gigi,” I admit. “I haven’t spent a night away from her since the moment she was born.”

  His expression turns tender. “There are three tickets, Dove.”

  “What?”

  “I booked it for you, me, and Gigi to all go together.”

  “Oh.” Oh. �
��Hang on. You’ve booked this for me, too?”

  Well, if that doesn’t just annoy the crap out of me.

  He nods, eyes carefully watching me.

  “And it’s for this weekend?”

  “Three nights actually. We leave Friday.”

  “I work Friday.” I fold my arms over my chest, feeling somehow wronged that he just went off and did this.

  “Not this Friday, you’re not.”

  “Says who?”

  “Your boss. I had Elle ask on your behalf for the time off. It’s all been arranged.”

  “Aunt Elle?” I blurt out.

  “Yeah. I told her that I wanted to surprise you and Gigi. She was more than happy to help me out, getting you the time off work.”

  And, apparently, Aunt Elle is now a traitor.

  “Gigi has pre-K,” I counter.

  “It’s a few days, Cam.” He sighs, clearly frustrated by my reluctance.

  My eyes go to the ceiling. Gigi has to go to Disney; otherwise, she’ll be devastated if she doesn’t. And I don’t relish the thought of being away from her for four days and three nights. So, it looks like I’m going to Disney World with them.

  “I didn’t do this to piss you off,” he says gently. “I just wanted to do something nice for Gigi. I want to spend time with her…and you.”

  “Don’t…” I warn him, bringing my eyes back to him. “You want me to come with you, then I’ll do it on one condition.”

  “Name it.”

  “You have to promise to lay off me. No talk about us getting back together while we’re at Disney. This vacation is about Gigi. Not you and me.”

  “Okay,” he says. “I won’t mention a single thing about you and me the whole time we’re there. Scout’s honor.”

  I bark out a laugh. “You, a Boy Scout? Hardly.”

  He grins. “I’m an honorary member nowadays.”

  “Sure you are, Zeus.”

  I laugh again. So does he.

  His twinkling eyes catch mine. The moment they lock with mine, they turn serious. My breath halts.

  “I miss you,” he says in a low voice, moving closer.

  My body instantly reacts to him. My nipples harden. His eyes lower to my chest, like he can see them through my bra and shirt.

  His eyes come back to mine before roaming down to my mouth. “I can still taste you.” His voice is a low growl.

  And I lick my lips without conscious thought.

  “I can still feel you around my cock, Dove. I can’t stop thinking about it…me inside you. I’ve been hard for a week, baby. A whole fucking week.”

  “Y-you just promised,” I stutter, my body trembling with need for him. “You said you’d stop with this.”

  He leans in and whispers in my ear, “I said I’d stop while we were in Disney World. We’re not there yet.”

  The sound of Gigi bounding down the stairs is a goddamn relief because having him this near had me close to just grabbing him and kissing the hell out of him.

  Zeus seamlessly steps back from me. He’s instantly calm and collected.

  Me…well, I’m a jittering jumble of a mess, desperately trying to pull myself back together after he just reduced me to a quivering idiot in a matter of seconds.

  Zeus—1.

  Cam—0.

  “I gots the book, Mommy.” She thrusts it at me, and my trembling hand takes it. “Daddy, are we staying in a hotel? Does it have a pool?” she fires up at him.

  He picks her up and looks into her face as he talks to her, “We are, baby girl, and yep, it has a pool and a view of the Magic Kingdom.” His eyes come to mine. “I got us a suite to stay in. Two bedrooms.”

  His stare smokes through me, and my insides shake hard. Setting off an incessant throbbing between my legs.

  I’m so screwed.

  He’s got me backed into a corner. The oddest of corners because, now, I want the Disney trip to quickly roll around, so I can have a break from Zeus trying to win me back after being tricked into spending time with him while sleeping in the same two-bedroom suite as him.

  Confused? Yep, me, too.

  Remember what I said before about me being a gazelle and him a lion?

  Yep, well, the lion has just chased me into a dead end, and I didn’t even see it coming.

  The only saving grace I have is that he’s promised not to talk about us while we’re there. And, if he’s not talking about us or using his sexiness as a weapon against me, then I’ll be fine.

  Totally fine.

  And, also, Gigi will be with us, and nothing can happen when you’ve got your four-year-old kid, who’s all hopped up on Disney, right?

  Wrong.

  Zeus might not be saying anything, but the looks he keeps giving me…God, the looks alone are enough to do me in.

  And I don’t know if he’s sprayed himself with sex pheromones or if it’s just seeing him here with Gigi, doting on her and just being an amazing father, or if it’s feeling like we’re actually a family unit, but it’s setting off explosions in my ovaries and making me horny.

