Lucky 7 Bad Boys Contemporary Romance Boxed Set (2 page)

THE PERFECT MIX

by Charity Pineiro

Chapter One

Jeans that tight and faded should be illegal, Bianca Martinez thought.

She approached the bar where her partner and the man she assumed was their prospective contractor were busy reviewing the plans drawn up by the architect for the renovation of their newly acquired restaurant space.

As she got closer, she once again appreciated how the well-worn denim hugged the slim line of the contractor's hips. She moved her gaze down his muscled thighs to a pair of clean, but abundantly used work boots. Above his narrow waist a pair of broad muscled shoulders stretched out to there and a head of nearly blue-black hair called to Bianca to smooth out the tousled waves.

She resisted the temptation, telling herself that the rest of him couldn't be as good as the back of him, but as he sensed her approach, he turned and smiled. In that instant, her heart skittered to an abrupt halt and her breathing ceased.

His face was stunning.

Dark finely arched brows swept over eyes the color of rich caramel toffee. His nose was a straight sharp slash and drew attention to lips just too sinful to describe. Especially when he grinned as he was doing now, displaying perfect white teeth and a deep dimple on one side.

He was masculine perfection. The half-sleeve tattoo across one bicep just added to all that dangerous masculinity, warning her to avoid his bad boy mystique. Her mother had advised her more than once about this kind of man -- the ones who seemed too pretty and too sure of themselves for their own good. Her mother had said to run hard and run fast, and Bianca was actually going to listen to her mother this one time.

Except that she had promised Alex and Maya that she would interview this man for her renovations, what with him being a friend of the family.

But agreeing to interview him didn’t mean that she had to hire him, did it?

* * *

Rey Ramos heard someone enter and assumed it was Alex's sister, the third partner in this fledgling restaurant business. He didn't turn around right away, too busy looking at the plans with her partner and getting a sense of what he wanted, not to mention that he was a little pissed that she was late for their meeting.

Rey had a tight schedule today. He had to check on a couple of other job sites before the end of the day since business was good lately. In fact, if it had been any one other than Alex and Maya asking, he wouldn't even have gone to look over the plans and present a bid. He was just too busy and he didn't like the idea of spreading himself thin. He prided himself on not just the quality of his work, but on finishing his projects on time. It was what had earned him repeat business and a lot of excellent referrals. People liked it that he came when he was supposed to, did the job with professionalism, and finished within a reasonable timetable and close to budget.

Part of the reason Rey could afford to do that was because he didn't overextend himself by taking on more contracting jobs than he and his crews could handle at one time. Right now they were exceptionally busy and working on a project of the scope before him would mean Rey would have to put in a lot more hours and assemble another crew of workers for this site.

As he finally turned and grinned at Alex's sister, he considered again that maybe he was better off not even considering this job.

Before him stood the kind of woman that meant trouble, in capital letters. She was young and very attractive. There was something in her eyes that bore a slight resemblance to her brother Alex, but that was where any resemblance ended.

She was totally feminine and elegant in that rich girl kind of way. Her chic black suit probably cost more than his entire wardrobe. But then again, denim work shirts and jeans weren't all that pricey. The suit hugged the slim lines of her body, accentuating her slender curves. Beneath the fine fabric of the suit, a form-fitting white shirt molded to her body.

Rey took a deep breath to battle his response to her generous breasts and a narrow waist that flared into womanly hips. He already itched to explore all those tempting curves, but he resisted.

He told himself again that he was crazy to think about this job. Especially when she held out a well-manicured hand, one sporting an intricately worked topaz ring, and introduced herself in a voice that started an unsettling heat way south in his body.

Her voice was low, with just a slight trace of huskiness. The voice of a seductress and totally in keeping with the sexy image she presented.

Rey glanced at her hand uncertainly, but finally took it in his. He was surprised by the strength in her grip and the slight roughness of her palm which redeemed her somewhat. After all, she couldn't be that much of a princess if she had even some callous, could she? But then he caught the winking gleam of gold and diamonds, and her sleeve shifted enough for him to see the tennis bracelet encircling her fine wrist.

"I assume you're Bianca Martinez?" he said and continued holding onto her hand, enjoying the slight tremble and the flush working across the fine line of her cheeks. He was both glad and worried that she, too, was affected by just this simple touch.

"You must be Rey. I've heard a lot of good things about you from Alex and Maya," Bianca replied.

She slowly eased her hand out of his work roughened one, although not before wondering how that hand would feel against other parts of her anatomy. In the back of her mind, her mother's voice cried out, "Run, girl, run!"

She motioned to the blueprints spread out on the surface of the bar. "I assume you and Eduardo were going over the plans?"

Rey nodded and stepped aside to let her approach the bar and her partner. With a quick chaste kiss for Eduardo, she laid her hand on the blueprints and smoothed them out. "What do you think, Rey?"

"Gorgeous plans, although a little too much for my tastes," he said and shrugged. "It'll take a lot of work. Major reconstruction actually," he continued as he gestured to the plans and then examined the interior of the restaurant.

Bianca cringed at his words and glanced at the blueprints intently. Major reconstruction meant major money, something they really didn't have. In fact, it was the reason she was late. She’d been at the bank trying to get them to up the amount of the loan they had applied for. The loan officer had been sympathetic, but unwilling to budge, giving them a loan for only a portion of the amount they had requested. Where they would get the other financing to cover their expected expenses, including the renovation, was something she still had to figure out.

