Summer Heat Wave

by Lauren Smith

  But he didn’t own her, no matter how much he wanted to at that moment. His claim upon her was fleeting, already drifting away like a retreating tide.

  “I’ll call Simon and schedule the afternoon for my pitch. I just need to pop into town to pick up the new set of brochures from the printer.” She rushed off before he could stop her.

  He’d forgotten all about her side of the agreement. Hell, he’d been mostly lying when he’d said he’d truly consider her pitch. But now? Now he owed it to her, and he was interested in what she’d come up with.

  Simon joined him in the lobby. “I’d say the week went well,” he observed.

  “It did,” Denver agreed reluctantly.

  “But you are not happy because . . . ?”

  “I didn’t expect it to work. I never imagined that she would pull it off.”

  His friend made a soft sound of understanding. “You wanted her to fail, even if it risked the business deal with the Fawkes Group.”

  “No, I didn’t,” he argued, but Simon leveled him with a look that told him to cut the bullshit. “Fine, maybe a little, but sealing the deal mattered more.”

  “Uh-huh. And your nightly visits to her cabin were about what, exactly?”

  Denver’s brows lowered as he glared at Simon. “Watching my movements?”

  “No,” his friend chuckled, “but the staff was concerned when you stopped using your rooms, and it led to a question of where you were sleeping, if not at your place.”

  “Well, that’s over now.” As much as he knew the words were true, Denver didn’t want them to be. For a moment, he felt like he was free-falling as he realized how much he craved to keep Blair in his life.

  “Is it over?” Simon’s lips twitched, and Denver resisted the urge to punch him.

  “Just schedule the pitch so I can get this over with and get her off my island.” Denver’s voice held an edge he wasn’t proud of unleashing on his friend, so he did the only thing he could think of and fled the lobby. He didn’t want to see anything that reminded him of Blair or made him face the finality of her leaving soon. He needed to be in the ocean. He needed a swim, needed to feel the waves cradling his body and forget anything from this week had happened. He had been hit by two storms named Blair, and he wasn’t sure how bad the damage was.

  Blair set up her brochures and other marketing materials in the conference room and then connected her laptop to the large TV screen at the front of the room. She had had her graphic design team in Chicago work on a new website mock-up so she could show Denver and his operations manager what she’d created without it being viewable by the general public.

  Her pulse raced as she drew in a few deep breaths just a second before the conference room door opened. Denver and Simon entered, both of them dressed in suits and wearing serious faces as they sat down a few chairs away from her. Blair wore a dark-blue skirt and a soft coral-pink blouse. Around her neck she wore a gold necklace with a diamond-studded starfish pendant that she had bought at one of the stores in the resort. Everything about her appearance was subtly on theme with the Seven Seas resort.

  “I have a few samples of the updated paper marketing tools, but those don’t have nearly as much influence as the website redesign and the social media campaigns I prepared.” She passed each man her brochures.

  Simon offered her an encouraging smile, but Denver frowned as he opened the brochure. Blair began her presentation.

  “The Seven Seas Beach Club is a unique hotel; it deserves unique marketing. Its current marketing makes the resort feel just like any other—expensive, posh, lovely. But there’s magic here. Once guests arrive, they experience it instantly, but it’s missing from your current advertising.” She cued up the computer and clicked the website to open.

  Incredible graphics made it appear as though the person looking at the website was riding on the water and then diving below the surface to where the reefs submerged in crystal-blue water filled the large TV screen. It was an immersive experience that her creative team had helped her create. A pair of mermaids swam across the viewer’s vision, circling the reef as colorful fish playfully danced around them. Then a wave washed across the screen, leaving a clean-cut menu against a light sand background. Blair navigated the various tabs under the “Explore” tab, which showed the island’s various tours, then down to “Taste,” which had information about the resort’s dining areas. After that, she moved into accommodations under “Life in Paradise,” where people could buy into the property or simply rent a bungalow. She did her best not to look at Denver too much during the meeting and made sure to make eye contact with Simon. It took a fair amount of willpower not to touch the pearl ring on her finger and twist it nervously in moments when she paused in her prepared speech.

