by Jill Sanders
“Oh, okay, but call me later. And Lilith, don’t leave me in the dark again. We’re sisters, even if not by blood.”
Lilith closed her eyes when they stung with emotion. “I’ll call you later.” Her mind flashed to how she wanted to spend her evening with Adam. “Actually, make it in the morning. I’m… we’re setting our trap tonight.”
“Right.” Her friend dragged the word out. “Just make sure you’re… very careful and… protected…”
Lilith chuckled, then gasped. They hadn’t used protection last night. Nor had she ever thought about birth control.
“Lilith?”
“I… have to go.” She hung up without another word and then forced her mind to focus on solving the problem inside.
Later, she told herself. She would deal with all that later. She was determined to not make that mistake again. There were plenty of condoms in the employees’ store. She would make sure she swung by the place before heading up to bed with Adam.
When she walked in, she was bombarded with the noise of unhappy guests. Walking over to the main desk, she moved behind it and leaned towards Stacey, who looked completely flustered.
“I’m sorry, Miss Brown. It appears that the entire Robinson group would like to extend their stay until the weather lets up.”
Her eyebrows shot up, but she quickly recovered, then punched a few keys on the computer and gauged how she could make it work. Then she turned to the group.
“I think we could make this work,” she started, and was surprised when the room grew silent. “However, we will need to have a few of you bunk up together.” The noise started, but she continued to talk. “I’m not talking about putting strangers in with you, only immediate family members. Kids in with parents, brothers and sisters in the same suite.” She waited as everyone discussed their options. “Of course I’d be willing to discount the rooms until Wednesday. That’s when we’re supposed to get a break in the weather.”
Again, she waited, then everyone nodded in agreement. “Very well. Stacey, I’ve already put them into the system, all you have to do is get them checked in again.” She leaned in. “Give them a ten percent discount on the rooms only. Oh, and have Joe find someplace to store all their luggage until the rooms have been turned over.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She smiled and looked relived.
“Thank you for being patient. Stacey is going to take good care of you.” She started to walk away, but her arm was grabbed. Turning, she held her smile for Tristen.
“Thanks for handling that. Um, I wanted to make sure…” He glanced over towards Kaleen.
“She’s in with her parents, so are you,” she added, touching his arm lightly.
“Thanks.” He took a step back and disappeared into the crowd. She made her way up the stairs and decided she would take care of the new stack of invoices for the day.
She walked into the office, leaned against the door, and played over everything that had happened in the last few hours. No doubt by now the entire island knew about her and Adam. She wondered how long they would have to wait for whoever had broken into her room to make his first move. She felt a jolt of excitement rush through her. Somehow, Adam made it all seem like a game.
Walking over, she picked up the stack of invoices, tapped them until they fell in line, and then almost screamed when a small green piece of paper fell from them.
She felt her knees go weak and slid into the seat as her eyes zeroed in on the bold lettering.
“Stop messing with him! You’re mine! Forever!”
She reached for the phone, but stopped herself when she noticed how badly her hand was shaking.
***
“What do you mean they’re staying on?” Adam growled out, causing Mat, one of his staff to take a step back.
“I… Miss Brown… she arranged it. The entire group is staying until Wednesday.”
Adam felt his blood begin to boil. Setting down a pan he’d been holding, he stormed from the kitchen and up the back stairs, and didn’t even bother to knock on the office door.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me that the group of fifty people was staying on for three more nights!” He leaned his fists against the desk.
Her head had snapped up, and she frowned at him. “I…” She blinked and he realized she looked like she was going to pass out.
“What’s wrong?” He moved towards her quickly.
“There’s another note.” She pointed down to the ground.
He walked around and stood there, looking down at the bold print.
“Stop messing with him! You’re mine! Forever!”
“Where was it?” He moved to pick it up from the ground.
“In...” She took a deep breath. “In the invoices there.” She pointed to the stack sitting on the edge of the desk.
Then she blinked and groaned. “Damn it, I knew I forgot something.”
“What?” He almost jumped back.
“The Robinsons. I forgot to tell you they were staying on.”
“Don’t worry about them.”
“But that’s fifty more mouths to feed and I just called your order for the next week. Now I’ll have to go and…”
He took her shoulders and forced her to stand up and look at him.
“I forgot,” she said in a low voice. “You can easily call and correct your order.”
His eyes scanned her. “It’s okay. You’ve been crying?”
Her shoulders relaxed. “Wouldn’t you? This means they broke in here, too.”
“At least now we have the note.” He tucked it into his pocket and decided to do some detective work himself. “Are you okay?” He ran his hands up and down her arms and noticed they were chilled.
“I had a call from Sarah,” she informed him, glancing around the room.
“Is she okay?” he asked, trying to take her mind off of the note.
“Yes, I just… told her… everything.” She bit her lip and he could see the worry in her eyes.
“And?” She was silent, and he added, “Did she unfriend you?”
Lilly chuckled and he could see her eyes clear. “No, of course not.”
