The Rock Star and the Billionaire

by Demelza Carlton

  Jay's chuckled rumbled through his chest. Through her, as she was pressed against it. "I'm a match for all the wildlife here. They know I'm the king of this island."

  King of the island. Did that make her the queen of Lorikeet? "We should marry. Queen of Lorikeet and King of Romance. Bring the kingdom together. I'll mine the rocks and you romance the whales." Perfect. Perfect plan.

  "You're drunk." Jay scooped her up in his arms and headed out into the dark. "Stop wiggling or I'll get Maintenance to bring a wheelbarrow. I can't just leave you here, and I won't carry you if you're struggling like a fresh-caught fish."

  Gaia squirmed a bit more until she was comfortable. "No one else has ever carried me like this.Feels...weird." A thought brought a smile to her lips. "Are you carrying me off to bed to ravish me?"

  "Oh, so now you want sex? Make up your mind, will you? Most girls run screaming toward me, not away. You confuse people and there'll be trouble."

  "I confuse you?" Hope welled up in her chest. If she intrigued Jay, maybe he would want something from her. Something personal.

  "You? No, baby. You're about as transparent as they come. To me, anyway. Nah, but you might have given the pilot the wrong idea today when you ran away from me. I don't hurt women. Never. He got the wrong idea once when I was role playing a bit with a girl. He tried to get me arrested for having a bit of fun. Consensual fucking fun. Fuck, she wanted it more than I did! I tried telling him that, but...heh. Got him back, though. Christened his helicopter and left him a present on the seat. He won't try that again."

  Gaia's fuzzy mind wondered what he'd been doing. Maybe one of the things she'd seen the actors doing in those porn films she'd watched. Did anyone really do that stuff in real life? If anyone did, it'd be Jay.

  More than ever, she wished she could remember the night they spent together. Five times...if only she had more than vague memories of even one, or she could separate the bits that were real from the bits that she dreamed afterwards.

  Maybe he'd be willing to do it again tonight. He was carrying her to bed, wasn't he?

  He swiped his wristband on the security panel and the door hissed open. Jay carried her over the threshold of what she was surprised to find was her villa, not his. How'd he manage to unlock her door?

  Jay set her down on the couch, then headed to the kitchen. Gaia heard water running, but her eyes weren't on him. They were on the stack of papers on her dining table – the contract Jay still hadn't signed.

  If he didn't sign them tonight, she'd have to let Stewart close down the mine in the morning. Her first big challenge as chairman and she'd failed. Failed her family, failed herself, failed to negotiate the simplest of deals. A lifetime of learning to run Vasse Prospecting and barely a fortnight into the job, she'd demonstrated that she was a failure.

  And Mother wasn't here to fix it.

  "Here, drink this." Jay held out a pint glass full of water.

  Too tired to argue, Gaia wrapped both hands around the glass and drank. But as fast as she replenished it, more water leaked out of her eyes. Tears of grief, tears of shame, tears of sorrow for all she'd lost and things she'd never have.

  When it all became too much, she laid her head down on the couch and sobbed. No amount of alcohol would take this pain away. No amount of anything would help.

  She cried until she had no tears left, and her mouth was so dry she needed another drink. Gaia lifted her head off the couch, peering at the glass to see if there was any water left.

  The glass was full. Not half full or a quarter full – brimming to the top full, with a jug of iced water bleeding condensation on the table beside it. She sat up and stared.

  Jay shifted from his seat on the couch across from her. "Feel better?"

  Gaia shook her head. To stop herself from wailing in misery that he'd witnessed her weakness yet again, she gulped down the contents of the glass. And another.

  "Is there anything you'd like me to do, to help you feel better?"

  Raise Morrigan from the dead and put her back in charge of the company. Go back in time and stop the sea wall from breaking. Teach her how to get out of this mess. Make today never have happened, so she wouldn't feel like such a failure.

  Gaia eyed the accusing pile of papers, topped with a page bearing a blank line where his signature should be. "You could sign that."

  His eyes widened. "I was thinking more along the lines of a quickie on the couch, but I could do that, if you prefer. If it'd help."

