The Billionaire's Hideaway

by Marie Higgins

  “She couldn’t take off time from work.”

  His mind scrambled in search of other questions he could ask her, but nothing intelligent was coming to his head. One way or another, he needed to make her tell him why she was really here.

  “What do you do for fun in New York?”

  “Hmm...” She breathed slower and more relaxed. “Not much. Clubbing mostly, but even that is boring after a while.”

  He shifted on the bed, moving closer to her arms. After rubbing lotion in his palms, he began massaging one of her limbs. “And to think, you never found a boyfriend in all that time.”

  “Most men are jerks,” she said in almost a mumble.

  “And yet,” he said softly, “you still became attracted to me really quickly.”

  “Hmm...” She sighed. “You’re different.”

  He could tell she was getting tired. Maybe she would open up more with a sleepy mind. “Why am I different?”

  “Cuz, you are hard-working. You care about others. You don’t think the world revolves around you.”

  As he listened to her talking slower and slower, he thought back on his life as a bachelor billionaire and realized he had been just like she’d described she didn’t like. Once he fell into his billions, he paid others to do his work. And yes, he’d been very selfish. But when he decided to step into the role of staff member at Hideaway in Paradise, his whole attitude had changed. He remembered why he had enjoyed working so hard right after high school. He was proud of what he had accomplished, because he had worked for everything he’d gotten.

  Being back at the resort had changed him, which is why he had suddenly became the man Erin was looking for. Inwardly, he groaned. No wonder he’d fallen so fast and so hard for her, because she was the woman he was looking for, as well.

  He moved his hands up to her shoulder, slowing his movements. “Erin? I... I know the truth about you.” He paused briefly, but didn’t want to wait too long to give her a chance to start lying. “I know you’re a journalist from a magazine. I hope you can trust me to tell me why you’re here. Please?”

  He waited for her answer, but her back moved up and down slowly with her relaxed breaths. He stopped massaging her and leaned closer to look at the side of her face.

  She was asleep.

  He grinned, and yet, disappointment filled him. He’d try again tomorrow to get her to talk. The truth needed to come out soon – even if it meant confessing his secrets to her.

  THE LOUD BUZZING OF Erin’s cell phone jerked her out of her dreams, and she jumped up in bed. Her muscles protested the sudden movement, and she groaned. She scooted to the side of the bed and snatched her cell off the nightstand.

  “What do you want?” she snapped.

  “Is that any way to talk to your editor?”

  Erin gasped. “Sorry, Anne. I didn’t even think to look at caller ID.” She blinked, trying to focus. Maybe looking at the ID wouldn’t have mattered, anyway.

  “How is the article coming? Have you gathered a lot of information?”

  Erin laughed and swiped the wayward curls away from her face. “Not really.”

  “What?” Anne’s voice lifted. “Are you trying to tell me you’ve been there for a couple of days and still don’t have enough information to write the article?”

  “You got it.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’ve run into some problems.”

  “What problems?”

  Erin sighed and slumped back against the headboard. “Well, there’s the issue with the owner, Mr. Hunt. I can’t seem to locate him, and the staff doesn’t even know the man. The supervisor has met him, but he says Mr. Hunt rarely comes to the resort.”

  Silence on the other end lasted a few seconds.

  “Do you need to find the owner to finish your story?” Anne asked.

  “Of course. I need his point of view in all of this. After all, he’s the richest one out of all of these people here.”

  A heavy sigh came from the other end. “I suppose you’re right. Getting Mr. Hunt’s side of the story would be plausible and would make the article better.”

  “See, I told you.”

  “So, have you found anything else out?”

  Erin chuckled. “Well, apparently, the staff members have a rule that they can’t date the guests, but I’ve noticed a lot of assigned assistants getting really chummy with some of the riches here.”

  “Excuse me?” Anne’s voice rose. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

  Erin forced a laugh. “I’m only reporting the story, Anne, so don’t think otherwise.”