“So, then what’s the problem?”
“I feel like I disappointed her.” Her eyes darted down to where the note had been moments ago.
“By?” He took her hands and pulled her closer, since it felt like the conversation wasn’t going far enough away from the note.
“Not talking to her sooner. She’s like my sister.” She wrapped her arms around his waist. He loved the feeling of holding her.
“Then she understood why you held off on telling her until after she got back from her honeymoon?”
“Of course.” She sighed against his chest. She was silent for a while. “We didn’t use protection.”
He stilled. “When?”
“Last night and this morning,” she said.
He chuckled. “I can’t speak for you, but I did. You must have been too far gone in lust to notice.” He pulled back and smiled down at her. “I guess that’s the ego boost I needed.”
She frowned. “But… I… I didn’t see you put…”
He smiled. “I never forget protection.” He kissed her on her nose. “Trust me.”
She nodded. “So, I don’t need to stop off at the employee store and get any rubbers?”
He chuckled. “If it makes you feel better to have your own stash around.”
“I had a few things I needed anyway.” She sighed. “I’m sorry about not telling you that the Robinson group was staying on.”
“I’ll deal with it.” He wrapped his arms around her again. “But I might be late tonight. I’ll have to move some things around to accommodate all the supplies.”
“That’s okay, I have a few things to tie up here too.”
“I’ll swing by after…”
“No, I’ll just meet you upstairs.” She rubbed her hands up and down his back. He wanted to stretch into them like a cat, then spend the rest of the day snuggl
ing with her, naked, locked together.
“Okay, I shouldn’t be too long after dinner. Maybe we can take another walk?” he suggested.
“In the rain?”
He glanced out the window and frowned. “Sorry, forgot. There aren’t any windows in the kitchen.”
She smiled. “We can sit out on the porch and neck. You know, to further our cause.” Her smile fell away when she remembered the new note.
He pulled her close. “Now that is a plan.” He rubbed his lips across hers. “I’m looking forward to spending the night with you, in my bed.”
She nodded her head slightly, then licked her lips, causing him to want to kiss them once more. Instead, he backed away, knowing he had to spend the next few hours trying to figure out menus and orders for the three days and fifty guests.
Then something else dawned on him as he walked towards the door. Turning back towards her, he asked. “Is that man staying on?” Her eyebrows shot up in question. “The one that was in here?”
“Tristen Robinson?” she supplied. He nodded quickly, his temper flaring. “Yes, but I told him I was seeing someone.” Her face paled slightly. “There is no way he left the note.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“You’ve talked to him?” he asked, fisting his hands.
“He’s a guest, and he apologized for yesterday.” She sat down behind the desk. “He did not leave those notes,” she said again.
“Even if he didn’t, he didn’t have the right to paw you—”
“Adam,” she broke into his rant. “He was drunk and he apologized. Besides, like I said, I told him we were involved.”
That stopped his temper cold. “You did?”
She nodded and smiled. “I thought that was our plan.”
He stormed over and leaned across her desk and planted another kiss on her lips. “Later.” He wasn’t sure if it was a promise or a threat. Without another word, he walked out of the office, his shoulders back, his head a little higher.
He was in love. There was no question about it. Not anymore. Now all he had to do was tell Lilly. Just that thought had his stomach rolling and his palms sweating.
Chapter Eleven
Lilith watched Adam leave the room and couldn’t stop smiling for the next few hours while she made some calls and rearranged schedules. The note she’d discovered was all but forgotten.
She added three more people to the cleaning staff’s schedule. She knew Adam would take care of the wait staff and kitchen personnel.
Rodney, the groundskeeper, informed her that there was still plenty to do during the rain and he would keep his staff busy enough. They had been in the process of cleaning all the gutters and power washing all the buildings before the rain started, but it would have to be put on hold until the rains stopped.
She had always loved the old gardener. He’d been working at East Haven since long before Sarah had even been born. Long before Sarah’s father had even purchased the island resort. Rodney always joked that he was born to work there and would be there until the day he died.
Which, from the looks of him, should have been years ago. But even though he looked frail and old, Lilith knew that wasn’t the case. She’d had a hard time keeping up with the man when she’d worked under him. Even Rodney’s grandson complained about how hard his grandfather worked him. The kid did like to complain. But so did a lot of her staff.
She glanced down when her stomach growled. Picking up the phone, she decided to call down to the kitchen and order up an early dinner, but then hung up instead when she remembered that Adam was going to bring something up later.
She needed to get up and stretch her legs anyway. As she walked down the hallway, she thought of all the things that still had to be done that evening before she could spend time with Adam.
She was almost to the stairs when she noticed the door to the attic cracked open. The workers weren’t supposed to be in there until the next morning. Stepping into the darkness, she called out.
“Hello?” Since the sky had turned dark already, there was no light shining through the window like it had at lunch. Searching for a light switch, she stubbed her toe on a box and cursed under her breath. “Is someone in here?” she called again after flipping on the dim light.