  If he had been any other man—and not one she was hopelessly addicted to—her presentation would have been easy. She would have been certain of winning the client, because her work and her team’s work was flawless. But this was Denver Ramsey, the man she’d spent the last week pretending to be engaged to, the man she had had sex with repeatedly, the man who had given her the best sex of her life. Yet he was so much more than that. Infinitely more. And in a matter of minutes, it would all be gone forever. Blair buried the sudden flare of panic that thought caused inside her and buckled down to finish her presentation.

  She ran through the ad images, videos, and text that would accompany it, explaining each part of the site and the social media strategies.

  “We’ll want to do thirty- and sixty-second videos on streaming channels. I would recommend that you hire a cinematographer and do those ads in the vein of a movie trailer. Tell the audience a story.” She played one of the stock videos her team had worked up. “This is a basic example, but exclusive clips made on a real budget will further sell the experience.” Then she showed her sample plans for the Instagram accounts with tile photos and other ideas to create buzz.

  When she was done, she smiled at them. It was one of the best presentations she had ever given. Her heart had never been so involved in a campaign before.

  Denver was staring at the screen and the social media ads, his face entirely unreadable. Simon shot a glance at Denver before he stood and held out a hand to Blair.

  “That was excellent. Thank you, Blair. We have a few more agencies to speak to in the next few weeks, but we’ll be in touch.”

  “Right. Yes, of course. If you need to review any of the materials, I’ll be sending you a download link so you can access everything.” She looked at Denver again. He finally stood, took one more look at the screen, glanced at her, then swept out of the conference room and vanished into his office across the hall, slamming the door behind him.

  A pit formed in Blair’s stomach. The pearl ring still sitting on her finger suddenly weighed a thousand pounds.

  “You think I should go speak to him?” Blair asked Simon.

  “I . . . wouldn’t.” Simon sighed, the sound heavy. “You truly did a fantastic job.”

  “Thanks.” Blair knew it was time to leave. She needed to give Denver space to make a decision. She collected her computer and left the brochures stacked on the table. She paused before Simon and slowly removed the pearl engagement ring and held it out to him.

  “My flight leaves in three hours. Would you see that he gets this?” She placed the ring on his palm and headed for the door.

  “Miss Ashworth, wait.” Simon caught up with her at the door. She shifted the computer tote bag on her shoulder as she faced the operations manager. In the last week, she’d gotten to know him almost as well as Denver in some ways, and she would have loved working with him on the campaign. She’d come to learn he was one of the few people Denver trusted wholeheartedly.

  “For what it’s worth, you’re good for him. I know if things had been different, he wouldn’t let you leave like this.”

  “Maybe.” Blair managed a smile as she tried to keep herself from showing how much she was hurting. “It was nice to meet you, Simon.”
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  “You too.” It felt like a goodbye, even though the words were never spoken.

  Denver would never work with her, no matter how good her presentation was. The slam of his office door had told her everything that she needed to know. That closed door was a physical symbol that he was done with her. Now she had to accept that and move on.

  She had to find another way to win half of her father’s company back.

  She left the executive offices of the Seven Seas and met the shuttle driver just outside the lobby. She had planned ahead, packing her bags and having everything ready to go before she went to the pitch meeting. If she stayed, she would only deepen the wound that already felt like a gaping hole in her chest.

  She knew why. Because last night when Denver had come to her bungalow for a final time, he had made love to her slowly, softly, and tenderly, with whispered words about her beauty, her intelligence, her passion. And in those sweet nothings and the lingering burn of his kiss, she had fallen hopelessly in love with Denver Ramsey.

  She had found what she’d been searching for, and it had to be the one man who would never love her.

