She wrapped herself tightly in her blanket and curled her knees up to her chest, trying to stop the ache that was pounding inside of her. The ache that was turning into a shocking feeling of emptiness that her body seemed to think only Gage could fill.
CHAPTER SIX
BREAKFAST with the board was an event. They were businessmen, so they weren’t seeking public displays of affection at least, but they did want to know how the scandal with Maddy was going to affect the bottom line.
“Not at all,” Lily insisted. “The incident with Maddy barely made a dent in the international media. William Callahan isn’t famous worldwide. And we’re going to make sure we publicize the Forrester Wildlife Preserve that Gage established here on Koh Samui.”
“The cynical might argue that I set aside all of that land to keep my competition out,” Gage said when the members of the board had left the table, off to a golf game Gage had arranged for them.
“Yes, the cynical might,” she said. “But your motives aren’t important.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“In this context, yes, I do. As far as life application goes, of course motivation matters. But this is for a sound bite, a press release. They can speculate about your motives all they like, but the important thing is that you did it. At least that’s how those concerned about environmental impact will see it.”
“Interested in sightseeing today?”
She raised her eyebrows. “Don’t we have paperwork to file, or something?”
“Not today. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the island. The main focus of this resort is simply bringing people into the natural beauty of Thailand. That’s why, at my resort, I haven’t made a golf course and built bars along the beach. It would be good PR if you were familiar with the place.”
She sighed. “Using my job title against me. Shameless.”
He looked at her. “I can be.”
Silence, the thick tense kind, settled between them again. Lily licked her suddenly dry lips, and his eyes dropped, following the movement. A rush of pure feminine pride raced through her. That she could affect a man like Gage was nothing short of incredible. She had no experience at all and he had likely slept his way through the phone book.
But she wasn’t imagining it. He was feeling it too. The insistent beat pounding inside of her, demanding satisfaction.
She looked away and tried to steady her breathing, tried to think logically. They were adults, and that meant there was only one place an attraction like this would end if it was acted on. And that was in bed. All fine for most people, but she had less experience than most teenagers, and Gage was a thirty-seven-year-old man with years of experience. It was an incongruous, insane combination.
“Bring a swimsuit,” he said finally, breaking the tension between them. Most of it anyway.
“I don’t have one.”
He frowned. “You didn’t bring a swimsuit to an island?”
“It’s a business trip.”
He lowered his voice, his blue eyes intense. “I think it’s a little more than that.”
She shook her head. “No. Don’t say that. Don’t talk about it.”
“Because if we don’t talk about it we don’t feel it?”
“Because it’s stupid. We work together.” She didn’t even pretend to be ignorant of what he meant. What would the point of that be?
No matter how much she wanted to deny it there was an attraction between them. An attraction that, if she was honest, had been there, smoldering since that very first interview, the one that had not resulted in her being hired. Which was why, even though she’d been put out that he’d chosen someone else, she’d been relieved that she wouldn’t be the one who had to work with him every day. Because he’d affected her in ways no other man had, and it wasn’t something she’d been prepared to deal with. She still wasn’t, she just didn’t have a choice now, since she was stuck in a foreign country with the man, pretending to be his fiancée.
“I don’t swim, actually,” she said, the thought of being that exposed making her feel jittery. It was less a matter of revealing her body, and more a matter of losing her image, her business suits and killer shoes, which always helped her amp up her confidence.
He arched an eyebrow. “You don’t know how to swim or you don’t swim?”
“Is there a difference?”
“A pretty big one. The difference between whether or not I have to jump in and save you if you fall overboard.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Okay, I know how, I just don’t.” Not in front of him anyway. “And anyway, if I fell overboard, you know you would jump in after me.”