Paradise Falls: A Bassett Hotels Novel

by AJ Riley

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  Paradise Falls

  ABassett Hotels Novel

  Book 1

  By AJ Riley

  Copyright © 2018 by Author AJ Riley

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any reference to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, 2018

  ISBN: 9781977047212

  Cover art by Maria Spada

  CHAPTER 1

  This was the last place she wanted to be. Amanda paced in front of the windows, but she wasn’t interested in the view. Every time she caught a glimpse out the window she could feel the dread wrap around her. Taking a deep breath, she gently shook her head to dispel the thoughts swirling in her mind. There were things she needed to know, answers to questions that seemed to be beyond her.

  The two most important ones were, how the hell had she lost control of the situation and more importantly why was he so hell bent on her being here? What had put the bug up his ass that it had to be her and not one of the assistants? She tried to get at least that much out of the man, but he kept side stepping the answer.

  Sure, they had butted heads before, they were both stubborn people after all, but he had never flat out refused to listen to reason before.

  Amanda hit the send button on her cell and listened to the phone ring as she started to pace in front of the very windows that she had been trying to ignore. Come on Stacy, she mumbled under her breath, pick up the damn phone. Her fingers tapped impatiently on her thigh as she continued her relentless pacing. If she kept moving maybe she would work off some of her anxiety and anger.

  Caught off guard as the sound of a jet engine started to wind up her gaze snapped toward the window, God she hated airports, and airplanes, and falling out of the sky while on an airplane. She shivered at the thought and forced her gaze away from the window.

  Amanda let out a sigh of relief when she heard her best friend answer.

  “Who the hell does he think he is?” she barked into the phone pacing in front of windows. She had to get away from the damn windows, her gaze kept sliding toward the planes lined up at the gates getting ready for takeoff. That mental image was not helping her already frayed nerves.

  Again, she wondered when had she lost control of the situation? Amanda had thought she had the proposal air tight for her new client, there hadn’t been a damn palm tree in sight, per the demanding clients request, but something had still been off, at least according to her boss.

  Frustrated she ran a hand through her hair and waited for a response, knowing it wasn’t going to be a sympathetic ranting about their boss. No, best friends especially Stacy told you exactly what you needed to hear, not what you wanted to hear.

  “Well good afternoon to you too sunshine, and to answer your question, you know he’s only the boss, the owner, oh and let’s not forget your grandfather.” Stacy shot back at her with a chuckle.

  Amanda wanted to pull her hair out, yes, he was her grandfather, but he still didn’t know everything. Even though he thought he did. “I know I know but still this was so out of the blue. I did everything right. I gave the client everything he had asked for and things he didn’t even know he needed. How the hell can he expect me to walk away from my other clients and concentrate solely on Bassett Hotels? I mean think about it, Mr. Miller, their head of marketing, didn’t say anything about not liking my presentation. In fact, if I remember his words correctly it went something like, ‘this looks good, I’ll get it sent over to Mr. Bassett and get back to you.’ This is so frustrating, Mr. Garret is over reacting.”

  “Oh my God, now’s who over reacting? Mr. Garret? Since when do you call him Mr. Garret?”

  “Since all my accounts were pulled, hand over to you, and I was sent to some island in the middle of nowhere to try and make my presentation better. Better, can you believe that? You saw my presentation it was fantastic.”

  “If you do say so yourself.”

  Amanda heard Stacy chuckle and felt the corners of her mouth lift. She tried to fight the smile but lost. She was over reacting but couldn’t seem to help it. She and her grandfather had been on opposite sides of an argument before but his flat-out refusal to listen to reason caught her off guard. Normally he was always willing to listen before he decided but this time, there was no talking him out of it.

  “Ok, you got me, I’m being a bitch, but please take care of my clients while I’m on this scavenger hunt for the perfect hook. I worked too long for them to not trust me now.”

  “You have nothing to worry about, you know I’ll take good care of them while you’re gone. They won’t even miss you. You know that’s why Mr. Garret gave them to me and not one of the assistants. He didn’t want you to worry about anything while you fix that monstrosity of a proposal.”

  Amanda laughed, which was what Stacy was after and felt the tightening in her chest ease.

  “Amanda, seriously find some hot guy and have fun for once. You could do with some down time to relax. At the very least have a good story to tell me when you get back, you know I live vicariously through you. I haven’t had a date in three months and sex in even longer, as my best friend I feel the need to remind you that it is your duty to have a wild fling with a hot stranger, then come home and let me actually have a life through you for once.”

  “Now who’s being all dramatic.”

  “All joking aside, I worry about you, you work too hard.”

