But when Leo placed his hand on the small of my back, his fingers skimmed my hip, and a shiver ran down my spine at his touch. I immediately forgot about Kate. That same touch had sent multiple tingles through my body in Bora Bora every time we’d gone somewhere on the island, and he’d touch me that way. He had no clue what it did to me.
Leo grabbed my hand again, leading me down a rocky pathway. I appreciated that; plus, my hand in his felt amazing. Like home. We’d had nothing more than a few days together in paradise. We’d never even kissed, but I had so many fantasies regarding this man, that I had a hard time keeping steady on my feet. Fantasies that I’d never thought could ever be possible. But here he was, guiding me onto a dirt trail.
“Wait,” I said, tugging him to a stop. What happened to the tour you were supposed to take me on?”
“This is it.” He grinned. So sexy. I melted. Could he see that?
“Surely your father didn’t intend for you to take me down a dirt pathway at twilight.” It was still light outside, but here, under the canopy of trees, it was rather dark.
“I’m sure he did. You need to see this if you’re going to talk to our guests about things they should do while they stay here. Especially, couples who are here celebrating their anniversaries, or newlyweds on their honeymoons.”
“Newlyweds come here?”
“You betcha.”
I frowned.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up newlyweds, considering. But you didn’t think honeymooners only went to exotic islands, did you? Not everyone can afford that luxury, Grace. Our inn is reasonably priced and can be very romantic with the right guidance. You need to be aware. Plain and simple.”
He stopped and tugged me to the right a bit. “Look out there.” He pointed to a small opening through the trees. A ball of red-orange glowed through the branches, and my breath hitched.
The sunset.
“Beyond those trees is one of the most beautiful views you’ve ever seen. Sunsets in Bora Bora are spectacular, but the coast of California has some amazing sunsets, as well. Come with me.”
All I could do was smile. His grip around my fingers was tight, and our hands began to sweat. Did he notice? I wanted to yank mine away and wipe my palm on my pants to dry it off, but that seemed a bit too obvious. “Slow down. It’s hard to see in here,” I called out to him.
“Sorry. I was just excited.” He slowed his pace. “Here, how’s this?” He held his phone up using the flashlight app.
“Better, thanks. That helps a lot.” We walked the rest of the way out of the woods to a flat, wide-open area overlooking the ocean. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the view. There were a few benches situated against a backdrop of trees, giving each one a bit of privacy, and Leo guided me to one and released his grip on my hand, gesturing for me to sit. Though I hardly felt like sitting. I wanted to wrap my arms around his neck and feel the power of him. A strong, sexy man. But I did as he suggested and sat.
“There’s a railing up along the edge at this particular spot along the coast, though both my father and I thought that it would be an eyesore at first, being somewhat in the line of the sunset. But it’s not very noticeable from here. When we tell guests about this place, we always mention the cliff and the danger it poses, reminding them not to get too close to the edge, especially in the dark. It’s about a hundred feet down. We’ve never had any unfortunate accidents here, but I think it’s important to warn the guests anyway. Hopefully, the railing continues to serve its purpose. Just be sure to mention that to the guests whenever you tell them about this spot.”
I felt like there might be another reason he was showing me this place, something hidden behind the one he was speaking about, the dangers it posed to the guests. This spot held meaning for him, and I wanted to know what it was, but I kept silent, hoping he would tell me someday. So I simply nodded at his instructions. But as he continued to speak, I realized I’d misread his intentions and had let my own imagination and fantasies mislead me. I had thought Leo had brought me out there to be romantic. But his cool demeanor reminded me that we weren’t lovers—we never were. We were here on business. Leo had brought me here out of obligation to his family’s inn. Not to spend time alone with me. God, it was so much like when we were in Bora Bora. He’d always been respectful of my stupid emotions, never starting something we both knew we could never finish. We were friends then, just friends. Only now, we were no longer just friends. We were also boss and employee.
I pulled my thoughts back to listen to Leo explain about the property and as he mentioned the signs they’d put up to warn the guests. I did remember seeing a couple at the beginning of the trail and also along the way, cautioning about the dangerous cliffside.
As disappointed as I was that we were actually talking business, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the majestic sky, or my mind off the gorgeous man sitting next to me. No matter how wrong a relationship with him would be—especially now—I still wanted him.
The sun was already down past the horizon, giving the sky that powerful afterglow of orange and red hues interspersed through puffy clouds and patches of light blue.
“Clouds always make the sunsets more dramatic. The more clouds, the better the sunset. That’s another thing to remember. You don’t want to promise a guest a great sunset when you know there will be no clouds to support it or too many to hide it. Then there will be no view. So knowing the weather is important, too.”
“I think I can figure that out.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so condescending. You’d be surprised how many people have no idea. It also gets very dangerous and slippery out here when it’s wet.”
It was getting dark, and I was all too conscious of Leo’s hands as he kept them to himself.
Then he changed the subject. He no longer spoke of the inn and guests and what they might expect or how I should speak to them.
“Grace. You don’t know how glad I am to see you.” He’d taken my hand in his again and was facing me now. “The way we left things in Bora Bora…I never wanted to hurt you.” Was he glad to see me? Or could this be a talk about how he didn’t want to be with me the way I dreamt of being with him?
