She winced at the sound of her ex’s name. Jonathan Hare had once been the best thing that ever happened to her. Or so she’d thought. Smart, charming and wealthy, when he’d picked her to marry, she’d felt like Cinderella.
But that spell had been shattered when he’d also picked a half dozen secretaries and yoga instructors to sleep with.
“Is this where you tell me I just need to relax and get laid?”
Karen shrugged. “This is where I tell you the world won’t implode if you let yourself take a few risks. I get it. Being burned makes us all gun-shy. But Hayden might be the right sort of temporary fix to get your life back on track.”
She stared out at the tropical view stretching beneath them. “It’s hard to want temporary when you’ve been a part of something real.”
Karen put a hand on her shoulder. “All I’m saying is no one is flying thousands of miles for me. These sorts of chances are kind of a once-in-a-lifetime deal.”
So is marriage. Or at least, it’s supposed to be.
A shudder went through her. It’d been two years, and Jon was still influencing her life. When would she be free of him?
A knock on the door was a welcome distraction from her thoughts.
Karen crossed the room to answer the summons. The pretty receptionist waited on the other side of the door.
“Hello,” Avery said, moving forward.
“Ms. Clarke, I’ve got a message for you,” the woman said, holding out a note. “Both you and Ms. Evans are invited to dinner this evening.”
Avery accepted the note and flipped it open.
My daily update and a chance to examine our most popular chef. Two birds, one stone.
Feel free to bring Karen if you don’t trust yourself. —HW
She clenched her fist, crumpling the white paper.
“Tell Mr. Wexton we’ll be there. The dining is on our list of amenities to review.”
“Perfect,” the receptionist said. “You have a patio reservation at seven o’clock tonight.”
“Thank you.”
Inclining her head, the woman left the room.
“Dinner with the boss,” Karen said. “Or rather dinner with your complicated one-night stand. There is no good way to spin this. I’m in for a long evening.”
“If you try to wiggle out of it, you’re fired.”
Karen laughed. “Hey, work is work. I’ll go do some background research on the chef. Maybe quality is slipping in the food as well.”
“Good thinking. I’ll track down some of these old employees while you get started on that.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Karen grabbed an armful of papers and tossed her a smile before leaving the room. “See you at seven.”
Alone, Avery sank into one of the chairs at the table. She should be excited to start digging into the problems at this hotel.
But instead, her mind was occupied with a very different puzzle.
Hayden—and how on earth she’d resist him for weeks.
…
Hayden swirled his glass, watching the amber liquid coat the sides of the tumbler. It really had been too long since he was last here. He might make excuses, saying there were other locations that needed more of his attention, but the truth was palm trees didn’t have the same relaxing effect on him that they did on others.
No, the sound of the ocean and the spray of the surf reminded him of something far darker.
The memory of laughing blue eyes and bouncing blond hair filled his head. He rubbed his fingers together, nearly feeling the silken locks curl around his skin. Sophia had loved the beach. He’d lost track of the number of times she’d asked him to whisk her off to somewhere warm and exotic. He’d sat on patios much like this one, thinking he was the luckiest man in the world.
That man was a romantic fool. Naive. Blind. Young.
Too young.
It’d taken a broken heart and a shattered life for him to learn nothing ever lasts.
But tonight was different. He wasn’t sitting here with stars in his eyes thinking love waited around every corner. No, he’d grown up and seen love for what it really was.
Weakness.
And if there was one thing he knew to be true, it was that he’d never let himself be weak again. He’d learned his lesson.
Which was why when he spotted Avery walking down the steps to the restaurant, his increased heart beat was due to lust, nothing else.
Breathtaking. The word drifted through his head. She truly was. He couldn’t remember why he’d never noticed her in the past. It was a mistake he wouldn’t make again.
She smiled at Karen, clearly unaware of his presence.
The smaller blonde at her side was lovely in her own right, but in Hayden’s eyes, there was no competing with his lover.
Avery had allowed her curly brown hair to flow freely. A sea-colored sundress hugged her curves, molding against her legs in the warm ocean breeze. It left little to the imagination, not that he needed fantasy to fill in the blanks. All he had to do was close his eyes to recall the sight of her naked body stretched out beside his. Unlike the model girlfriends of his past, who always seemed to survive on salad and air, Avery was very real. Silicone didn’t hold her breasts in place, and endless hours of exercise didn’t tone her limbs. Instead, she curved in places the models didn’t, and he found it maddeningly attractive. Nothing about her was pretense, and in the world he lived in, that was a rare thing to find.
And a dangerous one.
He liked fantasy. It didn’t haunt his memory or make him think about roads not traveled.
It didn’t make him wonder what he might have had with someone like Avery had Sophia not destroyed him first.
Avery turned, her brown eyes unerringly finding him. Under his gaze, she lifted her chin as if readying herself for battle, and changed course to come to him.
What an effect you have on the ladies, Wexton.
Only on Avery, he wanted to argue. She was the only one who didn’t stare at him like a meal ticket. No, she stared at him like he was a trap she didn’t want to spring.