  “Now you’re starting to sound like grandfather.”

  Stacy’s come back was drowned out as the overhead speaker announced that the flight was going to be boarding. “Sweetie I have to go. Thank you for talking me through my melt down. I will hurry up and find that elusive special something that will make this presentation stand out and be back before you know it, that way I can take the burden of my clients off your plate.” Amanda looked around at the other passengers that were heading toward the departure gate and one woman caught her attention.

  Amanda sighed, she had been the one to give the ok for Janice to join her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that this trip was going to be a disaster. “Oh God there’s Janice. I have to run. I’ll call you when I get back.”

  “I better not see you back one day sooner than you are supposed to be, oh and don’t kill Janice while you’re there. I can’t afford the bail money.”

  Amanda chucked and disconnected the call. All she had to do was keep herself focused on finding that something special, once that was
accomplished then maybe she would let herself relax.

  Disconnecting the call Amanda walked over to her luggage and grabbed the handle. Fumbling with her ticket she walked over and stood in line next to Janice.

  “Good afternoon.” She greeted her. Maybe if she started this week out on the right foot then it would be smooth sailing.

  “I can’t wait for us to hang out this week. I heard there are lots of things to do at these resorts.”

  Amanda took a deep breath and tried not to let her impatience show. She had explained all of this to Janice before, but she just didn’t seem to get it. “Janice when you asked to come along I told you that I am only going because of work. I have to check this place out for a client. You know this.”

  “Well you can do that later.” She huffed.

  Amanda didn’t want to argue with her, so she just let the conversation drop as they showed their tickets and boarded the plane. Maybe once they get there Janice will understand that she had work to do and couldn’t just lay around all day, even if laying around all day sounded fantastic after the day she had.

  Taking a deep breath Amanda sank back into her first-class seat. For the briefest of moments, she wondered if this was what normal people felt like on a trip. Were they excited to get away from it all? Excited to have a few days off work to lay around and do nothing? Not for the first time she wished that she was normal, that she enjoyed things a normal person did, but she couldn’t sit still. She had been hell bent on proving herself for so many years that she didn’t know if she would know how not to work.

  For a moment that thought was depressing. There was a time that she wanted a home and a family, but it seemed like so long ago that she had let herself believe that she could have it all. Taking a deep breath, she willed the memories away, she had a job to do and she wasn’t going to back down from this challenge. She would find a way to impress this client if it was the last thing she did. Feeling better now that her mind was back in the game she had to use every minute she had before the flight landed to learn everything she could about Bassett resorts.

  If she could figure out what made the rest of them special then she would know what not to look for at this one, grabbing her laptop she flicked it open with resolve. Ok time to get this working vacation started she told herself. As she waited for the file to open she felt Janice lean over and look at the computer screen.

  “Are you seriously working?”

  Amanda flicked her eyes toward her sister, the look of disbelief written across it was almost comical. “Yes, I told you, the only reason that I am heading to the island is for work. You are going to have to entertain yourself while you are there.” Amanda rolled her eyes as she felt Janice sit back in her chair and open of the magazines she had brought. It was going to be a long week if Janice didn’t get the point that she had a job to do. This account was important to her career and there was no way that anyone or anything was going to distract her.

  As the thought crossed her mind that there would be no distractions, movement from the aisle caught her attention. A man had gotten up from his seat to access the overhead compartment. He moved with authority, as if daring anyone to reprimand him because he wasn’t sitting in his seat getting ready for takeoff.

  Amanda watched as his shoulders flexed under the tailor-made suit jacket. It outlined his broad shoulders perfectly making her want to reach out and see if the rest of his body was as solidly build as his clothes led you to believe. The thought of touching him had her nipples hardening in anticipation and her heart beat had speed up. She had never been drawn to a man like this before.

  She jumped out of her fantasy world at Janice’s quiet question, “Amanda, are you ok? You don’t look so good.”

  Shit, “Yeah I’m fine, I just don’t like to fly.” She reminded her, there was no way that she was going to point the man out to Janice. If she hadn’t seen him then she couldn’t make a move on him. He could still be her fantasy. As she felt the plane start to lift off the ground she laid her head back against the seat. Instead of looking at the report on her client she closed her eyes and told herself that she would have plenty of time to work, that it would be ok to have the fantasy for a few hours until it was time to get back to reality, and she let her mind wonder to the naughty things she would like to do to him and have him do to her.

  CHAPTER 2

  After spending a restless night with the nameless stranger front and center in her dreams Amanda crawled out of bed and walked over to the table where she had sat her laptop. She knew her presentation by heart, everything she had dug up on the hotel brand, the owner, the financials, were sitting in a folder on her laptop.

