An Innocent In Paradise

by Kate Carlisle

  Working all these long hours had done little to take her mind off missing Logan. It didn’t help that tonight everyone was talking about the possibility of a tropical storm off the coast of South America turning into a hurricane as it headed north toward Alleria. She didn’t want to be in a hurricane without Logan.

  The very notion of riding out a hurricane was terrifying to her, but some of the staff were taking it in stride. They had experienced severe storms and hurricanes in the past and were confident that Logan’s hotel was so well built that it could withstand the worst that Mother Nature could throw at it.

  As Grace returned to the bar for another drink order, she noticed it had grown breezier in the lounge. The manager asked some of the men to close the casement windows along the outer perimeter of the room so the guests would be more comfortable.

  “It’s so chilly tonight,” Dee said, rubbing her arms as they waited together at the bar for their orders. “And I’ve got a jacket on.”

  “I wish I had my sweater,” Grace said after noticing that several of the waitresses were covered up. Dee’s denim jacket looked cute over her sarong.

  “Why don’t you run and get it?” Dee said. “I’ll watch your tables for a few minutes.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. If you’re sticking around to help us, we don’t want you freezing to death.”

  “Okay, I’ll hurry back.”

  “No worries.”

  Grace left the bar and started walking back to her room, but remembered she’d left her pink sweater in Logan’s suite the other night. He’d recently given her a copy of his key card to use when she worked late, so she hurried over to his side of the hotel and used the card to slip inside.

  She switched on the light, glanced around the room and saw her sweater on the chair near his desk. She grabbed it, then noticed the thick set of architectural drawings spread out on his desk.

  Her curiosity was piqued and she rounded the desk to see what they were. Grace had never seen blueprints before and appreciated the architectural precision of the lines and angles. She smiled as she realized that these were the plans for the sports center Logan and his brother were going to build. He was excited about creating a destination for sports enthusiasts here on Alleria and had described it in detail. That was the reason he’d gone to New York, to meet with the investors and finalize these plans.

  Studying the blueprints made her feel closer to Logan somehow. She knew he had studied the same drawings and probably pictured the finished creation in his mind. She tried to do that as she gazed at all the little side drawings and various site descriptions.

  And that’s when she saw it: the map and description of the location of the gigantic sports complex in relationship to the hotel. North side. Adjacent. Palmetto grove.

  “No,” she whispered.

  She walked around the desk, certain at first that she was interpreting the drawings all wrong. But she wasn’t a dummy, and after ten minutes of studying every sheet in the stack, she knew she had been betrayed. He had lied to her. Okay, he hadn’t lied exactly, but he’d clearly avoided telling her the truth as he let her gather her spores and talk about the importance of her research, all the while knowing that he planned to pave over the whole site.

  Logan and his brother had every intention of building their sports center directly on top of the land where the spores grew.

  She backed away from the desk. Maybe there was some mistake. But she knew there wasn’t. So why hadn’t Logan said something to her? He knew how important her research was. Had he simply been using sex as a way of distracting her from his plans for eradicating the very spores she’d come there to study?

  Or maybe he’d simply been carrying out what he’d promised her from the very beginning. He’d wanted her off the island and he would do whatever it took to get rid of her.

  Oh, but that was ridiculous. This wasn’t personal. It wasn’t about her. It wasn’t about her spores. It was just the way businessmen conducted business. Destroy a few billion spores to build a few tennis courts? Sure, if that’s what made money. Never mind the possibility of curing disease and saving lives.

  “Oh, God.” Not only would this plan eviscerate the spores but it would destroy the foundation of her life’s work. Her funding would dry up and there would be no possibility of continuing her research.

  “Stop,” she cried. She needed to calm down and think instead of going crazy. Of course there would still be spores. Logan wouldn’t destroy the entire rain forest, for goodness’ sake. But the fact remained that he knew how important it was to Grace that the palm trees and their spores be kept safe and intact. And he’d blithely decided to destroy a large swath of it.

  “How could he do it?” she mumbled over and over. And how could she have trusted him? That question was more easily answered than the first. She was simply a dimwitted woman who’d fallen in love with a man who didn’t respect her or her life or her goals.

  With a sharp cry, she ran from Logan’s suite and headed for her own. Friends smiled and tried to talk to her as she passed, but Grace hardly saw them. Her mind was churning, her vision blurry with unshed tears and her heart was heavy with a pain she wasn’t sure she could survive.

  She ran inside her room and slammed the door shut. Then she crawled onto the bed, shivering in humiliation.

  She might’ve lain there for a few minutes or a few hours, she would never be sure. Finally, she stumbled across the room and fumbled in her purse for her cell phone. Stabbing the buttons, she called her friend and mentor, Phillippa, and prayed that she would pick up before it went to voice mail.

  “Grace, is that you? It’s so late. What’s going on?”

  Grace quickly explained the situation and was gratified when Phillippa blurted an expletive.

  “Why, that lousy spore killer,” she said stoutly, and Grace could picture Phillippa’s glasses sliding down her nose. “How could he do this to you? Were you aware that he was so environmentally unfriendly?”

