Chapter 20
“What are you looking so smug and serene about?” Dani demanded at lunchtime, spearing Sadie with a ‘look’.
Sadie blinked. “What do you mean?”
“She means you look like the cat who got all the cream,” Mia commented, waggling her eyebrows.
“Or maybe it was the pussy that creamed?” Natalie asked with a wicked grin.
Dani huffed. “Well, whatever the reason, nobody should be allowed to be that self-satisfied while I have to put up with a rat bastard crawling around my office.”
“Rat bastard?” Sadie repeated, trying to take the heat off herself.
It didn’t work.
“Don’t think you can change the subject and squirm out of telling us why you’re looking so damn pleased with yourself,” Dani countered, clearly not any happier at having the attention turned on herself.
Sadie sat back in her seat and rolled her eyes. She didn’t count acting as one of her skills, but she’d learned to become damn good at it over the years, out of necessity. “I just had a very satisfying scene. No mystery there,” she replied nonchalantly. “Now tell us about the rat bastard.”
Just as Sadie hoped, all eyes turned expectantly to Dani, who squirmed in her seat, while Sadie breathed a sigh of relief at being let off the hook.
“Spill,” Shelly demanded, pinning Dani with narrowed eyes, while Natalie looked on expectantly, but with perhaps a little more deference since Dani’s cousin Luca was the father of Natalie’s baby brother, making the two of them as good as family.
Dani let out a beleaguered sigh. “Zack freaking Kincaid,” she grumbled, spitting the name out like it left a bad taste in her mouth. “Apparently, he needs to run a full system check on the mainframe computer… something about it possibly being hacked.”
“Well, that’s not unreasonable, Dani,” Mia pointed out, her lawyer persona coming to the fore. “You know how sensitive the information the island holds on its members is. Especially those who stay at the Tartarean.”
The Tartarean was the hotel on the ‘kinky’ side of the island, where the BDSM club, Iniquity, was housed in the basement.
To keep it profitable, the Eden Resort also had a ‘vanilla’ side.
The Empyrean Hotel on that part of the island housed a casino.
There was also a golf course, and a whole plethora of water sports - not the kinky kind - and an open-air events stage which featured local bands, and dancers, and the like.
But while the more regular activities were available for all guests to enjoy, the Tartarean was the private playground of those very special guests who wanted guaranteed anonymity to explore all their kink fantasies.
“Absolutely!” Natalie agreed, giving Dani a somewhat censorious look. “If the information in our computer system was compromised, it could ruin us!”
Dani threw her hands in the air. “I know, I know,” she said with exasperation. “But why couldn’t Kris Warwick, our regular computer tech, have dealt with it?”
Four sets of eyes stared in Dani’s direction at the outburst.
“Because Zack Kincaid is someone who has sponsored in the island, so he has a vested interest,” Mia responded, her voice one of reason.
“And because his investment company supports the most cutting-edge technology,” Sadie added, even though she had a feeling there was something else at play here.
Something that had more to do with her unexpected house guest. Not that she could admit that.
“And he has access to stuff that’s not even on the market yet. ”
Dani slumped back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, pouting so completely uncharacteristically, that the four of them continued to stare at her.
“What?” she asked, full of belligerence. Luckily, she was saved from any further questioning when Cree, the head chef at Bahamian Rhapsody, the restaurant where they were having lunch, strode up to their table, greeting them all before leaning down to sneak a swift, but thorough kiss from Shelly.
“So, what can I get all you lovely ladies today?” he asked, effectively changing the subject as they all put in their orders. He wasn’t supposed to be waiting on them, but Sadie knew Cree just wanted an excuse to spend a few minutes with his wife.
It was sweet, and an unexpected pang of envy shot through her, taking Sadie by surprise.
When had she ever lusted after that kind of relationship?
She shook herself, mentally.
Nope. Not for her. No man was ever going to get close enough for her to let her guard down enough.
She was never, ever going to rely on a guy who might ultimately hurt her in a way she didn’t want to be hurt.
Taking away her consent, shriveling her self-esteem, diminishing her to nothing more than a husk to be controlled and abused.
No, thank you very much. Men couldn’t be trusted. She was better off without.
Your friends all have loving, supportive men who don’t treat them like that. The men you work with don’t behave like that.
The whisper through her mind made her uncomfortable, because she knew it was true.
It was also the same thing she had told countless abused women who had come to her for counseling.
But although, logically, Sadie accepted that truth, logic was rarely stronger than fear, that’s why she, and other psychologists, had a job.
Besides that, it undermined all her hard held beliefs about her narrow view of men.
And that scared her witless.