by Lori Ryan
They were buying her drinks in no time and she was doing her airhead routine. By the time she signaled Chad to come break up the party and get her out of there—which he gladly did, playing the role of the jealous meathead husband—she’d found out a lot about the brothers.
They didn’t lift a damn finger. They liked to play the big shots, even going so far as to refer to the resort as ‘their’ resort. They soaked up the sun and played and took credit for the resort’s success, but that was it.
When Jennie put on those big doe eyes and twirled a finger through her hair, saying how hard it must be to run the place, they laughed. They looked around and shrugged their shoulders and said, “This is it. We’re free to play with you all day.”
Today, she and Chad were trying to figure out more about the marina. There were a lot of extra activities guests could purchase at the resort. Everything from swimming with dolphins, to a trip to a national park or a four-day fishing trip, and more.
Every afternoon, the representatives from the different tour agencies were in the lobby, signing people up for excursions. You signed up with the tour company of your choice, paid the representative directly, and booked a date for your activity.
For everything except the marina. For the marina, you spoke to the tour representative to choose an activity and book a date, but then they gave you a slip to take to the front desk where you paid for your tour.
So far, Jennie and Chad hadn’t been able to pick up on a reason for that additional step. If need be, Jack would flat out ask the owner why things were done this way, but they liked to try to get a sense of things on their own sometimes first.
It was amazing the things they found out when Jennie and Chad went into some of the companies they looked at.
Just three weeks before, Jennie had gone into a company and in less than a week discovered that the medical research the company promised was about to revolutionize diabetes treatment had already been proven to be a bust, internally.
The owners thought they could get funding from Jack based on the outdated early findings and use that funding to buy more time to make new discoveries and hopefully come out on top.
The sad thing was, if they’d been up front with Jack, he might have given them money anyway. Their ideas were promising and they had a few things in the early stages that people in the medical field Jack consulted with thought were promising. But the fact that they were trying to pull one over on Sutton Capital, instead of being upfront, killed their chances for good.
With any luck, Jennie would work her magic here and figure out if the resort owner or its management had anything to hide.
The resort had two docks. One where the fishing boats and the boats taking guests scuba diving docked. The other was in a small bay where guests could snorkel and go out in kayaks.
Chad and Jennie were over in the bay, sitting on the edge of the dock as they put on snorkels and masks. They’d decided to skip the flippered feet and just swim around leisurely close to the beach.
“Twenty-seven kayaks,” Jennie said absently as she fidgeted with her mask.
“What?” Chad asked.
Jennie shrugged a shoulder. “I was counting the slots for kayaks,” she said, pointing to the racks that held the kayaks on the side of the bay. “Looks like all but five are out right now, assuming they actually fill all of the slots. I suppose they may have fewer kayaks than the number of slots for kayaks, though.”
Chad let her talk. He was used to this. She just catalogued sometimes. They were both observant, which made them really good at their jobs. But they each observed different things.
Chad watched people. Their movements and body language. Facial expressions, ticks, and tells. He watched their surroundings, always knowing how to get them out of a situation if he needed to.
Not that they needed that in the work they did now. They didn’t do anything dangerous for Sutton. In fact, their version of ‘undercover’ was using their real names, and pretending to be less intelligent than they were.
Chad’s situational awareness was a habit left over from his military tours. He doubted it was something he would ever have to use again. It was something that was so ingrained at this point, it was simply a part of who he was. He had noted the small motor boat tied to the dock because it was a means to escape the area.
Jennie was different. She counted things and noticed details he didn’t. She could tell you if someone wore fake designer clothes or if they were the real deal. She could tell you who designed a person’s shoes and, sometimes, whether their jewelry was real or paste. And, for some unknown reason, things like the number of kayaks caught her eye.
Actually, if he thought about it, he could guess why she’d noticed the kayaks. Their bright colors. Jennie surrounded herself with bright, happy colors.
The outside of her house was a light cheerful yellow. He hadn’t been inside her house, though he’d dropped her off or picked her up a few times. But he would guess the inside would be filled with color as well.
The kayaks were bright red and orange. She would like those colors.
“Come on,” Chad grinned at her. She looked adorable with goggles covering almost half her face. “Let’s go see some fish.”
They jumped in the water and lowered masked faces into the bay.
Before Chad knew what hit him, he heard a shriek and had an armful of sputtering Jennie. She quite literally climbed up him and was clinging to his shoulders, legs and arms clamped around him as high up as she could go. It would be funny to anyone watching.
Chad grinned, trying to ignore his body’s immediate response to her. He refused to acknowledge the fact that at that moment, the string bikini she wore was giving him access to parts of Jennie’s body he’d only ever dreamed of touching. His arms were under her ass, holding her up. The sensations produced by their wet skin were wreaking havoc on his senses, but she didn’t seem to be aware of that at all.
“Problem, Jen?”
She bit her lip and nodded her head.
