“Is that so?” His fingers brushed hers as they walked, and Lexie tucked her rioting emotions behind a blank mask. She’d never been happier for her pair of sunglasses, and she spotted Sasha on the west side past Sweet Breeze’s beach. She waved, and Lexie waggled her fingers back.
“So you’re saying I can’t be on this public beach?” This time, he moved his hand into her personal space and stroked his fingers down hers, a deliberate touch that wasn’t entirely unwelcome. In fact, Lexie wanted to grab onto his hand and hold it. She could almost remember the shape of it in hers, the warmth from his skin, and taste of the caramel she’d once licked from—
Lexie jerked away from him physically, trying to shut off her brain. “I’m saying, I’m going to go sit by my friends, and I’ve been told it’s a no-male zone, even in conversation.” She strode away from him. Well, as much as she could actually stride in the squishy sand. It probably looked like she was waddling with the way her legs shook.
Being near Jason was a mistake. She could already feel herself allowing soft thoughts about him, mostly because she hadn’t really known what had happened when everything came crashing down. So much had happened, that she hadn’t been able to process it all.
His chuckle followed her down the beach, but he didn’t physically join her. She arrived at the semi-circle of women and glanced around, taking in the familiar faces.
“Oh, you made it.” Sasha jumped up from her beach chair and gave Lexie a quick hug. “Guys, this is Lexie. She works at my stand, you know?”
Lexie felt cold despite the mid-April sun. “You’re Fisher’s wife,” she said to a redheaded woman. “Stacey, right?”
“That’s right.” She grinned at Lexie like she knew all of her secrets. Lexie trusted Fisher, but Stacey lived in his penthouse now that they were married, and while Lexie had never seen her there during a Nine-0 meeting, surely she knew what her husband was involved in.
Nothing nefarious. But definitely exclusive.
Like this beach club, she thought.
“And you married Marshall Robison over Christmas,” she said to the power blonde who owned the premiere car service on the island. “Esther, I believe.” It took a lot for Lexie to forget a name, and as Marshall and Fisher were like peanut butter and jelly, their wives were often around as a set too.
“And you’re Tyler’s wife, Tawny. And Jasper….” All of these men were in the Nine-0 Club. Had they told Sasha to invite Lexie? She turned to her friend. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
“Oh, don’t do that.” Stacey got up and took a few steps through the sand. She gave Lexie a hug too. “Sasha’s been telling us about you, and we thought we’d invite you. Nothing more.” She gave Lexie a warm smile and turned back to the group. “Right, ladies?”
“Right,” Esther said. “Pull up a patch of sand. Winnie here was just telling us about her no-good, cheating ex who’s gotten his latest girlfriend pregnant.”
Lexie glanced at a Hawaiian woman who had the most beautiful hair she’d ever seen. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not,” Winnie said. “Serves him right.” She took a long drink from her Styrofoam cup. “And I’m not looking to get married like these ladies.”
“So she says,” Tawny said, already leaning back in her chair, her face tilted toward the sun, and her eyes closed behind her sunglasses.
“And this is Gina Jackson,” Sasha said. “She owns Classy Closets, and Stacey’s just hired her to do all the rooms at Aloha Hideaway.”
“There are five rooms,” Stacey said as she lay back on her towel. “So it’s not much.”
“Sure it is,” Gina said, pulling her obviously dyed hair into a high ponytail. She gave Lexie a winning smile. “I’m new too. Only been on the island for about a month.”
And yet she was already in this club. Lexie couldn’t help feel a bit stung, but she supposed Gina had gotten an invite because she was working with Stacey, same as Lexie worked with Sasha.
“So who was that dreamboat you were talking to?” Gina asked, casting her eyes toward the parking lot.
“Dreamboat?” Lexie snorted and shook her head. She spread out her towel, noting that she needed to get one of the beach chairs Sasha, Esther, and Tawny were using. She was getting too old to sit on the ground, that was for sure.
“That was Jason Burnes.” Tawny sat up and looked over her shoulder too. How had all these women seen him when they were facing the other way? Maybe they were moms.