  Maybe he was, but despite everything, Grace couldn’t bear to hear any criticism of Logan. She just wanted to save the spores. “Do you know how to stop him?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Phillippa said. “It’s called an injunctive order and we’re going to slap it on him so hard, he won’t know what hit him.”

  Before she hung up, Phillippa took a minute to warn Grace that Walter’s funding had come through. Grace slid down onto the chair, unable to speak. Yes, she would go back and face the grant committee and tell them how he had lied. And she would present them with her own latest findings based on her new collection of super spores. But still, how could the committee have fallen for Walter’s lies? How could they have awarded him one cent?

  It was a double blow. Now she’d been betrayed on two fronts. She could care less about Walter, but she hated to go back to the university and face all those sympathetic stares. But that would be a piece of cake compared to the way she would feel if she stayed on the island. There was no way she could face Logan after finding out he’d been playing her for a fool all this time. Walter’s lies were nothing compared to Logan’s betrayal. She’d thought he was different and it hurt to know how very wrong she’d been. So much for all that intelligence she was so famous for.

  With a bitter sigh, she pulled her bags out of the closet and began to pack. It was difficult because her eyes were blurry from the tears she didn’t seem able to stop.

  There was a knock on the door.

  For one second she thought it might be Logan. Then her brain cleared. He was still in New York arranging for the money to kill her career. That would take him another day or two at least. Without even realizing it, anger began to film over some of her pain as she hurried to the door and opened it.

  “Oh, Dee,” she cried. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Gracie, you never came back to-” Dee stopped and glanced around the room.

  Grace realized it looked like the hurricane had already struck. “I’m packing. I need to go h
ome.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” she said, then realized how absurd that sounded, even to her. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she told Dee the whole story.

  “It just doesn’t sound like Logan,” Dee murmured, shaking her head.

  “I didn’t think so, either,” Grace said miserably. “But I saw the plans myself, Dee. There’s no mistake.”

  Dee pulled her close for a hug. “I hate that you’re leaving, Gracie, but I understand. It’s no more than he deserves, the lying rat-dog. I’m sorry he hurt you.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Will you call?” Dee asked, standing up and stepping back. “Let me know you’re okay? I mean, just because you’re leaving doesn’t mean we can’t still be friends, right?”

  One bright spot in a completely hideous day, Grace thought, and hugged Dee fiercely. “Thank you! I will call. I promise.”

  After Dee left, Grace continued packing. When she was finished, she called the concierge to ask about flights. That brought on another dismal round of tears. She’d grown to love it here. She loved her friends and her job and the palm trees and the rain forest and the beach and her poor little spores.

  And she loved Logan.

  In spite of what he’d done, she’d fallen in love with him. And while that meant she had to be the biggest twit in the universe, she loved him and knew she always would. And the fact that he was never going to be hers brought another sharp pain to her chest.

  She spent a long night staring out the window at the ebbing storm, and early the next morning, Grace left a polite note for Logan with the concierge, then took the first flight off the island.

  The jet reached cruising altitude and Logan stretched his legs out on the seat facing him. The meetings were over, the investors’ checks were deposited, and the Alleria sports center would soon be a reality. Eleanor walked into the cabin and handed Logan and Aidan each a glass of champagne.

  “Thanks, Ellie.”

  The mood was festive as they toasted to their success and drank down the cold, bubbly liquid.

  “That’s good,” Aidan murmured, grinning. “We did good.”

  “Yeah, we did good,” Logan said.

  Ellie giggled. “Life is good.”

  They all laughed, then Logan said, “Man, I can’t wait to see Grace.”

  “What?” Aidan twisted around to stare at him.

  “Aww,” Ellie said, and smiled warmly at him.

  Logan frowned. “Did I say that out loud?”

  “Yeah, you did.”

  He glanced from Ellie to Aidan. “Huh.”

  “Ah, hell,” Aidan said in disgust. “Now you’ve done it.”

  “Done what?”

  “You’ve gone and fallen in love with her.”

  “Don’t be-” He started to protest automatically, then stopped. And thought about it. Hard.

  Love. Just saying the word in his head didn’t strike the same raw nerve it had in the past. Did that mean it was true? Was he in love with Grace? The idea didn’t rankle him as it had in the past. In fact, it made him smile.

  Ever since he’d talked to Brandon out on the beach, Logan had been thinking about things. The past. The future. Love and life. Risk. Trust.

  He’d spent half of his life fearing to trust in love. He’d talked himself into marrying Tanya, thinking he should give love a try. But he’d never loved her. The fact that she’d cheated on him was as good an excuse as any to never try again.

  But these few days away from Grace had made him realize how much he wanted to try. The thing was, his world felt empty without her. He couldn’t wait to get home to see her. He wanted to know how she’d spent her days, wanted to hear what was new with the spores.

  It was staggering to realize that he’d actually fallen in love for the first and last time in his life.

  He tested the words over and over again in his mind and when he was certain that he wasn’t going to be struck by lightning, he decided to say them aloud.

  “I’m in love with her.”

  Aidan buried his head in his hands.

