by Sara Fawkes
An interesting question. Evan shrugged. “It was always expected. My father was a businessman, and his father before that. Our family owns a lot of commercial businesses and deals in real estate, much like Hamilton Industries. As the only child, I’m set to inherit that, but my father wanted more.”
“And you?”
“I do too.” At least, I thought so. “He encouraged me to pursue my own businesses, forge my own path. When I got an internship with HI that turned into a job offer, I worked my way up the ranks. It was easy for me; I’d been brought up in that world, knew the games, had already had several lucrative businesses of my own. I was fast-tracked to the top but wanted more, then heard that the CEO was stepping down and looking for a successor.”
“So you applied?”
“It wasn’t quite that simple, but I let it be known I was interested. There were interviews of course, background checks, even a psychologist’s screening. Word came that I was one of the top candidates, which pleased my father. I think he’d like the thought of his family empire merging with HI, even though we never quite achieved the prestige of the Hamilton’s.”
“And that’s what you want then? Prestige and wealth?”
Something in Dani’s voice made Evan look at her. She was gazing at him sadly, and her hand reached out to run through his hair. He trapped her hand with his and kissed the palm, and beneath him felt her belly flutter. “I don’t know,” he murmured. “How did you know what you wanted?”
“I didn’t always. When my brother died...” Her throat worked for a moment before she continued. “I’d always dreamed of seeing the world, but never got bit by the travel bug. My family didn’t travel much, and I grew up a bit of a homebody in the same town. Grew up, dated the son of a family friend, figured I’d get married and settle down close by my parents. My brother, James, on the other hand...”
She trailed off, and her eyes grew wistful. “My mom always said he was full of piss and vinegar, but we loved him so. The boy couldn’t stand still; he always had to be doing something, anything. Whereas I was the good girl, he kept getting into trouble, and drove our parents nuts. I loved listening to his stories, always envied his adventures; it seemed like he discovered something new every day.
“He loved motorcycles though. Adored them. My father gave him a tiny dirt bike at eight and he took to the dirt trails any time he could. By fifteen, he was racing locally, and his first official “car” was a Honda sport bike. But his first love was always the dirt.”
Dani broke off and looked down at her hands, fidgeting with the sheet. “I’d just gotten engaged to my high school sweetheart David and Christmas was around the corner. James was off in Utah enjoying the desert on bikes with friends, but had promised he’d be home in time.”
“But he never made it back,” Evan finished a moment later when Dani trailed off.
“It was so stupid too. He and his buddy had stopped to help a motorist on the side of the road, and it turned into a botched robbery. My brother was shot first thing, as if to prove they meant business. Afterwards, they got him to a hospital, but it was too late. That was the worst Christmas ever.”
Evan crawled up the bed and laid down beside Dani, gathering her into his arms. She laid her head on his shoulder, staring straight at the wall as she continued. “He didn’t have much stuff, and hadn’t gotten around to writing a will. My parents wanted to sell his bikes, but I couldn’t let them.
“About a month after he’d died, I was cleaning out his room when I found a journal filled with places to visit. He’d labeled it his bucket list, and it included monuments, festivals, and landmarks all around the world. It broke my heart, that he’d never get to see these places, but then I found the picture.”
She pointed over to her night stand, and Evan reached out and blindly picked it up. A young boy beside a motorcycle beamed at the camera, holding a little girl no more than three astride the bike. Dani sniffled, a watery smile on her face. “He’d taught me how to ride years before, although I hadn’t really pursued it like he had. His journal had annotations beside a few of the locations listed, notes that included me. I think he wanted to take me with him, or at least had places he knew I’d like to see.
“So one night, I loaded up the bags, let a note for my parents and fiancé on the kitchen table, and early the next morning I took off down the road, determined to see what I’d missed.” She gave a small laugh. “I didn’t come home for nearly two years, but by then, everything had changed.”
“And you’ve been going ever since.”
Dani nodded, turning to look at Evan. She wound her arms around his neck, smiling down at him. “Coming up on four years on the road, and I’m still seeing new things every day. Along the way I gained sponsors and friends, who gave me gear and tools and encouraged me to share my travels. The blog I started gets hits from all around the globe, and I have readers who constantly give me new ideas on where to go. I’ve got a financial campaign going now that, if I reach it, I’ll be able to afford to do a true round-the-world trip instead of just the Americas.”
“You could come to New York.”
Evan hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that, but continued anyway. “It doesn’t have to be immediately, but I could show you around Manhattan, let you see what an urban jungle looks like.”
Her eyes grew troubled, then she shook her head as if to clear it. Sitting up, she put one hand on Evan’s chest and rolled him sideways, straddling his waist. “I just want to focus on right now,” she murmured, bending down to lay a soft kiss to his lips. “Right here, right now, with you.”
Evan kissed her eagerly, gripping her hips and pushing her lower down his body. She chuckled at his needy demand, reaching between their bodies to grasp his throbbing member and guide it slowly inside her, inch by inch. “I just want you,” she murmured, her breath hitching as he surged up inside her, desperate to feel more.
