TWENTY
UNFORTUNATELY, her sister had other ideas.
“A suite?”
“Yeah,” Alessia said, dashing around tossing things into the suitcase open on her bed. “For me, Alana, and Lark. Our security guys know every corner, we’ll be protected there.”
She wanted to ask protected from what, except she’d been the one harping on about safety regardless of their location. Changing that tune now would be hypocritical.
“And they just gave it to you?”
“We asked, ‘cause we thought you wouldn’t be back.” Alessia stopped to look at her, a line forming between her brows. “Why are you back? Did you break up?”
“I was worried about you. This is supposed to be—”
“Don’t worry so much.” Alessia disappeared into the bathroom. “Everything is taken care of!” She reappeared embracing toiletries and cosmetics against her chest until she dumped them haphazardly in the case and flipped over the lid to zip it. “Was Zane Dyce an asshole?”
“No,” she said, a little at sea. “He’s kind and generous.”
“I’ll say.” Her shoulders rose, squeezing in tight, as glee grew on her face. “This has been the most amazing vacation ever.” The good did outweigh the bad. Alessia had a way of reminding her to cling to optimism. “Do you think he’d let us ever come back?”
“Zane? I’m sure if—”
“Are you going to marry him?” Alarm bolted through her. Danger approaching. Her sister carried on regardless. “If you marry him and have babies, we’ll be here all the time, right? We could just live here, like I said before.”
With a spa and twenty-four-hour room service, her sister might be happy for a while. Though without the bustle of the city, she might go stir-crazy.
“You’re supposed to be grounding me,” she admitted. “Reminding me not to get carried away.”
Alessia came rushing over to hug her. “What’s so wrong with getting carried away? He’s a good guy, Thea, I know it.”
And that might be reassuring if Alessia didn’t think the same thing about Roman Lowe. What did that say for her sister’s ability to judge true character?
Not that she thought Zane wasn’t a good person. He was. The best of people, like Roxie’s Jane. She had no doubts on that score.
“He is a good person, and if you want to move into the suite—”
“Thank you,” Alessia declared, dragging her case off the bed onto the floor. “This has been the most incredible vacation ever.” She came over for another hug. “It’s like a dream come true!”
A dream come true. Alessia rolled her luggage to the door. The moment she opened it, a guy leaned in to take the case for her. And then they were gone.
She exhaled.
Okay, bedtime. Alessia would be okay. Friends. Security. And it didn’t hurt that Roman Lowe was at the other end of the island, far, far away from her sister.
Before bed, she wanted a shower. A long shower, full of steam and refreshing heat. That would reset her. Then she could crawl into bed and close her eyes. The next day maybe she’d get back to work, find herself an even keel in routine.
More than an hour later, staring through the shadows to the ceiling, listening to the waves lap at the shore, she wasn’t asleep.
Refreshed and reset she may be. Her head rolled to study the vacant pillow. They’d never slept together, not in the literal sense. And it wasn’t like Alessia snored or anything, and she lived alone, so why did it feel like something was missing?
Maybe the steam had been too much. Lying there wasn’t getting her anywhere. Sitting up, she slipped her legs from the cover and stood up. It wouldn’t hurt to walk, would it? There was no one around. It was dark out. Only the moonlight would join her on the sand.
Grabbing a crochet cover-up from the closet, she didn’t bother with footwear and went out the sliding door. Inhaling the cleansing air of the sea, it enveloped her with such warmth and clarity that the temperature didn’t matter.
As she walked toward the water, she scrunched her feet, sinking them into the cool grains bathed by the ocean.
Alessia might be her reason for being there. The contest. The vacation and all that entailed. But it didn’t feel like that, obligation didn’t weigh on her there as it did at home. In her usual life, she’d never imagine taking time off each day to spend afternoons with debonaire billionaires. Something was different there, something in her, that had nothing to do with the environment.
