by Taryn Belle
Nicola slammed the door in his face.
* * *
“Hey, little brother,” Dev said to Alex as he grabbed a third beer from the poolside minibar and dropped back into his lounge chair. “I’d say I’m happy to see you cutting loose for a change, but somehow I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.” He reached for his own beer on the table between them and took a swig. “Everything okay?”
“Everything’s great,” Alex said flatly, twisting the cap off his beer and pitching it into the trash bin. “How could it not be? We’re in paradise.” He took a long drink.
“Funny thing about paradise. Your problems have an annoying way of finding their way into your suitcase.”
Alex looked at his brother in surprise. It was the first time he’d heard Dev come close to admitting that his life was anything but a hundred percent charmed a hundred percent of the time. Though common sense had always told Alex that this simply couldn’t be the case, Dev never seemed to let his perfect veneer crack. “Maybe for most people,” Alex snapped, unable to stop himself, “but apparently not for you.”
Dev turned on him. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what I said. You’ve got people to manage your life, people to deal with your shit, people to crawl up your ass and tell you it smells like roses. Don’t talk to me about problems.” Alex took a long swig of his beer. He knew he was being petulant and unfair, but he couldn’t stop himself. The booze, combined with the fact that he’d just lost the best woman he’d probably ever know in his entire life, had him in a foul mood to end all foul moods. Suiting his temper perfectly, he heard a rumble of thunder in the distance, and then the rain started to come down. But he made no move to leave his chair.
“You’re being an asshole right now,” Dev said squarely. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, no?” Alex turned on him. “And how would you know? When was the last time you asked me anything about my life? When was the last time you actually made an effort? Came to visit me—or visit Dad, for that matter? Oh, yeah—I remember. It was when you were in LA to do a show five years ago. You spent the weekend being paraded around town by Dad so he could show you off to all his friends. Probably a big drag for you, but you know what? I’d do anything to hear Dad talk about me the way he talks about you. But I’m not a fucking superstar, so no can do, Twitch,” he finished, using the nickname Dev’s fans had given him.
“Me?” Dev jumped out of his seat and stood facing Alex. “I’m sorry, but did I miss an engraved fucking invitation to your house? Because guess what—I’ve never gotten one! ‘Come and see me,’ I always say, and when do you finally accept? When you have a goddamn business meeting here—”
Alex jumped up beside him. “What did you want me to do—come here and hang out with your groupies? We’ve barely spent ten minutes alone since I got here!”
“That’s because you’ve been spending every waking moment with some chick you just met! Anything to avoid—”
“She is not some chick—”
“Whatever—”
“Fuck you!”
“Fuck you harder!”
It was something they used to say to each other when they fought as teenagers. Alex glared at his brother, and then he pitched his beer into the recycle bin and stormed away.
He had to walk, blow off some steam. The rain was really coming down now, but he barely noticed. Headed toward the cliff, he passed by the pool house. He threw it a death stare as he walked by, his body still viscerally tuned to the memory of what had gone on in there less than twenty-four hours ago. Even thinking about it made him start to stiffen—fuck—
But it wasn’t just the sex. Far from it. Nicola was the real deal, the whole package, and he’d fucked it up royally by saying exactly the wrong things to her an hour ago. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d had it all planned out in his head, so how had he messed it up so badly?
It was the sight of her tear-streaked face, the pain he knew he’d caused her...it had thrown him off. Made him think maybe he was the monster in the closet after all. That the business his family had spent thirty-five years building was all constructed around shitty ethics and other people’s suffering.
Fuck it. She was done with him—she couldn’t have made that more clear.
He turned away from the pool house resolutely and started marching toward the beach. What was done was done. He’d already lost her. There were other women in the world. Someday he’d get over Nicola and move on. He might even find someone he could be happy with. Because that was the way the real world worked—a relationship was a relationship, not some fucking fantasy.
He needed to get out of this place.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“EARTH TO NICOLA,” Kiki said, waving her hand in front of her friend’s face. “Open your menu. You need to eat something.”
Nicola tore her eyes away from the fuzzy spot in space she’d been staring into and focused on her friend’s face behind the bar. “Just some french fries,” she said, handing the menu back to Kiki.
“Since when do you eat french fries for dinner? God, you must be in a bad way.”
Nicola tugged her fingers through her hair in frustration. “I just—was I too hard on him? I mean, it wasn’t really his fault. Not directly, anyway. But...” She shook her head. “No. I have to stop this. There was a reason I broke things off with him, and just because he happens to be slamming in the sack is no reason to cut him slack.”
“Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out, then,” Kiki said, filling a wineglass.
“I do.”
“Good. Then it won’t bother you that Alex just walked into the bar.”
Nicola’s heart slammed in her chest. “Seriously?”
“Nope. But you should have seen your face. What went through your head when I said that?”
Nicola sagged down in her chair. “I don’t know. I mean, what’s the difference? He’s leaving in a few days. I haven’t heard from him since earlier today—”
“Nicola, you slammed the door in the man’s face. That’s a pretty final statement. In case you haven’t heard, guys have this really fragile thing called an ego. Otherwise known as pride. What’s he going to do, call you so you can shut him down again?”