Evan dug his fingers into her hips, their moans mingling as they danced, and tried to imagine they were in a Costa Rican rain forest.
CHAPTER TEN
Over the next three days, when Dani wasn’t conducting tours for guests, she stayed in bed. Normally this wouldn’t be too out of place, except now she had a guest. An insatiable one.
Not that she minded in the least.
Evan alternated between dominating and tender, and Dani couldn’t get enough. The lightest touch of his fingertips could set her body ablaze, and he wasn’t shy about taking advantage. Not that she always let him; she gave as good as she got, leaving him as wrung out and boneless as he’d left her.
Turnabout was fair play.
She had several groups inquire about guided hiking tours, so it wasn’t all play. While she was out showing them the island, Evan often accompanied the tour, a silent participant as interested in her as in the land around them. A few times however, he stayed behind to entertain his boss Jeremiah, and Dani found she missed him.
She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Her blog had been getting more hits lately too, as well as the threads she ran concurrently on various forums. People were clamoring for more pictures, more ride report. Her crowd-funding project was almost at goal too; all it would take was a few more people and her dream could become a reality.
So why did that thought make her so sad?
Evan’s group would be leaving the next day, and she tried not to think about it. Not thinking was easy right now, what with the teasing pleasure Evan was creating with his mouth and fingers. Dani’s hands knotted in the covers as Evan’s tongue followed the rim of her opening, moaning as his fingers rubbed pleasurably inside her. She reached for him, hands tugging at his hair. “Evan, please...”
He finally obliged, moving up her body and taking her mouth. He grabbed one ankle, moving her leg to his shoulder as he slid effortlessly inside her, and Dani gasped. He seemed intent on taking it slow and casual, but when she clamped down around him it was his turn to groan and his pace sped up.
Dan
i grabbed the headboard, breathy moans pushed out of her by Evan’s thrusts. It didn’t take her long at all to orgasm, but Evan kept going, lifting her leg until her hips were almost sideways and continuing. The new position felt deeper, more intimate, and her cries mingled with his as he finally came, shuddering against her.
They collapsed bonelessly onto the bed, a tangled mess of limbs. “So,” Dani managed to get out between pants, “you’re in a good mood.”
“Yeah,” Evan replied eventually, breathing hard as well. “The Maashole was pissed off all day while Jeremiah and I played golf. Was awesome to watch.”
Dani rolled herself over and propped herself up on her elbow, giving Evan a befuddled look. “And that made you horny?”
“Hell no, that made me happy. Seeing you in that oversized t-shirt and nothing else made me horny.”
She laughed softly as Evan twisted a strand of her blonde hair around his finger. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, tracing his fingertip over one breast and across her nipple. Dani smoothed his hair from his brow, caressing his forehead with her thumb.
“Come back to New York with me.”
Dani’s hand stilled, pain squeezing around her heart.
Evan continued, not sensing her inner turmoil. “You can stay until you’re ready to leave, or I can help pay for the rest of the funding. It’s down to just a couple thousand, right?”
Annoyance bubbled up at his words. “I can take care of myself, thank you,” she said coldly, rolling out of bed and reaching for a robe.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Evan called after her, but she kept walking, sitting down at the table next to the window. The serenity this view usually gave eluded her, especially when Evan followed and sat next to her. “It would only be temporary...”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. The idea of being with this man, of staying with him...god, how could she explain to him how tempting that was? To give the traveling up and be with him, even if only for a while. When she looked at his beautiful face, she could see a future there, one that might make her happy for a while but would change all her plans.
But Dani couldn’t tell him that; it would give him hope for something she just couldn’t allow. She wasn’t ready to stop, not yet, no matter how much she might be in... Oh, no.
God, was she really going to even consider the L-word?
“I don’t understand what the difference is between what I’m offering and what you have here,” he continued, frustration breaking through in his voice too. He reached for her hand and Dani snatched it away, too confused suddenly by her own emotions. Immediately she regretted her reaction when she saw the dismay and hurt warring on his face.
“This isn’t going to work,” she whispered, then jumped as his hand smacked down on the table in front of her.
“Like hell it won’t!”
Dani stared miserably at Evan’s angry face. She saw the same desperation in his eyes that she felt, but how could she tell him the truth? That she desperately wanted to go with him, to see his city, to spend every morning waking up beside him. They’d been with each other for less than a week, and already she was dreaming of giving up her life for him.
How could she tell him how much that temptation scared her?
*
“Well then,” she muttered, “why don’t you quit, give it all up, and come riding with me.”
Evan stopped and gave her a frustrated look, which she returned. See how it feels, she thought silently as they stared down one another. Not so nice when the shoe’s on the other foot, is it?
Raking a hand through his hair, Evan tried again. “Look, I’m not asking you to stay with me, I just...”
I’m not asking you to stay. That phrase hurt more than she thought, and when she stepped away from him she knew Evan realized his mistake. “You don’t even know what you want,” she said dully. “All you’ve mentioned is what your father wants, what your family had you working towards. What do you want to do with your life?”
It was his turn to flinch away, and Dani’s heart sank as she saw anger rise up on his face. God, she wanted to apologize, make him happy again, but what she’d said was the truth. He was leaving the island in the morning, going back to his life, and she... Dani wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she had a plan and would stick with it.