“And that would be...?” Damn, she’s cute. On any other woman, this would seem like a coy ploy for his attention. With Jennie, it was real. She was well and truly freaked by something and he was more than happy to be her knight in shining armor. Especially when she wrapped her body around that armor.
“The fish,” Jennie said, eyes wide. “A fish touched my legs. It went right between my legs!”
He let a slow smile form. “I need to protect you from the fish?”
She nodded. “They’re huge. And scary. And kind of gross.”
They were pretty big. Some of them were one-and-a-half feet long and about as wide around the middle as Chad’s forearm. He had expected smaller fish, too. But seeing her so freaked out was pretty damned cute.
And holding her was pretty sexy. Really, really damned sexy, as a matter of fact. Chad lifted her up to the dock, then let his hands skim down to her thighs—pretending to be Jennie’s concerned husband did have its perks.
“Want me to hold you in the water and see if that makes you feel better?” Say yes. No, say no. This is a bad idea… But, please say yes.
Before Jennie could answer, a fish jumped out of the water and splashed back in. Chad assumed it was trying to catch a bug skimming the surface of the water. Jennie must have assumed it was an attempt to eat her, because she was up and running off the dock in a heartbeat. So much for Jack’s theory that Jennie Evans wasn’t afraid of anything.
Chad pulled himself out onto the dock, trying not to laugh too hard—and losing that battle. He scooped up their beach bag and towels. The items quickly became crucial parts of Chad’s ensemble as he followed Jennie back to the villa.
Watching the sway of her sweet ass as she hightailed it through the resort had his dick harder than he’d care to share with the other guests. With their belongings held casually in front of him to hide his predicament, he let himself enjoy the show. He’d have to shower with ice water when he got back to the villa, but it was worth it
.
Jennie had the sexiest ass Chad had ever seen. That ass in a bikini?
Deadly.
Chapter 12
The first week of their working vacation passed fairly quickly. They stuck to the pools instead of the ocean so Jennie didn’t have any more run-ins with the terrifying fish of the Florida coast. And they kept an eye out for the nephews.
Jack wasn’t in any hurry for their assessment and rarely checked in with them. That struck Jennie as a little odd, but she brushed it off. She and Chad were having more fun than she thought they would. They spent their days in the resort where she managed to befriend a few of the employees.
Most of the employees seemed to feel that the Masters brothers didn’t have much to offer. They were careful not to badmouth them too much, but Jennie didn’t miss the undertone of what people weren’t saying. No one respected the brothers. The brothers were dead weight on the resort and none of the employees would be sorry to see them go.
People liked and spoke well of Jonathan Masters, the owner, but they said he rarely came there anymore. From what Jennie could see, the managers were running the show and, it seemed, running it very well. The place had an incredibly relaxing atmosphere with attention to detail and customer service that left guests feeling pampered. It was exactly what a tropical vacation should be.
At night, they went to dinner and then played cards or talked and laughed back in the villa. They talked and laughed a lot, actually. More than she had thought they would.
Even though it was hard to ignore the sexual undertones that always sparked between them, Jennie really enjoyed being with Chad on this new level.
The night before, they had gone to one of the restaurants that had dinner and dancing. Jennie was stunned to find out Chad could salsa, rumba—you name it, he could do it on the dance floor. As he whirled her around, making her breathless, she had to laugh. She never would have pictured her tough soldier-man boss as a dancer.
“Where did you learn to do this?” she had asked when they sat down for their entrees.
He shrugged a shoulder and grinned at her. “I have my secrets.”
She shook her head at him, to which he’d just winked.
“If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”
She stuck her tongue out at him.
This afternoon, they lay in lounge chairs by one of the pools, pretending to be a couple in love. They were fairly sure they had found out all they needed to know about the Masters brothers. They’d booked a boat tour the next day to see if they could find out more about the marina and how it functioned. For now, there was nothing to do but relax.
“Hey, Boss Man,” Jennie said, cracking her eyes open to peek at Chad while she swirled her empty drink at him. “Wanna swim over to the bar and get me another daiquiri?”
After three strawberry daiquiris, she was a little tipsy. She was probably being a little too uppity with her boss, even for her, but they had both let down their guard quite a bit.
He lowered his sunglasses and leaned over her on the lounge chair. His body almost entirely covered hers and his face was right in hers. She could feel the heat coming off of him, and damn if that didn’t go straight to her legs.
Well, not her legs. Between her legs, really. Right where it counted. His mouth was an inch from hers and she had to fight not to reach up and close the distance. Not to see what would happen if she simply gave in to temptation and tasted that mouth.
When he spoke, he cranked her body heat up without any effort at all. “Now, Jen, what will people think if they hear you call me Boss Man?” he asked quietly.
She licked her lips. “That we’re into kink and role playing?”
As usual, the sexy rumble of his voice when he spoke so softly to her sent her body spiraling out of control. She itched to reach out and touch his chest. It was hot and tanned and just a little sweaty from the searing Florida sun. She knew it would feel heavenly under her fingertips, the hard cut of the muscles under the satiny taut skin.
