Hot Summer Fling

by Parker, Ali

Olive’s breath left her slowly, her anger deflating like a balloon. She kicked off her shoes and walked to the kitchen, then disappeared for a second, and when she came back, she was carrying two glasses and a full bottle of white wine. “I think you’d better run me through that again. Slower this time. Let’s go sit outside. I’m sick of being near the beach and not being on it.”

  Once we had our asses planted firmly in the soft sand, holding glasses filled to the brim with wine and watching the sun starting to set over the horizon, I gave her a proper explanation. This time I included our run in on the street and him taking me to the museum, as well as the couple of hours we’d ended up spending time on the beach.

  When I was done, Olive’s eyes were wide and there was a look of stunned disbelief in them that I totally understood. “It’s like a fairy tale, you? Or, you know, your own personal version of Pretty Woman.”

  “What?” I took a second to think about what she’d said, then burst out laughing while simultaneously lifting my middle finger. “Fuck you. It’s nothing like Pretty Woman. I served the guy … I didn’t service him.”

  “Still, rich guy meets poor girl and swoops in to save her?” Olive was laughing, too, her words punctuated by laughter. “Sounds like the same thing to me.”

  “It’s not,” I protested, trying to catch my breath. “Jeez, the guy is just going to show me some art.”

  “Sure.” Olive had finally stopped laughing, but there was a contemplative look in her eye that I didn’t like. “But you also think he’s hot. I think you said the word sexy about twenty times while you were telling me about him.”

  “He is freaking sexy. Trust me, you’d say the same thing if you saw him. I’ll take a picture of him for you next time, but you kind of have to meet him to get the full effect. There’s this air about him that’s just so…”

  “Sexy?” She finished for me, smirking. “Yeah, I got that part. I’m really curious to see him now, though. What’s his name? Maybe I can find a picture of him on the internet.”

  “Fulton Yates.” I sipped my wine, wondering why Olive was suddenly frowning. “What?”

  “I’ve heard that name before. Wait a second.” Straightening her left leg, she got her phone out of her pocket and unlocked the screen, tapping into the app she needed. Once it opened, I watched her typing in Fulton’s name, surprised when it was the top result to appear before she’d even finished typing his first name.

  She glanced at me before completing her search, then whistled under her breath. “There’s literally hundreds of thousands of hits on this guy.”

  “Maybe it’s not the same Fulton Yates.” Sure, I knew he was rich, but that didn’t mean he was famous or anything. “That’s got to be it.”

  Olive rolled her eyes, pushed her thumb onto an image to select it and then turned the screen to face me fully. “That’s him, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” I’d never sounded more uncertain about anything in my life, but there was no doubt about it. The gorgeous ice-blue eyes staring out at me from Olive’s phone were those belonging to the man’s I’d bought an Eskimo Pie for that very morning. “That’s him.”

  The sound of Olive sucking in a breath was audible even over the waves lapping at the shore. “Do you know who he is?”

  “Umm, yeah. I just told you who he was. Fulton Yates.” I took a gulp of wine this time, bracing myself for whatever the reason she was about to give me for his name bringing up so many hits on the search engine.

  Olive scrolled on the phone, pausing every once in a while to read something before resuming her information gathering mission. “Fuck. Okay, of course that’s him. I remember him now.”

  “What are you talking about?” Nerves were gathering in my stomach, tightening my muscles. It was annoying as hell. “Who is he?”

  “Fulton Yates. He’s twenty-nine. A billionaire hottie who’s smart, sweet, and searching for the right girl who would be worth leaving the office early for every night.”

  “Why does it sound like you’re reading from some kind of profile?”

  “Because I am reading from a profile.” She laughed, but it was more nervous than humorous. “He’s been on the most eligible bachelor list for years now. What I just read was the tagline beneath his picture from two years ago.”

  My lips parted as my jaw fell open. “You’re shitting me.”

  “No, I’m serious.” She turned her phone to me again, allowing me to see for myself that she was definitely not kidding me. “You really didn’t know?”

  I shook my head, my mind trying to process all this new information at a million miles a minute. “I knew that he was hot and rich, but I didn’t know he was one of the most eligible bachelors. I have the number of one of the most wanted guys in the country, how insane is that?”

  “Pretty damn insane.” Olive snapped her gaze to mine suddenly. “It may not be a bad tool to have in your pocket, though. Think about it. The dude has to have connections everywhere. He could totally get you a new job wherever you wanted, I bet.”

  “It’s not like that with us.” I didn’t know what it was like, but I knew I’d never use him like that. I actually liked the man, not for his money or his status, but for who he was. And okay, sure, it didn’t hurt that he was hot enough to melt the surface of the sun. “You know what I don’t understand?”

  “What?” Olive cocked her head, lifting her glass to hover in front of her lips.

  I drained the rest of my glass of wine, wondering why I was suddenly feeling insecure. I’d never been insecure a day in my life, but I somehow couldn’t help it now. “Why would this guy even give me the time of day, let alone his phone number?”

  Unfortunately, Olive didn’t seem to know either. There was only one person who could answer that question, but I didn’t know if I’d ever get up the nerve to ask him.

