Hot as Sin: A Billionaire Hometown Romance (Billionaire Elements Book 1)

by Molly Sloan

  But she realized that arriving to work in a horse-drawn carriage would attract a lot of attention and her staff would probably tease her about it mercilessly.

  Before the horse turned the corner, where they would be visible to everyone at the club, Caleb told Stefan to stop the carriage for a moment.

  Turning to Ava, Caleb took her hand in his. “I’ve been wanting to do this all day,” he said. And, then he took her face in his hands and kissed her.

  His lips felt soft and his mouth tasted sweet from the wine and the flan. At first, Ava had been aware of Stefan, the street noises and the fact that they were out in public in the day. But, when Caleb pulled back, looked in her eyes, and then went in for another kiss, the whole world just melted away. There was nothing but the two of them. Her heart started racing and her breathing got faster. She hadn’t felt this way in… maybe forever.

  When Caleb reached behind to gently grab her hair and pull her even closer, Ava began to wish they were somewhere more private. Somewhere that they could spend the rest of the day exploring their newfound passion.

  Pulling back, and touching foreheads tenderly, Caleb said, “Okay, Stefan. We can resume now.”

  Just as she’d suspected, the employees at the club teased her like crazy. As she got out of the carriage, Mariah asked where her fairy godmother was and Joey started calling her Boss Belle, after Beauty and the Beast.

  Fortunately, Ramon arrived later and missed the spectacle. By the time he arrived, Ava was already sitting in her office, trying to concentrate on placing the liquor order.

  Ava’s phone dinged, telling her she had a text message. It was from Caleb. “I miss you already.”

  She texted back. “Me too.”

  He replied instantly. “It doesn’t feel like it was a first date. It doesn’t feel like we just met. I feel as if I’ve known you forever..”

  “You say that now. Wait until you have dinner with my tia. Now that will feel like forever.” She laughed out loud at that.

  “Watching funny cat videos again on YouTube, Boss?” Joey stuck his head in the door.

  Smiling, Ava put her phone away. “Something like that. Come on in.”

  Ramon and Joey closed the door behind them as they sat down at Ava’s desk.

  “I think we should ramp up security this year for Carnaval.” Ava sat across from Joey and Ramon, tapping her pen on the desk. “I have a weird feeling about it.”

  Joey made a face and said, “What makes you think something is going to happen?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s my imagination, or maybe it was the fire in the dumpster.” Humberto sniffing around my office and asking a lot of personal questions, she thought.

  Ramon got out his phone and started to text. “It’s no problem at all. I know some guys who would love to pick up some extra security work.”

  Joey nodded his head. “Yeah. Me too.

  “One other thing. Let’s not make a big deal of it. Maybe even have them undercover. I don’t want the party to feel like a prison. Let’s just keep it low key, but secure.”

  “Sounds good, Boss.”

  Ava walked Ramon to his car after the meeting. She wasn’t sure how to broach the subject of Caleb, but knew she needed to tell him that she was developing feelings for his son. “Developing feelings?” Ava laughed at herself. More like “about to get naked and do the conga.”

  “You seem to be smiling more, Ava,” Ramon said as they stepped into the sunlight. He’d made it easy for her.

  “I am. I’ve been feeling happier.”

  With a twinkle in his eye, he turned to her and said, “I’m noticing the same thing in Caleb.”

  Uncontrollably, Ava blushed.

  Kissing her on both cheeks, Ramon said, “I am glad for you both. It’s funny how the world works. What is supposed to happen, always happens.”

  As his car drove off and Ava turned to walk back into the club, the words to that famous song began in her mind. “Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be…”

  Chapter Fifteen: Mamma Mia

  Caleb practically floated back to the hotel. The date with Ava had gone even better than he’d imagined. He’d planned to spend the rest of the day working on his proposal for the board. It was almost time for him to return to the U.S., as his visa was set to expire soon. But, frankly, he didn’t want to think about that. He just wanted to work on The Plan, have fun at Carnaval, and he’d deal with the rest of it later.