“Yeah,” Lexie said, hoping the conversation would move on. After all, Sasha had promised her they wouldn’t talk about men.
“My dad says the papayas are coming on,” Esther said. “We can go pick them tomorrow, if you want.”
“I’m in,” Stacey said. “I’d love to have some for dinner at the Hideaway.”
Little conversations similar to that one happened, and Sasha was right. No one brought up the “dreamboat” again—honestly, that was laughable—and they didn’t sit and talk about their billionaire husbands.
Lexie found them to be approachable, likable, and enjoyable. She sunned for an hour, and just when she thought she might be burning, she started packing up. “I should go,” she said. “I need to call my brother in New York and it’s quitting time there.”
Winnie had left twenty minutes ago, and Lexie had learned that this was a very loose club. Sasha had told her a bit more about it, and Lexie wondered if she’d passed some sort of initiation.
“Oh, Dreamboat is back,” Gina hissed, bending to place something in her bag.
Lexie couldn’t help turning to find Jason. Sure enough, he strolled along the beach like he belonged there. As if. He wore the board shorts, sure. But he didn’t like the beach, and Lexie knew it.
She refrained from rolling her eyes. Or yelling out to him.
He whistled through his teeth and a dog came tearing over to him.
“Oh, he has a puppy.” Gina might as well have clapped her hands and jumped for joy.
A dog? Since when was Jason a dog person? He pointed toward the group of women, and the canine came tearing toward them, a streak in the sand for how fast he could run.
The women squealed, Lexie included, and Jason whistled, stopping the dog on a dime. He sat, his tongue hanging out of his mouth as he grinned at the ladies.
Tawny stomped toward him. “Jason. Don’t be a jerk.”
“I’m not,” he said evenly, almost with a laugh in the back of his throat. “I’m just walking down the beach with my dog.”
And without a shirt, as Lexie couldn’t seem to stop staring at him. She finally found the brainpower to lift her eyes to his. “You got a dog?”
“Obviously.”
“What’s his name?” She’d bet a hundred bucks he’d rented the animal just to impress her.
“Steve.”
“Steve?” She scoffed. “Who names a dog Steve?”
Jason shrugged. “I adopted him. I don’t know who named him Steve.” He bent and scratched the dog’s ears. “But it fits him. I couldn’t change it.”
“What kind of dog is it?” she challenged next. She felt the weight of the other women’s eyes on her, and then they moved to Jason.
“He’s a Brittany spaniel.” Jason looked right into her eyes, and Lexie thought he could see all the inner workings of her soul.
“Did you get him just to impress me?”
Jason tipped his head back and laughed. Laughed and laughed. Humiliation and embarrassment ran through Lexie. Just as she was about to throw her phone at him to get him to stop, he sobered, stepped closer, leaned down.
My, he smelled good. Whatever sunscreen he bought, she wanted to bathe in it. No, you don’t. She glared at him, their faces only a few inches apart now.
“Believe it or not, Lexie, I got a dog so I wouldn’t be so lonely here on the island.” He didn’t wait for her to respond, and she wouldn’t have been able to anyway. The way he’d practically purred her name still had vibrations running through her, making her mind slow
and her tongue thick.
He simply whistled again, this time much softer and through puckered lips. “Let’s go, Steve. I’m sure we can find someone on this beach who appreciates your name.”
With that, he walked past the rest of the women and on down the beach.
Chapter Four
Jason walked with his head held high and his shoulders square, but his ears worked just fine. So he heard, “What was that?” and “Girl, he likes you,” and “What’s going on with you and Jason Burnes?” coming from the various women behind him.
The infamous Women’s Beach Club he’d heard about through the grapevine. And by the grapevine, he meant the hotel lobby, where he’d seen all of those women come in and out together, talking. And that place was made with marble and high ceiling so words carried and echoed.
It wasn’t a crime to be observant. To watch. To listen. And Jason was very good at all three of those.
