by Meg Maguire
Leigh flattened the sand pile and traced grooves in it with her fingertips. “I’m glad I finally picked up my phone and got that out of the way, talking to my mom...and my ex.”
“Oh.” Will conjured up that photo again.
“It went surprisingly well.”
His middle gurgled. “Well as in there’s hope for the future for you two, or...?”
Leigh laughed. “Weren’t you in that huge bed with me last night? Or in the shower or on the sand? Did I seem like I was praying for a reconciliation?”
Pride and relief relaxed Will’s body. “No, I guess you do seem pretty over him.”
“He’s over me, as well.” She paused before adding, “He’s already moved on, actually. He moved on months ago, as far as I can tell. With someone else.”
Will blinked at her, a different ache taking up residence in his chest. She’d hinted at as much before, but to know for sure...
She stabbed holes in the sand. “Please don’t tell anyone I said that. I haven’t even told my mom. I’m not sure why I just told you, actually.”
“I won’t tell a soul.... That’s why you ran?”
She nodded. “I found out the morning of the wedding.”
“Oh, Leigh.” He stared at the sky, trying to imagine how awful that must have felt. “He told you? Or someone else did?”
“No, it was a total fluke, the way I found out. But I get now that it’s been for the best, even with all this drama. I wish I’d found out well before the date so it would’ve just been a broken engagement, not a big, juicy scandal. But this has been a good kick in the butt for me. It just confirms that this isn’t the life I want anymore. Maybe I never did.”
“So what will you do instead? Any clue?”
“No clue. But I want to get far away from that nonsense, both professionally and geographically.”
“Whereabouts?”
“Ooh, I dunno. Maybe someplace like this.” She stretched her legs out before her, and Will tried to ignore how smooth her bare skin looked, and the memories of how it had felt against his.
He checked his phone again. “We ought to head back to the dock.” He was about to stand when Leigh suddenly grasped his wrist.
“How would you...” She stared at the sea.
“How would I what?”
“This may be nuts, but maybe it’s not.... Since your funding fell through,” she said slowly, turning to face him, “how would you feel about letting me back you? To start your business?”
“What?”
“You need the money, and I need a project. Well, not a project—I don’t want to take over your vision or anything. But something to feel invested in. A part of.”
He was confused in a way he’d never experienced before, a panicky, hopeful, sickening sensation. “I’m not sure.”
“I know you probably wouldn’t be in a position to buy me out for quite a while, but I’d love to be a part of it. If you could get a proposal in order and all that.”
Will already had the proposal—he’d pitched it to a dozen banks and been turned down for a dozen loans. He had no savings since his father’s hospitalization, and his wages and the neighborhood were the reddest of red flags.
“I’m not sure,” he repeated in a murmur.
“I’ve got a decent chunk of money in the bank, and quite a nice check coming for this interview. I’d love to help you. To fund something I actually care about, not just some anonymous stock portfolio. I know it’s a bit risky, but it wouldn’t destroy me if it didn’t pan out. Though of course it would be a success,” she added quickly.
“You’re sweet to say that, but you’re right, it’s risky.” Will had no doubt it’d succeed, though—he’d see to that personally. He turned to stare at Leigh.
“What?”
“You’d really, actually want to do that?”
She smiled. “I would. I’d be honored. And I promise I don’t plan to move down here and hover around the place and micromanage every little detail. Just the money. And maybe a free drink here and there,” she added with a smile.
He imagined the opposite. Leigh indeed moving down here, being a regular—perhaps even a daily—fixture in his life. A pleasant thought, if viewed through the lens of romantic idealism. And a strong and blinding lens it was.
“I’m still not sure. Please don’t think I’m trying to patronize you, but you’re at a weird point in your life. If everything’s about to change for you, it’s probably not the smartest time to make a huge financial commitment. I know what this island does to people, too.”
She nodded. “It makes you want to feel a part of all this. But my offer...I do mean it. And obviously we’re not signing papers tonight. I’ve got plenty of time to change my mind. And plenty of time to convince you what a genius idea it is,” she added, nudging his shoulder with hers.
“You’re better at coercing a weak man than you probably realize.”
She gave him a beseeching look.
“I’ll think about it. Now we really need to get you back to Harrier.”
* * *
WILL STOLE A GLANCE at Leigh as he drove them along the gravel road to her villa, toward the setting sun. She was smiling. A small, tired smile, but a smile nonetheless. The tabloid business hadn’t broken her, thank goodness.
He looked back at the road, turning her offer around in his head for the thousandth time that hour. It was the worst kind of temptation, to accept money from the woman he’d come so close to hurting. But she wanted it, badly, and his agreement could make her happy. Or was that just the rationalization of a desperate, selfish man? She had him so mixed up, he honestly couldn’t be sure.
Will pulled around her drive and parked. She bit her lip as she undid her seat belt.
“What?”
“Would you like to come in?” she asked.
Will’s dick wanted that, for purely selfish reasons, and his heart wanted it as well, for the mere pleasure of being near her, clothes on or off. He met her gaze. “I meant what I said this morning, about you probably needing things to be simple right now.”