  Unscrewing the top of his water bottle as he opened his laptop, an e-mail notification popped up that stopped Caleb cold. It was from the adoption agency.

  Dear Mr. Elliott,

  We are writing this message because you’d indicated to us that you were interested in receiving contact from your birth parent(s). We have received a message from your birth mother, Gabriella Garcia de Diaz. If you do not wish to be contacted by this person, you must reply to this message within 24 hours, or your e-mail address will be shared and contact may be made.

  Thank you,

  Morgan Smith

  FamilyMade Adoption, LLC

  Wow. She found him. Caleb sat there stunned. Of course he wanted to communicate with her. When he’d seen her picture on Ramon’s wall that day, he knew that his life would not be complete unless he found her. Now, it was about to come true. All he had to do was wait.

  He’d worked on the proposal in an effort to distract himself. He went for a run. He watched mindless television. Nothing worked. Caleb kept checking his phone every five minutes. With the time difference, and not knowing where Gabriella lived, it could be any minute. Or, she could not write at all.

  He slept fitfully, tossing and turning, with weird dreams that bounced from Gabriella to Susie, to Ava holding a baby girl. There was a fire at one point, and a strange clown. He couldn’t remember ever being so glad for morning to come.

  Caleb forced himself to turn the phone off and not look at the computer until after breakfast. But the electronics just sat there mocking him anyway.

  Finally, at 8:34 (but who was counting?), he powered the phone back on. He’d had a missed call from the attorney who was handling the trust, a text from Gina, a meme with a horse from Ava, and… yes! There was an e-mail from Gabriella.

  Hands shaking, he clicked on the subject line. “My Dearest Ramon.” As the message loaded, Caleb wondered if his heart was going to stop working. He could hear the blood rushing in his ears, and he’d begun to sweat.

  “My Dearest Ramon,

  It is with trembling hands that I write this. After twenty-four years of wondering where you were and how your life turned out, the adoption agency sent me your address.

  As you may know, I am still in America. I had tried to get permission to return to Cuba after you left. But I was denied again and again. It was too painful to keep trying, and so I accepted my fate to stay in America.

  I had been watching television and realized that there was so much more to America than Miami. There were places that felt safe. Places with open spaces and friendly people. I wanted to find the life I’d emigrated to find. So, I moved to a small town in California called Santa Barbara. I am sure you have heard of it. In some ways, the area reminds me of Cuba.

  At first, I was a housekeeper for a local hotel. On the weekends, I took jewelry-making classes. I loved creating unusual combinations of colors and stones. I soon began selling my pieces at Farmers’ Markets. I applied for a loan, and opened my own shop where I sell jewelry and other handmade items crafted by local artists.

  I am happy with my life, but there have always been two holes in my heart. One, for you, and the other for your father.

  Please write me back and tell me about yourself. I hope that you are happy and that Gordon and Susie were the parents that Ramon and I couldn’t be.

  I hope to hear from you soon.

  Love,

  Your mother

  Gabriella Garcia de Diaz”

  Caleb set the phone aside and stared out the window, as the rain slid down i
n smooth sheets on the glass. She was happy. An artist living in California… His biological parents were each happy, but each were still missing one thing. Each other.

  Smiling, he realized what The Plan was truly about.

  Chapter Sixteen: Lunch Break

  Ava turned up the speed on the treadmill. Things were getting crazy at work with the Carnaval preparations, and frankly, her heart wasn’t in it as much this year. Ever since she’d met Caleb, her “marriage” to her work had suffered. Oh sure, she’d been onstage every night, ramping up the energy of the partygoers. She still worked seven days and nights a week. Her life as “Boss” was still going strong. What had changed was her heart.

  Selima was next to her, running at a slower pace. “Are you training for a marathon or something?”

  Slowing it down to a pace where she could talk and run, Ava answered, “No. Just trying to run away from my problems.”