“You’d been hurt so badly.” His eyes traveled over my face, lingered on my lips then returned to my eyes. “I couldn’t risk adding more to your pain. That’s why I never tried to take our relationship further than friends. I didn’t want to leave you there alone. I—”
I lost myself in his gaze, his words were all jumbled in my head, and before he could utter another sentence about how wrong a relationship with me would be, I decided to hell with it. We only lived once, and I didn’t care what he thought or wanted from me. I just needed to feel. To feel him. To know what his lips felt like. So I leaned into him and pressed my lips against his and kissed him. Mid-sentence.
If he didn’t want to be with me that way, so be it. I’d reap the consequences of that. Later. I’d longed for the taste and feel of his lips on mine for too long, and I never thought I’d get that because I didn’t think I’d ever see him again. His hand darted to the nape of my neck, and he tugged me closer as his tongue slipped in past my opened lips, meeting mine. Tangling. My fingers groped at his shirt. I moaned into him. I’d wanted this for so long, and he was so willing. Then it dawned on me. All those stupid voices in my head about what was right and what was wrong. I should not be doing this. Leo was my boss, now. No, not my boss. Worse, he was my boss’s son. So, yes, indirectly he was my boss. Oh God, Grace, what did you get yourself into? I pulled away and stood, taking a couple of steps away from him. I couldn’t look at him, too mortified by what I’d done. We couldn’t be together on the island because of my stupid morals about a fling that wouldn’t mean anything and my stupid, jilted heart from what Craig had done. Now, we couldn’t be together here because I worked for him and his father. This was his home. I wanted him more than I wanted to breathe, but I needed this job.
“Grace, what’s wrong?”<
br />
I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this.” I took off running through the woods toward the restaurant. Tears stung my eyes, and I fought my way through the foliage with blurry vision. It was dark now, and the path seemed narrower than it had on the way in. Leo wasn’t someone I could have a relationship with. What was I thinking? It was safe when we were back in Bora Bora. I knew, he knew we couldn’t be together. A fling like that could have been detrimental to both of us. Long-distance relationships were fated to end badly. From the stories he’d shared and the way we’d both been brought up so differently, the adventures he’d been on as a kid, I’d been certain that we lived far from one another. Though we’d only just imagined the distance, we both knew that the likelihood of living thousands of miles apart had been very real. We’d never talked much about it. Now? Well, now, I’d just signed my resignation letter from the most amazing job ever. My heart ached at the prospect of leaving. But I knew once his father found out how I felt about his son, he’d fire me for sure. My vision blurred through tears, and I tripped on a branch, possibly a root or something, and stumbled. My heart pounded in my chest and began to ache.
“Uno.” The number slipped from my lips.
My knee throbbed, and I rubbed at the spot, discovering a large tear in my pants and wetness that could only be blood.
“Due,” I mumbled through ragged breaths.
I managed to stand and head for the cottage that would be mine for at least tonight, only to fall back down a few feet away when my other foot caught on yet another large root protruding from the dirt.
“Tre.”
Chapter Twelve
Leo
“Grace? Grace! What’s wrong?” God, this woman drove me crazy. She’d taken off alone through the woods in the dark. We’d kissed. I’d dreamt about that kiss for the past two months. It was an amazing kiss. I wanted more. Everything was so perfect. The sky was beautiful. The clouds had even cooperated, giving us one of the most spectacular sunsets so far this year.
I jumped up to follow her. It was dark, and I worried that she might take a wrong turn. I tapped on the light from my phone as a scream came from a short way ahead of me. I ran toward the sound.
Grace was down on her knees in the dirt.
“Quattro,” she groaned through gritted teeth.
I wrapped my hand around her arm and tugged her upright. She gazed into my eyes, tears staining her cheeks. Why was she crying?
“Are you hurt?”
“No. I’m okay.” Blood dripped from her fingers, and she took a step to run away from me but stumbled again.
“Dammit, Grace.” I scooped her up into my arms and carried her toward the restaurant.
“No, Leo. Please don’t take me inside there. Your father…”
She was right. My father wasn’t the only one inside. Other employees would see me carrying their new manager in my arms. She wouldn’t want to start off a new job in the arms of the owner’s son. Even though she was hurt and needed some first aid, I didn’t want Kate or anyone jumping to any conclusions and gossiping. I didn’t think Grace would appreciate it.
So I quickly changed direction and made a beeline toward the cottage my father had had the staff set up for Grace.
“Please, put me down. I can walk,” she begged, but I didn’t listen.
She pulled the keycard from her sweater pocket and swiped it over the lock. With Grace in my arms, I turned the knob on the front door, and she pushed it open with the palm of her hand. “Thanks,” I said as I kicked the slab the rest of the way open with my foot and placed Grace gently down on the sofa. I stood back and looked over her body. Her hair was now loose and flowing over her shoulders. She was beautiful, and I wanted to grab a fistful of those soft, dark locks in my hand and claim her right there on that couch. Rather caveman-like, I mused.