That realization hurt.
“Fine,” he muttered, looking like he wanted to say more. Dani stiffened, readying herself for the angry onslaught of words, but Evan’s jaw clenched as if he was keeping them inside. “Fine,” he spat again, and without another word finished dressing and left the bedroom.
Dani fell back on the bed, covering her eyes as if that would keep the tears inside, as she heard him rustling in the small living room. When the front door slammed, however, her breath hitched, and wetness pricked the edges of her eyes.
I’m not going to cry, I’m not.
He’d looked so hurt at her comments, she wanted to run after him and apologize, ask him to spend his last few hours with her. Instead, she rolled over in the bed, burying her face in the pillow to hide her tears.
*
His feet felt heavier with every step away from the castle, but Evan followed after the trio of businessmen in front of him. Jeremiah’s plane was ready to take off, the pilot and crew in place, it just needed passengers. Their time was up, they’d all checked out, but Evan wasn’t ready to leave the island.
He wasn’t ready to leave her.
Ahead of him, Griffin had his arm around the woman who was friends with Dani, talking softly to her. She was subdued, hanging onto the rotund older man, her head on his shoulder. Rose, that was her name. Watching the two of them made Evan’s chest hurt.
For the third time, Evan looked back, hoping to see familiar blonde hair seeing him off. The castle rose against the island, lit softly by the rising sun. The sight was magnificent, but not what he wanted. Nobody had followed them onto the tarmac; no familiar blonde-haired women ran to him crying their goodbyes.
I’m an idiot. He should go back and, if not drag her to New York with him, at least give her a proper goodbye. Yet, he kept walking, the plane growing larger until he was at the foot of the steps.
Jeremiah and the others had already disappeared inside; apparently, Evan had lagged further behind than he realized. Beside him, the woman Rose crossed her arms and glared silently at Evan.
He very obviously didn’t have one fan, at least.
Sighing, Evan started up the steps as the workers put the few suitcases into the bottom of the plane, then closed it up. He took his seat, looking out toward the castle.
“God, I can’t wait to get out of here,” Preston muttered, but everyone ignored him. His nose was still swollen from his last conversation with Evan, and a dark ring sat beneath one eye.
“I could have stayed a while longer,” Griffin said a moment later, staring out the window. His voice was wistful as he waved again to Rose. “What a woman.”
The plane pulled out and began taxiing down the runway. Jungle lined one side of the asphalt, as wild and beautiful as anything they’d seen on the island. He remembered her words, that the island was alive and constantly showing new sides of itself.
Then, from somewhere over the roar of the small plane’s engines, he heard the familiar sound of a two-stroke engine.
A dirt bike appeared out of the jungle and made a beeline for the plane. Blonde hair streamed out from under the helmet, and a white flag with black writing was duct taped to the rear subframe of the motorcycle. The red bike curved slightly, accelerating until it was racing parallel with the aircraft and Evan’s window. The rider stood up on the pegs, twisting her upper body and raising one hand in a farewell salute.
Evan’s heartbeat grew almost too hard for his chest. The flag billowed in the wind, the wind whipping it to and fro, making words difficult to read. His breath caught in his throat however when he finally got the message.
You’re still invited, Prince Charming.
>
Why don’t you quit and come riding with me. Her words echoed in his head, and Evan flattened his hand beside the window.
Dani never got very far ahead of Evan’s window and the pilot probably didn’t see her, because he continued to accelerate. He watched her throttle hand twist down, and the nose of the bike shot into the air. She held that wheelie, one hand raised in the air, and Evan returned her wave.
Then the plane pulled forward, wheels leaving the tarmac, and the bike and flag disappeared from sight.
His heart in his throat, Evan gripped the arms of his chair, wondering if he’d made a huge mistake. Across from him, he saw Lucy watching him. Her seat was on the same side of the plane as his and, from the sympathy Evan saw in her eyes, she’d noticed the bike. She reached out and took Jeremiah’s hand, and the CEO, without looking, hugged her hand to his chest, staring out the opposite window. If he’d seen the motorcycle, he never acknowledged it.
“Hell of a goodbye you got there,” Griffin said from beside him, and Evan looked at the older man.
“Yeah,” he replied softly, and then turned back to the window. “Yeah, it was.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
When had the spacious board room at Hamilton Industries ever seemed so...confining?
The men seated around the table murmured, their low voices a low din inside the room, but Evan sat apart. He hadn’t been among them long enough to form any bonds with the men around him, and wasn’t interested in joining today.
The chair at the end of the table was empty, still awaiting the arrival of the CEO. Since their arrival back on the mainland, Jeremiah had kept himself secluded, saying he’d make his final decision soon. Then today he’d called a surprise meeting of the board members, including Evan, Griffin and Preston.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was coming.
All he could do was think about the post he’d read earlier on Facebook, the one that left sent him reeling. It had been two weeks since he’d left the island, said goodbye to the blonde woman who’d set his soul on fire, however briefly. He pulled it up again, scrolling through the messages to find hers.
