A Little Harmless Faith

by Melissa Schroeder

  The memories from the night before washed over her. She turned her head and found the bed empty. Sitting up, she looked around the room. The first rays of sun crept into the room through the opened French doors.

  “Well, that’s a pretty sight,” Jensen said.

  She turned her head in the direction of his voice. He was shirtless, wearing those same silk blue PJ bottoms as the day before. His hair was mussed. She had seen it that way on long plane rides, but she had never seen him like this. The morning after made it even more intimate.

  “Nicola?”

  “Sorry.” He walked toward the bed and she realized he had two cups of coffee. She took the one he offered her and took a sip. It was made up just the way she liked it. Her eyebrows rose.

  “What?” he asked.

  “It’s made the way I like it and it doesn’t suck.”

  “Marta’s already here.”

  “Marta’s here?” She closed her eyes. They had wanted to keep their relationship quiet, and this was not the way to do it.

  “Don’t worry. I brought your robe to the room and Marta is busy making a wonderful breakfast for both of us.” He sat down on the bed. “I still have not heard a thank you from you.”

  “For what?”

  “The coffee.”

  She smiled. “Thank you for having Marta make my cup.”

  Jensen frown. “I made your cup, woman.”

  “Really? You know how I like my coffee?”

  “Yes. You like it to be the color of a camel, with two sugars.”

  He sounded so disgusted that she didn’t believe him, she leaned forward and kissed him. “Sorry. Thank you.”

  “Four years of being in each other’s pockets, I think I would know.”

  “I apologize.”

  He grumbled before taking a sip of his own coffee.

  “I need to shower.”

  “Yes, and we have a teleconference this morning.”

  “What?”

  “With the Johnsons. I was checking my email earlier—”

  “How long have you been up? Why did you let me sleep so late?” She started to slip out of bed, but he set his hand on her thigh. Even through the sheets, she could feel his body heat.

  “It isn’t that late. It’s just after six. They emailed me last night.”

  “When do they want to start?”

  “They said eight, I asked them to push it back to ten.”

  She studied him for a second, as she sipped her coffee. “And why would you do that?”

  “Because they have to understand that I’m not sitting around waiting for them.”

  “But we are in a way.”

  “Because we choose to. I knew you wanted to come over here to spend some time with Serenity, so I told Mother it was best we did it this way.”

  She blinked. “You did not. Your mother insisted. That’s what you told me.”

  “I lied.”

  For a long moment, she couldn’t think of what to say. They were there for the business dealings, that was true, but with today’s technology, there was no reason for them to physically be there. They could have done this from England. It was true his mother liked the personal touch, but she had thought it a little odd they were in Hawaii.

  “Are you telling me you came halfway across the world for no other reason than I could spend time with Serenity?”

  Now, he didn’t look so sure of himself. He shrugged and looked out the doorway that led to the balcony.

  Dammit, why did he have to do that? She was already in danger of falling completely in love with the man, and he had to turn sweet?

  Nicola leaned forward and brushed her lips against his cheek. He looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

  “What was that for?”

  “Until tonight,” she said with a smile. She grabbed her robe, slipped it on, then rose out of bed. He tried to grab her hand as she tied the belt. “Nope. It’s work time. I need a shower and to get ready for the day.”

  “Fine, be that way,” he said, but she heard the humor in his voice. She opened the door and stuck her head out into the hallway to be sure no one was around, then slipped out into the hallway, closing the door behind her quietly. She hurried to her room, trying to get her mind wrapped around the idea of what had transpired the previous night. She turned on her shower, then waited for the water to heat up. She studied herself in the mirror. There was whisker burn on her breasts and she looked happy. Not just happy. Beyond happiness. She wasn’t sure she had ever experienced a night with a Dom like she had last night. The only one who came close was Micah, and that was only because he was her first Dom.

  That meant Serenity had been right. Sure, Nicola knew she had feelings for Jensen, but she didn’t know the depths of them until last night. One could argue that it had more to do with their friendship, but she had been friends with some of the Doms she played with for three or more years. This didn’t account for the way she felt when they made love a second time and she cried again. She never cried during sex, but she had twice in one night with Jensen.

  The mirror was starting to fog, and she realized that she had been standing there for too long. Before she could step into the shower, her phone buzzed. She noticed it was Julienne. Damn, she didn’t need this. Not right now when she was trying to figure out what last night had meant to her. But then again, there was a good chance she would never figure that out.

  “Hey,” she said answering the phone.

  “Where have you been? I tried calling at what would have been eight at night your time last night and you weren’t answering.”

  I was letting your brother do all kinds of deliciously naughty things to me.

  “Nowhere. Had a headache and went to bed early. What’s up?”

  “Nothing much, just wanted to make sure you hadn’t killed Jensen yet.

  “So, you haven’t talked to him either?”

  “I don’t care that much. If he’s gone, then Jakob and I can split the money.”