  Chapter 11

  Fulton

  “Yes, there is something you can do to help me. Closeout my account today.” The enraged voice talking was doing it loudly enough that I could hear it filtering into Elliot’s office, even though the client was out on the main floor.

  Elliot lifted his head from the paperwork he was busy looking over, a strange kind of sadness entering his eyes. “I’m sorry you have to hear that. I’ll just go out there and help out the teller. The customers wanting to close out their accounts can get a little hotheaded about it these days. It will be over faster if I go.”

  I frowned at Elliot, confused. “What do you mean these days?”

  “After the robbery.” He pushed up from his chair, crossing his office to rest his hand on the doorjamb. “It’s happened a couple of times so far. That guy hasn’t said it yet, but—”

  “You people can’t be trusted to keep your own vault secure, so no. I wouldn’t be interested in upgrading my account free of charge. You were robbed, for chrissake. Upgrading my account won’t make it safe to bank with you.”

  “And now he’s said it.” Elliot’s gaze lowered to the floor, his head shaking. “Our reputation took a bit of a hit with the robbery. It’s not a problem for most clients, since no one actually lost any money, and they’ve accepted our word about increased security measures being implemented, but not everyone has been persuaded to stay.”

  The angry client was still raving outside. Elliot gave me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, I’ll explain it more later. Let me just go deal with this first.”

  “No.” I stood up, fastening the button of the jacket I was wearing. “Let me go. You’ve done more than enough. I can get this one.”

  Elliot opened his mouth to protest, but I waved him off. “Really. I’ll be fine. You get back to your report. I’ll be right back.”

  I slipped past him and out the door before he could stop me, spotting the customer almost immediately as soon as the tellers came into view. His face was red, his jaw tight.

  The poor teller who was helping him was trying his best to calm the man down, following our policies and procedures perfectly, but the man wasn’t
having it. I strode over to the teller, clearing my throat to announce my arrival.

  “Excuse me, sir. Perhaps I may be of assistance to you. What seems to be the problem?”

  Both the teller and customer turned their gazes to me. The teller nodded and hurried away as fast as his feet could carry him, but the customer didn’t budge.

  “The problem is that you people can’t be trusted with my money, and that lackey of yours over there doesn’t want to close my account.” The man’s eyes were dark with fury, the emotion practically radiating off him. “I’m not upgrading, I’m not accepting any of your excuses. End of story.”

  “Understandable.” Seizing the man up before deciding it would probably be best to deal with him from his side of the counter, I held up my hand. “Give me a minute, sir.”

  A vein in his temple throbbed, but some of the tension seemed to leave him when he saw me making my way down the row of tellers and round to his side. When I reached him, I held out my hand for him to shake.

  “I’m Fulton Yates, and you are?”

  His jaw loosened when he heard my name, but he let his hand hang between us for a second before taking it. Grudgingly. “Dave.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Dave.” I smiled, hoping it came across as warm rather than patronizing. When I saw some of the rage leave his expression, I knew I had gotten off on the right foot. “I’m sure you’re wondering why the CEO of the entire group is here.”

  “Damage control,” Dave guessed, narrowing his eyes.

  I chuckled, shaking my head. “No, not really. I’m sure you heard that there was no real damage done. The money was returned and to my knowledge, no client lost so much as a single cent. Am I wrong? Were your accounts affected by the robbery?”

  “No, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be hit in the next one.”

  “There won’t be a next one,” I assured him. “Everything is okay now. The robbers have been arrested, the money has been returned, and in order to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again, I’m working with a team of security experts who are upgrading all of our systems.”

  “How nice for you,” Dave grumbled, folding meaty arms across his chest. “They can upgrade whatever they want, I still don’t trust you people.”

  “How about if I personally guaranteed your money?” The idea had popped into my head when I’d first told Elliot I would handle it. My lawyers would gut me or skin me alive if they knew what I was doing, but I didn’t care.

  Every customer was important to me. I’d known we’d lose some because of the robbery, but I wasn’t losing any unnecessarily.

  Dave eyed me suspiciously. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I will personally repay you the money that you lost if something like this ever happens again and your account is affected.” Reaching into the inner pocket of my jacket, I extracted an embossed leather business card holder.

  It was a relic of the past and one I almost forgot to carry with me every day, but my father had hammered it into me that some people were still better impressed with paper than technology. My business cards themselves were also embossed, made of heavy paper bearing my personal office line and email address.

  “Keep this. If you decide to stay with us and anything happens, you call that number and I’ll wire you whatever you lost from my personal account.”

  He took the card but kept it between his fingers without putting it away. “You’re that confident in your new security?”

  “I am.” I wasn’t even lying. We were rolling out the upgrades company-wide, and we’d even asked a few teams who specialized in the criminal side of things to attempt to crack us now. They’d failed. “It was nice to meet you, Dave. I do hope you’ll stay with us. We value all of our clients, and we’d be deeply sorry to see you go.”

  Dave huffed out a breath, lifting a hand to drag it through his thinning hair. “If you’re that sure, and if you’re really willing to repay me personally, I guess you’ll be saving me the effort of opening an account somewhere else.”

