Billionaires On the Beach: The Anderson Brothers

by Elizabeth Lennox

  “Who is the man standing over by the windows?” she asked, pointing to the man out in the main area of the office space who was speaking to a shorter man.

  Mr. Barclay swiveled and looked out. Suddenly, he jerked straighter in his chair, his neck muscles straining as he coughed slightly. “That is Mr. Sloan Anderson. His company owns this bank.” Turning to Maria, his eyes were admonishing. “He will not be able to help you either. Not only does his company own this bank, but he has a development company as well, the company that is probably moving forward with the land purchase I mentioned earlier.”

  Maria stared at the man who had given her so much…and never mentioned how much he was taking away from her.

  First, the realization that she was going to lose her little coffee shop, as well as her friends, and now, the betrayal! That seemed like such a strong word but…yes, she felt betrayed. No, the two of them hadn’t spoken about her hopes and dreams. He couldn’t know what she had planned for the future. But still…!

  He owned the bank that owned her grandmother’s mortgage? And he’d never said a word? He’d never told her about his plans to demolish their little cove of shops?

  Okay, so maybe he didn’t really own the mortgages but…

  “He’s just in charge of the company that owns the bank and development companies, right?” She laughed slightly, but the sound was strained even to her own ears. “I mean, he can’t really own the bank, right?”

  Mr. Barclay was clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. “Um, well, I suppose technically, he doesn’t fully own the bank or the development company, or the other subsidiaries under his corporation. But he owns controlling stock in the conglomerate that runs the company that owns the bank and development company.”

  Maria swallowed, but almost choked on the effort. “Um…he only owns a small majority, correct?” she whispered, trying to sound more confident, but failing miserably.

  Mr. Barclay laughed. “Have you been living under a rock all your life?” The man shook his head. “He owns more than eighty percent of the stock in SA Holdings! He’s not just the majority stock holder, he’s the man that has grown the company to an international powerhouse.” Shaking his head, he leaned forward. “I wish I had his brilliance.”

  Maria looked at her lap again, realized that her computer was still halfway out of her tote bag and shoved everything back in. “I have to go,” she told the man, not bothering to look at him.

  Pulling her tote bag and purse up onto her shoulder, she ducked out of the office, trying to hide her head from the man who was on the other side of the office area. She didn’t want Sloan to see her, didn’t want to talk to him. She needed to work through this latest development before she could face him.

  “Maria!” Sloan’s deep voice called out, but when she realized that he’d spotted her, she only hurried faster down the hallway. Not bothering with the elevators, she shoved through the stairway door, almost tripping down the stairs in her hurry to get away, to hide from Sloan.

  Tossing her tote bag into the car, she sped out of the parking lot. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sloan’s tall figure burst out of the building. But she ignored him, accelerating out of the parking lot as fast as she could. Thankfully, her desperate flight didn’t cause any accidents and she made it to her little cottage unscathed.

  Well, except for her shattered heart.

  Had she been a fool? Had she given her heart and body to a man who…had Sloan tricked her? Had he worked her…manipulated the situation to his own advantage? But towards what angle? Why would he care if she was trying to buy up the land? Why would he make love to her when she had nothing to offer?

  The shops! He needed the small cove of shops to make his development plan work!

  As soon as she stepped into her cottage, Ollie jumped up, bounding towards her, tail wagging and ears flopping. She took a deep breath as she bent down onto her knees, burying her face in Ollie’s fur. The sweet dog had no understanding of the traumatizing morning she’d endured and his tail wagged, enjoying the attention.

  When his wet nose nuzzled her ear, she laughed and sobbed, trying to figure out the next step in her life.

  How could Sloan have used her like that?

  Surely there was an explanation. He just…she would have sensed if he’d been a bad guy, wouldn’t she?

  Of course, she knew that the bad guys didn’t have signs around their necks letting the world know that they were bad guys, but still, Maria considered herself an intelligent woman. Every look, every gesture from Sloan had been filled with desire, with a sense of rightness.

