Last Ticket to Paradise
Page 19
“He did it under everyone’s nose.” She smoothed her hand along his thigh. “Don’t beat yourself up.”
“Clive suspected. He tried to question Fiso the day Fiso OD’d but couldn’t get anything out of him.”
“I heard them arguing that day. Do you think Clive wanted a cut of the action?”
“I don’t know, but he looked the other way for a long time. Maybe I looked the other way, too.”
She turned in his arms and cupped his face with one hand. “You would never look the other way. You would always do the right thing, Jake Kincaid.”
“Would I? Did I ever inquire into Gunther’s finances? He ran up a fortune in bills staying at the Palumba Falls, but as long as he paid his balance, I didn’t care.”
“You’re a hotelier, not a lender. It’s not up to you to do a financial background check on every guest.” She touched her thumb to his bottom lip, and he kissed the pad.
“I feel different about the hotel since you arrived. Its success, even its beauty, is hollow without someone to share it with.” He took her face in his hands. “You’re going to stay to share it with me, aren’t you? Because I can’t ever let you go, and I’m not sure I could handle North Dakota winters.”
Georgette’s heart sang, and she cinched her fingers around his wrists. “I-I wasn’t sure you’d want me to stay. Wasn’t sure this...paradise was going to last.”
“Is that a yes? When Brice left, I held my breath, thinking you’d go with him—back to your ordered, safe world.”
She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Order and safety are overrated.”
Jake’s face broke into a broad smile, and he tipped over onto his side, taking her with him. “One condition.”
“What’s that?” Her turn to hold her breath.
“You have to stop flirting with all those other guys, and you can only be topless with me.”
Holding up two fingers, she said, “That’s two conditions.”
“And there’s one more.”
“You’re kind of bossy, aren’t you?” She slipped her hand down his board shorts and squeezed his muscular backside.
“You have to take charge of the Palumba Island Museum—because I love your beauty and your brains. In fact, I love everything about you, Georgette Lawson.”
“Let’s seal that deal.”
He pulled her close, only the grains of sand between them, and slanted his mouth across hers.
As they melded together as one, a wave broke on shore and rushed up to encompass them in its warm, wet embrace. It didn’t faze them, didn’t break them apart—nothing would ever again.
Georgette had found her adventure, and it started in the arms of the man she loved.
The End
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