by Tia Wylder
“Wow,” I said. “This is beautiful.”
“Thanks,” Jack said nonchalantly. “I wish I were home more often – I feel like I never really get the chance to enjoy it.”
I thought my long nights spent at the university library, hunched over a textbook, dreaming of bed. “Yeah,” I said. “I get that.”
Jack led me down a long hallway that opened up to a beautiful kitchen. The appliances were brushed chrome, and there was an island topped with the same marble as the flooring. I spotted a living room to the right – filled masculine black leather couches and dark wooden furniture that looked both heavy and expensive.
Just as I was slipping my shoes off, the doorbell rang. Jack disappeared from the kitchen and reappeared a few minutes later, carrying bags of food that smelled delicious. I helped him arrange everything on the island. He’d gotten everything – spring rolls, curry, fried rice. It all smelled amazing, and I couldn’t help but fill my plate to the brim. Jack showed me into a narrow dining room with black wooden furniture, and I eased myself down into a chair. The cushions on the chairs were white, and I wondered what kind of person would buy white fabric for their dining room chairs.
The kind of person who never eats in their own house, I realized as Jack sat down next to me.
Jack took a bite of a spring roll and leaned back in his chair, chewing thoughtfully.
“So,” he said. “What exactly do you have in mind for Franchot?”
“Well, I’m going to need someone to look into his activities,” I said, scooping up some fried rice and taking a big bite. “Like, a lawyer, or a private investigator or something.”
“Yeah,” Jack said. He leaned closer, and I saw the muscles in his forearm flexing. “That’s a good idea – good place to start, at least.”
I couldn’t help but notice the intense chemistry between us. Even though my mind was running in a thousand different directions, being next to Jack was making me tense and excited. The delicious sensual quality of the food only seemed to heighten the atmosphere between us, and I couldn’t even look at Jack’s golden skin or tousled hair without thinking about what it would feel like if he pulled me into his arms and kissed me.
“Adele?”
My head snapped up, and I looked at Jack. “What?”
Jack chuckled. “Distracted much?”
I flushed hotly. There was no way I was about to tell Jack what I’d just been thinking of – our bodies, tangled and sweaty, making furious love.
“No,” I lied, reaching for a spring roll and taking a big bite. “I’m fine.”
Jack tapped his pen on a pad of paper. “I think I’ve got some good leads. I’ll call Barnes later this afternoon and have him do some digging.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Okay,” I said. Thinking about Jack’s enormous wealth was astonishing – it was like he had the power to make the world spin at his fingertips.
“Anything else?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “We just need to find as much dirt on Franchot as possible.”
“Noted,” Jack replied. He raised an eyebrow and smirked. “So now that business is done, we can have fun.”
I flushed hotly as I remembered Jack’s caveat on the phone. Be open with me, he’d said.
Jack leaned in closer. I could smell his expensive, musky cologne and it was enough to make me swoon. As he put his hand on the back of my neck and leaned in close, I closed my eyes and prepared myself for a passionate kiss.
When our lips met, it was everything that I hadn’t even known that I wanted. The taste on Jack’s lips was spicy and salty from the Thai food, and I moaned softly as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. When his muscular body pressed against mine, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
Jack broke the kiss and nuzzled my neck before nipping at my earlobe. “So,” Jack murmured in my ear. “Shall we go to bed?”
Glancing down at the table, I saw Jack’s notes on Franchot.
“No,” I said, pulling away and straightening up. My hair was a mess, and I could feel that my skin was flushed and hot from our passionate kiss.
Jack raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said, getting to my feet and brushing my hands off on my thighs. “It’s just, I think we should focus on business for now.” In truth, I was dying for Jack – I wanted him then more than I’d wanted him back in Nassau, which was saying a lot. But what if this was the last time? What if we slept together and I never saw him again?
I couldn’t let that happen.
“I’m not saying no,” I said, shaking my head and smiling. “I’m just saying not yet.”
To my surprise, Jack gave me a lazy grin. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands on the back of his neck.
“Well, then,” Jack said in a low drawl. “I guess I’ll just have to wait.”
--
The next day, I met Jack downtown at his office building. Trident Gold had a beautiful office – it was almost as pretty as Jack’s condo – and I tried hard not to stare as Jack took me inside to meet with his lawyers.
“Barnes, this is Adele,” Jack said as he introduced me to a handsome, smiling guy in a navy suit.
“Nice to meet you,” I said politely.
Barnes grinned. “No need to be formal,” he said. He slung an arm around Jack’s shoulders and pulled him close. “Jack and I have been buddies since college,” he informed me.
I smiled. “Oh,” I said. “That’s nice.”
Jack extricated himself. “Barnes is a genius,” he said. “Aren’t you?”
Barnes smiled modestly. “That’s what you keep saying, at least.”
