by Rye Hart
“Kids, this is Gianni. Gianni, these are my kids. Daniel and Sydney.”
“Nice to meet you both,” the man said.
He had a thick Italian accent. With salt-and-pepper hair that was slicked back, he wore a tailored suit despite the sweltering island heat.
Something about him didn’t sit well with me. His eyes raked up and down my body and I tried to ignore him, as the kids clung to my legs.
I could almost feel the nervous tension coursing through their little bodies. Clearly, this man made them uncomfortable.
“And who is this beautiful young woman?” Gianni asked.
“This is a friend of mine. Brooke.”
“How do you do?” I asked.
“Much better now that I’ve had a chance to look upon such beauty,” Gianni said.
I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes right in his face. He was laying on thick and I could hardly suppress a laugh. Guys like him never ceased to amaze me. I felt the kids press themselves into me a little more, and I gathered them to me.
Their obvious discomfort was starting to translate to me and I wanted nothing more than to get the kids and myself away from this smooth-talking lothario. My protective instincts were kicking into high gear. “Kevin, I was wondering if I could talk with you for a second,” Gianni said. “I’m sure your nanny can watch the kids for a little bit.”
“I’m hardly a nanny,” I said, offended by the thought.
“Girlfriend?” he asked, a spark of interest in his eyes.
“He already had that chance,” I said.
“I told you, she’s a friend,” Kevin said, looking slightly annoyed. “And yes, we can talk. Kids?”
“Yeah?” they both said.
“Why don’t you guys show Morgan and Brooke those flipping tricks you were trying out yesterday?” he asked. “I bet they would love to see them.”
My eyes darted over to Kevin before I turned and walked away with the kids, their feet scurrying to get back to the house.
I took the kids down the waterslide once before Kevin was back in the water with us. Whatever it was, the talk must have been short. I felt awkward all of a sudden, like something more was expected of me, when I was simply trying to enjoy my vacation.
The more I thought about, it the more annoyed I became. “Brooke, could I talk with you for a second?” Kevin asked.
I looked around for Morgan and snickered when I found her chatting up some buff guy over by his hut.
“Sure,” I said. “What’s up?”
“I’ve got a meeting on the books with Gianni for tomorrow.”
“I thought you were on vacation,” I said.
“It’s just a quick meeting. No more than a couple of hours.”
“Business always calls,” I said, not bothering to hide the disdain from my voice.
“Look, it’s not like that. I made a commitment to have this meeting with him. That man runs the largest banking institution in Italy. Scoring him could open up an entirely different sector of my company.”
“And you want me to babysit. On my vacation,” I said.
“It’s just for a couple of hours, and I’ll pay you for your time. It’s just that I didn’t come out here equipped to have my children watched.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t be conducting business on your vacation with your children. I’m sure you only get one weekend a month with them, right?” Now I was fishing, trying to determine exactly what his marital situation was.
I watched something flare in his eyes and it caused me to take a step back. He stared at me, saying nothing, until I felt compelled to speak again.
“Two hours?” I asked.
“Give or take,” he said flatly.
I’d pissed him off.
“Okay,” I said.
“Be here around eleven, please,” he said.
It almost sounded like a command.
I must’ve really stepped on his toes.
CHAPTER 5
KEVIN
The kids were running around and trashing the house when Brooke showed up. It pained me to have to work on the vacation I promised my twins, but I knew it was for the best. It would set my company up in an industry we’d been making strides to obtain for years and put us on an international map we’d never dreamed of. And I had plans to make it up to everyone, including Brooke. I would pay her generously for her time and foot whatever bill was necessary to keep the kids occupied in her presence. Even though she crossed a line with her snarky comment yesterday, I trusted her with the kids. How well they took to her. And when she appeared at my front door ready and willing to watch them, I was still happy to see her.
“Brooke!” Daniel said. “You’re here!”
My kids took off, running right into her legs. She stumbled backwards and wrapped her arms around them, and all I could think about was their mother. How she should’ve been the one doing these kinds of things for them. I knew that was why they had latched onto her. There was a motherly spirit about Brooke they had gone without their entire life.
It clenched my stomach with guilt as Brooke stepped inside.
“There’s an envelope taped to the fridge. It’s got plenty of money in it. Order you guys some lunch and go find something fun to do, and whatever money you don’t spend is yours to keep.”
“You don’t have to pay me, Kevin. It’s only a couple of hours.”
“I’m paying you,” I said. “That’s how this is going to work.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’m—sorry.”
“You’re what?” I asked.
Her eyes fluttered up to me as the kids held her hands.
“My comment yesterday. I’m sorry,” Brooke said.
“Water under the bridge. You guys have fun, okay?”
I wanted to stay a bit longer. But I couldn't. If I did, I’d miss the meeting with Gianni. Yet, somehow, as I got a good look at Brooke with my twins, that didn’t seem like such a big deal.