  Ollie nuzzled her hand, silently begging for some attention. “Come on, boy, let me get changed and we’ll go for a walk.”

  Magic words!

  For both of them, she knew. While growing up, Maria had come here to the beach whenever things were going wrong…or when they’d been going right. She’d always begged her mother to move here, to live at the beach. But her mother had been practical and explained that there weren’t a lot of jobs around a tourist town, especially not for her line of work.

  But the beach, the sand, and the surf, they all had healing powers.

  After changing into leggings and a sweatshirt, she grabbed several tennis balls and went out the back door. Ollie bounded up, delighted with the mid-afternoon romp. With mouth hanging open while jumping up on his hind legs, Ollie eagerly waited for Maria to throw the ball. Tossing it into the air, she threw it as hard as she could. It wasn’t very far, but it was far enough.

  While Ollie chased the ball, she walked down to the surf. The water was cold, as was normal for this time of the year, but the surf still felt good. There was just something about ocean water that soothed one’s soul.

  Ollie’s wet nose nudged her hand and Maria looked down, laughing through her tears as Ollie offered her the tennis ball. Throwing it again, she tossed it higher up on the beach, not wanting him to get his paws wet. She didn’t mind the sand in her cottage. She just didn’t want the little guy to get sick.

  She thought about calling Olivia back in Virginia, or even Gemma, who was close by. But as soon as she thought about contacting her friends, she rejected the idea. Olivia was hundreds of miles away, but she would jump in the car and drive down here, ignoring all of her responsibilities to offer a shoulder to cry on. Same with Gemma. She’d hurry out of her gym and rush here, they would make martinis and curse the world together.

  But Maria didn’t want to bother her friends. They had lives, jobs, responsibilities. Rushing away from everything simply because she’d fallen for the wrong guy wouldn’t help anything.

  Tossing the ball back and forth, her toes in the cold sand, she refused to think about what she’d learned this morning. It didn’t make any sense and she needed her world to make sense. As a marketing professional, she’d relied on a world where psychological issues could be analyzed, market trends could be viewed with statistical analysis and, when things didn’t work out the way she’d planned, she could tweak her overall campaign and get things back on track.

  This…this newsflash about the man she’d been falling in love with…it didn’t make sense. Apparently, he was powerful and wealthy and all the things that were outside of her normal world. She understood Catherine and Cassandra’s relationship. Twins were connected in ways that others couldn’t define, but Maria felt the power of their sisterhood. Samantha and Melvin tried to hide their romance, but it was still obvious for everyone to see. It was in the way he snuck into her shop for afternoon tea or how he would hold her coat while she was putting it on, his hands lingering on her shoulders. It was in the way Samantha glanced at Melvin when she thought no one else was looking. Maria even understood Suzy and her crazy dream for everyone to have a passionate romance, even though she remained single. She flirted with everyone coming through her store doors but that was just…it was Suzy! She loved humanity and wanted everyone to be happy. If happiness was found with a silk teddy or a garter belt with lace topped stock
ings, then she was the woman for the job.

  Whatever game Sloan was playing with her, she didn’t understand. She couldn’t grasp the kind of greed that would push a person to manipulate another. And there was no two ways about it, Sloan had manipulated her emotionally and sexually. He’d encouraged her feelings with every touch, every glance. He’d given her ample reason to trust him, to believe in what she’d thought was growing between them.

  “Maria,” the voice came from behind her.

  Swinging around, she realized Sloan was here, on her beach, looking amazingly virile and decadently attractive. He was also closer than she’d anticipated. And goodness, he looked amazing! Still in that obviously hand-tailored, charcoal suit that made his shoulders look strong and powerful, and the crisp white shirt…she even loved the yellow tie he was wearing. The man could fill out a business suit better than any other male of the species.