  A belch of laughter erupted from her not-so-ladylike editor. “What I’m thinking is that you are trying not to say that you’ve flirted with the staff members.”

  “Ha, ha. Very funny.” Erin bit her lip, trying not to sound like the guilty party.

  “Well, I want an excellent story, Erin. I want this article so hot it burns people’s fingers as they’re turning the pages. This kind of topic sells, as you well know, and blowing the lid off the resort’s secrets is going to give you that promotion you’ve always wanted.”

  Erin grinned. “I’ll get you a great story one way or another, I promise.”

  “Do whatever it takes to find out about Mr. Hunt. I want you to talk to him before the week is out.”

  “Yes, Anne. I’ll try.”

  “There’s no trying here, woman. You’ll do it!”

  “Yes. I’ll do it.”

  When Erin hung up, confidence blossomed inside her chest. Little did her editor know, but Anne had just given Erin the means she needed to find out about Mr. Hunt. Now she had a better reason for wanting to be with Cole so much.

  To obtain information.

  She just hoped she could convince him, too.

  However, Mr. Hunt had nothing to do with why she enjoyed kissing Cole so much. She really should analyze her feelings, but then she didn’t want to. What if he broke her heart? What if this was only a summer fling?

  Her gut twisted, but her heart softened. She really needed to find out.

  She quickly dressed, fixed her hair, and added makeup before checking the resort’s daily agenda. Today’s activities called for water skiing. Erin loved to water ski, and as much as she wanted to go, she must not. Cole would be driving the boat, which meant it would give her time to snoop around his office, and maybe try to find out more information about Mr. Jonathan Hunt.

  She waited until fifteen minutes before she was to be at the dock, and quickly called the office. Cole didn’t answer, but she didn’t expect he would since he’d be getting the boat ready.

  “This is Erin DeWitt,” she told the staff member in the office. “Cole is my assigned assistant, and I know he’s busy, but can you get a message to him? Let him know that I won’t be going water skiing. I woke up with a terrible headache.”

  “Of course, Miss DeWitt. I’ll let him know.”

  Erin smiled. “Thanks.”

  As soon as she hung up, she hurried to the window and peered outside. She hoped Cole didn’t try to come and talk her into going. It would be hard to lie to his face. He’d been so honest with her, that she felt guilty for not telling him why she was really here. Although, last night when he asked her questions while giving her the best massage of her life, she tried to be as honest as she could.

  His hands had relaxed her so much that she didn’t even remember falling asleep. She had no idea what they had been talking about, either.

  She kept checking her cell phone for the time, and she waited until ten minutes after the appointed time for the water skiing trip before leaving her bungalow. The area where she was at was empty, and she really could have enjoyed herself swimming in her own little beach with no one around, but she had work to do. Play time could come later.

  As she neared the resort’s main building, she glanced toward the boat speeding away from the dock with a handful of people inside. Even from this point, Erin could see Cole’s perfect p
hysique driving the boat, and she couldn’t control the sigh that sprang to her throat.

  Shaking herself back into journalist mode, she hurried to the main building and entered. Thankfully, nobody was in the lobby, so she casually walked down the hallway which lead to two other hallways. One of them lead to the dining area and an office, so she stepped toward that room. On the door was a sign Events Planner. She didn’t need to look there.

  She turned down the other hallway. Each room had a sign on the door to announce what it was for. Except the very last door.

  She stopped, looked up the hallway, and listened. The radio from the dining room blasted some awful rap song, but it didn’t sound like anyone was around who could bother her.

  Twisting the doorknob, she scowled. Locked. She remembered seeing her brother break into a locked room when they were teenagers, so she searched through her handbag until she found a credit card. It took several tries, but finally the soft click came from the door. She breathed a sigh of relief, checked the hallway one last time before walking inside.