  She chuckled. “I was about to step into the shower.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “We have a teleconference with the Johnson family this morning, afterwards I’ll give you a ring, okay? I just want to get cleaned up since your brother just sprung this on me. No warning, just threw it out there.”

  “Brilliant. I’ll talk to you later, ta.”

  She hung up before Nicola could respond. With a sigh she clicked off her phone and stepped into the shower. Time to get her head on straight so they could get to work.

  After a massive breakfast and lots of coffee, Nicola’s ability to think was back. She didn’t know why they had wanted this meeting, but it was definitely a ploy of some sort. The Wulfs didn’t do that many takeovers and, truthfully, she never had much to do with these kinds of proceedings. This was different, though. It wasn’t as much as a takeover, but a helping hand. She knew the Johnson’s had no reason to trust them, but as far as she knew, The Wulf family had never taken over a family business—ever. They tended to help with capital, with the agreement of the ability for a buyout. It was a win for both sides of the business.

  Jensen had pulled a chair up beside him for the meeting. She sat down and tried to ignore the clean, masculine scent of him. He didn’t use cologne, but he bathed in a sandalwood soap that she loved.

  “Are you ready?” she asked.

  Jensen answered, looking at her over the top of his reading glasses again. He really needed to quit doing that. It was rather silly how it turned her on so much, but it did. Why had she come up with a stupid rule about no play during work hours?

  “Yes.”

  The computer played a tune, telling them that the other group was calling them. Jensen clicked to accept the call.

  “Good morning,” he said.

  She recognized the group sitting there. All of them—minus the older son—were seated around a conference table. Robert sat at the head of the table.

  “Good morning,” Robert said.

  He was t
he oldest, his hair stark white and years in the sun had weathered his skin. As the patriarch, he’d run the family business for all of his adult life. She knew the story of how he started from nothing, working to build massive wealth, which he was now in danger of losing.

  To his right sat Michael, his son and Vice President. He only had a few stands of gray in his hair, but he looked to be a little shorter and a bit heavier than his father. While his father wore an Hawaiian shirt—typical on the islands even in business—Michael was dressed in a suit. On the opposite side of the table sat Lana and Sam. Lana was Michael’s younger sister. She wore what looked to be a dress with massive pink plumeria. Her hair was a long waterfall of black, and while she was only one or two years younger than Michael, she looked much younger. Sam was dressed like his grandfather in an Hawaiian shirt. His dark black hair was cut short.

  “So, do we have anything to discuss?” Jensen asked.

  Robert’s lips twitched. “That’s one thing I like about you, Wulf. Always right to the point.”

  “My mother taught me there are times to be direct.”

  “Yes. Well, we are definitely interested and want to accept the offer.”

  “I feel there is a but in there.”

  “We have a few little things we want added to the contract.”

  “Okay. These have not been brought up before?”

  He shook his head. “We want it in the contract that we keep the name of the resort.”

  “Of course, that goes without saying.”

  “And the buyout you offer?”

  “You say in ten years we can buy back your half of the resort at market value.”

  “Yes?”

  “We would like it at five years after the agreement. Then a clause to allow us to revisit every five years thereafter.”

  “I see no reason why that would be a problem.”

  While Jensen and Robert spoke, she watched the reaction of the other family members. Sam and Lana showed no outward reaction. If they disagreed with the contract, or the ideas Robert was putting forth, they weren’t showing it. Michael was another matter. He was stoic, but his jaw kept flexing, telling Nicola that he was grinding his teeth. The others might not like the idea, but Michael seemed to be furious.

  Robert and Jensen continued to chat about the contract, and then, Michael proved her right.

  “I am raising my objection to this again,” he said, interrupting his father mid-sentence.

  From Lana and Sam’s expressions, Michael had committed a huge faux pas. Apparently, interrupting Robert was not considered a good thing to do. From the look on Robert’s face, he was not happy whatsoever.

  “We voted, Michael. You even got hold of Aleka to get his vote, and he agreed. You lost four to one.”

  Michael slammed his fist on the conference table. “I have a right to run this company to fix the wrongs,” he said, his voice raising louder with each word.

  “Fix the wrongs? Michael, we talked about this,” Lana said, glancing at the monitor. “The Wulfs know it, so I might as well say it. We need their money. Otherwise, we’ll have to sell the resort to outsiders.”

  “Who the hell are the Wulfs?” he shouted, his face turning red.

  “We are outsiders, that is true, but we do not want to own your resort outright. We want to help you.”

  “Why?” Michael said.

  “My mother has her reasons, and she has not shared them with me. But I do know she researched your family. We are a family-run business, as you are. Your father has taken pains to ensure that all of you have a legacy. My mother admires that. She also doesn’t like the idea of people coming in and taking over your business.”

  “That’s it?” he said, his tone telling Nicola he didn’t believe it.

  “Our lawyers read over the contract, Dad,” Sam said. “It’s good. It will be good, and we’ll be able to hire a lot of local workers for the hotel and the improvements. It will help the economy.”