“I know, and thank you. I wasn’t offering to throw myself at you again. But would you like a beer? Maybe you could tell me more about the club, over dinner.”
He sighed, his resistance waning alongside his guilt. “Yeah, I would like that.”
She opened the door and climbed out. “There are prying eyes on this island. Better not tempt fate by leaving evidence of our lurid affair parked in plain sight.”
As he drove away, Will felt alive again. He felt infinitely better than he had that morning, the last time he’d said goodbye to her at her door. He could imagine what his old man might have to say about the situation. Don’t waste your time beating yourself up over the mistakes you nearly made. Save that for when you screw up royally.
And Will had no intention of screwing things up with Leigh. He’d found something special with her, and though it likely would only last another week, he wouldn’t waste it. He wouldn’t let the chance to know her pass, and wind up regretting it once she’d flown home. All these years he’d spent determined to live without regrets.... Now wasn’t the time to start overthinking everything.
He dropped his truck off and struck out on foot. The deal she’d offered wasn’t something he could hang his hopes on, but it was enough to remind him that there was always another way. Enough to let him believe he’d done the right thing in telling that tabloid asshole where to stick his dirty money, and that maybe this new opportunity was the universe rewarding his decision. By the time her villa came into view, Will felt hopeful. He felt other things, as well, a fluttering in his chest, a quickening in his pulse.
Something in him was intrigued by the idea of them becoming business partners. The potential complications didn’t scare him—Will tended to
attract rather passionate women, and he’d navigated his share of melodramatic breakups. The only thing that did scare him was to agree to her offer, then greet her in Bridgetown a year from now only to find she had a new guy in tow. Still, he’d never been a jealous man.
Okay, that was a lie—Will had gone insane with jealousy at thirteen when he found out his mother had remarried and had another son with her new husband. That had hurt as badly as being walked out on. But he’d never feel so awful again in his life—aside from the night his father had been shot. Certainly not over a woman. Love could never be counted on to live up to its hype.
Though it was nice while it lasted.
Will bounded up the steps to Leigh’s patio, noticing her hot tub was steaming. His good feelings shifted in a southerly direction. He knocked at her back door, spotting her impeccably remade bed through the glass. That would need fixing.
Leigh appeared with a glass of white wine already in hand, and slid the door aside for him.
“Why, good evening, Captain. What a pleasant surprise.”
He smiled, inviting the flirtation. “Saw you have your hot tub all fired up. Now this.” He pointed to her glass and closed the door behind him. “Am I interrupting your evening?”
“Even if you were, you’re welcome to crash my party. I owe you one. Can I get you a beer?”
“Wine’s fine,” he said, following her into the kitchen. “Think I ought to prepare for a toast, if you really are serious about backing my venture.”
“I’m very serious. And I’ll still be very serious tomorrow and next week and a month from now. But I promise I won’t rush the paperwork, so you’ll know I’m not making the offer impulsively.”
“You’ve made me other impulsive offers,” Will teased.
Leigh rolled her eyes as she poured him a measure of white.
“Thanks. When’s your interview? Tomorrow?”
“Day after. Tomorrow I’ll be shackled to the phone, finalizing what to say, and rehearsing it endlessly with my manager, making sure the satellite link works.” She beckoned for him to join her at the kitchen’s shiny marble bar.
“They sending anyone out to help you? PR people?”
“No, I asked them not to. They’ll be hovering plenty via the phone. It’s, um... I’m very easy to coerce, unfortunately. The more persuasive people I have around me, the more I lose track of myself and what I want. I just want to be myself during the interview. Not some groomed version of me. But I do need some plan, so I don’t get lured off topic by the host.”
“Right.” Will studied the condensation on his cold glass.
“Are you worried? About what I might say about the party?”
“No, not at all.” The worry he did feel right now was a pleasant one, utterly tied up in how much he cared for this woman. “I’m sure you’ll do fine. I hope it’s the first step on the way to getting your life into the shape you want it to be.”
She laughed. “Thank you. I’d actually love for it to not have any shape at all for a while, I’ve been corralled for so long. Would you like to toast?”
“I would.” Will sat up straight and raised his glass. “To whatever will come.”
“Whatever will come.”
They clinked and he tasted the wine for the first time. Refreshing. Clear and clean. The way his conscience was finally beginning to feel.
“So, the hot tub,” he said, raising an eyebrow at her.
“No need to sound so lurid. Friends can share a glass of wine in a hot tub,” she countered, way too innocently.
“What about business partners?”
“Even more so. So can pilots and passengers.”
“What about the two people who were in your bed last night?”
Finally, he got a blush out of her. “Those two are tricky. I suppose that remains to be seen.”
“Shall we find out?”
“I suspect we shall.”
When they reached her bedroom, she said, “Go ahead. I need to change into a bathing suit.”
“Make sure it’s one with a built-in chastity belt. We’ll need all the help we can get, keeping this professional.”
He left her and stepped out onto the patio. Cold drink, cool air, steaming water. “God bless you, Barbados.”