  Darkness surrounded her, until her eyes adjusted. Thick curtains hung over the windows, keeping the light out. She shut the door, locked it, and then turned on the light. Expensive office furniture was scattered throughout the large room, but it was the oak desk in the middle that interested her most. Obviously, this was Mr. Hunt’s office.

  She breathed in deeply. Strange, that the place didn’t smell musky since the owner didn’t hang around the resort that often. Then again, Cole probably worked in the office quite a bit since he was the supervisor. She closed her eyes and inhaled, and detected a faint smell of his cologne.

  She hurried to the desk and scanned the items on top. Mostly organized, there wasn’t too much out of place. The small stack of papers on his desk looked to be applications for hire. It surprised her that the man didn’t have pictures of family anywhere. Unless he didn’t have family.

  Leaving the desktop, she pulled out the top drawer. Pens and pencils and notepads were placed evenly side-by-side. Who was this guy? An organized freak? Then again, her office at the magazine looked very similar to this.

  She took out the notebook and flipped through the pages. Empty.

  After closing the drawer, she moved to the next, and to the next. Nothing of importance captured her interest. When she pulled out the bottom drawer, several hanging files caught her eye.

  From outside the door, voices echoed in the hallway. She crouched and held her breath, hoping they’d pass right by the office without wondering who was inside. She zeroed her senses to the flapping of their flip-flops against the hard-wooden floor. Gradually, the footsteps disappeared.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, she searched through the hanging files. Faded newspaper articles drew her attention, and she pulled them out one by one. All were from different newspapers, but they all had the same woman’s picture on the front. All the articles talked about the wealthy woman’s generous donations to the children’s hospital.

  Erin pulled out a notebook and pen from her handbag and jotted down the name of the heiress and the date of the newspapers. Although the woman’s last name wasn’t Hunt, there must be some connection.

  As she slipped them back into the folder, another clipping caught her eyes. This time there was no picture, instead it was an article about a billionaire’s messy divorce. She didn’t have time to read through the article, so folded it up and pushed it in her handbag.

  Carefully, she closed the drawer. She walked around the room, studying the pictures of hotels on the walls, and writing down their locations. Before she knew it, she was almost back to the door.

  Heaving a frustrated sigh, she turned to make sure she didn’t leave anything out of place. Her shoulder caught on the wall organizer and bumped into it. A couple of letters fell to the floor. She picked them up and scanned the name and address. Her heart picked up rhythm when she noticed Mr. Hunt’s name neatly written in the left-hand corner of the envelope.

  He must have been here recently!

  She took out her notepad again, and scribbled down the names the letters were addressed to. Carefully, she placed them back in the organizer.

  It looked as if her job here was done. Unfortunately, she didn’t find what she’d hoped. A picture of the owner would have been nice. Hopefully, the few things she stumbled across would help her locate Mr. Hunt.

  Putting her ear next to the door, she listened for any movement from out in the hallway. Satisfied nobody lurked nearby, she turned off the lights and opened the door. She took a quick peek up and down before hurrying out of the office, locking the door before closing it.

  Confidently, she hurried to the nearest exit and left the building. The next item on her agenda was to search the Internet for this woman in the newspaper article. After that, she was prepared to talk to Cole again, and charm some answers out of him in order to get him to talk.

  That gorgeous, adorable man still kept secrets from her. She’d get them out of him one way or another, and she anticipated the outcome.

  ELEVEN

  This afternoon had been utterly miserable. Not only did Cole have to put up with the women guests flirting with him every chance they got, but when he didn’t give them any attention, they started complaining about the heat and wanting him to rub sun-block lotion on them. Although it was supposed to be his job duty as a staff member, he had grown tired of unsatisfied rich women who expected to be waited on constantly.

  Of course, his bad mood stemmed from the text he’d gotten from Larry who let him know that Erin had a headache and wouldn’t be coming on the boat today. Cole tried to tell himself that was a good thing, only because the more he thought about what Joey had discovered, the more irritated Cole became. Had all this time with Erin been a lie? Yet, her kisses didn’t seem fake, and the smoldering look in her pretty eyes didn’t look fake, either. They had grown very close in the past few days, and he thought she should have liked him enough to trust him.