It did help though, the vastness of forever skewed her perspective. Except the view was still obscured, it hadn’t quite come into focus yet. She was supposed to be seeing something, a future maybe, a change, her life path was coming toward a fork, maybe an intersection that would present more than one route. The only one who could decide which to take was her. Did she want to live a life with a singular purpose? To get up each day just to show at the office? What was she building? What was she creating? What was… she?
Distance didn’t register, not until the light caught the corner of her eye. The light she’d seen on her first night there. Did he leave it on all night? Glancing around, she couldn’t see any sign of him on the beach or in the water. Not that she’d seen a glimpse of him that first night either. Maybe he was swimming, but it was kind of late for that, wasn’t it?
Did he go out swimming alone every night? A barb of anger tightened her frown. How could he do something so stupid? What if he got into trouble and needed help?
Exhaling, her head dropped. It wasn’t her place to tell him how to live his life or to make his choices. And she was jumping to conclusions anyway. That could’ve been a one-off. Her direction switched without much thought. Leaving the water, she traversed the width of the beach. Trees hung on either side with a little greenery providing some privacy. Some, but not much. A stone path took her to the wooden deck and the glass was open, pushed back to present a bedroom, his bedroom she could only guess. Light hung between it and the next section of the house. She didn’t look. From there, she could see his bed, the open closet door. This was his privacy. This was her invading his personal space.
“Zane?” she called, not loud, but enough he should hear her over the waves and the swaying leaves.
It was only an invasion if she didn’t declare herself. Though she knocked on the glass, it wasn’t much of a sound, so she stepped inside.
What was she even doing there?
Whatever it was, the welcome relief of his scent lured her deeper. Definitely his room. Her fingertips touched the top of his headboard over the canopy net. That was where he slept. And suddenly things felt different, she felt different and closed her eyes.
Zane. He was the difference. The catalyst for her reassessment of her life, of her being.
“Thea?” Whipping around fast, her mouth opened but any hint of a response died at the sight of him. In board shorts, hair wet, his gorgeous form glistened with the sea she’d been inhaling not so long ago. “You okay, baby?”
“I couldn’t sleep without you.” The instinctual response was the truest she’d ever spoken. That was it. Dumb as it was, he was the thing missing from her soul. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”
“Shh,” he said and closed the space between them.
Scooping his hands around her jaw, he elevated her mouth, silencing it with his.
Salt merged between their damp lips, that was the ocean, them and the foreverness that surrounded them. All that she needed to be was enclosed in that kiss. What he was, they weren’t supposed to apologize, they were supposed to be eternal.
He reached beyond her without breaking their kiss and swept the net aside. She assumed anyway because it wasn’t there when he walked her backward and took her hips to guide her down to the bed.
She helped him rid her of the cover-up and as she slipped down the straps of her nightdress to wriggle out of it, he shoved out of his shorts and came down onto the bed with her, easing her up until her head was nestled between the pillows.
Her fingertips trailed down his body as his mouth spoiled hers again. No questions, no judgment, he’d accepted her there, accepted everything about her.
Just as her tongue got used to its companion, assuming it would be there forever, it slipped free.
“Zane,” she whispered, prepared to beg. But he didn’t reply, his mouth traced its way down hers until he guided her leg over his shoulder. “Oh, Drift, you don’t have to—”
The slide of his tongue quieted her again. Oh, that man. This man. Her man? Oh, God, please. Right then, under the talent of his mouth rousing and awakening her, she couldn’t think anything more than how much she wanted it to be true, how much she wanted him to be hers.
“Hmm,” he purred against her then pushed his tongue into her and out, up through her folds.
“Zane,” she gasped, her knees pulling higher.
Weight on her belly held her there, a deep pressure of need, of desire. That same anchor rocked her hips against the waves of pleasure sparking and clenching beneath his intimate kiss.
“Sweet Thea.” The vibration of his mouth against her clit rushed her to the edge, so the moment his tongue caressed it, she called out, pushing into the stability of him keeping her steady.
