by Missy Lyons
The front desk attendant cleared his throat, and his eyes strayed to Colt Vance for a second before returning to Susannah.
“She does have some packages that should be arriving this afternoon. I trust you’ll send those over to her directly when they get here,” Colt intervened.
“You’ll find the staff here does not gossip or spread rumors about our guests even when they are not the personal guests of Mr. Vance. What happens here stays here. You do not have to explain yourself to anyone.”
“So it’s like Vegas?” Susannah asked.
“Yes, ma’am, only without showgirls.” The hotel clerk said it in such a serious voice and straight face that Susannah wondered what else might be similar to Vegas here.
She giggled.
“Are you ready for me to escort you to your quarters?” The bellboy reminded her of a little puppy dog, eager to please its master.
“I’ll let you wash up and relax for a bit. I got a page from my assistant about some business I have to take care of. Something about customs trying to hold up our orders, but I’ll come by to pick you up this evening, okay? Wear something you don’t mind getting wet.”
He didn’t wait for her to say yes or no. He lifted the back of her hand to his lips and softly kissed her skin. Then he walked back out the door without another word.
Susannah wasn’t sure how to feel. She was too stunned to react and felt like a fish out of water. She was so out of her element with Colt Vance it wasn’t funny. She didn’t do a lot of dating and never had this kind of sexual friction with another man before. She was hot and ready to go on a moment’s notice or the briefest of touches.
How was he able to turn it off and on?
She was stuck on hot anytime he was near.
* * * *
“This is your suite.” The bellboy opened the door and held it open for Susannah to enter in front of him. Then, as she walked around the room examining the luxurious opulence, he set down the key on the teakwood table next to the entrance. “I will just leave the key here for you to use. I certainly hope you enjoy your stay with us for as long as you are here as Mr. Vance’s personal guest. Do you have everything you need? Can I get you anything to eat from the kitchen? Or will that be all?”
Susannah wasn’t hungry, and she couldn’t think of anything she needed at that moment, but she supposed she should do something nice for the man. He had walked her to her cottage door and held her bag.
“No, I think you’ve helped me enough. I just need to rest a little after that long plane ride.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a five dollar bill and held it out for him to take.
“Thank you, ma’am.” He nodded his head and made the door close slightly. “It’s against company policy for me to accept tips from the family and friends and personal guests of Mr. Vance.”
“Oh,” Susannah muttered. She felt a little stunned to say much more.
“You have every right the hotel guests do, and many more. You may walk through the gardens to access the pool and all the other hotel amenities. You should consider the staff here at your service. We are here to make you happy.”
“Thank you. I will call if I need you.”
“No, thank you, madam. Good day.” He bowed at the waist rather stiffly and left abruptly
Susannah flopped down on the downy-soft comforter as soon as the bellboy closed the door behind him.
Chapter Nine
Colt had ignored the earlier text messages, but he knew Sam wasn’t one to bother him unless it was really important. So he wanted to speak to her right away and know none of the details of the conversation were lost in empty words on a tiny screen. This was why Colt loved his iPad 2. He could video conference from anywhere in the world, and it was just like being in the same room as the person you were speaking to.
Only this time he and Sam would be on different continents.
Colt picked up his iPad 2 and touched the screen to open up the FaceTime application. He signed in his user ID and password and went to the top of his contact list to choose his assistant, Sam. She answered in the first ring, her beautiful face giving him a sugary, sweet smile. Her blonde hair seemed to sparkle against the bright, blue sky and sunlight in Miami.
“So what was so important you had to call me now?” Colt Vance was impatient to get back to his new lover. He had only just met her, but he felt something was different about her than his previous lovers. He wanted to know more about her and explore her body.
There seemed to be a slight delay, and her movements froze, and then her facial features began moving naturally again.
“There’s going to be a holdup in shipping if we use Brigate Freight again. They are backed up for months, and that will mean construction on the restaurant is delayed.”
“Can we use someone else to ship it here? I don’t want to wait six months to break ground, and you know it’s going to take six months to get through the government bureaucracy here.”
“Things slow down on the islands. That’s why I wanted to tell you what’s going on here on my end.”
“Can you find another shipper?”
“Yes, I found three alternatives, but even if we use the cheapest one it’s going to cost 15 percent more than if we used our regular shipper.” She paused, waiting for his reaction.
“Good girl. That’s what I pay you the big bucks for.”
“Big bucks? Colt, you know I stay for the fringe benefits.”
“You can keep the private jet and drive my car all you want. Just keep making the little decisions for me and just get the materials here on time.” He didn’t want to be bothered with the details. He just wanted it done. Sam was not only efficient but frugal with his money and always made quality decisions. This is why he sent her shopping for supplies by herself. It only took six years of her working as his personal assistant for him to trust her. Now he didn’t mind entrusting her with his private plane, or anything for that matter. She was better than a wife. She picked out his clothes and bought Christmas gifts everyone loved. She even drove his car to the mechanic when he didn’t have time. “We can’t wait forever to get the restaurant built. Our competition is stealing all our clients, and it makes the most sense to keep everyone here at the resort. We’re losing money every day we wait.”