He wasn’t sure it was an improvement.
Hayden stood as she reached the table.
“You look lovely,” he said, pressing a light kiss to her cheek.
She leaned back, staring up at him as he fought not to think about how close her mouth was to his.
“Thank you for the invitation.” She almost sounded as if she meant her words.
Almost.
“I know part of your job is to test out everything our guests have access to. I think you’ll find our food is not part of the occupancy rate problem.”
“It’d be nice to cross something off the list of possibilities,” she said, lowering herself into the chair he’d pulled out for her.
He shifted his attention to Karen as she took her own seat. “Hello, Karen. I trust you’ve both found everything you need?”
“It’s a gorgeous hotel,” the other woman said. “You really outdid yourself here.”
“Thank you.” Taking the seat next to Avery, he signaled the server over to pour their wine.
Hayden tried not to smile as Avery opened her menu in a not so subtle attempt to avoid him. When he glanced at Karen, the woman gave him a small smile and a shrug before turning her attention to her own menu.
He took a sip of his scotch, studying Avery’s profile. She really was lovely with her gamine features. Not for the first time, he wondered why he hadn’t been able to forget her. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t had liaisons in the past. But staring at her, he couldn’t remember any of their faces.
“The steak is excellent,” he said, wanting to recapture her attention, needing those eyes on him.
She glanced his way briefly. “Sounds perfect.”
“I can get behind that action, too,” Karen said, closing her menu. “So, shall we get our daily update out of the way? Keeping in mind it’s still early in our investigation.”
“Please,” he said, taking another sip.<
br />
Karen launched into a prepared explanation that he listened to with half an ear. It was hard to focus on anything else when Avery was within touching distance.
It would be so easy to cancel dinner and retreat to his suite. After a few hours of hot sex, they could order room service and share a meal naked in his wide, king bed. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted something so badly.
Instead, when the waiter came, he dutifully ordered a meal that had no hope of being eaten in bed.
Give it time. This island had a way of lowering one’s barriers. All he had to do was wait.
…
Avery focused on her perfectly cooked steak and tried to ignore the weight of Hayden’s gaze.
Just as he’d promised, the food was exceptional. Though they’d have to conduct a more thorough interview to make sure nothing was going on behind the scenes, it seemed safe to say the hotel’s restaurant was not part of the problem.
Karen had been doing her best to carry the conversation and distract Hayden, but his gaze always seemed to find its way back to her, as if he wasn’t capable to looking away for long.
Can something be both flattering and unsettling at the same time?
She didn’t often find herself the center of a man like Hayden’s attention.
“What are you two doing tomorrow?” he asked.
“We’re going to start individual interviews with some of the staff,” she said. “How about you?”
He shrugged. “I’m sure Wyatt would appreciate if I telecommute in for a few hours.”
“If you need to return to the mainland, we’d be more than happy to keep you updated long distance,” she offered.
A slow smile spread across his face. “Trying to get rid of me?”
“Just being considerate,” she lied. “I’m sure the days of a CEO must be pretty hectic.”
“They are. Which is exactly the reason I spent so much time building up the perfect executive team.” He leaned closer to her. “I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to hear you’ve got me all to yourself for the foreseeable future.”
“It’s always nice to have real-time input,” Karen said diplomatically. “It must be lovely to take a vacation every now and then.”
“It is,” he said.
Karen’s gaze flicked to her before she said, “I don’t think we’ve ever spent much time together, Hayden. We’d love to learn more about you.”
“I’m an open book,” he replied, amusement clear in his eyes. “What would you like to know?”
“Why don’t you tell us more about the history of this location?”
Avery silently saluted her friend. That sounded like a safe, boring topic that would fill up some time.
But Hayden’s open expression shuttered. “The island was selected from a narrow list of possible locations. We did all the due diligence to vet the opportunity and ultimately decided it would be a profitable investment.”
She blinked. His words had been rote and flat.
“The GM said you spent a lot of time here back when it first opened,” she said.
His clear blue eyes seemed darker than normal. “I did.”
“You must have loved it here.”
He shrugged. “I had a…friend who appreciated tropical locales. It’s always an easy vacation preference to accommodate when you own a few.”
Friend. One who’d stuck around long enough to come here multiple times?
“I wish I had a friend who’d whisk me off to the beach every now and then,” Karen said. “Sounds like the life.”
Hayden finished the last bite of his meal. “In moderation, perhaps.”
Avery studied their dinner date. If she were a betting woman, she’d would have placed money on Hayden Wexton having no idea what moderation was.
“Well, I, for one, haven’t been to an island in ages,” said Karen.
“Me, either,” she said, reaching for her wine.
“Not since your honeymoon, right?” Karen said.
She stiffened as Hayden’s surprised expression swung to her. His gaze immediately fell to her bare ring finger before she hid her hand under the table.
“That’s right,” she said, trying to keep her voice normal. “We went to St. Lucia. It’s an incredible place to visit.”