I waited awkwardly for their bro-fest to end.
“So, Adele doesn’t have a lot of time,” Jack said. I blinked at him – had he really sensed my irritation? “We should get down to business.”
Barnes nodded. The frat-boy persona vanished, and I was left with a very professional-looking lawyer. He cleared his throat and sat down in a leather executive chair. “So, Jack, I looked into Franchot. His record is all over the place – it’s a total mess.”
I sighed. “Well, shouldn’t that make it easier to fuck him?”
Barnes grinned. “Jack, I like this one,” he said. “She’s feisty.”
For a moment, I thought I saw Jack blushing.
“She is,” Jack agreed. He cleared his throat. “What did you find?”
I sat down next to Barnes and peered over his shoulder. Sure enough, there was a plethora of documents about Franchot. Pictures and legal documents with words blacked out and even a few press releases.
“Franchot tried to build a resort in the Pyrenees a few years back,” Barnes began. He took out a pair of rimless glasses and put them on. “Look, see?” He passed me a few pieces of paper. “These are the permits.”
I glanced down. My French wasn’t very good – I hadn’t taken it since high school – but I recognized a few words.
“I see,” I said. “What happened?”
“Well, the project halted a few months after construction began,” Barnes continued. “Looks like Franchot was planning a big development – like a luxury resort, with a shopping mall and lots of restaurants. A hotel and little bungalows.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s…um, a lot.”
Barnes nodded. “It is,” he said. He passed me another piece of paper – this was a photocopy of a press release from a French newspaper. “And there was an accident. Twenty men were killed when they were working on the main lodge building.”
“You’re kidding me,” I said slowly. “That’s terrible!”
Barnes nodded. He pointed down at the headline in French. “Says here it was one of the worst construction-related incidents to have ever taken place. A bunch of families tried to sue Franchot afterward.”
I frowned. “And what happened?”
Barnes made a face. “It doesn’t look like they got their money,” he said. “Franchot declared bankruptcy two weeks af
ter the accident, and then he vanished off the radar for a few years. In fact, this project in Nassau is his next project.”
I covered my mouth to hide my gasp of horror. “But…but that’s horrible! What if the same thing happens?”
“He probably used shoddy labor,” Jack interjected. “Franchot is known for cheaping out.”
I pressed my lips together into a thin line. “We have to find out if he was responsible for the accident,” I said. “If we can pin those twenty deaths on him, we’ll be able to put him out of business forever!”
Jack nodded. “That’s a good strategy,” he said. “Adele, I think we should get back to Nassau as soon as possible. I can have Rico fly us down tomorrow.”
I blinked. “Why?”
Jack sighed in exasperation. “Because I have a feeling that Franchot is already down there, building. Remember the call he gave you? I don’t think he’d have done that unless he was already planning his next monstrosity.”
“Jesus,” I said, shaking my head. “I can’t believe he would move that fast.”
Barnes raised an eyebrow at me. “Adele, men like Franchot, are dangerous. They wait for no one – and they spare no expense when it comes to furthering their own agenda.”
“Yeah,” I muttered under my breath. “Unless that expense is hiring skilled labor.”
Barnes chuckled. “Right,” he said. “I’m going to have a team of private investigators looks into the Pyrenees accident – maybe fly a few guys out there and see if they can’t talk with the victims’ families. As soon as we have evidence to stop Franchot, we should go to bat.”
I nodded. I was impressed with Barnes – like Jack, he was movie-star handsome with a big brain behind his sexy face. I couldn’t believe that men like Barnes and Jack actually existed in real life.
“So, Adele, Nassau?” Jack raised an eyebrow. “I’ll book our rooms at the Hotel St. Charles.”
A part of me was stung that he said rooms instead of a room. Did he want me, or what?
Or was he just being respectful?
“That sounds good,” I said. “I’ll be ready tomorrow.”
Jack grinned. “Excellent,” he said. “I have some things to discuss with Barnes – you want me to get Nick to give you a ride back to campus?”
I flushed. “No, thanks,” I said. “I can just take the subway.”
But after I left the Trident Gold offices, I didn’t go back to school. I went home instead and packed for Nassau. This time, I didn’t need Lisa’s help – I tossed my bikini in my suitcase without even thinking about it.
In the morning, Jack sent Nick to pick me up. I was surprised to see that Jack wasn’t in the backseat.
“Mr. Jack is at the airstrip, miss,” Nick said in a polite tone as he shut the door behind me. “He wanted me to give you this.” Nick passed me a brown paper bag.
I grinned as the smell of fried eggs and cheese wafted up at me. Ripping open the bag, I saw that Nick had ordered me an egg sandwich on an English muffin – my favorite. How does he know that? I thought as I stared down at the delicious-looking confection in my hands.
“Miss?”
“Yeah?” I glanced up at Nick, hoping that I wasn’t drooling over the sandwich.
