by Holly Rayner
“Jamil! It is quite all right. Please do what you must to get the plane back to normal, and call the hotel when it is ready to fly. We will take up rooms until then.”
“I will, sir! Not to worry, sir!”
“Thank you, Jamil. Goodbye,” Bahir said, ending the call.
He took a breath. So he was going to be spending the next twenty-four hours on a secluded island with a beautiful woman he had just happened to marry. Willpower would need to be at an all-time high.
Thanking the concierge, he strode back out to the gazebo, where he found Nicole staring out at the beach. She turned when she heard him coming.
“Bad news,” he said, and Nicole frowned.
“What is it?” she asked.
“The plane was damaged during the landing. It’s going to take them a day or so to fix it,” he said, reaching into his pocket and glancing at his phone for the hundredth time.
Still no signal.
“It would seem the business world will have to do without the great Bahir Al-Jabbar for one day. Do you think the world will end?” Nicole asked with a smirk. She was teasing him.
He replaced his phone in his pocket and took a dramatic breath. “I suppose it just might, but there is nothing we can do about it now. We will simply have to pick up the pieces upon our return. Until then…” he paused, gazing around. The scene was stunning, and he hadn’t truly realized it until now.
When he looked back at Nicole, his gaze was playful. “What say you to a picnic on the beach and an afternoon enjoying the island?”
“I’d say let’s get some shrimp cocktail and make lemonade out of lemons.”
“Good,” Bahir replied. If there was one person he could be trapped on a desert island with, Nicole certainly topped the list.
“Now let’s go find us some swimsuits.”
ELEVEN
The afternoon had passed spectacularly, Nicole thought. Bahir had grabbed her hand at the gazebo and whisked her back to the lobby, where they were able to order a picnic service and buy a pair of swimsuits from the small gift shop. Nicole’s suit was a black bikini, and Bahir’s was a pair of blue trunks. They’d rushed to their rooms to change, Nicole feeling lightheaded as she slipped into the tiny bathing suit. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been on vacation. She also knew that Bahir had barely seen her ankles, much less the rest of her.
When they opened their bungalow doors and faced one another, Nicole had to fight to stop herself ogling him. Bahir’s stomach was just toned as she had imagined, and her desire to run her fingers along his muscles intensified tenfold. A staff person arrived with their picnic basket, and Nicole ran back to her room to grab a blanket and a towel before they headed off toward a secluded area outside of the hotel range.
Bahir gallantly offered to carry everything, but Nicole insisted on holding the blanket and towel.
“I am capable, after all. You know this better than anyone,” Nicole quipped, and Bahir frowned a little.
“Well today you are my bride, and no wife of mine will be treated as anything less than a goddess,” he said.
“Until we get back to the office, and I go back to being the servant?”
“You are far from a servant, Nicole,” Bahir replied, and Nicole laughed.
“Sure. Anyway let’s not talk of life outside the island. Let us pretend for one minute of our lives that this is what we do all the time—eat, drink and be merry by beautiful waters.”
Bahir smiled, happy to comply. “Agreed,” he said.
They approached a quiet cove and he took the blanket from her, laying it out along the sands. In the shade it was perfectly temperate, and they opened their picnic basket to see what delicacies lay inside.
There was a wide assortment of delicious cheeses and breads, cold meats, fruit, and a bottle of champagne. It was the perfect assortment for a warm island day, and Bahir pulled out the champagne and two flutes while Nicole made up a couple of plates, spreading a little of everything on each one. She jumped as the cork popped, then laughed at herself.
Bahir grinned as he tipped the glasses and poured some of the bubbly brew into each one, before handing one to Nicole. He raised his glass.
“To life,” he said, and Nicole smiled at him. It was simple enough, and for the moment, it would do.
“To life,” she agreed.
They clinked glasses and took a sip. Nicole relished the crisp taste of the beverage before taking a bite of a succulent grape. She closed her eyes, experiencing the long-forgotten sensation of relaxation. When she opened her eyes, she found Bahir watching her.
“Sorry,” she said.
He tilted his head. “Why on earth are you sorry?”
Nicole shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just a natural instinct to apologize when I get caught enjoying myself. Seems like I’m being lazy.”
Bahir frowned. “But we’re on a beach. Isn’t that where you’re supposed to be lazy?”
“I suppose, but it’s just a mentality that’s grown after years of law school and working for you. What is it that they say? No rest for the wicked?”