  If she’d seen him looking like this, she might have hesitated, might have believed that he was the strong, powerful business tycoon that she’d discovered earlier today.

  But she hadn’t seen this side of him. She’d seen him in running clothes, all sweaty and strong. She’d seen him in jeans that were so soft and worn that the material molded to his strong thighs and tight butt.

  Looking at him now, she wasn’t sure which was the real man; probably all of them, and none.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded, taking the tennis ball from Ollie. But since she didn’t throw it and the fluffy guy knew that another possibility was available, he raced up the beach, grabbed another tennis ball and brought it to Sloan, nudging his hand.

  “What’s that?” she asked, looking at his free hand. There was a sling shot type toy in his hand, but he took Ollie’s ball and tossed it, giving the two of them a moment’s peace.

  Sloan looked down at the toy he’d found yesterday. “It’s a way to fling tennis balls further,” he explained. When Ollie bounded back, tennis ball in his mouth, Sloan took the ball and loaded it into the holder. A moment later, he shot the ball over his head. Ollie watched with surprise, then leapt up in the air, launching forward to race after the ball which had gone about twice as far as he was used to. The dog was obviously delirious with the additional challenge.

  Maria focused on Ollie, on watching him race for his ball. It wasn’t a great plan, because Sloan was there and when this man was around, Maria couldn’t avoid him. She couldn’t ignore him either. Sloan simply wasn’t the kind of man who allowed himself to be ignored.

  Besides, he had a presence about him that was just…energizing.

  “Maria, let me explain.”

  Her shoulders stiffened with those words and she turned. Glaring up at him, she said, “I think that there was ample opportunity for explanations. But you didn’t offer them. You chose to let me look like a fool.”

  Turning, she walked away from him but Sloan wasn’t accepting failure, falling into step beside her. “Every time I saw you, my intention was to tell you the truth.”

  She looked out to the ocean. “Funny how the truth never really came out, though.”

  He put a hand to her arm and she stopped, twisting her body so that he couldn’t touch her. He dropped his hand but came around so that they were facing each other. “I never told you the truth because every time I was around you, I was distracted.”

  With a snort of disbelief, she tried to walk around him, but he stepped into her path. “It sounds strange, but it’s the truth.”

  Ollie’s cold, wet nose nuzzled her hand but she couldn’t look away. “I don’t believe you.”

  He sighed heavily and ran a hand over his hair, messing it up. It was the first time that she’d ever seen him look less than completely in control.

  “Maria, what do I have to do to convince you?”

  She shook her head. “You can’t. You should have told me who you were that first time we met.”

  “In the coffee shop? When you were busy cleaning and closing down for the night?”

  She realized that he was right. That probably hadn’t been the best time to have a conversation about how his bank was going to foreclose on her shop. “Okay, well, then the next time we met.”

  He sighed, shaking his head as his hands fisted on his lean hips. “The next time we met, I was running and Ollie brought me to you. I was sweaty and breathing hard. Not exactly an environment conducive to a business conversation.”

  Maria blinked, thinking back to that morning. The more she thought about each of their meetings, the more flustered she became. “Well, then you should have told me the next time!” she added defensively.

  He leaned closer, his hands on his hips as he glared down at her. “You mean the time I delivered all of the tennis balls to your house and found you in tears? That’s the night I should have told you about my business interests?”

  Okay, he had a point there. “Fine! That wasn’t a good moment either. But you know darn well that you should have said something. Before we…” she looked away, blinking to fight back the tears. “Well, you know.”

  He leaned down closer. So close, she could feel the heat of him, the intensity of his glare. “You mean, before we made love?”

  She jerked backwards. “Go away. Go do your horrible deeds. Shut down the shops, so that you can build your stupid resort.” She turned around and ran up the beach. “I don’t care! I just don’t want to see you anymore!”