  She climbed the shuttle steps just as the sun set on the horizon, and she bid goodbye to paradise.

  Denver gazed at the sea from the deck connected to his office. He leaned his forearms on the railing and was lulled by the golden sun setting on the darkening water. Normally, the sight would have inspired him and filled him with an inner peace unmatched by anything else in the world. Now all he could see was the sun kissing Blair’s skin in the morning light as she lay naked beside him in bed. Or the way the water coated her skin like diamond droplets. She made the world beautiful. Without her, his blue-and-gold world had lost its luster. The wind seemed colder, the sun paler . . .

  Behind him, the door to his office opened, and Simon came to the door of the deck. Denver glanced at him just once before refocusing on waves and the sun. At that moment he felt ancient, as though whatever lifeforce on this island that gave him energy had finally perished and now he was dying on the inside too.

  “Are we going to talk about this?” Simon asked as he came up on Denver’s right side.

  “There’s nothing to talk about.”

  “The hell there isn’t,” Simon replied harshly, displaying his rare temper. “We sat through four other presentations from the best ad agencies in the world two weeks ago, and none of them compared to that.” He pointed a finger toward the conference room. “That woman understands this place and you. She cares about the resort. She cares about you too.”

  Black threads of anger knotted in Denver’s gut. “That woman represents everything that destroyed me and my mother. There’s no getting around that tiger in the room.”

  “What the hell is a tiger in the room?” Simon demanded.

  “Never mind, dammit.” Denver barely kept himself from shouting. “Look. Just pick one of the others.”

  “I’m not doing that,” Simon warned. “If you really want me to continue to be your operations manager, I’m choosing her. None of the others are the best. You remember what you said to me when you talked me out of a cushy six-figure corporate job with Hilton?”

  Denver did remember. Back then, the Seven Seas had been a dream, a gamble that could have cost him everything.

  “You said that this wouldn’t be like other resorts. We’d have the best of everything, and we’d have it mean something. Blair’s campaign is the best, and it means something. I’m faxing the contract tomorrow morning. If you want to stop me, you’ll have to fire me.” Simon thrust out a balled fist and then uncurled his palm so it faced up. The pearl engagement ring gleamed in the light. “You don’t want to forget this.” When Denver refused to take the ring, Simon walked back into his office and set it down on Denver’s desk before he left him alone.

  Denver forced his gaze away from the ring and back toward the ocean, only to stare at the spot where Blair had almost gotten swept away by the storm. He couldn’t forget the sick feeling of thinking he’d lose her. And that’s exactly what had happened. He’d lost her, but not to the waves—due to his own inability to forgive her father and the pain Paul Ashworth had caused.

  He left the balcony and came back into his office and threw himself into his desk chair. Staring at the ring sitting in the center of his desk, he studied the light catching on the diamonds and the opalescent shimmer of the stormy pearl. He reached for it, unable to resist touching it, remembering how it had felt to see it on Blair’s finger.

  Simon wasn’t wrong; Blair was the best. Maybe he could let Simon handle it and focus on Bali. That way he would never have to talk to her again, never have to see her face or hear her voice. He could pretend like nothing had happened. The pearl gleamed bluish-white in the growing twilight. He closed his fingers around it protectively. It belonged with her, not here. The beautiful siren who had lured him to the rocks deserved her pearl back. It would be his parting gift to the woman who had dared to steal his heart.

  Blair dropped her bags off just inside the door of her apartment and toed out of the running shoes that she had worn on the airplane. Within minutes, she had changed into comfortable yoga pants and her favorite sweatshirt and was digging in the freezer for her emergency stash of ice cream. She’d just retrieved a spoon when the doorbell rang.

  Kayley stood there, frowning, as Blair opened the door.