Nicola sighed deeply. Her friend was right, of course, just as she always was. And she was sick of talking in endless circles. She glanced around the bar. “It’s packed in here tonight.”
“It’s the weather,” Kiki said, gesturing outside to the rain pounding down on the darkened beach. “It keeps them trapped in here.”
“Guess this means the power’s not going to be back on anytime soon,” Nicola commented. “It’s taking forever for them to fix the cell tower.”
Kiki shrugged. “I don’t think it’s so bad. We’re too attached to our screens as a society.”
Nicola blinked at her. “Can you please send my friend back? What the hell was that about?”
“Well...” Kiki gave her a sly smile and leaned in close to her. “This whole power outage thing is kind of working to my advantage. You see, I happen to know that a Mr. Dev Stone has his own tech setup. Someone like him can’t afford to be out of touch with the world for a day.”
Nicola’s brow furrowed. “Happen to know? How did you come across that tidbit?”
“He may have given me a private tour of his home at the party. Including his studio—which, I might add, is completely soundproof.” Kiki’s eyes were dancing.
Nicola groaned. “Oh, no. Tell me you didn’t. That’s Alex’s brother.”
“Or Alex is Dev’s brother—depends how you look at it. The point is, he said he’d be happy to let me use his connection whenever I need to, uh...check my email.”
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Nicola couldn’t help but grin. “Okay. So I tak
e it you had a good time?”
“Only the time of my life,” Kiki said dreamily. “Details upon request.”
“I’ll pass, thanks. But I’m happy for you. Just...protect your heart. Among other things. I don’t think Dev’s exactly a saint.”
“I’m well aware. Don’t worry—I’m in it for a good time, not a long time. Speaking of which, I think I’ll drop by his house after work. ‘Oh, please, Mr. Stone,’” Kiki said, clutching her bar mop to her chest as she reverted to the long-ago-ditched Southern drawl of her childhood. “‘Won’t you help a distressed damsel in search of a little long-lost internet?’” She batted her eyelashes as Nicola shook her head.
“You’re hopeless.”
“No, I’m horny.” Kiki laughed, sliding Nicola’s plate of fries across the bar to her. Nicola looked down at them like they were an unpleasant chore to be gotten through. Despite doing three rigorous dives this morning, she still had no appetite—which irked her no end.
“Don’t turn around,” Kiki said under her breath as Nicola squirted ketchup onto her plate.
“What?” Nicola said, automatically looking over her shoulder toward the tables near the water.
“I said—” Kiki covered her face and shook her head. “Too late.”
Scanning through the crowd of people standing behind her, Nicola picked out the back of a lone dark-haired man sitting at a table near the pier.
Alex. Oh, my God.
She quickly turned around again. “Has he been sitting there the whole time?”
“I think so. He just turned his head to the side and I saw that it was him.”
“Do you think he noticed us?”
“I doubt it. Your backs are to each other.” Kiki punched her iPad and brought his order up. “Table two. Looks like he’s on round number three. Drowning his sorrows, no doubt.”
Nicola set the ketchup bottle down and lifted her napkin onto the table. “You know what? I’m really not hungry. And I’m not up for this. I think I’m just going to—”
“Run away?” Kiki finished for her with a raised eyebrow.
Nicola glared at her. “Leaving a bar does not qualify as running away.”
“Actually, it does. You’re avoiding instead of facing. I get it—it’s your go-to response. We all have them. Me, I try to make light of things and get a laugh or two out of people, even when it’s not appropriate to the situation. You have challenges with impulse control.”
“Thanks for the therapy session,” Nicola snapped, snatching her handbag from the back of her chair. She stood up—and ran directly into Alex.
She blinked at him in surprise, trying to gather her wits about her. He looked amazing, of course. His skin appeared more tanned than it had just hours ago—which was unlikely, considering they’d only had a few spots of sun today—and his aqua eyes stood out in sharp focus. A white cotton shirt showed off his masculine arms and hands, the same hands that had caressed her entire body and then—
No.
“Alex.” She nodded curtly.
“Hi, Nicola. I took a trip to the bathroom to see if it was really you.”
His honesty was disarming, but he should have tried earlier. “Yep, it’s me. Just on my way out.” She brushed past him and headed for the door, wondering if he would follow her. Did she hope he would or wouldn’t? Both. Neither.
She was at the entrance when he caught up to her. “Nicola. Can we talk? Please?”
She headed out into the rain, walking toward the parking lot. “About what?”
“Everything. I was in such a state today—I didn’t know how to react. I wasn’t able to do the most important thing of all, which is to just be honest and speak from the heart.”
Nicola finally stopped walking. She crossed her arms and stared straight ahead, her body angled away from his. “Then say your piece.”
“Thank you.” Alex gestured at the people passing by them on either side. “We’re in the middle of a walkway and it’s pouring rain. Any chance we could go somewhere a tad more dry and private?”