“Okay.” Her demeanor grew serious. “I’ll get it there in the next three months. I hope the engineer you hired got the blueprints right and we have everything listed. If I forgot anything on this list…”
“Then we’ll probably pay triple the price to have Jamaica send it to us.”
“I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t, Sam. That’s why you are in Miami.”
“I also scheduled time with your interior designer to have the interior rooms decorated, and he says it will be no problem. I’ll work with him to have those items shipped later.”
The restaurant was going to do big things for his business. Not only would it keep more tourists on the resort, it would help him to attract larger events and conferences that would fill up his hotel in off-season markets. “Sounds good to me. When will you be back to headquarters in Texas?”
“I have a prenatal visit next week. Then I should be able to see to helping you and the architect with the other details.”
“Good. Will Jason be coming this time?”
“No, my husband will have to stay home for work, but it’s okay. He’s saving up his personal time for after the baby is born.”
“Smart man. I don’t know what I am going to do when you go on maternity leave.” Colt sighed deeply.
“You’ll do whatever it was you did before you hired me.” Samantha laughed.
“What was that? I remember now. I just scream at everyone to do their job right or I fire them.” He smiled, wishing it was that simple.
“No, Colt, don’t fire anyone. I need employees, and you can’t do everything by yourself, but I am sure you will survive.” She chuckled.
“Thanks for keeping me in
formed and in touch. I will talk with you later or see you when you get to the island.”
“Next week.”
Colt said his good-byes and hung up the phone. With all the important business being taken care of by his assistant he could spend a little more time playing with his new lover, Susannah.
This was just getting better and better.
* * * *
Susannah didn’t know what to do first.
She tossed her backpack on the bed and looked through it to see what she had to work with. A handful of cash would be helpful, even with her new sugar daddy willing to pay for anything she needed. The Kindle full of her favorite titles would be great to pass the time on the research boat once she had a place to stay. She had a handful of snacks, and some odds and ends like makeup and a beauty supplies.
The one thing she wouldn’t need was the vibrator. Not with Colt Vance around. She placed it on the bedside table and then thought about it again.
It would be a way to ease some of the sexual tension he managed to leave her with. Then again, she really needed to focus and think about more than sex.
There was so much she had to deal with in a short time, but the most pressing thing weighing on her mind was why her parents would try to intervene in this trip.
First, they made sure the private plane was unavailable to her for the flight out, and then they sicced their bloodhound on her, and as if that wasn’t enough, they cancelled her joint credit cards so she couldn’t even keep her reservations at the hotel. If it wasn’t for the extremely generous nature of Colt Vance, she would be camping out under a coconut tree right now.
She dialed up their home number on her cell phone and was relieved to see the number went through. She had a full range of bars and good reception so they wouldn’t lose the call.
It rang three times before her mother picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Mom! I am so glad you picked up the phone,” Susannah said. She would have hated to leave a message about all this, and even as angry as she felt right now she would not want to do that.
“Oh, is this Susannah?” her mother asked in an anxious and high-pitched voice.
“Yes, Mom.” Susannah let out a sigh. She knew she sounded similar to her sisters and sometimes it was hard to tell their voices apart.
“Oh, Susannah! I am so relieved to hear from you. Are you home or are you still insisting on working on that little island?”
“I’m in the Caribbean right now, Mom.” No thanks to you. “But don’t worry about me. I’m fine and I will have a roof over my head for the next six months while I am working.”
“Well, that’s good to hear, dear.” It’s funny but Susannah swore she heard a note of sarcasm in that reply.
“Mom, everything seems to have worked out despite certain roadblocks that have come up. I do want to talk to you about something serious, though.”
“Serious? Are you okay?”
Susannah tried not to grind her teeth as she spoke. She hated conflict. Confrontations usually made her feel like she wanted to throw up inside, but this was something she had to get off her chest. “I know you want to have a grandchild, but did you have to cancel my card that I set up my hotel reservations on?”
“Oh, dear.”
She could imagine her mother had gone white as a sheet at that. “I had the worst time getting here. Since Daddy said I couldn’t use the plane, I had to make reservations and fly coach, which really is okay by me, but when I got here your lawyer friend—”
“Ethan works for your father, Susannah, but you should know I don’t keep track of his business.”
“Yeah, well, he was following me as if I needed some kind of babysitter.” Susan huffed. It was quite irritating to have a guy follow her across the country as if she couldn’t handle herself. “I can’t believe you and Dad would do such a thing to me.”