She didn’t notice the tiny moan that slipped from her lips until it was too late to stop it.
She saw Chad’s eyes burn hot and dark for a second. Her breath caught at the intensity in his eyes and she felt his whole body coil and tense above her.
And then he pulled back. Jennie watched as he slid into the water and cut clean strokes across the pool to the swim up bar. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and groaned.
That was stupid. How did that cliché go? She was playing with fire and she was going to get burned? Yeah, that she believed.
One more week.
Chapter 13
Two other couples waited on the dock when Chad and Jennie arrived for their boat tour. They would be going to a quiet bay to swim—although he expected Jennie to stay in the boat for that given her fear of the fish. After that, they’d go to a quaint restaurant along the coast for lunch, and later tour a local market where they could shop for local touristy junk, before being taken back to the resort.
Jennie stood with the small group and began to do her chit chatty thing while Chad sat on one of the benches and watched her. She had on a red bikini and a brightly patterned wrap tied around her waist. She leaned her head back and laughed at something one of the other couples said and Chad couldn’t resist.
He reached out and looped an arm around her waist, pulling her down onto his lap. She yelped while the other women cooed over his romantic gesture. One woman swatted her husband on the arm and scowled at him.
“You never treat me like that anymore,” she said, drawing a laugh from the group.
“They’re newlyweds,” her husband said. That earned him another whack.
Chad could barely pay attention. His arms were around Jennie’s bare waist. Her skin was so soft and smooth. It was silky and creamy and it begged for his touch. If they weren’t in public, he wouldn’t have been able to control himself.
And yet, she seemed unaffected. She settled back in his arms and chatted with the other couples about their experiences at the resort, asking what they’d tried so far, which restaurants they liked the best, and more.
When their tour guide came and got them loaded onto the boat, he relinquished his hold on Jennie momentarily, but pulled her down on the bench seat next to him in the boat.
He let one hand trail up and down her velvety back as Jennie started to work the tour guide for information. Somehow, she struck up a conversation about wanting to work as a tour guide in a marina just like this.
The next thing Chad knew, she’s getting information about busy seasons and slow seasons, how many trips the marina did in a day, and what the tour guides were paid.
It never ceased to amaze Chad. People would turn over their bank statements to Jennie if she asked them to. The guy didn’t look the least bit fazed by her questions and she’d somehow managed to draw the other couples into the conversation as though it were completely natural.
He should be contributing in some way, but there really wasn’t a damned thing he could add. So, he sat back and watched the way the sun glinted off her strawberry curls. He watched the way her eyes sparkled when she laughed and the way she leaned toward whoever was talking and looked at them as though they really mattered to her.
That’s why she was so good at this. People wanted to connect with her. They were drawn to her. Chad was an expert on the topic of being drawn to Jennie.
He’d been drawn to her since the first time he’d spotted her at Sutton Capital. He had gone to ask Jack a question. He was having a bad day and was hurried and stressed, but he turned the corner and spotted Jennie at the desk outside Jack’s office and froze. And, then she looked up at him and smiled. That smile cut right to his heart every time she graced him with it.
The attraction only grew from there. When Jack married Kelly and they all started hanging out outside the office together, he got his first glimpse of Jennie laughing. She always tipped her head back and laughed with such abandon. He found himself trying to m
ake her laugh over and over again.
Sitting on the boat with his hands on her bare skin, Chad knew he would regret the closeness later when reality came racing back to him. But, he couldn’t stop himself.
He’d let himself pretend, for the next few hours, that Jennie was his. That they had a life together, a future together. That this scenario wasn’t some masquerade to get information for Jack’s friend.
Yeah. It would suck when he came falling back to earth, but for right now, he would let himself fly high on the fantasy of Jennie.
Chapter 14
That evening, they were drinking beer out on the patio, sharing the double chaise lounge. The sexual tension that always whirled around them was present, but they were both getting better at living with it, or so it seemed to Jennie.
She suspected it wouldn’t ever go away but they were building more of a friendship than they ever had on other assignments. And, they were definitely getting good at forgetting they were supposed to have a professional, working relationship.
Chad opened a new beer and handed the icy cold bottle to Jennie.
“Truth or dare?” she asked. They’d been playing for a while now, each of them repeatedly choosing ‘truths’ and skipping the ‘dares.’ It was as if they’d both forgotten they worked together. That Chad was her boss. That they shouldn’t interact like this.
“Truth,” he answered.
“Most unusual place you’ve ever had sex.”
He shook his head with a laugh, but answered anyway. “Top of a mountain. We were hiking and we got to the top of a very isolated peak. We were hidden on one side by a boulder but anyone on the mountain peak across from us would have seen what was going on. They couldn’t see detail, but, uh,” he cleared his throat, “the general gist of it would have been clear.”