“Does this suit you?”
I grinned. “Oh, yeah,” I said. “Thank you, Nick.”
Nick shut the door to the backseat behind me, and soon, we were on our way to meet Jack. I devoured my breakfast in about thirty seconds – it was heavenly, and I wondered where Jack had gotten it – and then stared out the window. It had snowed again overnight, but I knew from forecasts that the weather in Nassau would be perfect. Tropical and sunny and hot – the perfect weather for such an exotic locale.
At the airstrip, Nick took my bags, and I met Jack by the plane. He grinned when he saw me.
“I can’t wait to get out of the cold,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself and shivering. “Sometimes I wonder why the hell I moved to Boston in the first place.”
Jack laughed as we boarded the small plane. “Because it’s fabulous,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah,” I replied. “Half the time.”
Jack cocked his head to the side and gave me an odd look. “I don’t mind the winter,” he said, settling down into a large leather seat and buckling his seatbelt.
“Really?” I sat down next to him. “I hate the winter. I hate climate change, too, but I wish I could be warm for the rest of my life.”
Jack laughed. “That doesn’t sound too bad,” he agreed. “But I like it. I like the seasons. And I like the city. New York is too snobby and touristy. The Bay Area is full of tech brats that make me feel like an old man. And Miami is amazing, but there’s no way I could live there year-round.”
I frowned. Somehow, Jack’s statement was surprising. I’d expected him to be more cavalier about the whole thing – wasn’t every city perfect when you happened to be a billionaire?
Jack laughed. “Don’t look so surprised.” He leaned back in his seat and yawned.
I shrugged. “I just wasn’t expecting it,” I said. I yawned. “I grew up in the Midwest, and all I can say is that I’d never move back there.”
“Why not?”
“Too conservative,” I said, making a face. “My whole family doesn’t believe in climate change…and they’re farmers! It’s like, they’re purposefully ignorant or something.”
Jack gave me a sympathetic smile. “Maybe they’re just set in their ways,” he said, shaking his head. “I practically never saw my family growing up. My nanny was closer to me than my mother.”
“Your nanny?” I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows. Every time Jack told me something new about himself, I couldn’t believe it – his wealth was astonishing.
Jack nodded. “Yeah. Her name was Janet. I called her Jan-Jan…for some reason I couldn’t pronounce ‘t’ as a kid.”
I smiled, thinking of an adorable baby Jack. “That sounds cute,” I admitted.
“Yeah,” Jack said. He closed his eyes, and a dreamy expression came over his face. “She was sweet. She always cooked my favorite foods when she knew I was upset – scrambled eggs with ketchup.”
“Ew!”
Jack laughed. “Hey, no teasing,” he said. “I was four years old, I wasn’t exactly a gourmand yet.”
“I can’t even remember eating when I was a kid,” I said. “All I remember is playing outside.”
“So, you’ve always loved the environment, huh?”
The plane began taxiing towards the runway, and I gripped the arms. “Yeah,” I said. “I guess I have. I used to bring things inside – you know, leaves and sticks and stuff. It drove my mom crazy, but she put up with it for long enough. That ended when I brought home a frog, though. She flipped out.”
Jack burst out laughing. “That’s too much,” he said. “You were a real tomboy, huh?”
I narrowed my eyes. “What? Is that a bad thing?”
Jack gave me a devilish grin that set my heart racing. “Not at all,” he said. “It’s very sexy.”
I flushed hotly.
“I didn’t spend much time outside,” Jack said. He glanced out the window and pulled down the shade. “I was too busy trying to learn how to code on my computer. My parents gave it to me for my fifth birthday – or, they had Janet give it to me. They weren’t there.”
I blinked. “Your parents…missed your fifth birthday? Was there some kind of emergency?”
“Does a charity gala count as an emergency?” Jack asked drily. “No. Their logic was, well, he’s only a kid – he won’t remember it, anyway.”
“That’s horrible,” I said slowly. I couldn’t imagine how it must have felt to have parents like that, and suddenly I felt so much pity for Jack.
Jack shrugged. “I got used to it. They weren’t around the next year, either,” he added.
“That’s so sad,” I said softly. I reached out and touched Jack’s hand.
Jack shrugged. “I guess,” he said. “Th
at’s why I love building resorts, you know?”
I frowned. “I…I don’t see the link.”
Jack laughed. “It’s because families go there,” he said. “On vacation. Don’t you love seeing families have fun?”
I bit my lip and stared at Jack for a long moment. It hadn’t ever occurred to me that there was a sentimental reason behind his love of resorts – I’d merely assumed that he’d only done it for the money. But looking at Jack now, I could tell that he truly meant what he was saying. There was a sparkle in his eyes that I’d never seen before, and for a moment, he looked younger – almost innocent.