  Only I could get turned on while at Disney World.

  I’m going straight to hell.

  The suite we’re staying in is in the Bay Lake Tower hotel, which is right by the Magic Kingdom and overlooks the park. It’s beautiful.

  And it has two bedrooms.

  One for me and Gigi to stay in. The other for Zeus.

  He said he tried to get a three-bedroom suite, but there was none available.

  But I don’t care. Bunking in with my beauty is no problem at all.

  It’s the beast I have to be careful not to get into bed with.

  The other thing we have while we’re here is security.

  I sometimes forget how famous Zeus is.

  It’s easy to forget when we’re in Port Washington, and it’s just us. But, when you come out into the big, wide world, especially in a place like Disney, there are always going to be people who recognize him.

  Zeus didn’t want the security. He said it would only bring attention to him. But Disney insisted on supplying it when they knew who they had staying with them because a famous person in Disney could become a security risk. And, because we would have Gigi with us, Zeus relented immediately.

  Her safety is nonnegotiable.

  And it’s not too bad, having security. The two guys assigned to us are Steve and Donovan—who, don’t get me wrong, are big guys but nothing like Zeus. He towers the both of them. But they seem like good guys, and it’s nice to have that little extra safety even though I know Zeus wouldn’t let anything happen to Gigi or me.

  Steve and Donovan stay a close distance behind us, so it’s not like they’re even really there with us half of the time. So, we’re still getting time together, behaving like every other family here.

  Except we’re not a family. Not in the real sense.

  Your choice, Cam, remember?

  Sigh.

  The only time Steve and Donovan make their presence known is when people start to approach Zeus, asking for photos and autographs, and then they intervene.

  I know people approaching Zeus bothers Gigi. She doesn’t say it, but I can tell. She understandably wants his full attention, and it’s frustrating for her when someone tries to take her daddy’s focus away from her.

  But Zeus isn’t letting it happen. He’s here for Gigi and no one else.

  He hasn’t been signing autographs or taking photos with anyone. That’s not him being an ass. That’s him wanting to have some quality time while on vacation with his daughter, and I admire him for that.

  I also admire his ass in the jeans he’s wearing today, but that’s another story.

  The good thing is that Zeus doesn’t even have to tell people that he’s not willing to take a picture with them. Steve and Donovan do it for him in a polite way, telling them he’s on vacation with his family.

  That is obviously piquing interest because, as far as the world knows, Zeus is a single man with no family, except for his
siblings.

  Well, he is a single man.

  But whatever.

  And he might not be posing for pictures, but people are still taking them.

  As I’ve recently discovered, there’s an Instagram page called DILFs of Disney. And, of course, Zeus appeared on it the first day we were here. A picture of him with Gigi in his arms. She was dressed in her new Rapunzel outfit that Zeus had bought her, and she was feeling tired, so he picked her up to carry her. He looks seriously hot in the picture. He’s only wearing black jeans, sneakers, and a white V-neck T-shirt, but hellfire, he’s devastatingly handsome.

  There are a lot of comments on the picture. Mostly, people are commenting that they didn’t know he had a daughter. Neither did he until a few months ago. And maybe it’s not his daughter. Maybe it’s a friend’s child. Then, people are saying they heard he’s on vacation with his family.

  Maybe we should’ve thought about what we had Steve and Donovan tell people, but I guess it’s too late now.

  But I can see the speculation building, and it’s honestly making me feel uneasy. Something in my gut doesn’t feel right about it. But I’m not going to let it ruin our vacation, so right now, I’m choosing to ignore it and enjoy my time here.

  We’re currently on Main Street, waiting for the fireworks to start. We didn’t go to the fireworks last night, as Gigi was tired from the flight and her first day in Disney, which had consisted of going into every shop and riding every ride possible. She crashed as soon as we got to our room, and so did I. I lay down on the bed with her, and when I opened my eyes again, it was morning.

  But we’re here to watch them now. It’s eleven p.m., and Gigi has never stayed up this late before. She’s flagging a little, but she’s desperate to see them. And, honestly, I really want to see them, too. So, Zeus has her up on his shoulders, carrying her, and we’re standing in the street, waiting for it to start, Steve and Donovan close by.

  “Mommy! Daddy! Wook!” Gigi points at the light show happening in the sky. “So pwetty!” she says.

  I smile up at her. “Not as pretty as you,” I tell her.

  She grins at me before her eyes go back to the sky.

  We watch the show, oohing and aahing at the fireworks and music and light show. It’s absolutely stunning. And heartwarming.

  And it’s making me feel all fuzzy inside.