I took the golf cart and met up with Gianni in the middle of town. He insisted on this restaurant that supposedly had the best island food around. I wasn’t going to break it to him that it was subpar, at best. Gianni was one of those men that wouldn’t have been caught dead in a hut eating fish from a stick.
He had money and he wanted people to know it.
“Gianni, glad to see you again.”
“Kevin,” he said. “I’m so glad you could make it. I hope I didn’t throw a wrench into your vacation plans.”
“Not possible for you,” I said with a grin. “So, what can I help you with?”
“I’ll get right to the point so you can get back to those beautiful children of yours. The security company I use for my bank is no longer upgrading their software.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean, their business is stagnant. They pedal the same product over and over without attempting to tweak it or overhaul it in any way. It is no longer sufficient to fulfill our needs.”
“So you’re looking for something else.”
“I am, yes,” he said.
“Then you came to the right place,” I said with a grin. “Our newest line of product has some things I think you might be interested in.”
“Talk to me, then.”
“Cameras you can hook up with night-vision surveillance. Applications you can install to access those cameras on your laptop wherever you go. Closed circuits that are accessible only to those who know the frequency and the passcode, so no intruders from the outside can see what’s going on with your institution.”
“I like what you’re offering,” he said.
“We have a variety of products, from cameras to lasers to ear-bleeding alarms that trigger when someone walks past them. Those things can bring a person to their knees within a half a second of hearing that noise. Stops anyone dead in their tracks.”
“Those could be useful in my vaults,” he said.
“Very. We also have cameras with backup batteries that are rechargeable
in case power goes down. And we also sell top-of-the-line custom-made generators, so your institutions will never lose power.”
“See, that’s what I’m talking about. This is the kind of company I should be doing business with,” he said.
“We’re happy to help. Keeping my billion-dollar players safe in any way I can is my specialty.”
“Do you have material you can send me on all the things you offer?” he asked.
“Yeah, give me an email address and I can send it to you along with our standard contract.”
I walked out of that meeting with my head held high and a pep in my step. This would be huge for my company. For the longest time, I had been trying to break into the banking industry. I was in the hotel industry, the technological industry, and I’d even released my own line of high-end home security products. But banks were not only lucrative, they were also hard to get into. The banking industry kept a tight web of who they could trust and who they couldn't, and it was hard penetrating that web and proving someone was trustworthy.
And if I could nail this contract with Gianni, I could prove just that.
I was prepared to celebrate. I called my chef and told him to prepare a celebratory dinner because the future of my company was on another cusp. I drove back to the house and relieved Brooke of the kids, but before she went to leave I grabbed her hand again to stop her.
I didn’t want her to go.
“Stay and have dinner,” I said.
“I can’t,” Brooke said. “I need to get back to Morgan.”
“Then invite her. What happened with Gianni today was massive. I want to celebrate. Come on, Brooke. It’s a good meal prepared by a five-star chef. Where else will you find that on the island?”
“I don’t need to eat five-star meals to be happy,” she said.
“It’s just dinner. Nothing else.”
I watched her mull it over before she pulled out her phone. She had a quick conversation with Morgan, but I could tell she wasn’t happy. She rolled her eyes as she hung up the phone call and I could hear my chef striking up the stove in the background.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Yep. Morgan’s found herself a man to spend the evening with,” she said.
“Good for her?”
“Eh, if she’s having fun then that’s all that matters.”
“Good, then stay and have dinner with us. You can brag to her about all the wine you got to drink that she missed out on,” I said with a grin.
That joke seemed to lower her walls and she finally agreed to stay. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to earn Brook’s trust again. I had really screwed things up in the past and I had a ways to go to make up for it.
I was grateful that she was giving me the chance – at least I’d hoped she was.
My chef prepared beef wellington along with a slew of vegetables. We ate until we couldn’t eat any longer and I talked with Brooke about what this would mean for my company. I was reminded of how easy it was to talk with her, something that was so very hard to find. She seemed so genuinely interested and soon two hours had gone by while I talked her through all the new additions to my company’s technology.
I missed having someone interested in things that interested me.
After I put the kids to bed, I found Brooke with a glass of wine in her hand. She was standing out on the porch, her arms wrapped around her body. I poured myself a glass and stepped out behind her, feeling her body heat radiating against my chest like it had the first night we’d met all those years ago.
“How’s it coming with that writer’s block?” I asked.
“I’m halfway there,” she said. “Got enough wine in my system to make me do things I might regret later on.”
“Oh, come on. You never regretted a damn thing you did in college.”
“No, you’re right. In the end, I enjoyed our time together,” she grinned. “I wish I could say the same about the last few months,” she said quietly, her face falling just a bit
“What happened?”
I watched her shoulders heave with a sigh before she threw the last of her wine back.
“He cheated. Lied. Stole from me.”
“What?” I asked.
“Yeah. It was a whole fiasco. He was charming and romantic, attentive to me when we were together. Morgan was the one that found him in a restaurant with another woman. Had she not taken pictures, I probably wouldn’t have believed her.”