  Was he joking? After all their arguing and his stubborn resistance, now he was willing to sign them?

  "So if I asked you whether you wanted sex or my autograph on your papers over there, you only want my autograph?" Jay didn't look like he believed her.

  Not even a night of the most incredible, mind-blowing sex would make up for the magnitude of her failure if he didn't sign the agreement. Because in the morning, she'd still be a failure.

  "Yes," she whispered. She farewelled his gorgeous body with her eyes.

  "All right, then." Jay picked up a pen, clicked it once, and scrawled his signature. "So you're okay now? Don't need anything else from me?"

  Gaia shook her head, unable to believe her eyes.

  "G'night then." Whistling, Jay ambled out of the villa.

  FORTY-TWO

  When Gaia woke up on the couch the next morning, her eyes darted first to the table, to see if the papers were still there. Yes, they were.

  Groggily, she clambered to her feet, wincing as every bit of her body protested. Actually, not every bit. Her head seemed remarkably pain free, even after the amount she'd drunk last night. It must have been all the water she'd gulped down after she got home. Huh. Water as a hangover cure. Who'd have guessed?

  She staggered stiffly over to the table to check that Jay really had signed the contract. Yep, his autograph spilled over half the page, all curlicues and flourishes and finished with a kiss – or at least an x. Gaia snorted. So much for a businesslike signature like she'd cultivated for two decades. Jay made a performance out of it, like he did everything else.

  Show off. Whooping in the jet boat in Yampi Sound, shouting across the gorge at Mitchell Falls, and even suggesting sex in that pool between the cascades, like he wanted the whole world to see how good he was.

  He loved it up here. The islands, the landscape, the wildlife...it was all larger than life, just like him. And it left her aching, just like he did.

  Gaia made herself a cup of tea and sat at the table, pulling the papers toward her. What had made him sign them? After all his arguing, he'd agreed without a murmur last night. She wished she'd been thinking more clearly, but those cocktails had fuzzied her brain something awful. She should have invited him back to her bedroom to celebrate the agreement. Then she'd still be in his arms, instead of clenching her thighs against the aching emptiness inside.

  How much beer had Jay had to drink last night? Was he drunk, too?

  She scrutinised the signature. It looked clear and unwavering, more readable than her own on a good day. But then, Jay had spent the last six years autographing anything his fans thrust at him. He could probably manage a legible signature no matter how much he'd had to drink. It must be a rock star thing.

  So he could sign stuff drunk. But did that mean he understood what he'd agreed to? What if he hadn't?

  Gaia's blood ran cold. If she tricked him out of the island he loved, he'd never speak to her again. Never look at her the way he had last night. Sex would certainly be off the table. And she'd lose the only man who cared for her, not her money. Because he didn't need it.

  Oh God. What had she done?

  FORTY-THREE

  The whole time she was in the shower, Gaia debated with herself over what she should do. Stewart expected to receive her response to his request to fire the mine staff today. She could surprise him with Jay's signed agreement instead, showing him once and for all that she did have all of her mother's business acumen and more, but Jay would hate her for it.

 
She needed to ask him. Somehow, she needed to get him to tell her whether he'd meant to sign away his island last night, or whether it had been a mistake. If his agreement was just the alcohol talking, she owed it to him to get out of the deal. After all, he hadn't taken advantage of her drunken state last night. He'd taken care of her to the point of carrying her home. Not to mention his surprise hangover cure. She owed him the same courtesy.

  Gaia dressed in subdued colours today, covering more skin than she normally would in such a hot climate, but her numerous cuts and scrapes were a painful reminder of how much of a fool she'd been yesterday. And she didn't want to remember. Today was a new day, and she had obligations to fulfil.

  Sunglasses were a must in today's glaring sunlight, but Gaia decided against a hat for the short walk to Villa Penguin.

  When she arrived, she found a cleaning cart outside the wide open door. Maid service meant Jay was out, she decided, and she'd made it halfway down the veranda steps before she heard his unmistakeable laughter from inside the villa.

