Eric
For a moment I just lie there in the bed, my body heavy with extreme sexual gratification. I feel a little stunned, like a bird who has just flown into a window pane. I’ve been flattened by something I didn’t see coming.
Also, Alex has stolen the bathroom, which just figures. She’s sexy, delicious, and occasionally infuriating.
I heave myself up out of the bed and wander into the living room. There’s another bathroom here, with a shower, too. Of course there is. The super rich never wait for anything. I turn on the spray and help myself to the luxury bath products on offer.
When I emerge a few minutes later, I smell like coconuts. I feel a little nutty so that’s only fair. In my towel, I wander over to the house phone and contemplate a room service order. Alex probably doesn’t have time to wait for it. Then again, the woman really likes her food…
I’m just reaching for the phone when there’s a very brisk knock on the door. It’s enough to set off that shrieking alarm, so my eardrums nearly split before I get to the door and hit the off button. My towel lands around my ankles, damn it.
“Okay, thanks for that,” I grumble, grabbing my towel and opening the door.
I was expecting Gunnar or Pieter, but a startled stranger blinks back at me. “Wait. Is this Alex’s room?” demands a young man dressed in a pink button-down shirt and khakis.
“That depends,” I tell this harmless creature. “On who you are.”
“Who am I?” he sniffs. “Who are you?” His eyes travel down my mostly naked body, taking in the towel I’m holding closed with one hand. “Not that I mind the view. But what are you doing in Alex’s room?”
“I’m Eric, her big jealous boyfriend.”
“Like hell,” he snorts. “I’m Rolf, her all-knowing assistant. I’ve never seen you before. And you’re not her type.”
“She’s making some changes.” I lean menacingly against the door frame. “Let’s see some ID.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” He pulls out his wallet. “It’s you who’s the suspicious one.”
Someone laughs in the hallway, and it sounds like Gunnar. That fucker is just enjoying the drama.
Rolf flashes me a corporate ID with his name on it and then pushes past. “Seriously, who are you?”
“I told you already.”
He shakes his head. “Alex doesn’t have a boyfriend. Not since that turd Jared.”
At least Rolf and I are on the same page about something. “You’ll have to take up your questions with her.” I don’t need to argue with this kid. She can tell him whatever version of the truth she wants.
Speaking of Alex—she comes flying out of the bedroom in a flowered dress and sandals. Her hair is smooth, and she’s wearing lipstick.
“Holy hell. That’s a goddamn magic trick. Not fifteen minutes ago you were—”
She cuts me off with a warning glare. “Do not finish that sentence.”
“Alex,” Rolf says. “Who is this dude?”
“Long story,” she says.
“Quite long indeed,” I say just to be an ass. “Massive.”
That gets me an eye roll from Alex. “Rolf, please tell me that bag you’re carrying has coffee in it.”
“A half-decaf coffee with two percent milk and an almond croissant. But I haven’t decided yet if I’m giving it to you. I don’t like to be out of the loop.”
She stops in front of him. “Rolf, you’re a genius, a lifesaver, and I treasure you. I will fill you in as soon as possible.”
“That’s better.” He hands her the bag.
“How’s your grandmother?” Alex asks.
“The same. They say she needs nursing care. I shouldn’t even be in Hawaii right now.”
There’s a tap on the door, and then Gunnar steps in. “Ready? We’d better head down.”
I look down at my towel. “Guys, I need a minute.”
“You’re not coming,” Gunnar says. “We’re keeping the threat level high, so I’m escorting her today. It looks less weird to have the bodyguard sit through the meetings. We don’t want to blow your cover.” He turns toward the door. “You’re on for dinner, though.”
“Oh. Well,” I say uselessly.
“Later, boyfriend,” Alex says
Within five seconds, they’re all gone. I get one more curious look from Rolf before the door clicks shut, leaving me standing mostly naked in a hotel room I never planned to visit. I feel a little slutty, if I’m honest. Like a high-priced escort.
Then again, slutty looks good on me. So I go back to the house phone and order a light breakfast and a pot of coffee.
I do a nice long workout in the hotel gym.
My only interruption is when my bad knee begins to throb, and I have to take a break to rewrap it.
I first tore my ACL back in college. The reconstruction surgery went really well and didn’t interfere with my career.
That was almost fifteen years ago, though, and I’ve been warned that arthritis is a common long-term result.
Last season I had some pain, so we’ve been monitoring the situation. They tell me I might need another surgery, but I’ll put that off as long as I can.
I’d meant to go running on the beach after the gym. But my knee is still acting up, and I call it quits after only two miles. New plan: lunch and then a swim in the lap pool on the terrace. There’s more than one way to get a cardio workout.