Our gazes locked, and as her eyes narrowed in pain, I remembered why we were inside her cottage in the first place. “I don’t suppose you have any bandages or alcohol swabs with you?”
She shook her head and winced as she pried her ripped pants away from her bloody knee.
“I’m sorry about your pants. Here, let me have a look,” I said as I rolled the loose-fitting pant leg up to her thigh to expose her injured knee.
“It’s okay. They’re sort of old anyway. I might have a Band-Aid or two in my cosmetic bag. It’s the pink-and-black, zippered pouch sitting on the counter in the bathroom.”
“It looks like it’s just a scratch, but it still needs to be cleaned. You might bruise, too.” I went into the bathroom and grabbed one of the washcloths, running it under some warm water. I snatched the small bag on my way out and handed it to her, then dabbed the wet cloth over her scraped knee, removing the blood. “See? Just a scratch. I bet by morning, you’ll be good as new.”
“Got one.” She held up a Band-Aid, and I took it from her.
“Good.” Opening it up, I secured it over the scratch. I looked up at her, my eyes landing on her mouth as her tongue swept over her lips before she sucked them in. I wanted to kiss her again. I’d dreamt of having those lips on mine for so long, the brief kiss on the cliff had only deepened that desire. She’d initiated the contact, so why had she suddenly stopped and taken off?
“Why did you run, Grace?”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you that way. It was completely unprofessional of me.”
“Not as far as I’m concerned.”
She glanced at me. “Well, it won’t happen again.”
“Why not? Was it that bad?”
Chapter Thirteen
Grace
I tugged the ripped material back down over my knee. Leo’s question had flustered me. He’d asked me if the kiss was bad. It was anything but bad. It was fabulous. Tantalizing. His lips had been soft and accepting, and when he’d taken over the kiss, my heart had pounded with excitement.
“No. It wasn’t bad at all,” I said softly.
“Well, that’s a relief.” Leo rocked back on his heels and put his hands in his pockets.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that…well, I work for you now. We can’t be kissing.” As much as I hated saying that, I knew this was another unimaginable situation for us. In Bora Bora, it was because we’d known we would never see each other again. Now, it was because he was my boss.
Leo ran his hand through his dark locks. “You don’t work for me. You work for my father.”
“Same thing.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Your family owns this inn, correct?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, I work for this inn, and therefore, I work for you.”
Leo huffed out a puff of air, sounding very frustrated. “Look, Grace, I’ve wanted to kiss you since I first saw you sitting in that lounge chair on the deck over the ocean. But the timing was just off. You’d just been through a very traumatic ordeal, finding your husband and best friend together like that, on your wedding day no less, which is an unfathomable situation. That had to be rough, and I didn’t think it was a good idea to start something that we both knew we’d never be able to finish. A whirlwind vacation fling wouldn’t have been fair to you at that time. To either of us. You were too vulnerable, and you would have gotten hurt. I didn’t want that. But it’s been over two months now.” His dark eyes glimmered as he stared into my mine.
“And now, it’s another impossible situation.”
“See, I don’t see it that way. What I see is an opportunity. We denied our feelings for each other in Bora Bora because we didn’t think there was a shot in hell of us ever seeing each other again, but here we are. This is a chance to get to know each other in a different way. A romantic way.”
“I can’t have a romantic relationship with you. There are other employees to consider. I need this job.”
He smiled, showing me his dimple. “I get it, and the last thing you want are rumors and gossip among the employees that you need to manage.”
“Right.” I fiddled with
the rip in my pants.
He nodded his head. “You’re afraid that they’ll think you’re getting special treatment—which you will be.”
“Yes. I mean…what?” My eyes shot to his. Now he was confusing me.
“We can just keep it a secret if you want.”
God, I did want. I wanted him so badly. Something stirred in my stomach, and I found myself clenching my thigh muscles at the thought of what it would be like to be with him. Something I’d forced myself not to think about while we were in Bora Bora. But no…I’d seen too many office romances go bad. Not that this was an office, but still. I shook my head. “No. It won’t work.”
“And why not? Don’t you like me?”
“Leo, don’t be ridiculous. You know I like you. I more than like you.”
“Then let me tell you what I’d like to do with you, Grace.” He placed his hands down on the sofa on either side of me and leaned in close to my ear to whisper. “I’d like to shove you backwards right now and run my hands over your beautiful body. I’d like you on your back while I run my tongue down the pulse in your neck, licking my way to taste each of your nipples. Then I’d tug your pants off and spread your legs and see if you taste as good as I’ve been dreaming you do.”
His breath was warm against my neck, and I closed my eyes, wanting to feel his lips touch my skin. He lifted his head, leaving only about an inch between our lips, and I thought he was going to kiss me. But he took my hair in his hand, fisting it, tugging my head back so I was looking up at him. “That’s what I’ve been dreaming about for the past two months. You.”
He let go of my hair, stood up straight, and took a step back. My eyes couldn’t help but travel to the bulge in his pants that hadn’t been there while he’d been cleaning the wound on my knee. I swallowed.
Broken Wide Open: A Stand-Alone Romance Page 9