  Was he doing the maid? Half horrified, half intrigued, Gaia ventured through the open door. If she caught them in the act, she'd owe him nothing, she told herself. A man who turned her down only to sleep with the domestic staff wasn't worth her time, or her concern. She should take his island off him to stop him from sexually harassing his staff.

  "Good morning!" Jay called before Gaia spotted him. He sat on the couch, coffee in hand, looking like he'd never heard of a hangover, let alone had one. "I was just waiting for Jackie to finish before I brought you a present." He waved in the direction of his dining alcove, where a middle-aged maid frowned deeply as she wrapped a package in paper printed with the resort logo.

  She recovered quickly from her disappointment at not catching him in the act. Nobody bought her presents any more. At least, not personal ones. Boring corporate gifts from clients and contractors didn't count. Her fingers itched to tear away the packaging before the maid had finished taping it together.

  "There. Done." The maid's eyes darted from Gaia to Jay. "Do you still want me to deliver it to her place, or are you going to give it to her yourself now? Because if you've got a visitor, I might pop over to Villa Maxima and clean there first."

  Jay shrugged. "Suit yourself. Come back and kick us out of here when you need to."

  A maid would never have been allowed to interrupt a conversation in her mother's house, let alone ask them to leave so she could clean. They were servants, at least while they were on duty. Their job was to be invisible, not join in the conversation. Jay didn't seem to have a problem with it, though.

  "Thanks for doing the wrapping," Jay continued, crossing the room to retrieve the package. "Never could wrap shit to save my life. Those Christmas gift-wrapping services in shopping centres were the only reason anyone ever got wrapped presents from me. Or I bribed my sister to do it for me."

  "Wouldn't surprise me," the maid muttered on her way out.

  Gaia wasn't sure what to make of that exchange. Finally, she said, "You're very familiar with your staff."

  "Of course. When I see them every day, I should be. Jackie's son's training to be a pilot. When he's qualified, he wants a job flying tourists around the Kimberley. He's already promised to take me up for some aerobatics when he's next in Broome." Jay grinned in anticipation. "Lee from Maintenance swore he'd let me know when we get another tiger shark in the lagoon so I can help fish it out. Usually, he likes to fight the big fish himself, but the last one took a bite out of the boat, so we needed a new one. Seeing as I had to pay for the new gear, I want to be there when we get to test it out."

  "So retirement at the resort isn't like being a rock star, then?" she asked. "I can't imagine you associating with the road crew the way you do with the people here."

  Jay burst out laughing. "We got to work on your imagination, then. Fuck, I knew all the roadies by name, and their girlfriends and wives, too. Had to, so I wouldn't sleep with them when the guys were busy. Some of those girls weren't the faithful type, but I didn't want any bad blood between me and the blokes. The other reason was security. Our security specialist drummed it into us from the beginning – if we didn't know someone on the crew, report them before they could become a risk. Not to me, so much, but the girls in the band."

  Gaia knew Jay was the lead singer of Chaya, but she hadn't known much about the other band members. "There were girls in your band?"

  "Haven't you ever seen us play?" When Gaia shook her head, he continued, "Guess that explains it, then. Chaya was me and the girls. Jojo and Angel. Big on security, both of them. And privacy. So I did most of the press and promotional stuff, and I got along well with all the guys. It's a bit like family when you're on tour."

  Staff were never family. Not in her house. Gaia found herself shaking her head at the strange world Jay lived in. Or had lived in.

  "You're distracting me, baby. I meant to give you these last night, but I forgot. Better late than never, though." He held out his present.

  The package was surprisingly heavy. Books, Gaia decided, as she carefully removed the wrapping. If she'd expected antique first editions, she was sadly disappointed. Instead, there were three paperbacks that didn't even look new. She examined the cover of the first one, which bore a picture of a grey tie. Fifty Shades of... "WHAT?" she yelped. "Is this some sort of sick joke?"

  "Dunno if that's what the author had in mind when she wrote it, seeing as I heard it was originally fanfiction of some kids' book, but I figured it'd be educational for you."