  Ollie was right behind her, but she sensed his confusion and hesitation. Bursting into her cottage, she locked the door behind her and Ollie, then leaned against it as she slowly sank to the floor, sobbing out all of her regret, pain, and sadness. The intense grief was what really got to her. She told herself that she was only upset because she’d failed. She’d failed her grandmother and her friends. Maria wanted to believe that she was crying, that her heart was breaking, because her five friends were going to lose their businesses, businesses they loved and in which they thrived, all because she’d fallen for the wrong guy.

  But that wasn’t the truth. As Ollie curled up on the floor with her, sniffing her occasionally as he pressed his furry body against hers, she admitted that her sadness was really more about the loss of her dreams. Dreams that included a tall, dark, dangerous-looking man with a knack for making her feel wonderful. Wanted. Excited beyond her wildest imagination.

  She didn’t feel very wanted now.

  Chapter 7

  Another day. Maria woke up and looked around. The clouds were hovering over the horizon, making everything look cold and gloomy. It might be warmer outside, but the grey clouds caused a chill to run through her system.

  Grumpily, she pushed her feet over the side of the bed, then forced herself to walk into the kitchen for coffee.

  Ollie was there, watching her the whole time. He wasn’t dancing around, eagerly trying to convince her to head out to the beach for ball throwing. He must understand what she was feeling and was willing to be patient.

  Since he was being so good, she hurried through the coffee making process, then pulled on sweatpants and a sweatshirt. She didn’t care what she looked like. Maybe if she looked as bad as she felt, people wouldn’t bother her today.

  She had to go into the shop. She had to figure out how to tell everyone that they were out of a job and the bank was foreclosing on their livelihoods. There was no clause in their mortgage contracts that could help them now. She just had to bite the bullet and tell them the truth.

  Maria wasn’t even sure how much time she had before the bank foreclosed. She’d have to contact that horrible Mr. Barclay and find out. Thinking through the process, she realized she’d have to start selling off the equipment as well. Depending on how long she had before the shop closed, she might be able to….she could…

  Maria didn’t know. Her college classes and work experience had focused on keeping businesses lucrative. Nothing had prepared her for handling a business going out of business. It was a completely different thought process.

  After all t
he progress she’d made over the last few months, she was depressed that it hadn’t been enough. If only her grandmother had told her what bad shape her coffee shop was in, Maria could have stepped in sooner, come up with a plan a long time ago. All the shop owners could have been saved from this fate!

  But as she stepped out of the back door, Maria almost tripped on the ball flinging toy that Sloan had brought her yesterday. Furiously, she picked it up and threw it off the side of her deck, too angry to use his offering.

  Ollie took off, ready to play. But Maria didn’t wait for him. She walked down the steps to the beach, cursing mentally as she tried to come up with some alternative, something other than losing all of the stores.

  Unfortunately, Ollie came trotting back to her with the Sloan’s flinging toy in his mouth as if it were a stick. She took it again, flinging it away, but Ollie loved the new game and raced after it, coming back with it in his mouth as if he’d just done something magnificent!

  Maria threw a ball for him, trying to get him to ignore the flinging toy. But Ollie wouldn’t go after the tennis ball this time. He looked at her, looked at the ball down the beach only a short distance, then at the flinging toy and up at her again.

  “Go get it, Ollie!” she encouraged.

  But he sat there, looking down at the flinging toy again, then back up at her.

  “I’m not going to use that toy,” she grumbled.

  In response, he nudged the toy closer with his nose.

  “No. Not going to happen, Ollie.”

  So he sat there.

  The ball sat there.

  And Maria’s temper flared. “Fine! If you don’t want to chase the ball, then let’s go back inside. It’s too cold out here anyway!”

  Ollie continued to sit there and Maria was so furious! Sloan Anderson was going to take over her shop to build a stupid resort instead of something more environmentally and locally friendly. He was going to shut down her grandmother’s coffee shop and put her friends out of business. And now he’d convinced her dog that a stupid toy was better than a hand thrown ball! Ugh!