“You are in a foreign country where all kinds of things could happen to you.” There was an honest concern in her voice that made Susannah soften her resolve.
“I’m a big girl, Mom. Every day when I get dressed I put on big-girl panties and go out in the world. You raised me right. You have to trust that I am going to do the right thing.”
“We trust you, dear, it’s other people we don’t trust. If this is about the money you really should talk to your father. He is taking care of all those nasty details. Let me get him.”
“Mom, don’t—” She was going to say don’t bother, but her mom had already left the phone hanging off the hook.
This conversation had not gone as she planned.
“Susannah! How are you?”
“Dad. I am sorry Mom had to go get you. I was just telling her how your lawyer friend accosted me at the airport.”
“Oh! Have you seen Ethan? I haven’t heard from him since earlier today.”
“That’s because he got delayed. I managed to get an earlier flight,” she added with a chuckle. “He is probably still somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico.”
“Oh, Susannah. How did that happen? He was supposed to be on the same flight. I made the arrangements myself.”
“I got upgraded, and I don’t want to be babysat, Dad.” She rolled her eyes and was extremely happy he couldn’t see the mildly annoyed expression on her face.
“Ethan is just there to make sure you are okay while you are alone.”
“Well, it has to stop somewhere. He’s not getting on the boat for the next six months.”
Her father let out a long, deep sigh. “We were hoping you would give up this nonsense and come home before then.”
“I’ve already made up my mind. You only get so many chances in life to live your dreams, and this is mine. Wasn’t there something you always wanted to do but then lived to regret it that you didn’t try?” She wanted so bad to make her father understand her point of view.
“Susan. You can’t just go do everything that feels good in the world. Sometimes you have to settle down and let your dreams go.”
“I’m not you, and I’m not there yet. All I’m asking is for you to give me six months, and then I will do whatever it is you and Mom are asking. You’ll get grandchildren by the boatload, but for now, can you please just try not interfere in my life?”
There was silence for a few seconds as he was thinking about her proposition. “All right. Six months, but don’t tell your sisters. They need to be focused and looking for a man right now. If they think you get any more time than the rest of them, they are going to think we are playing favorites, and in six months you are going to feel pressure to get this done.”
“Time is all I ask. You might get lucky and get a grandchild before then, but I need to do this right now.”
“When Ethan gets out there, say hello to him for me.”
Susannah groaned. “Do you mean you aren’t sending him home?”
“No, dear. He won’t leave until you either come home or get on the ship. Those were my orders.”
Great—just great! “He will have to find me first.” She didn’t want to spend the week hiding from her father’s lackey.
“He’ll find you. Ethan worked for years as a private investigator before he passed the Texas State Bar exam.”
Damn, her father sounded smug about that, but if it was true it would be impossible to get him off her back. Except he would have a hard time finding her. She wasn’t a registered guest at the hotel, and he didn’t know she was a personal guest of Colt Vance.
It may take him months to figure out where she was.
It was a big island after all.
Ethan would have to turn up every rock to find her.
“He can try.” She added some cynicism for her father’s benefit. “Would you mind calling up the credit card company and uncancelling the card while I am here? I would like to be able to eat for the next week.”
“I’ll call them as soon as I get off the phone with you, but don’t do anything stupid while you are out there.”
“Daddy,
don’t you trust me? When was the last time I ever did anything stupid?”
“Well, there was that green horse you tried to ride in the rodeo, and the time you covered the cowboy in oil, and the—”
She couldn’t believe he was bringing this up now of all times. “That was over ten years ago.”
“Okay, but it still happened.”
“And you have the memory of an elephant,” she grumbled.
“Honey, I don’t mind you wanting to be independent and follow your dreams, but don’t worry your mother. Make sure you call at least once a week. I am not trying to be overprotective, but you were kidnapped as a child, and your mother worries so much. Not hearing from you would give her a stroke.”
“Don’t remind me. Okay, Dad. I will do that.” Throughout all the things they had been through she knew her parents loved her and she loved them. Even with the pressure they added to her life, she didn’t want to make them worry about her safety and welfare.
“I love you.”
“Love you, too, Dad.”
Chapter Ten
Susannah laid on the bed texting her sisters and everyone else that might care that she reached the islands safely.
She didn’t expect a reply anytime soon, since most everyone had a life and a job to keep them busy, but about twenty minutes later she received a reply from her sister, Serena.
So happy you got to the island safely, and I met a guy. Hoping I may have found Mr. Right this time. Love you, sis. Serena.
She smiled at the words on the small screen and texted back on her iPhone.
You go girl! Can’t wait to meet him.
It wasn’t a minute later her iPhone chimed and she received the following text back.
LOL He’s a little cranky, but he’s really cute and always the gentleman with me.
He better be treating you right, or he will have to answer to me. I love my sisters too much to let a guy treat them badly.