A slow smile spread across his face. “Maybe. I’ll have a member of the staff track down a swimsuit for you. You’ll enjoy yourself. Trust me.”
The boat ride out to the small island just off the south side of Koh Samui was incredible. The water was completely clear, the depths of the ocean clearly visible as they floated over the surface of the water.
Lily found herself relaxing, even in Gage’s presence, which was a strange feeling. But the scenery was so gorgeous and the small yacht skimmed so smoothly over the small waves, that it was simply impossible to fight the effects.
Even the swimsuit, a barely there bikini held together with tiny strings, no longer had her feeling so tense. Of course, she was covered with a T-shirt and shorts, so that helped.
She’d worn a bikini once before. Something she’d purchased herself for her sixteenth birthday. Her mother’s boyfriend had seemed to think it was some sort of invitation. She felt incredibly lucky to this day that he’d been more of a jerk, rather than being outright evil. At least he’d listened when she’d said a very emphatic no. But the lingering memory of his alcohol-flavored kiss was more than enough to remind her of where men sometimes saw invitation and opportunity.
She didn’t really believe Gage would do anything like that, though. She never had. He would never need to force himself on a woman. He wouldn’t anyway. She was confident in that. But the bikini itself wasn’t the biggest worry. Without her business clothes, without that reinforcing barrier between them, she was afraid she might forget why she couldn’t give in to the attraction they both very clearly felt.
So don’t forget.
Gage steered the yacht into an alcove that was surrounded by a sheer rock face that created a natural wall of privacy around what looked like a small swimming area. The water was clear here, too. Lily could see silver flashes beneath the surface that she knew were fish.
“I can definitely see why you built a resort out here,” she said.
“I visited Thailand for the first time when I was in college. I knew I wanted to do something here then. I was just waiting for the right time.”
She sat up in the deck chair she’d been lounging on. “You built the business up by yourself?”
He nodded. “Started small, with residential homes that I fixed up. Then I found some land to subdivide and built a neighborhood, which got me off to a pretty good start. I started looking for investors after that.”
“Why resort properties then?”
“Because they’re more profitable. The industry is more stable. There’s a class of people that will always vacation no matter what.”
It sounded like her own reasoning for her job. It wasn’t as though she loved public relations more than anything. But she was good at it, and she made good money at it. It served her sense of ambition, her drive to succeed. Her need to put more and more distance between the new Lily and the Lily she’d left in Kansas.
“How about you, Lily? Did you start your business by yourself?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“No help?”
She laughed. “No one in my family would have known how to help. Actually, I don’t have all that much family. Just my mother and whatever man she’s shacked up with at any given moment.”
More than she’d intended to share. How did he do that? He had a way of making her want to bare all to him. Wanting to make him understand her, when she really should care.
“It takes a lot of drive to make your own success,” he said, looking at the island in front of them instead of at her.
“Yes, it does. Why didn’t your family help you, Gage? Your parents had money.”
“I wouldn’t take money from them. Not after what they did to Maddy.”
The glint of rage in his eyes was so intense, so feral, that if it had been directed at her, she almost would have been frightened of him. There was so much more to Gage than she’d originally assumed. Carefree playboy. Was that really how she’d seen him just a week ago? Oh, she’d always sensed a level of intensity beneath the surface, but she’d thought that was just ambition, drive for his career. It was more. A lot more.
“At least she had you,” she said softly.
There hadn’t been anyone for her. Her mother had been too caught up in the soap opera of her life, and there certainly hadn’t been an ally available in the scores of men her mother had lived with over the years.
A flash of a feeling, a strange longing, shook her. What would it be like to have someone support her? Stand by her no matter what? To have someone in her life that cared about her in the sacrificial way that Gage loved Maddy.