“No man should treat a woman like that.”
“At least he showed up,” she said, color popping into her cheeks.
I bit down on the inside of my cheek and didn’t respond as her eyes rose to meet mine.
“Sorry, that was uncalled for.”
“Nice to see you haven’t lost your spark,” I said.
“I’m sorry—”
“Don’t apologize. I deserve it,” I said. “And don’t worry, karma kicked me in the balls for you.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“My payback for doing what I did to you was the woman I married,” I said.
I watched her nod her head as she drew in a deep breath.
“I saw the wedding announcement in the paper. You two looked happy.”
“We were petrified. Pregnant by accident and scrambling for what to do,” I said.
“Where is she now?”
“Oddly enough, she’s with her boyfriend and of all the places on the entire earth, she’s right here on the island,” I said with a sigh.
“Wait. She’s here?”
“Probably jetting off somewhere else now if I’m lucky,” I said.
“What happened with you two? The wedding announcement painted you guys to be so in love.”
“That’s what they’re supposed to do. Sarah was a nice enough girl, but she didn’t want kids. Her birth control failed and she got pregnant. She wanted to terminate, and I begged her not to. Told her I’d marry her and make her as comfortable as I could if she didn’t. And she tried, but it just wasn’t for her. I woke up one morning when the twins were around ten months old and she was gone.”
“What?” Brooke asked. “She just left her husband and two babies?”
“Yep. She went off to start a new life. She had major postpartum depression the weeks following child birth. I thought it was something natural that we needed to work through together. We tried to make it work for months. Me more than her. I did every damn thing I could to help her bond with the children. In the end, she just decided it wasn’t the life she wanted. To this day, it eats me up that our children never experienced the love of their mother. Somehow, we ended up with the same faith. I grew up without my father and they’re growing up without their mother.”
“Kevin, I’m so sorry.”
“Well, that’s karma for you. My kids don’t deserve it but I’m a different story.”
“No. Not karma. No one deserves that.”
I took the last sip of my wine before setting my glass on the balcony.
“She’d been planning it for a while. There were divorce papers for me to sign in the mailbox that morning. She didn’t want to be married and she didn’t want to be a mother, so she left me to do her job for her.”
“Well, you’ve done an incredible job with those kids. They’re great.”
“Were they okay for you today?” I asked.
“They were angels, Kevin.”
“So they were temporarily replaced with alien carbon copies?”
A giggle fell from Brooke’s lips and I suppressed the urge to kiss her.
“I’m over it,” I said. “I never really loved her, though I dedicated myself to trying. But I wish she hadn’t done what she did to the kids. I know they wish they had a mother around.”
“I’m so sorry, Kevin. I really am. I wish there was something else I could do or say to convey how— just—”
I looked down into her beautiful eyes and watched the struggle raging. That was something that had always drawn me to Brooke. She wa
s so empathetic and emotional, and I felt like it permitted me to be the same.
I didn’t always have to be the hardened, calloused businessman when I was with her.
If a wall or two dropped, she didn’t pounce on it.
Our eyes met and I felt the wind wrapping around us, pushing our bodies together as Brooke lost her footing. She tripped into me and I caught her, feeling her hands pressing against my chest. Her curves sank into the spaces of my muscles, cradling her against me as I held her close.
I looked down and held her gaze, watching her as our lips closed the distance.
Fire shot through my veins. My tongue swiped against her lips as I pulled her closer into me. Her legs were dangling beneath her as my arms scooped her up, cloaked her and held onto her as tightly as I had all those years ago. My head tilted to the side and she opened up to me.
I swallowed her moan as my cock pulsed to life.
Her arms wrapped around my neck and she pulled herself upright. I felt her feet plant underneath her as my hands ran down her body, falling into the dip of her waist and sliding down to her hips. Sinking my hands into the rolling curves, I backed her into the balcony.
My knee pressed between her legs and I felt her grinding down on me. The warmth of her pussy radiated against my thigh as her hands ran through my hair.
She tasted like wine and memories and bad decisions. I’d make those decisions right.
Desire and passion and unfulfilled lust. I bet that ignorant ex of hers didn’t fuck her the way I used to. A body like hers, neglected all this time.
That was unacceptable.
And it was something I was going to remedy.
CHAPTER 6
BROOKE
His arms wrapped around me and he picked me up. He set me onto the edge of the balcony as our lips continued to stay connected. His tongue was electric, sending jolts down my spine as his hands ran up my legs.
His palms on my bare skin brought back memories of those months we had spent together.
Memories of debaucherous nights, tangled up and writhing together in his king-sized bed.
The beach was quiet and there were no sounds except for the town off in the distance. Darkness blanketed our bodies as his lips moved down my neck. Nipping and kissing, his warmth spread through my veins igniting a cascade of fire within my body as his hands pushed my dress up my legs.