I got a dog so I wouldn’t be so lonely here on the island. Lexie was a smart woman. She’d hear the meaning in those words. I want you, but I can’t have you, so Steve’ll have to do. Surely she had some sort of pet too. She’d never liked going home to an empty house, with no one and nothing to greet her.
He turned toward the hotel and the street, glancing casually over to where the women had been. They now walked in a clump, their heads bent together, obviously talking about him. Surprisingly, he didn’t mind. Maybe they could convince Lexie he wasn’t the monster she thought he was.
Though, judging by the fire in her eyes—borne from anger and desire—she didn’t really dislike him. “She dislikes the idea of you,” he told himself as he walked along the sidewalk to the street. He clipped a leash on Steve then, because the spaniel thought cars wanted to be friends.
He didn’t have to work at Sweet Breeze at all today, and most people would be glad for a day off. But not Jason. A day off meant too much time with his own thoughts. He took Steve into the entrance of Getaway Bay, where Sterling worked with another valet that morning. They both greeted him and gave Steve plenty of attention before Jason continued down the beachwalk.
Though it wasn’t quite noon yet, the sun beat down on the beach and the line in front of Two Coconuts had already grown to epic proportions. He reached into the large side pocket on his shorts and started handing out drink coupons for The Straw. He’d seen them at Sweet Breeze, and he figured Fisher had an agreement with Sasha to have them there.
“It’s just around the bay,” he said, talking and answering questions until he ran out of coupons. Several people started walking down the wooden walkway that led through the jungle palms and other trees to the smaller easy bay, where Sasha’s stand was.
Jason wasn’t sure why he cared if people spent their money at Two Coconuts or The Straw. Lexie probably wasn’t even working today. After all, he’d just seen her at the beach fifteen minutes ago, and she didn’t blend at The Straw every day.
Still, his house sat to the east, and he was ready to let Steve off the leash again, so he followed the people he’d just persuaded away from Two Coconuts. He’d never fallen in love with the frozen tropical drinks the way others had, so he took up his usual spot by the palm tree thirty yards from the stand.
Sasha had made it over, but Lexie wasn’t anywhere to be found. The Polynesian woman in the window had a bright smile and he’d seen her lots of times in his surveillance of the drink stand.
Steve growled, such an odd behavior that Jason glanced down at the canine. He was lying down, teeth bared as a man passed. He didn’t seem any different than anyone else—he wore shorts and an obnoxious floral patterned shirt he’d obviously picked up in the airport. That alone set Jason’s alert on high, as it was obvious this man was desperately trying to fit in somewhere he didn’t belong.
He joined the line in front of The Straw and ran his hand through his dark hair. He didn’t seem tan enough for someone who lived on the island, and that would’ve tipped Jason off if the hideous shirt hadn’t.
Jason just watched as drinks came out the window and the man edged forward. Steve had settled back to sleep in the sand, and Jason’s attention wandered. But when the man stepped up to order, the Polynesian woman just looked back at him. She said something Jason obviously couldn’t hear and then she called Sasha over to talk to him.
They moved to the side so another order could be taken, and Jason straightened and took a step forward. Steve lumbered to his feet, ready to go. Jason held the leash taut so the dog would stay.
Sasha shook her head and frowned, crossed her arms and seemed determined not to give the man what he wanted. He finally threw up his hands and turned directly toward Jason. The anger wasn’t hard to see in the snarl on his face, and he marched through the sand to the more solid boards, striding despite his cheap flip flops.
Jason memorized his face as he came toward him, and the man snapped, “What are you staring at, buddy?” when he went by.
Steve growled again, but Jason held him in place as he watched the man until he disappeared around a curve in the beachwalk. Only then did he look back to The Straw, which seemed to carry on as usual.
His heart started thumping then, his adrenaline kicking in after the situation had resolved. He watched Sasha serve drinks, and when the line died, Jason decided he was really thirsty. He approached the stand, meeting the Polynesian woman’s eyes. She wore a name tag that said Maddy, and asked him, “What can I get for you?”
“I’ve never been here,” he said, fully expecting Sasha to turn from the back of the stand and pepper him with questions. She did twist to see who was talking, then she came forward.