  As they climbed down the stairs and stepped onto the tarmac, Aidan slung his arm around Logan’s shoulder and said, “Wonder if Dad and Sally are in some hot tub in San Francisco right now…how did Gracie put it? ‘Having hot jungle sex’?”

  “Oh, man.” Logan slapped his hands over his ears and started humming loudly.

  Aidan laughed uproariously, then calmed down and admitted, “Okay, I’m going to say something I never thought I would. I like her, bro.”

  “Good,” Logan said, knowing he was talking about Grace. “Because I’m in love with the confounded woman and that’s all there is to it.”

  “If you had to take the fall, she was a good one to pick. So if it matters to you, you’ve got my blessing.”

  “It matters,” Logan admitted, glancing at his twin. “Thank you.”

  Aidan grinned. “Let’s go tell her the good news.”

  The brothers strolled across the lobby wheeling their luggage behind them.

  “Oh, Mr. Sutherland,” Harrison, the concierge, called out. “I have a letter for you.” He pulled an envelope from his desk and rushed over to the twins.

  Aidan took it, glanced at the envelope and handed it to Logan. “It’s for you.”

  Logan stared at his name on the envelope. He might’ve waited to open it when he was alone, but something niggled at him and he opened it right there. A minute later, he let the note drop to the floor.

  Aidan picked it up and read the words. “She left? She just left? What did you do to her?”

  Logan shook his head, too dumbfounded to answer.

  “Come on,” Aidan said, pushing him forward. “We’ll go to your room and call her.”

  They made it to Logan’s room, but before they could get inside, Dee came running up the hall. “There you are! Why did you do it?”

  Logan scowled at her. “Close the damn door.”

  Aidan pulled her inside and led her over to the chair in front of Logan’s desk. “Sit. Talk. Tell us what you know.”

  “I don’t care if you’re my boss. What you-he-you-” she looked from one to the other of them. “What Logan did to Gracie was just plain mean and underhanded and-”

  “What did Grace say?” Aidan demanded since Logan was staring into space.

  “He knows what he did,” Dee said, pointing at Logan. Then she pointed at Aidan. “For Pete’s sake, which one of you is which?”

  “I’m Aidan,” he said. “Now tell us everything that happened.”

  Logan sat behind his desk with his elbows resting on the surface and listened to Dee’s story.

  When she was finished, Aidan scratched his head. “What the hell?”

  “We’re not killing any spores,” Logan muttered.

  “That’s what she said,” Dee insisted, then shook her head in confusion. “She left the bar to get her sweater and the next thing I knew, she was in her room crying her eyes out about you paving over the rain forest.”

  “It was her pink sweater,” Logan murmured. “I remember seeing it and meant to bring it to her.”

  “Right,” Dee said. “She came in here to get her sweater and all hell broke loose. It wasn’t enough for that creep Walter to break her heart, but then you had to come along and-”

  “Who the hell is Walter?” Logan said, his voice belonging more to a growling animal than a normal human.

  Dee told them the whole ugly story of Walter’s betrayal and how much it had messed up Grace’s life. Then Dee took off, leaving the men to brood on their own.

  Logan stared at his desk for a long time, until he realized it wasn’t his desk he was seeing but the thick pack of old blueprints he’d left spread out here. The new ones were on his desk in the corporate office down the hall. “Oh, crap.”

  “What?” Aidan said.

  “She saw the old plans,” he said, tapping the blueprints.

  Aidan got closer and peered at them. “Thos
e are two years old.”

  “I know. They’re completely obsolete. But she must’ve seen them and jumped to the conclusion that I was going to pour cement over the freaking palmetto grove.”

  “She thought you betrayed her.”

  Aidan frowned as he beat the edge of the desk with his knuckles. “Now we know why she left in such a hurry.”

  “Damn it,” Logan said, letting loose a sigh loaded with frustration.

  “Look, just call her and tell her she’s wrong.”

  “Hell, no,” Logan said, his eyes focused on the blue site map in the corner of the wide sheet. “She didn’t even trust me enough to ask me about any of this. She just assumed the worst and took off. Who’s betraying whom?”

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Now what?” Aidan said. He opened the door and a guy slapped a blue-backed form at him.

  “What is this?”

  “Injunction,” the guy said. “You’ve been served.”

  Logan prowled his office like a caged animal. It had been three days since Grace had left, three days that he’d spent chastising himself for falling for a woman who was willing to leave him without a word. Grace had walked out on him as easily as the mother he barely remembered. As easily as his cheating wife had driven away from him that night four years ago.

  So much for love. Love. He laughed without humor. What a great cosmic joke. Hopefully this was the last lesson needed to prove to him that love simply didn’t exist. Not for him. Ever.

  As he paced around his desk for the tenth time, he saw the injunction sitting there and his anger festered all over again. He stared at the new blueprints and the contracts stacked on the conference table, then back at the original site map that had caused all the trouble in the first place.

  And a plan began to form in his mind.

  Grace was miserable and utterly confused. Always in the past, she’d been able to count on science to clear up any questions for her. But what she still felt for Logan simply wasn’t logical. If this was love, why did it have to hurt so much?