“You’re making me feel like I’m a terrible employer, Nicole. If you need more time for yourself, you just have to ask. I’m not that much of a tyrant.”
Nicole sighed. She hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings, but she didn’t want to be dishonest, either.
“It’s not just your busy schedule, Bahir. It’s my personality. I don’t allow myself to relax, because when I do there are consequences. If I let my guard down, if I let myself forget one little detail, that could be the one mistake that could lose me a case. You have to work hard if you want to succeed in life, and I want to succeed.”
“What would you be doing right now, if you could do anything?”
Nicole stared at him for a moment, not sure how much to give away.
She smirked. “What, is this a job interview now?”
“No, I’m just really curious. If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?”
Practice law, she thought.
Instead, she said, “Oh I don’t know. Something that involves helping others and making the world a better place. That old chestnut.”
Bahir’s gaze was penetrating. Instead of facing it, she focused on smothering a cracker with cheese and taking a bite while staring out at the crystal-clear waters. She took another sip of champagne and stood.
“It’s far too hot to keep sitting on this beach. I’m jumping in.”
“Not if I beat you to it,” Bahir countered, jumping up and sprinting toward the water.
For a moment Nicole was frozen in place as she watched her usually uptight employer run like a little boy towards the waves.
Realizing she was about to lose a race, she sprinted after him, catching up to him before his feet could touch the water. She grasped his arm, pulling him back so she could beat him to the ocean.
“I win!” she cried, triumphant.
Bahir looked shocked that she would do such a thing before his eyebrows narrowed and his expression turned impish.
“Not so fast,” he said, and she yelped as he dipped down, scooping his arms under her knees and lifting her in his strong arms. He continued plunging into the water, getting deeper and deeper until Nicole realized what he was about to do.
“Don’t you dare!” she called out, clinging to his neck for dear life as Bahir laughed. The cool water was up to his belly when he started swinging her from side to side.
“One,” he said, and Nicole met his gaze as he laughed.
“Two,” he continued, and she braced herself for what was next.
“Three!”
In that moment he released her on an outward swing, and Nicole went flying into the water. She landed bottom first, her head disappearing under the surface.
Opening her eyes, saw some colorful fish darting away from them before she broke the surface again and took a deep breath, laughing as she wiped water from her eyes.
“You, sir, are a je
rk!” she laughed, and Bahir laughed with her.
It was a rich sound; one she didn’t really hear all that often. Usually when Bahir laughed it was a controlled sound, like even his laughter had been researched and constructed for better business dealings. This laugh rang out across the water, and it made Nicole feel a joy she didn’t want to forget.
“You asked for it. Thinking you could beat the most powerful man in the world at a footrace? That was simply foolish of you.”
“If you were the most powerful man in the world, I wouldn’t have won.”
“Ah, but you didn’t win in the end. That’s simply good business. You thought you had the upper hand, but in the end, I defeated you!”
Nicole floated over to him, her expression sultry. Bahir’s laugh died in his throat as he watched her approach, her hips swaying from side to side. She gazed up at him as she pushed out her bottom lip.
“You’re right. You did get the last laugh, didn’t you?” she pouted.
Bahir swallowed, trying not to look below her eyes.
Nicole reached an arm around his neck, pulling his face towards hers. Then, without warning she moved aside and plunged his head underwater.
Bahir jerked up, coughing, and Nicole laughed again.
“Lesson number one, Mr. Al-Jabbar. Don’t mess with a Calvert when it comes to water games. I will always, always win.”
He stared at her as he brushed water out of his hair, mussing it up so it stuck up in an incredibly sexy way. Nicole didn’t want to admit that she’d almost kissed him instead of committing to her little game. That would have been a bad idea.
“Lesson understood,” Bahir chuckled. “You are a worthy adversary, Madame Calvert. Let it be known far and wide that no man or woman should mess with you on the high seas.”
Nicole tilted her head in acknowledgement of his statement, but her little grin softened the blow.
They floated in the water together for some time, chatting about this and that. After a while they headed back to the shore to continue snacking on their impromptu wedding feast, Nicole leaning back on her palms as she watched the waves gently lap against the shore.
“This is so wild,” she said after a time.
Bahir lifted an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
She turned to look into those stunning brown eyes and nearly melted on the spot. She could see now why Bahir had broken so many hearts. When he wasn’t in a suit, in business mode, he was the most attractive man she’d ever seen.