  “Your problems?” Selima laughed. “It must be so hard to have a gorgeous man texting and calling and sending flowers all the time. Between that and your successful business, I don’t know how you suffer through every day.”

  Hitting “end” so that they could head over to the weight machines, Ava shook her head and smiled at her friend. “Very funny. Actually, if you must know, Caleb is texting and calling and sending flowers because the only time we’ve been able to spend together has been in my office. And my successful business is crazy right now, because the deliveries for the Carnaval supplies were delayed because of the hurricane in the Atlantic and that earthquake in Asia. Plus Astrud and Humberto have been having problems and are getting into screaming fights during rehearsal. We lost our head dancer, and have been trying to replace her. And, our liquor supplier raised his prices again so now I have to either raise prices, lose profit or find another vendor.”

  Selima took over the seat Ava had been sitting on, and grabbed the weight bar. “Wow. My biggest problem is getting enough hay delivered. Sorry, amiga. Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “No, I just need some time off after Carnaval. I’m going to lose my mind otherwise.”

  What she hadn’t told Selima is that with every day that passed, she was becoming more and more aware that Caleb’s visa was expiring soon and he would need to go home. Their time was slipping away, and she was wasting it all at the office planning a party for a bunch of drunk partygoers.

  After their workout, Selima and Ava stopped for coffee at the cafe right next to the gym. Sipping her steaming latte, Selima said, “Hey. There’s something I wanted to talk to you about, but I didn’t want to do it at the gym.”

  “Sure. What’s up?”

  The other day, your saxophone player Humberto came by my office.”

  Ava was shocked. “Humberto came by your office? What did he want?”

  “I don’t even know. He was trying to play it cool. Started off by asking about a carriage ride for Astrud. But, then he started asking all these questions about you.”

  “Me?” Ava sneered. I do not like this guy, she thought.

  “Yes. He was hinting around about where you got the money to start the club. He’d heard that you were giving small business loans to women and sort of made it seem like it was about Astrud, but I didn’t think it was really about her at all.”

  “How would he have heard about the loans? No one knows about that part of the business.” Ava was getting a bad feeling about this.

  “I don’t know. Anyway, I just thought you should know.”

  “Thank you. I really appreciate it.” Ava didn’t know how, but she needed to get Humberto out of Bobo Flamingo’s. There was something very strange about that guy and she had a feeling things were going to go from bad to worse where he was concerned.

  “Hey, beautiful.” Caleb knocked on Ava’s door at lunchtime.

  Rubbing her eyes and turning away from her computer, Ava said, “Boy, are you a sight for sore eyes. Literally.”

  “I’m sorry you’re working so hard.” He extended his arm and handed her a paper bag. “Here’s a sandwich.”

  Taking it and opening the bag to reveal a delicious smelling pulled pork sandwich on a freshly baked roll, she unwrapped it greedily and said: “What did I do to deserve you?”

  Pulling out a chair, he said, “What you really deserve is a day off.”

  Stuffing the sandwich into her mouth, she said, “Yes. I do. But I can’t leave until Carnaval is over.”

  “Are you sure about that? Maybe we could take a day trip to the beach. Surely one day away won’t kill you.”

  Looking at the tall stack of papers on her desk, the flashing light on the phone with voicemails to return, and listening to Astrud and Humberto yelling at each other from the other room, Ava looked at Caleb and said, “You know what? You’re right.”

  She loved how his dimples came out when he smiled like that. Wrapping the sandwich up, she stood and said, “Let’s go.”

  His smile grew into happy surprise. “Now?”

  “Yes. Right now. This minute. I can’t stand this place one more second.” She grabbed her things and headed toward the door. “We’re closed tonight and the only thing that’s going on are rehearsals and some deliveries. Let’s get out of here before someone comes in here with a problem I have to handle.”

  Before she got to the door, Caleb caught Ava by the waist and brought her close for a deep kiss. The stirring between her legs as she kissed him let her know that this was a very, very good idea. Pressing into him, she could feel that he agreed. The swelling in his jeans told her that he was as eager as she was to get out of there.