Her chest rose and fell, each pant followed the other. Oxygen eluded her. The sparkles of satisfaction before her eyes, and in her heart, sought refuge. One they found in him when he appeared above her again.
“Thank you,” she managed to whisper.
He kissed her. “Any time, baby. I didn’t want to sleep without you either.” Honestly? Maybe. She smiled anyway because truth or not, his welcome meant the world. “I’m going to take a quick shower and then I’ll be back, okay?” She nodded. “Don’t go anywhere.”
How could she go anywhere when everything she needed existed right there. He slipped out of the canopy and disappeared into the closet. The shower went on… Hmm, she’d already enjoyed her own cleansing steam in her room, but she could sneak in there, see if maybe Zane wanted his own delight.
Her heart rate was still climbing down, and by the time she felt stable enough to even think about moving, he swept the curtain aside and dropped down next to her with a kiss.
“Alessia’s in a suite with her friends,” she said, running her fingers into his damp hair. “She’s having the time of her life. Thank you.”
“It’s the company that makes the difference.” Lying down, he pulled her against him. “You should move in here.”
Her lips curled. “Just like that?”
It was hardly forever, but he barely seemed to give it a second of consideration.
“If your sister is with her friends, you’re better here. We can go to work together every morning.”
She laughed. “When we spend lunchtimes talking, we never get back to work. How much work will be done if we have breakfast together?”
“Hmm…” His fingertips tickled down her arm. “I thought all the sex would be a greater obstacle but, you’re right, maybe it is the food’s fault.”
On another laugh, she closed her eyes. “If I get fired, I’m staying here forever.”
“I’ll call your boss then, tell her what you really think of her. What time’s it in Missouri?”
“I don’t think you’d have to tell her anything,” she said, lifting her head enough to brush her cheek back and forth against him. “If the Great Zane Dyce—”
“I’m not the Great anything.”
Pushing higher, she met his eye. “I disagree.” Boosting a little more, she kissed him. “It’s kind of becoming my catchphrase but…”
Concern met his expression. “But…?”
“I have to apologize to you again.”
After an inhale of laughter, he sighed. “No more apologies, please. You have nothing to be sorry for.” He tucked her hair back from her face. “You never have to be sorry.”
“I blew you off earlier.” Nice as it was to say there was no need, she wouldn’t settle until it was out there. “You said you can live and work anywhere.”
“I did.”
“And I guess an alarm went off in my head.”
“An alarm?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about the future or that I don’t want us to have one…” She squinted. “That was what you were talking about, right?”
Another laugh. “Yes.”
“Good, okay.” She puffed out a breath and sat up. “We live like two thousand miles apart. And that’s if you’re in California. It’s probably twice that if we’re talking about here.”
“Distance doesn’t matter.”
“Exactly,” she said, laying both hands on his chest to keep him still when he shifted. “I’d like to…” And this was the crescendo moment, that had to be why her pulse kicked up again. “Maybe see where this can go.” It took a few seconds, but he did smile. Wasn’t exactly an exuberant response. Huh, maybe she’d overplayed the hand. “If… you want to…”
And if he didn’t, she was the fool who’d just embarrassed herself by stalking him to his bed and declaring her commitment. Crazy person. She’d be shuttled off the island probably as soon as the sun rose.
“Thea—”
“Do you think I’m a money-grubbing slut?”
His lips thinned. “Do you want money?”
“No!”
“Then how can you be a money-grubbing slut?” He wasn’t making this easy on her. Linking their hands, he sat up with her. “I’m okay if you’re a slut, because I’m one. Or I will be with you. As long as we’re talking about being exclusive sluts.”
His twist of amusement relaxed her.
“And they say romance is dead.”
He laughed and drove his fingers into her hair. “Wanderer, I want to see where this goes too. This doesn’t end with the island, we’ll figure it out when the time comes.”
Plans for real life back on the continent were a world away. For the time being, this was their domain, and it gave her everything she needed… everything she desired.