In the hotel restaurant, I take a seat indoors at the bar and order lunch. I’m just finishing an excellent blackened fish sandwich when someone takes the barstool right beside me. “A coke, please, and put it on this guy’s tab.”
I look up and find it’s Gunnar, and he’s alone. And I almost choke on my last bite of fish. “If you’re here, and I’m here, then who’s with Alex?”
“Easy,” he says quietly. “She’s in the world’s dullest lunch meeting with Pieter, Rolf, and a content provider from L.A. The reason I’m here right now is that Tatum is seated about ten barstools down from you.”
“Oh.” I know better than to look around for Gunnar’s target, so I push my plate away and keep my focus on him. “Then you’re not here to deliver a lecture from my brother?”
“Not a chance.” Gunnar chuckles. “But forgetting about the security camera was a rookie move.”
“Yeah. I know.” Thank goodness I didn’t peel Alex out of her clothes until after we moved to the bedroom.
“Besides, your brother is one to talk. It would be hypocritical of him to lecture you for hooking up with Alex.”
“Wait, what?” I stiffen. “My brother and—?” I can’t even finish the sentence because the idea of my brother and Alex together makes me irrationally angry.
“No! That’s not what I meant.” He laughs. “Good thing, though. You look like you’re about to slug someone.”
Do I? My fist is clenched, which is weird because jealousy isn’t my style. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.
“I just meant that he’s no saint.”
That’s interesting. So much of my brother’s life is a mystery to me. But I don’t want to pump Gunnar for details, so change the subject. “What’s the plan for tomorrow night? Alex is giving some kind of speech?”
“Right. We’ll cover her when she’s at the podium, and you’ll stay close to her at the table. There’s no need for anything more drastic than that.”
“Got it. Any other news?”
Gunnar shakes his head. “We still don’t know who that is in the break-in video if that’s what you’re asking. We may never know. In fact, it’s better if we never hear from him again.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
But what a frustrating job Gunnar has. My job always has an endpoint—you either win the game, or you lose. You advance, or you get knocked out. I like knowing where I stand.
“My boy is on the move,” Gunnar mutters. “I’ll be shoving off in a moment. Thanks for the drink.”
“Don’t mention it. But are you usually stuck on surveillance duty?” He’s my brother’s number two. I always assumed he spent his time in the background, keeping tabs on everyone else.
“This job is different every day.” He shrugs. “And that’s a good thing.” At that, he slides off the barstool and makes his way casually out of the restaurant, checking his watch like a man without a care in the world.
An hour later, I learn that swimming against a steady current is surprisingly difficult. Unlike swimming real laps, there’s no break every fifty meters. And after an hour, I’m wheezing like an old polar bear. Every stroke is harder than the last.
I’m trying to decide if I can last for another ten minutes when a pair of smooth and shapely legs appears in the water in front of me.
Alex is back. It’s the perfect excuse to give up.
I stand to greet her. Or at least I try, but the force of the current pushes me off my feet, and I end up struggling like a fool until I locate the off button.
Finally the current dies, leaving me standing chest deep in water, breathing hard. “Hi,” I wheeze.
She grins. “Hi, fake boyfriend. How was your day?”
“The usual. A nice long workout until my arms and legs felt like falling off. Then a healthy lunch, a little sunbathing naked on the terrace. And now a swim. About the same as yours, I guess.”
“I hope you didn’t burn anything important.”
“Don’t you worry.” I take a step closer and notice that she’s eyeing my abs. “And how was your day?”
“Oh, just the usual. Back-to-back meetings, negotiations, and brain-to-brain combat. One supplier tried to convince me that I should buy his batteries because they were especially proton neutral.” She tips her head back and laughs. “It’s like they can’t fathom that I have a brain.”
“Unbelievable,” I say, creeping closer to the hottie in the sundress. “I think that guy has the same degree as I do, though.”
She cocks her perfect head. “In what, exactly?”
“In bullshit and shenanigans.” Even as I say it, I dart forward, grab her by the hips, and pull her into the pool with me.
The shriek is deafening—louder than the door alarm, but much more fun. “Eric!” she howls.
“All this talk about your big brain,” I tease, holding her in my arms. “And yet you’re just sitting there on the edge of the pool, vulnerable as a kitten.”
“My dress!”
“What? Is it the kind that melts?”
She slaps my chest, but I don’t let go of her. “I was going to wear this out to dinner! We have a reservation.”
“Oh, shit. Well, if I’d known we had a reservation,” I deadpan, “I woulda done it, anyway. Hold your breath.”
“What? Oh!”