  Gaia stabbed a finger at the stack of books. He'd given her the whole trilogy. "These are romance books. The sort of books ordinary women read to liven up their boring lives. People like me don't have time for this...this...pulp. My reading time is for business books. Educational books, as you put it, that can actually teach me things that might be useful in life."

  Jay's expression grew thoughtful. "Oh, I think you can learn plenty from romance books. Especially about livening things up, baby." His eyes flashed. "Maybe this is why what you call ordinary women are so awesome in bed, and girls like you wouldn't know which bit goes where. People like you should make time for romance books, because life without a bit of romance is what's boring. You don't know the first thing about billionaires, except that you happen to be one. Broaden your horizons, baby. Find out what rich people are really like."

  "Romance books are nothing like real life," Gaia replied weakly.

  "Have you ever read one?" Jay demanded, not waiting for an answer before he went on, "Jackie's read every one in the resort library, she tells me, so I asked her to start you off easy. She's been working here at the villas since the resort opened. She's met more VIPs than I have, and that's saying something. And she says the kinky stuff they get up to...well, the books barely scratch the surface. Particular tastes? She's seen things that make me look like a monk in comparison." He wrapped the paper loosely around the books again and thrust the package at her chest. "Here, take it home and get reading. If you want more, head to the resort library. And when you're done, if you want to really lose control and try a ride on the kinky side, then come back here and find me."

  Jay turned her round and marched her down the passage to his front door. He waved it open, and pushed her out onto the veranda. "I'm partial to a pair of handcuffs, personally," he said before the door slid shut.

  Gaia wanted to throw the books on the ground and hammer on his door until he opened it again. She held her wristband up to his scanner, but it only gave her error messages and didn't open. Damn Jay Felix. If he wouldn't let her back in, she wouldn't ask him about the contract he'd signed.

  It wasn't until she stormed back inside her own house that she realised she still clutched the books to her chest. She dropped them on her own dining table, determined to tell the maid to take them back where she got them.

  Before she could open her mouth, she heard the woman say, "Bloody good books there. They were my first introduction to BDSM erotica. When you're done wit
h them, let me know, and I'll get you something a bit hotter. Or if you're feeling a bit experimental...check the room service menu in the bedside cabinet. This is Romance Island Resort, after all. We cater to all tastes."

  Gaia spluttered. What sort of woman did the maid think she was? Before she could ask, the woman was gone.

  FORTY-FOUR

  Gaia's walk on the beach did little to calm the storm inside. There was plenty of anger at Jay and his staff, but underneath it she still worried about the contract. She couldn't send it without asking him, but she couldn't look at him without wanting to slap him.

  Like he'd slapped her that night they spent together...

  Her core muscles clenched at the thought of how hot that had been. That slight sting, tingling on her bottom, sending sparks deep inside her.

  No, she didn't want to slap his backside. She wanted to slap his face.

  And feel his hand on her bottom...was it simply his touch that had aroused her so much, or was it the slap itself? It's not like anyone had ever slapped her before. Not even children at school when she was little – Gaia had never attended a school where violence occurred.

  What if...

  The sound of her phone ringing inside the house startled her out of her unsettling thoughts. By the time the door slid open and she'd made it to the phone, she'd missed a call from Stewart.

  Gaia considered ignoring it, but she knew she couldn't. He'd only call back.

  She hit the return call button on her screen and waited a moment for the call to connect.

  "How's your holiday?" Stuart greeted her.

  It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him she wasn't on holiday, but Gaia swallowed and said instead, "Hot. With beaches and cocktails."

  "It's rained all week here. Autumn is awful. I wouldn't mind a tropical holiday, but some of us have to work for a living." Stewart sounded bitter. "I called because I sent you an email and you haven't replied. Your mother insisted on approving all shutdowns and layoffs when this many staff are involved, but it's really only a formality. All the notices are drafted and ready to go tomorrow, but I need your approval in writing today or we'll have to recalculate all the severance pay and it'll cost much more. The company can't afford a delay, not with production halted at Lorikeet Island and current prices. The Chinese market – "