  Apparently, it was obvious that he couldn’t read women very well. And of course, that knowledge only upset him more. It didn’t help that he was becoming more and more frustrated because he couldn’t see how the resort was losing money. He had no clue where it was going, and he still suspected one of the staff to be stealing.

  Perhaps he should just sell the resort and let another owner worry about that problem. Yet, he really enjoyed the location of Hideaway in Paradise. His guests always enjoyed themselves and told him that this really was a paradise.

  Once he docked and everyone left the boat, he put away the equipment before hurrying back to his room to change. Dinnertime crept upon him quicker than he wanted, but he couldn’t stop that. Maybe it was a good thing. It kept him away from Erin just a little longer.

  He showered and then hurried and changed into his evening attire. Tonight, he wore a white shirt and white slacks, and his white canvas slip-on shoes. His mind went over everything he was supposed to accomplish today. He paused when remembering the two letters he hadn’t gotten in the mail.

  Grumbling, he rushed out of his room and toward the main office. On his way, he waved to a few guests, grateful he hadn’t run into Erin yet. That woman knew how to melt his mind by just looking at him. If he didn’t find a way to stop his urges, his heart would be in big trouble, because he didn’t think his relationship with Erin was going to end well.

  Once he stepped into his office, Erin’s jasmine scent attacked his senses. He stopped and looked around. Nothing seemed out of place, yet why could he smell her?

  He closed the door and turned on the light, giving his office another careful scan. Still, nothing seemed out of place. So, why did he feel Erin had been here?

  There was only one way to tell.

  He hurried to the far wall and slid one of the pictures aside, giving him access to his security cameras. There were cameras all over the resort, except in the rooms, but especially in his office where the main safe was kept.

  He pulled out the tape and moved
over to the camera sitting by his window and plugged it in. He fast-forwarded the tape until a movement from inside his office caught his eyes. Playing the tape at normal speed, he studied the woman on the mini-screen.

  Erin. His heart dropped. She had been in his office, and obviously, she picked the lock on the door to do it. What was her purpose? But when she took notes of the newspaper clipping he had on his ex-wife, his gut clenched.

  Could the woman that turned his mind to mush actually work for Carmen? His ex had been trying for years to break him. After their divorce, she tried to claim alimony, and thankfully, his lawyer was better than hers, so he won.

  He scowled. Nothing made sense when it came to Erin. If she worked for his ex, wouldn’t she know his identity? Wouldn’t she know he was Carmen’s ex-husband?

  Perhaps Erin did. Yet, she seemed headstrong about finding and meeting Mr. Hunt.

  He sighed and scratched his head. The puzzle was not connecting, and because of the confusion, a slight pound began in his skull.

  He growled and pulled the tape out of the camera. It looked as if there’d be no more lovey-dovey stuff with Erin. He had evidence of her breaking and entering, which were grounds for kicking her out of the resort. But before he did, he was going to get some answers. No matter what.

  Even if it meant introducing her to Mr. Hunt.

  DINNER DIDN’T SATISFY Erin. Could it be because the man sitting next to her kept talking to her and wouldn’t leave her alone? How could she concentrate on what she’d found in Cole’s office if the man beside her wouldn’t shut up? She had politely nodded and smiled from time to time, but because she wouldn’t participate in the conversation, she figured he’d get the hint and talk to someone else. Sadly, it didn’t work as she’d wanted.

  Another reason dinner wasn’t enjoyable was because she’d only seen Cole for a few, brief moments. He didn’t even acknowledge her presence. Of course, he looked very busy, as if something had gone wrong in the kitchen. He looked so handsome tonight. His white clothes complimented his tanned skin and dark hair and facial hair. He was more handsome than she could imagine.