  Locking the door behind her, she grabbed Caleb’s hand and practically dragged him across the dance floor. “Can we stop at my place to get my suit?” She couldn’t wait to get wet. Wetter than I already am, she thought.

  Several dozen eyes followed them to the door. “You taking off for a bit, Boss?” Even Mariah stopped washing the bar glasses and stood there in shocked surprise as Ava said. “Something has come up. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  Chapter Seventeen: Love Will Find a Way

  Caleb had dropped Ava off at her place to gather her suit and a few things. She had a friend who ran an Airbnb at a nearby beach and wanted to call and see if it was available tonight. He was perpetually impressed at how many connections she had to businesses in Cuba.

  He’d gone back to his hotel to grab a few things himself when Gina called. He’d left her a message about Gabriella but they’d been playing phone tag for several days.

  “Finally!” she said as he answered the call. “I was starting to think you were avoiding me.”

  “I could never avoid my best friend,” Caleb said as he was stuffing some clothes into an overnight bag.

  “So, tell me. What did you say back to Gabriella? I have been dying to know.”

  “Basically I wrote her and told her that I was in Cuba getting to know Ramon. He was doing well, but he missed her.”

  “Wow. What did she say?”

  “She said that she was touched to hear that and thought maybe she would see if she could get a travel visa to come to Havana and meet up with him again.”

  “That would be so cool. Your parents reuniting! Do you think it will happen when you’re still there?”

  “I don’t know. My visa is expiring in a couple of weeks, and the government works pretty slow.”

  “Surely Ramon can pull some strings. He seems pretty well connected.”

  She has no idea, he thought. Caleb hadn’t told anyone about Ramon’s connection to Castro. “I think she wants to surprise him.”

  “What is with you people and the surprise bombshells?” Gina laughed. “Both sides of your family are so dramatic.”

  “Anyway, I have to go. Ava and I are taking off to the beach for an overnight.”

  “You are? Finally the big event?”

  “We are, and I hope so.”

  “Well, go get her, Tiger. Call me this weekend and we’ll talk more.”

  An h
our later, Caleb and Ava were stretching beach towels out on the white sands of Playa Bacaranau. Not the prettiest beach in Cuba but it was still gorgeous. White sand was dotted with swaying palm trees and butted up against turquoise waters and gentle waves that kissed the shore.

  If they’d had more time, they would have ventured further away from Havana and explored some of the other beaches that Cuba was famous for. Playa Bacaranau was the choice for locals who wanted to slip away and spend a couple of hours at the beach while still being close to home.

  After the towels were laid out, Ava pulled off her t-shirt, and Caleb almost had to make a run for the water to hide his pleasure. She was wearing a pink and green bikini, (the colors of Bobo Flamingo’s, he noted) and they showed off her perfect, tan breasts. As she pulled off the blue cutoff jean shorts, he saw a gold bellybutton ring that drew attention to her perfectly flat stomach.

  Noticing his attention, she smiled at him flirtatiously as she bent down to unbuckle her sandals. “Are you coming in?”

  Oh, he’d like to come in, for sure.

  Laughing, she took off running toward the sea. Once she hit the crystal clear water, she shouted back at him, “Come on in. It’s perfect!”

  Looking down at the swelling in his swimsuit, he couldn’t agree more. She really was perfect.

  “This was a brilliant idea, Caleb.” Her arms were around his neck as they stood in the ocean. Kissing her, he could taste the salty water on her lips. Feeling her curves press against him, he pulled her closer.

  “Mmm. Yes, it was.”

  Ava pulled away, and said, “Let’s go lay down before the sun sets.”

  Hand in hand, they headed out of the warm water to find their towels.

  Wrapped up in the fluffy Bobo Flamingo’s towel, with her long brown legs sticking out in front, Ava looked at him. She had a serious expression on her face. “Your visa is expiring soon.”