Will stripped to his underwear and sat at the edge of the whirlpool, dipping his feet into the water. Once they adjusted, he let his calves sink into the current, then slid onto the contoured bench, churning heat engulfing him to his chest. The hiss of the sliding door announced Leigh’s arrival. He turned to watch her, his scrutiny of her body in its bikini far from subtle.
“Yes?” she asked, dipping a toe in the water. “Oh my, that’s hot.”
“You look very nice. Don’t see a lock on that suit, though.”
“No, I was afraid it might rust. We’ll just have to take our chances.”
Will wanted to take far more than that. He smiled at the round O of her mouth as she dipped a foot into the heat.
“Too hot?”
“I’ll get there.” There was a rubber band on her wrist and she paused to wind her long hair into a sloppy bun. The only sexier look Will could imagine was to see it spread out across her pillow. Or his pillow. The carpet, the sand, swaying in the ocean waves. Anywhere.
“You ought to be used to this, what with your Hollywood lifestyle,” he said. “Doesn’t your manservant prepare your hot tub every evening?”
She smiled, sinking in the water to her hips. “I don’t have a hot tub or any servants, thank you. I’m not Elizabeth Taylor, you know.”
“What do you fill your Beverly Hills mansion with, then?”
Leigh laughed. “I hate to disillusion you, but my soon-to-be-former mansion is a condo. Though it does have a big whirlpool bath.” She winced as she took a seat across from him, on a lower bench that immersed her right up to her shoulders and hid Will’s view of her breasts. After a minute of painful faces, she draped her arms along the rim and sighed. “Okay, I’ve melted.”
The steam lent an alluring sheen to her complexion, and with her eyes closed and her skin flushed, she looked sexy in a way Will didn’t think he’d ever seen. There were so many facets to this woman, so unlike the entertainment industry visitors he’d grown accustomed to. Her desire to get out of that chaos really was genuine.
“Are you excited?” she asked, eyes still shut. Behind her, the sun sat at the horizon, edging her in a warm glow, as though she’d been dipped in gold. “Excited about the club getting off the ground? Or are you the type to withhold your excitement until things are official?”
“No, I’m not especially cautious. My dad says I’ve always been a dreamer.”
“I could see that.”
“Turn around, Leigh.”
She opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder at the sunset. “Oh, wow.”
“Wow, indeed.”
“Why on earth would anyone not live here?”
Again he imagined her on the mainland, at the club so perfectly constructed in his mind’s eye. Laughing and drinking and dancing on the beach. Their beach. With her neck still craned like that, he saw her pursed lips in profile. She glanced back at him.
“You want the good view, don’t you?” Will slid over a few feet, making room on his side. Leigh stood and sloshed across to sit next to him. She was close...though just now, she could never be close enough, not unless they were mouth to mouth, chest to chest, legs tangled. Not until he was actually inside her.
As they watched the sun sinking, Will’s body roused. The sky went from shell-pink to blazing red, to orange, to sea-green and finally indigo, without a single word spoken between them. When the first star winked to life above the ocean, Leigh’s knee glanced his. Just that tiny contact struck like lightning.
They turned to fa
ce one another. Leigh’s parted lips, swollen from the heat, were the sexiest thing Will had ever seen. All that separated them were six inches of hazy air—no more guilt, no more regrets.
9
SHE STARED AT WILL’S handsome face, feeling scalded by his gaze. Hotter than the water... And for the first time in months, Leigh was hopeful. She beamed up a prayer that he’d let her invest in his club. This man was everything she wished she was herself, his life and his dream a compelling hybrid of wayward and dutiful. Helping him might uncover her own ambitions and dreams...or perhaps the mere helping was a worthy enough cause. In either case, she wanted to be a part of it so badly, it felt as if the longing would burst through her ribs.
And she wanted other things just as much.
She took his jaw in her hands and kissed him. His lips tasted of wine; his skin was warm against her palms. He let her lead, and Leigh didn’t waste the opportunity. She kissed him deeper, her mind filling with carnal questions. Then he took over, the strong hands on her shoulder and neck making her body hum. His tongue slid against hers, hot and hungry, and she wondered how he would feel, giving her what she’d ached for when he’d knelt before her in the shower.
Her breath caught as his hand slid to her breast. His touch had been eager both times they’d fooled around, but he felt different tonight—possessive, with no trace of hesitation. As he palmed her inside the cup of her bikini top, their kissing became a distracted press of lips, light grazes and shared breath. He made her feel all those things she’d missed out on. Breathless first love—the real-life kind, with no script dictating the experience.
She ran her hand down his chest into the hot water, before taking the caress lower. He was hard behind the cotton of his shorts, just as she’d known he would be. His touch tonight was self-assured and fearless, and she couldn’t wait another minute to discover how that would translate to the rest of his body’s demands. She pulled away.
“Let’s go inside.”
Will smiled. “As you wish.”
She straightened her top, switched off the tub and climbed out, skin tensing in the cool air. An electrifying sensation, like Will’s proximity. She padded to the entrance. His wet hand alighted on her side as she slid the door open, chills turning to heat in an instant.