“Well, hello, Jason.” She spoke in a knowing tone, but Jason had no idea what she knew. “You’ve never been here?”
“First timer,” he declared, bringing out his smile. “I like sour stuff. What do you recommend?” He was sure he wouldn’t like any of them, what with names like Berry Blast-off and A Pear of Peaches.
“We’ve got some lemon and lime concoctions,” Sasha said, but Jason shook his head.
“What about mango?” he asked. He liked that, especially the dried stuff with all the sugar on the outside.
“Mango Mountain Majesties is great,” Maddy said. “It’s peaches and mangoes and orange sherbet.”
That did sound absolutely majestic, and he said, “I’ll take that.”
“Twenty-four or thirty-six?”
“Twenty-four.”
“Four sixty-two,” Maddy said and Sasha turned to blend his drink into something delicious. He took it from her a few moments later and asked, “What did that man want? The one you were arguing with?”
Her gaze turned cold and hard. “How long have you been standing there watching?”
“Not long.”
“Lexie’s not coming in today,” she said, but she exchanged a glance with Maddy that said otherwise. Jason didn’t press the issue, just took a sip of his drink.
“Oh, wow, this is good.” He took a longer pull on the straw while Sasha scoffed.
“You thought it wouldn’t be?” she asked.
“I wasn’t sure,” he said. “I’ve literally never had anything like this.”
“Where are you from?” Maddy asked.
“Virginia,” he and Sasha said at the same time. He locked eyes with her, pure surprise dancing through him along with the tangy, sweet taste of mangoes and peaches and oranges. And it took a lot to surprise Jason.
“Someone’s been talking about me,” he said with another smile to mask his true feelings. “What else did Lexie say?” He was sure none of it was good, just like he was sure that man would be back until he got what he was after.
“Nothing,” Sasha said, those arms going across her chest again.
“Mm.” He drank some more of his smoothie. “Was that other man looking for Lexie?”
Another glance gave Jason his answer, even when Sasha said, “No.”
“All right.” He jangled the leash and said, “Come on, Steve. Time to go home.�
�� He walked in the direction of his house, sipping and thinking and sipping some more. By the time he got home, he’d drank all of the smoothie and come up with the skeleton of a plan.
Find that man and watch him until Jason could figure out who he was, why he was here, and what he wanted with Lexie.
Jason wasn’t sure if he was exceptionally skilled at hunting down information or just lucky, but it only took him a few hours to learn that Victor Bunce was a real estate developer out of Jersey City—about as far from Getaway Bay as the man should be.
He was staying at Sweet Breeze, and Jason supposed it was good he had some connections there through Owen Church.
Jason wasn’t working security that day, but he had changed out of his swim trunks and into a pair of khakis and a black polo to stand around at the bar like he was waiting for a golfing buddy.
When Victor finally came down from his room around four o’clock, relief flowed through Jason. He wasn’t sure how many more sodas he could sip casually. “Thanks, Bert,” he said as he set his glass on the counter and threw a fifty dollar bill next to it.
He kept his eyes on the back of Victor’s head as he left the hotel, and then Jason turned away from the main exit, pulling his mirrored shades from his pocket when he stepped out of the side door.
Because he was taller and leaner, he had to wait for a moment on the edge of the sidewalk for Victor to show up on the beachwalk. The pudgier man moved with purpose, right back over to the east bay and The Straw.
He didn’t get in line this time, and Jason went past him and on down the walkway, taking up a position that showed him Victor’s face and body language but not inside the drink stand. He’d already seen that Lexie was indeed working today, and he’d already known she would be.
Sometimes a text was all the espionage he needed to perform.
So Sasha had lied to him. Jason wasn’t particularly worried about that. Everyone lied to him. It wasn’t personal. But he’d been wondering for hours why Sasha had lied to him.
The Straw stayed busy for quite a while, the late afternoon crowd going home merging with the evening crowd just coming to the beach. Jason waited, his attention never staying on Victor for too long, but never quite leaving him either.
The Billionaire's Bodyguard Page 3