  “One of the many ways I aim to please. I’m glad to save you the effort.”

  He grunted something that sounded suspiciously like laughter he’d only barely managed to suppress, pocketed my business card, and said his goodbyes. Satisfied that I’d done a decent job in convincing him to stay, I went back to Elliot’s office.

  An hour or so later, we were wrapping up the reports that were due to our insurers that afternoon when my phone buzzed in my pocket. A rush of anticipation ran through me when I realized it was an unknown number, and the only call I was expecting from one of those was from Valerie.

  “Valerie?”

  “How did you know?” She sounded slightly taken aback. “I didn’t give you my number.”

  I was weirdly happy to hear from her, having to fight a smile to prevent Elliot from asking a million questions about what it had meant. “There aren’t many people who have this number of mine. You’re pretty much the only person who has the number that I don’t have theirs.”

  “Oh, yeah. That’s right. You’re a big shot, eligible bachelor billionaire.” The way she said it was as if it had just occurred to her, but since she’d brought it up so early on in the conversation, I’d have bet on it that she’d planned to mention it all along.

  “You found out about that, did you?”

  “I did.” She hesitated. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Would it have mattered to you?” The air I’d inhaled for my previous breath got stuck in my lungs waiting for her answer. I didn’t really know it seemed so important, but I knew what I wanted her answer to be.

  “No.” Relief flooded through me, both because of how certain she’d sounded about her answer and because I didn’t have to hold my breath anymore. “Does your offer still stand?”

  “Do you still want to take me up on it, despite what you know now?”

  There was no hesitation this time. “Does being an eligible bachelor change how much you know about art?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then I’d like to take you up on it. Can you meet me at the boardwalk in an hour?”

  I went through the last few pages of the report that I still had to review, mentally calculating how much time I needed. “Make it an hour and a half and you’ve got yourself a date.”

  “A date, huh?” She laughed. “Are such things allowed, what with your bachelor status and all?”

  “No, but I won’t tell if you won’t tell.” I liked the idea of having a secret with her, even though this one was stupid and not really a secret at all. “See you at the boardwalk in ninety?”

  “See you there.”

  The ninety minutes that followed were the longest of my fucking life. When I finally made it to the boardwalk, Valerie was already waiting. Thank God.

  I didn’t think I’d have been able to wait another minute to see her. The anticipation for spending more time with her had been building since she’d left my side the day before, and knowing that the ball was in her court and that she could call anytime was depressingly exciting. I really need to get out more.

  “Hey,” she greeted me with an easy smile. She was wearing a brightly patterned skirt with huge yellow flowers on it. She stood up from where she’d been watching the waves, turning to face me. “Thanks for coming.”

  “No problem. I said I’d show you some things, didn’t I? I’m a man of my word.”

  “Among many other things, apparently.” Her shoulders seemed stiffer than they had before. “You did an excellent job of being vague, by the way. I never suspected a thing.”

  “I’m going to take that as a compliment. What else did you find out about me?” I sighed quietly, fearing the inevitable had already happened. It shocked the hell out of me when she shrugged and removed her sunglasses to reveal gorgeous hazel eyes shining with sincerity.

  “Nothing. Olive just wanted to see what you looked like, so we searched your name. She read a quote from your profile, checked out your picture, and that
was it. It came as a huge surprise to me.”

  “She wanted to see what I looked like?” Why did that make my heart beat faster, give me an urge to take Valerie into my arms and kiss the fuck out of her? “Why?”

  One corner of her mouth pulled up. “Wouldn’t you like to know? And anyway, that’s what you’re focusing on?”

  “Yeah, for now anyway. You really didn’t keep searching me?”

  She shook her head and held up her fingers in what I thought was some kind of Scout’s sign. I’d never been a Scout, though, so I couldn’t be sure until she replied. “Scout’s honor. Why? Was there anything else I should know about you that you could have told me in person?”

  “You’ll have to wait and see.” I smiled, offering her my arm again. She looked at it, then back up into my eyes before taking it. “Want to go for a walk while we talk?”

  “Sure. I’m easy.”

  “You are?” Damn it. I should have at least tried to keep that from coming out. Valerie laughed and punched my arm. Really punched it, it was playful, but she hadn’t held back. Impressive.

  “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m easy with whatever you want to do this afternoon, and I didn’t mean that like that either. I’m going to stop talking now because I don’t know why everything I’m saying is coming out sounding dirty.”

  “Not that dirty, don’t worry. I could give you some examples of actual dirty talk if you’d like?”

  She looked up at me, the short strands of her hair blowing in the breeze, and then stuck her tongue out. “I don’t need your advice on dirty talk, thanks, Mr. Eligible Bachelor.”

  Shaking my head with fake disappointment, I tried not to focus too much on the first part of her sentence. Thinking about Valerie talking dirty would not end well for me.

  “I’m not going to live that down, am I?”

  “Never.” She confirmed my suspicions with a proud smile. “Still happy you offered me your help?”

  “Absolutely.” I wasn’t ashamed to admit it. “Your call was a welcome surprise.”