Nicola shot him a sharp look. “Not a good idea.”
All the same, she walked back toward the bar to seek shelter in the entrance. Alex followed, stopping directly in front of her. He stood a respectable distance away. He didn’t try to touch her. But his eyes rested on her as if they were caressing her very soul. “I am so sorry for what happened to you. And I stand by what I said earlier—that I won’t accept direct responsibility for it. But—” He raised a hand as her face began to darken. “What I’ve realized is that that doesn’t matter. As head of the company—any company—it should be my responsibility to make sure we are acting ethically in every possible way. I can’t be the owner of a chain of clothing stores in Kentucky and say I didn’t know the clothes were being sewn by children in Bangladesh. It doesn’t fly. When I get home, I’m going to talk to my father about selling off Celebrity Life.”
Nicola held his gaze.
“Before I took over Echelon, I ran an import business. I loved it, and you know why? The best part of it was flying around the world visiting the factories that the goods I bought were made in. It was extremely important to both my partner and me that the conditions be good and the local laws followed. But somehow when I took over Echelon, that passion didn’t transfer over. I guess—I guess I just didn’t care as much. It was my family’s business, not mine, and even though I tried to get excited about it, that just never happened.”
Nicola shrugged. “So why don’t you quit?”
Alex shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”
“Sure it is. Life is short. You don’t like something, you change it.”
“That’s a very simplistic way of looking at things.”
Nicola threw her hands up. “It’s the only way of looking at things!”
“Oh?” Alex said. “Then why are you hiding out on some island longing for your old career?”
“That’s different!” she responded testily. “You know my situation!”
Alex sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Look, I don’t want to argue anymore, okay? Bottom line is that my father needs me, and I’m willing to admit that may have clouded my ethics a bit. I just... I want to make him proud, that’s all.”
Nicola allowed him a brief nod. He was right—she had no idea what it was like to be in his shoes, what it was to have family expectations to live up to, and she had no right to judge.
“Anyway...” Alex went on, fixing his eyes on hers. “I passed the buck. Just like you said I did. Of course I knew celebrity news could be harmful to the people it hounded, but I guess I assumed that if you decide to pursue fame, you just take the lumps that come with it.”
Nicola lifted her chin. “And does your brother feel the same way?”
Alex looked slightly taken aback, but he said, “I doubt my brother even knows which programs we own. He doesn’t pay much attention to anyone in our family but himself.”
“Maybe you should double-check that with him. It sounds like you make an awful lot of assumptions about how bad your relationship is.”
“It is bad, trust me. But that’s neither here nor there.” Alex took a deep breath, puffing his cheeks out. Then he took Nicola gently by the arm and steered her outside. The rain had slowed to a soft patter.
“What are you—”
“I need to say something to you, and I’m not going to do it around a bunch of people who suddenly seem very interested in what we’re talking about.”
Nicola glanced over her shoulder. It was true—a small, loose crowd had formed at the entrance, clearly only pretending not to eavesdrop. She couldn’t stifle a small giggle. Who would have thought their conversation would be interesting among such a population?
Alex pulled Nicola around the side of the building until they were out of earshot of the loiterers. Then she backed up aga
inst the wood siding and waited. It was dark back here, but the light from the bar was bright enough to show Alex’s features.
“Here’s what I want to say,” Alex said, gazing into her eyes. “That whatever happened to bring you here, I am sorry for. But whatever happened to bring me here, I’m not. Because I got to meet you. I got to spend three of the best days of my entire life with the most incredible woman I’ve ever met.”
Nicola squirmed. “Alex—”
“I’m not finished. I want you to forgive me—of course I do—and I want to spend more time with you. I want you to give me another chance. But I also want to thank you for helping me learn a valuable lesson.”
“Um.” She cleared her throat. “You’re welcome.”
Nicola felt her insides melting. Her resolve to hate him was flattened, and now it was all she could do not to grab him and kiss him. But for what? So they could have a few more nights together, and then she could go back to her little life here while Alex returned to a job that helped exploit people’s weaknesses? So he’d sell off Celebrity Life—it was probably only one of several questionable assets that Echelon held.
But none of that changed what was in her heart. Yes, her heart—not just her underwear. She wanted him. Badly. And giving in to her desire was a terrible idea.
Nicola crossed her arms over her chest as a last line of defense. “You’re forgiven, all right? But I still think it’s best if we go our separate ways.” Despite her best efforts, her voice came out weak.
“Okay,” Alex said simply, making no move to leave.
“All right, then,” Nicola confirmed with a nod.
Alex stood looking at her for a moment longer, and then he stepped a little closer. The dim light still caught the shine of his hair, the perfect angle of his lips. “I’ll go as soon as you tell me one thing.”
“Okay,” Nicola replied uncertainly. The suntan lotion and aftershave scent of his skin was making her crazy.
“Do you remember what happened last time we left Pablo’s?” he asked.
Nicola looked away. “How could I forget?”