"What kind of 'major reconstruction' are we talking about?" she asked, all the time hoping Rey was wrong.

Rey placed his hands on his hips and moved a few steps away. He motioned to the one wall right in front of them that cut the restaurant in half. “The plans want to take out this wall, but it's load bearing. That means we’ll have to find another way to support the area,” he said.

He continued, pointing out on the plans where the architect wanted to take down other walls, reroute existing plumbing, and a number of things which she worried would be costly. Rey sounded competent and very thoughtful as he explained what was involved with all the changes. When he was done with that explanation, he turned to the specification sheet which listed the grade of materials to be used on the job.

"The choice of the lumber is the same I would have made. It's high grade and will hold up well. But the specs call for hardwood on all the doors, trim and molding, and you're staining them to a deep walnut color. We could get the same effect with a high quality pine and it would save a ton of money."

Bianca shot a glance at the plans then at her partner. "I don't know why the architect would do that since we told him we had a tight budget."

"Maybe he took one look at you and thought the budget was unlimited, Princess," Rey said.

Bianca's temperature jumped up a few degrees, but from anger this time.

"Eduardo, Diana, and I made ourselves quite clear, Mr. Ramos."

"Rey," he corrected and grinned at Bianca again, enjoying the way the color rode high on her cheeks with her irritation. Rey had no doubt that he had pissed her off with his comment, but he hadn't been able to control himself. Something about her made him want to not only push her buttons, but find a way to create some distance because of the attraction that had hit him like a sledgehammer.

"Well, Rey," she began and rolled up the blueprints. "We'd appreciate any suggestions you could make as well as seeing your bid as soon as possible."

He was surprised that she would still want him to bid and was equally shocked at himself when he answered. "I'll work up an alternative to the design and change out some of the specs for the job."

"We want quality work, Rey," she said, her voice hard and her grey-green eyes turbulent.

Rey wondered what those eyes would look like while making love and tamped down the thought with all the strength he could muster. This woman was way out of his league, she was Alex's sister, and she was a prospective client. Three definite strikes against her. But despite that, he couldn't control himself from egging her on.

He leaned toward her and whispered in her ear, "Princess,
everything
I do is quality work."

She jumped away, her face flaming with color. "Yes, well. . .we need everything to be done quickly -- "

"But some things shouldn't be rushed, Bianca," he urged, arching a brow while he gathered up the blueprints. "I'll have another copy made and drop these back off tomorrow since I'm assuming you'll be getting other recommendations and bids. I should have my bid, plans, and specs for you by the end of the week."

Bianca nodded and as he held his hand out to her, she hesitated, afraid that this time she would not be able to hide her reaction to him and his earlier words which had gotten all kinds of nasty thoughts running through her head. She could just imagine those work roughened hands running over her the way they would over a piece of wood, slowly finding the right grain and working it until the wood did what he wanted. So instead of taking that hand, she took a cowardly step away and sidled next to her partner.

"Eduardo and I look forward to seeing what you have in mind."

He gave her that devil-may-care bad boy grin again and shot a quick glance to her partner, who obviously all too aware of her ploy. But he said nothing else and walked out, leaving Bianca to stand beside Eduardo and meet his inquiring gaze.

"He’s very attractive, isn't he?" Eduardo said.

Bianca shrugged. "I wouldn't know, I wasn't looking," she lied, which earned a loud laugh from her partner.

"Princess," he said, mimicking Rey's earlier endearment although coming out of his mouth it had none of the fire or passion Rey had managed to imbue in that one word. "You would have to be dead or blind not to notice him. Even very straight and very married little old me can see that he is 100% hunk material. Which is why after you and I have a discussion about the meeting at the bank, I'm going to go home and make my wife very happy so that she won't even think about anything else when Rey is around."

Bianca laughed and eased onto a stool by the bar. "Your impeccable taste is what made me want to be your partner, Eduardo. But this time, I think you're way off and I don't think it's guaranteed that Rey is going to be around that much. We haven't seen his bid."

"’Methinks the lady doth protest too much’," Eduardo replied. "I saw more going on in the minutes he was here than I've seen in the months you've been dating what's his name."

Eduardo disliked Bianca's boyfriend. Or maybe loathed might be a better word, Bianca thought. It had always surprised her how strongly Eduardo felt about David to the point that Eduardo refused to even call him by his given name. It was "what's his name" or whatever else, including "He who shall not be named."

It was one of the reasons David and she rarely socialized with Eduardo and his wife, Diana. It was a shame because when the three of them had been together at cooking school, they had spent a lot of time together. Even afterward, when they had all gone on to be
sous chefs
at the various restaurants in New York where they had learned their trade, they had remained steadfast friends who regularly met for meals or just to hang out.

Since meeting David and starting to date him that part of their friendship had unfortunately seemed to end, although their partnership in this new restaurant had given them the opportunity to spend time together and rekindle that intense friendship.

Which brought her back to the reason she had been late for the meeting.

“I spoke to the loan officer at the bank. They can't increase the amount of the loan they're giving us,” she said and ran her hand over the wood of the bar thinking it had seen better days. She pictured how it would look once the renovations were done, but it was tough to do considering the money issues.

In his typical don't worry be happy fashion, Eduardo shrugged and said, “It'll work out, Bianca. We'll figure out how to get it done.”

“But our budget is getting busted every time we turn around and discover we need to do something else.” Not to mention all the licenses, inspections and other red tape that seemed to be tangling them up every time they went to do something.