  “You didn’t call me when you landed.” Kayley stepped inside, her gaze flitting from the spoon in Blair’s hand to the tub of German chocolate ice cream on the kitchen counter. “Oh no, what happened? Did the presentation go that bad? The mock-ups of the campaign I saw looked great. You didn’t call me for the last week, so I assumed everything was going fine. Damn . . . What happened?”

  Blair didn’t want to talk about it, but she knew Kayley wouldn’t leave without answers.

  “You want any ice cream?” Blair padded over to the kitchen on bare feet and retrieved two small bowls.

  “Yeah, why not. I may need it after hearing what happened.” Kayley dropped her purse on a chair and threw herself on the couch.

  In a few minutes, Blair and Kayley were on the couch, sinking spoons into their ice cream. Too often in the last few days, Blair had thought about what it would be like to bring Denver home to Chicago, to introduce him to her friends and family as her real fiancé. The silly daydream stung far more than she’d expected it to.

  “Okay, so what happened with you and Mr. Beach God?”

  Blair stabbed her ice cream and couldn’t look up at Kayley. “Everything.”

  “Everything? Like what? Last I heard you were afraid he was going to throw you off the property.”

  “Well, he didn’t.” Blair tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ears. “I sort of ended up engaged to him instead.”

  The sound of choking made Blair look at Kayley.

  “Hold on.” Kayley coughed and recovered. “Engaged?”

  “It wasn’t real.” Blair sighed. “God, it’s a crazy story.”

  “I’ve got time,” Kayley said.

  So Blair told her everything, nearly letting her ice cream melt as she talked. Her eyes burned with tears as she talked about not even really saying goodbye to him. Her chest seized, and she had to fight off a sob. Kayley let her get herself under control before she spoke, her tone soft and worried.

  “So he got what he wanted, to sign an investment deal and screw you, literally. Jesus, what an asshole.” Kayley’s frown darkened.

  “It wasn’t like that, not really.” She closed her eyes, remembering that last night and how he’d kissed her closed eyelids and simply caressed her face long after they were done making love.

  “You’re in love with him.”

  “Yep.” Blair tried to sound amused by her own stupidity, but the raw pain inside her choked down her forced laugh.

  “And he doesn’t feel that way about you?”

  Blair shook her head. “There were these moments, you know? Moments when I swore he’d forgotten all ab
out what had happened with our fathers and was himself with me.” She remembered the way he’d held her in the water, kissing her forehead and watching the sunset. How he’d teased her during their moonlit swims, and then later, when he’d made love to her, his heart was clear in his eyes as he held nothing back. She’d been so certain then. “It was incredible. I think there were a few times when he might have felt something, but it obviously wasn’t enough.” Blair poked miserably at the melted lump of ice cream in her bowl.

  “Are you coming into work tomorrow?”

  “No. I think I need a day. My uncle will be a total jerk about the whole thing, and I really don’t want to deal with it.”

  “I don’t blame you. Without you there to smooth things over, he’s been pretty bad this week.” Kayley finished her ice cream, and she and Blair put their dishes in the washer.

  “Will you be okay?” Kayley asked.

  Blair leaned back against the kitchen counter and let out a sigh.

  “Yeah. I’ll bounce back.” She always bounced back. She wasn’t going to let a broken heart ruin her life.

  “Call me if you need anything.” Kayley gave her a hug.

  “Thanks.”

  When Blair was alone again, she curled up under a blanket and turned on the film noir movie Laura, starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. She’d always loved the story of the detective who fell in love with a woman simply by seeing her portrait and trying to solve her murder. She loved the scene best when the detective learned Laura was still alive and still in danger and he did everything he could to keep her safe. The quiet, intense obsession of the detective for the heroine had always left her breathless and full of yearning. As she watched the story unfold, she couldn’t help but picture Denver as the dashing detective in the fedora, determined to protect her. She wanted more than ever to be completely free with him the way she had on the island. There had been no barriers between them. He’d listened to her when she spoke, he’d held her in his arms and made her feel cherished in a thousand small moments.