Natalie Anderson - Seduced By The Boss

“It does,” he agreed, then drew a few other images toward him. “So let me show you a few more.”

For the next hour, Aine and Brady went over his plans for the castle. Though some of it sounded wonderful, there were other points she wasn’t as fond of. “Gaming systems in all the bedrooms?” She shook her head. “That hardly seems in keeping with the castle’s lineage.”

He leaned back in his chair, reached for the cup of soda in front of him and took a drink. Then he leisurely polished off the last of his French fries. They’d had lunch sent in and Aine had hardly touched her club sandwich. How could she eat when her very future hung in the balance?

He had said he didn’t want a yes man, someone to just agree with his pronouncements. But surely he would have a breaking point where he would resent having her argue with him over what was, to him and his partners, a very big deal.

“Even the people in the Middle Ages played games,” he pointed out.

“Not on gigantic flat-screen televisions and built-in gaming systems.”

Brady shook his head. “They would have if the tech had been around. And the televisions will be camouflaged in crafted cabinets to look period correct.”

“That’s something, I suppose,” Aine said, knowing that she was being stubborn, but feeling as though she were fighting for the very life of the castle she loved.

He was covering her arguments one by one and he was doing it so easily she almost admired it. But she felt it was up to her to protect Castle Butler and the people who depended on it, so Aine would keep at her arguments in favor of tradition and history.

“And on the ground floor,” she asked, “you want the dining room walls decorated with images from your game, yes?”

“That’s the idea. It is Fate Castle after all.”

“So the zombies and the wraiths will have their places there, as well.”

“Yes.”

She ground her teeth together. “You don’t think people might be put off their food if they’re surrounded by spirits of the dead looking over their shoulders?”

He frowned, tapped one finger against the table and said, “We can move the wall murals to the reception hall—”

Aine took a breath. “And what of the guests who aren’t coming to be a part of role-playing?” she asked. “We’ve regular guests, you know, who return year after year and they’re accustomed to a castle with dignity, tradition.”

“You keep throwing around the word tradition , and yet, with all of that dignity, the castle is in desperate need of repair and almost broke.”

She took a breath to fight him on that, but it was impossible to argue with an ugly truth. The castle she loved was in dire straits, and whether she liked it or not, Brady Finn was her only hope to save it. So many people depended on the castle and the guests who came to stay there that she couldn’t risk alienating the man. Yet despite knowing all of that, she felt as though the castle itself was depending on her to preserve its heritage.

“I admit the castle needs some care and attention,” she said, steeling herself to meet that clear, steady stare he’d fixed on her. “But I wonder if turning it into an amusement park is really the answer.”

“Not an amusement park,” he corrected. “No roller coasters, Ferris wheels or cotton-candy booths.”

“Thank heaven for that, at least,” she murmured.

“It’s going to be a destination hotel,” Brady told her and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “People all over the world will want to come to Fate Castle and experience the game they love in real life.”

“Fans, then.”

“Sure, fans,” he said, straightening abruptly and leaning back in his chair again. “But not only fans of the game. There’ll be others. People who want a taste of a real medieval experience.”

“Real?” she asked, tapping one finger on a drawing of a wraith with wild gray hair blowing in an unseen wind. “I’ve lived near the castle all my life and I’ve never seen anything like this haunting the grounds.”

“Real with a twist,” he amended, his lips twitching briefly.

That quick, thoughtless tiny half smile and her stomach did a quick dip and roll. She had to fight to keep her mind focused on their conversation. “And you believe there are enough fans of this game to turn the castle’s finances around?”

He shrugged. “We sold one hundred million copies of Fate Castle.”

Her mind boggled. The number was so huge it was impossible to believe. “So many?”

“And more selling all the time,” he assured her.

She sighed, looked at the drawings spread out over the table and tried to mentally apply them to the castle she knew. It would be so different, she thought. Yet a voice in the back of her mind whispered, It will survive . If all went as Brady Finn suggested, the castle and the village it supported would continue. That was the most important thing, wasn’t it?

“I suppose you’re right, then, about fans coming to the castle. Though I worry about people like Mrs. Deery and her sister, Miss Baker.”

He frowned. “Who are they?”

Aine sighed and brushed her hair back behind her ear. “Just two of our regular guests,” she said. “They’re sisters, in their eighties, and they’ve been coming to Castle Butler every year for the past twenty. They take a week together to catch up on each other’s lives and to be coddled a little by the hotel staff.”

“They can still come to the hotel,” he said.

Aine glanced again at the drawing of the wraith. “Yes, they can and no doubt will. I just wonder what they’ll make of the zombies...”

“It’s not just the gaming aspects we’re renovating at the castle,” he said. “We’ll be restoring the whole place. Making it safe again. The wiring’s mostly shot. It’s a wonder the place hasn’t caught fire.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad,” she argued, defending the place she loved.

“According to the building inspector we hired, it is,” Brady said. “The plumbing will be redone, new roof, insulation—though the castle will look medieval, it won’t feel like it.”

Aine took a breath and held it to keep from saying anything else. He was right in that the building itself needed updating desperately. In winter, you could feel cold wind sliding between the stones. Under the window sashes it came through strong enough to make the drapes flutter.

“We’re going to modernize the kitchens, install working furnaces and change out the worn or faded furniture. We’ll be replacing woodwork that’s rotted or ruined by water damage...”

All right, then, she thought, he was making her beloved castle sound like a tumbledown shack. “There’ve been storms over the years, of course, and—”

He held up one hand for silence and she was so surprised, she gave it to him.

“You don’t have to defend every mantel and window sash in the place to me, Aine. I understand the castle’s old...”

“Ancient,” she corrected, prepared to defend anyway. “Historic.”

“And we agree it needs work. I’m willing to have that work done.”

“And change the heart of it,” she said sadly.

“You’re stubborn,” he said. “I can appreciate that. So am I. The difference is, I’m the one who’ll make the decisions here, Aine. You can either work with me or—”

She looked at him and read the truth in his cool blue eyes. Well, the implication there was clear enough. Get on board or get out. And since there wasn’t a chance in hell she would willingly walk away from Castle Butler and all it entailed, she would have to bide her time, bite her tongue and choose very carefully the battles she was willing to wage.