“I didn’t know you’d been married,” Hayden said.
“You never asked.” Setting down her wineglass, she met his gaze. “Until recently, you never took much interest in me.”
“A mistake I trying to correct.”
She winced. “I wish you wouldn’t.”
“Too late,” he said. “You love your puzzles. Well, you’re a riddle I want to solve.”
“Really, I’m not that interesting,” she promised.
“Oh, Ms. Clarke, you have no idea how fascinating you already are.”
She swallowed hard, unable to look away from the heat burning in his icy-blue eyes.
Say something. Guide this back to safe topics.
But instead she found she couldn’t turn away. It wasn’t fair that after all this time, Hayden would be the one to gaze at her with such need. Why couldn’t he be different?
But he was exactly the man she’d always pegged him to be. Beautiful, rich, callous. A love ’em and leave ’em type. He wouldn’t understand commitment if he stared it full in the face.
And that was exactly the sort of man Jon had turned out to be.
Her mind spiraled back to Jon’s smiling face as he’d caught her hand and pulled her into his world. He’d been her dream come true. And for years, she’d felt safe, secure, and indescribably happy.
Until her life had shattered.
And if she allowed herself to care for Hayden, it would happen all over again. How long would they have together before she found him in bed with someone else? A week? A month?
He might be able to separate sex and emotion, but she couldn’t.
She wouldn’t.
“What are you thinking about?” he murmured, his voice pitched for her ears only.
“Nothing important.”
Slowly, he shook his head. “We both know that’s not true.”
“Nothing I want to share,” she amended.
He reached out to her, his fingers stroking along her jaw until she stared up into his eyes. “I’m a patient man.”
“No, you’re not.”
His grin was quick. “All right,” he agreed. “I’m all for instant gratification.” The smile faded from his lips. “But I can learn to be a patient man.”
For me.
The breath caught in her lungs. Could he learn to be other things for her, too?
Like faithful?
A pointed cough broke through his spell. Avery reared back, turning to see Karen staring anywhere but at them.
“Thanks for dinner,” Karen said, pushing to her feet. “But I’ve got some notes to type up before bed. I’ll skip dessert.”
“Sorry,” Hayden said.
Karen waved away his words. “No need. I’ll leave you two alone. I’m sure you have things to sort through. Avery, I’ll see you in the morning.” With an encouraging grin, she pushed in her chair and wove her way out of the restaurant.
“We scared away your assistant.”
“I should go, too,” she said, gripping the arms of her chair to rise.
His hand caught her wrist. “Running again?”
She dropped back into her seat. “I don’t run.”
“Don’t you?”
She lifted her chin. “You’re not so fearsome, Mister Billionaire.”
“Good. I’d hate to scare you away, as well.” His gaze fell to her left hand again. “Where is your husband?”
“Jon? Knowing where he is isn’t my business anymore.”
“Ah,” he said, leaning back. “Divorce, I take it?”
“Two years ago.” She glanced away. “And now you know something more about me.”
“One more piece to the puzzle,” he agreed.
“How ab
out you? Ever been married?”
There was a long pause, long enough for her to return her gaze to him.
“No,” he said finally.
She studied his carefully blank face.
“Ever been close?”
A bitter smile twisted his lips, one she’d never seen on his carefree face before. “No.”
It was a simple answer, but his expression made her pause. She had the oddest sense he was lying, despite the fact that everything she knew about him supported his claim.
“I’m sorry about your ex,” he said. “Is he the reason you are so determined not to sleep with me again?”
“Jon does not control my actions anymore,” she replied. “Shockingly, my desire to keep my clothes on is all me.”
“There’s plenty we could do with your clothes on,” he purred, his eyes running over her flowing skirt. “I’m nothing if not a creative problem-solver.”
She rolled her eyes. What had she been thinking? That one moment of vulnerability meant there were complexities to him she hadn’t been aware of? Hayden Wexton had the emotional depths of a birdbath, and she’d do well to remember it.
“Is it the chase?” she asked, leaning toward him. “Is that why you’re not letting this go?”
“I’ve had women play hard to get before.”
“Did you get on a plane for any of them?”
His eyes met hers. “No.”
A shiver ran down her spine. She shouldn’t be effected by the information, and yet there was no stopping the pleasure unfurling inside her.
You’re not special, she scolded herself. You’re just a game to a bored billionaire. Don’t for a second think you mean more to him than some fun in the sack.
Because if she let herself think about that, she’d have to think about the way her fingers itched to brush aside the curl hanging over his forehead. She’d have to acknowledge how her body leaped when he walked into a room. How her dreams were filled with the memory of his lips running over her naked body.
There was too much to want about Hayden, and if she loosened the harsh grip she kept on her self-control, she’d be lost to him.
A disastrous possibility she never wanted to give in to.
“How long are you going to pursue me?” she asked him. “I’m telling you now, you don’t have a chance of changing my mind.”
The Billionaire's Paradise (Sexy Billionaires) Page 4