  She reached her hand out toward her mouse and even as her mouse hovered over the file she knew she should be reviewing, she couldn’t get her finger to push the open button. This morning the last thing she wanted to do was work. Weird but maybe she did need a day off. Just one day without the phone ringing, urgent clients with one disaster or another all wanting her attention. What would be the worst that could happen if she let herself have this one day?

  She removed her hand from the mouse and slowly backed away from the computer. She shook her head at her own craziness and gave into the urge to go throw her bathing suit on and lay by the pool. Maybe Stacy and her grandfather were right. Amanda shivered at the thought, she would never tell them that, relaxing into the cushion of the chaise Amanda let out a breath and imagined all her tension was releasing with it.

  Her body was warm and relaxed from the sun shining over her. This was what she had been missing, the chance to do nothing but work on her tan. Too bad she had only given herself this one day to be lazy. Oh well she would make the most of it until she felt her conscience nag at her less than acceptable work ethic.

  “Amanda really, can’t we go do something besides sit here?” Janice whined. “I’m bored, don’t they offer activities? Things for the guests to do besides die of boredom? Their brochures lied.”

  Amanda sighed, felt some of her tension start to return to her shoulders, and turned to look at her sister. “I told you before you invited yourself to come that I came here for work. Not to run around and entertain you.”

  “If you’re really here for work why are you just sitting there doing nothing?” she pouted.

  Learning at an early age that it was best not to get pulled into a fight with Janice, Amanda ignored her question. For years she had wondered what drove her sister to act like a spoilt bitch one minute and then loving and sincere the next but the harder she tried to get close to her the more Janice pushed back. Finally, Amanda had stopped trying to force a bond between them and just learned to roll with whatever mood Janice decided to be in.

  Turning her attention away from Janice, Amanda let her eyes roam over their surroundings. The sparking pool at first had seemed inviting but she wasn’t tempted enough to get up from her comfortable spot on the chaise. Beyond the pool she could see the white sand of the beaches and the bluest ocean she had ever laid eyes on.

  Having grown up on the west coast she had seen the pale blue water off Huntington beach and the rich blue waters off Big Sur, but nothing had prepared her for the deep sapphire of the blue water just a few feet from where she sat. It was alluring, but she would pass for now. Huge palm trees, the kind that her client specifically told her to leave out of her presentation surrounded the hotel.

  The thought of the palm trees made her smile. She wasn’t sure if the stodgy old owner left them on the property because they were expected or because even though he said no to them on the presentation he secretly like them. She liked the idea that the old man liked the palm trees enough to leave them here for the guests. It made him seem more real to her even though she had never met him. The only resort dealings she had were with Mr. Miller.

  Her musing about the owner had her feeling guilty because she wasn’t working on a new proposal for him. It was starting to feel like she had let him down because she obviously hadn’t done her best work and n
ow here she was sitting by pool.

  She tried console herself with the fact that last night when she got in she did look around to find something that would make the hotel stand out but, so far it was like any other hotel that she could find on any dozen islands. Nothing remarkable stood out.

  Her conscience chided her that maybe if she left her spot by the pool or her hotel room and explored the island maybe this would be easier. Unfortunately for her conscience the longer she sat there under the sun, the less she felt the urgent need to work, and the easier it was to ignore it.

  As much as she was enjoying relaxing Amanda could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and knew that Janice was shooting daggers at her from the seat next to hers.

  Saying a silent prayer for patience Amanda pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and turned to look at Janice. “Go. You don’t need me to hold your hand while you figure out what you want to do. Go find adventure or whatever just count me out.” Amanda hadn’t meant to be snippy with her, but she wanted to stay in her bubble if she could. Sliding her glasses back onto her nose Amanda made a show of wiggling back into the cushion and ignoring Janice’s Glare.

  “You dragged me out here to this place the least you could do was make sure that I had a good time.” She harrumphed.

  Amanda took a deep breath and tried to keep the frustration she was feeling from reflecting in her voice. “First of all, I didn’t drag you anywhere. You invited yourself, at my expense I might add. Second, I warned you I was not going to do any entertaining, I’m working.”

  The fury radiating from Janice was almost tangible, if she didn’t do something Janice would make the rest of their time here a complete nightmare. Trying to project a calm that was quickly leaving her she decided to just lay back and wait for the next outburst. It seemed like the best strategy before giving up the illusion that Janice could be ignored for any length of time.

  “Oh my God Amanda!” Janice hissed, as she not too gently hit Amanda’s arm.