Nothing. Turning back to the door, she flipped the light off and shut the door behind her. Maybe a guest had wandered in by accident and had forgotten to shut the door all the way.
Her stomach growled again, causing her to rush down the stairs. She tripped at the bottom stair and would have landed face first if a strong hand hadn’t caught her.
“Seems like I’m always catching you,” Adam joked.
“Very funny.” She stood up and straightened her dress. “Did we leave the attic door open?” she asked, glancing back up the stairs.
“No, I remember closing it behind you.” He frowned down at her.
“Is that for me?” she asked, seeing the tray of food in his hands.
“For us.” He smiled. “I pulled some strings to get a few minutes with you before the dinner rush.” He glanced up the stairs. “Want to head back up?”
She sighed. “No, let’s go out on the back porch and watch the rain.” She followed him down the back hallway and held the door open for him.
Gone was the soft rain of earlier. Now it was falling in buckets. The lightning and wind kicked up too, causing them to have to sit near the back wall so they wouldn’t get wet.
“I guess it’s a good thing the Robinsons stuck around. Can you imagine being stuck out in a boat in this stuff?” she said, shoveling a piece of chicken and spicy noodles into her mouth.
“I’ve done that once in my life.” He shivered. “No, thank you. I preferred to watch it from here.”
“What happened?” She turned slightly towards him.
“I was taking my gran out on a sunny day and things took a quick turn. Let’s just say we stick close to the shoreline now.”
“Was she okay?”
Adam chuckled. “Actually, she enjoyed it. Laughed the entire time. I was sure she’d gone insane, but then she told me a story of when her father took her out in his fishing boat. They lived in Sète, a small fishing community off the southern coast of France, near the Mediterranean Sea. One day, she’d begged her father to take her along for the day. She was in her early teens and told her father she was old enough to learn the ropes. He took her and later that afternoon there was a big orage.” He glanced at her. “Storm.” He smiled.
“I would have remembered the word.” She sighed and thought about brushing up on her French.
“Anyway, the fishing boat, La Grande Dame…” He glanced at her.
“The grand lady,” she supplied, feeling accomplished.
“That was an easy one,” he teased. “So, La Grande Dame was pulled out deep into the Balearic Sea, its dark waters taking them further and further away from home as the skies grew black.”
She noticed that his accent grew thicker as he got more into the story. Even the sounds of the rain and thunder helped her picture how a young teenage girl would feel, lost, being tossed around in the dark waters.
“Soon, just when they were about to lose hope, the sky opened up and a bright light pointed to the most beautiful thing my mémère had ever seen.”
“What?” She hadn’t realized she was almost leaning over the table and straightened up. “What did they see?”
“Home.” He leaned back. “Imagine seeing a hill, shown in light, covered with colorful buildings, surrounded by crystal teal waters, boats bobbing in the port. It must have looked like heaven.” He sighed.
“You’re a romantic.” She chuckled. “I supposed I should have known that about you already, but…” She shook her head. “You put on this show, this façade. Angry Frenchman.” He smiled.
“And? How is this harmful? My employees fear me enough to never question my judgment or slack off.” His accent grew thicker. “Besides, life would be boring on the island if I didn’t give them somet
hing to talk about behind closed doors.”
“Is that why you angered me so much?” she asked.
“No.” He glanced out at the rain. “I had other reasons.”
“And?” She moved closer to him until her shoulder touched his. “What would those be?”
His hand reached under the table and took hers, then he lifted it until he brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “It is how we act.”
“We?” she asked. “All French?”
“No.” He frowned slightly. “I mean…” He took a deep breath. “Can we…”
She waited. She could tell he was flustered, but she needed to understand. “Did you like me? I mean, is that how you showed it?”
He shrugged. “I’d better…” He started to get up, but she held him in place.
“You don’t have to irritate me so much to show me you like me.” She took his face into her hands and leaned over to place a soft kiss on his lips. “Just tell me.”
He dropped his forehead to hers and sighed. “Words are hard sometimes. Other times, they come out wrong.”
She smiled. “Then show me.” Her eyes met his. “But later. Right now, I have to go smooth over a few things.”
He nodded, then pulled her in for a slow kiss. “Later.” This time when he said it, she felt a shiver of excitement race through her.
He walked her back towards the stairs, then disappeared down the back way towards the kitchen. She took the next hour making sure everything was ready for the new guests. Instead of holding a birthday party outside by the pool house, the party would be moved into the dining room, which meant the Robinson family would have to eat lunch tomorrow somewhere else. Too bad the attic wasn’t ready.
After clearing the morning room and having the staff move a few things around, they made enough room for a dozen people, which meant the Robinson clan would have to eat lunch in shifts. She doubted that was going to be acceptable since the group liked to socialize with one another.
She made her way up to the second floor and knocked on Tristen’s door. His mother answered, dressed as if she was ready to visit the Queen herself.
Her long flowing evening dress made Lilith remember that she was still in her simple sundress.