  He shook his head, but Robert apparently had had enough.

  “We voted, you lost.” He turned toward the monitor. “If you can draw up the newest contracts, we will have our lawyers look them over. But, if nothing changes other than those things we talked about, I say you have yourself a deal.”

  “Brilliant. I’ll contact my legal department about sending those over. Is Alfie around?”

  Robert shook his head. “He said he was going to take a day or two and explore some of the other islands.”

  “Okay. Well, I’ll have him take care of getting the contracts to you. Mother will definitely want to talk to you at some point, I’m sure.”

  “Until next time,” Robert said, and the screen went black.

  “That’s a load off my mind,” Jensen said.

  “Hmm.”

  “What?”

  “Michael made me a little nervous. He has a temper.”

  “He didn’t get that from his father.”

  She chuckled. “That’s true. At least everyone else—even the absent Aleka—agrees with the idea.”

  “Once we start working on the resort, he’ll change his mind.”

  Before they could talk more, his phone vibrated on the desk. “Mother.”

  “Have fun,” she said, gathering up her things.

  He grabbed her hand. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For your help with this.”

  “I barely did anything.”

  “I know that’s not true. You did an extensive background check on the family, and I know that you greased the wheels a bit with local business owners.”

  “Just part of my job.”

  “And you are very good at your job.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “Tell your mother. She’ll be thrilled.”

  He smiled and released her hand. Then, as she left the room she heard him say, “Hello, Mother.”

  She closed the door and walked outside. It was a bit overcast and humid, telling her there was a good chance at thunderstorms later on in the day. Her phone buzzed, and she looked down to find that it was Jules.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, you didn’t call me back.”

  “We just got done.”

  “Looking good?”

  “They had a couple tweaks to the contracts, but it looks like other than that it is a done deal.”

  “Mother will be happy.”

  “Yes, Jensen’s talking to her right now.”

  “What was that?”

  “What?”

  “The way you said Jensen’s name was weird.”

  “It was not.”

  “Did he do something?”

  Yeah, me.

  “No. I was just a little unnerved by Michael.”

  “He’s the VP and the son, right?”

  “Yes. He was not in agreement. The others weren’t happy, but they agreed they needed our help. He yelled and pounded his fist. I hope he isn’t going to be a problem.”

  “Leave him to me. When I show up to handle the redesign, I’ll charm him.’

  Nicola didn’t doubt it. All of the Wulf siblings were pretty good at charming, especially Americans. They heard that accent, along with their good looks, and all three of them could get anything they wanted.

  “Is that what you called about earlier?”

  “No. David is a bit worried about Gregor. He’s making noises that he wants to reconcile.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. If I thought it was because he loved me, I would do it in an instant.”

  “How do you know it isn’t?”

  “The stupid wanker told me. He said that I should be thinking of his political future.”

  “Good God.”

  “Right? I told him thinking of that still wouldn’t give me an orgasm.”

  “You did not.”

  “I did. Wanker. He acted like I didn’t even deserve romance.”

  “Every woman deserves romance.”

  “Right, so I told him to bugger off and hung up
on him.”

  She sighed. “I’ll make a few calls and make sure there isn’t anything being shopped around.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate it. David is getting better, but he doesn’t have your connections.”

  “He will someday.”

  “Right. Okay, I’m sure Mother will want to talk to me soon about the redesign, so I am going to start researching. Ta.”

  She disconnected without waiting for a response. Nicola clicked off her phone and sat down at the table. Last night and today had left her a bit frazzled. Mostly last night. Truthfully, though, she did not like Michael’s reaction. He should be the one on board, but there seemed to be a split in the family. Things like that could lead to lawsuits, depending on how the business is run, but it could also lead to resentment. That is never a good thing in a family business.

  With a sigh, she looked out past the backyard to the ocean behind it. The wind created choppy waters, but it felt good against her skin. So, she had things to worry about, but right now, Nicola decided she would think about all of that later and just enjoy the scenery for a while.

  Jensen watched her through the kitchen window. She looked lost in thought, so he decided to ignore his need to be near her and just observe. Nicola had good instincts, so if she was worried about Michael, he needed to have him checked out. Jensen didn’t think Michael would do anything to hurt the family. Michael was worried about the family and that the Wulf’s were taking advantage of them. Only time would prove him wrong. He just needed to make sure that Michael didn’t do anything to jeopardize the deal, namely offending the Wulfs. Going to the press and complaining about outsiders coming in to take over a locally-owned business could really hurt the deal. His mother would not stand for it.

  He wanted more than anything to go out to the lanai and coax Nicola back to his room. They had only made love twice the night before, and he definitely knew it wasn’t enough.

  Would it ever be enough?

  That thought slipped beneath his skin and made him itch. Even standing here, with Marta puttering around in the background, he was getting hard thinking about spanking Nicola again. She had responded so well. As soon as he realized he was thinking of doing just what he had been daydreaming about, he forced himself away from the window.