She winced at the sound of her ex’s name. Jonathan Hare had once been the best thing that ever happened to her. Or so she’d thought. Smart, charming and wealthy, when he’d picked her to marry, she’d felt like Cinderella.
But that spell had been shattered when he’d also picked a half dozen secretaries and yoga instructors to sleep with.
“Is this where you tell me I just need to relax and get laid?”
Karen shrugged. “This is where I tell you the world won’t implode if you let yourself take a few risks. I get it. Being burned makes us all gun-shy. But Hayden might be the right sort of temporary fix to get your life back on track.”
She stared out at the tropical view stretching beneath them. “It’s hard to want temporary when you’ve been a part of something real.”
Karen put a hand on her shoulder. “All I’m saying is no one is flying thousands of miles for me. These sorts of chances are kind of a once-in-a-lifetime deal.”
So is marriage. Or at least, it’s supposed to be.
A shudder went through her. It’d been two years, and Jon was still influencing her life. When would she be free of him?
A knock on the door was a welcome distraction from her thoughts.
Karen crossed the room to answer the summons. The pretty receptionist waited on the other side of the door.
“Hello,” Avery said, moving forward.
“Ms. Clarke, I’ve got a message for you,” the woman said, holding out a note. “Both you and Ms. Evans are invited to dinner this evening.”
Avery accepted the note and flipped it open.
My daily update and a chance to examine our most popular chef. Two birds, one stone.
Feel free to bring Karen if you don’t trust yourself. —HW
She clenched her fist, crumpling the white paper.
“Tell Mr. Wexton we’ll be there. The dining is on our list of amenities to review.”
“Perfect,” the receptionist said. “You have a patio reservation at seven o’clock tonight.”
“Thank you.”
Inclining her head, the woman left the room.
“Dinner with the boss,” Karen said. “Or rather dinner with your complicated one-night stand. There is no good way to spin this. I’m in for a long evening.”
“If you try to wiggle out of it, you’re fired.”
Karen laughed. “Hey, work is work. I’ll go do some background research on the chef. Maybe quality is slipping in the food as well.”
“Good thinking. I’ll track down some of these old employees while you get started on that.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Karen grabbed an armful of papers and tossed her a smile before leaving the room. “See you at seven.”
Alone, Avery sank into one of the chairs at the table. She should be excited to start digging into the problems at this hotel.
But instead, her mind was occupied with a very different puzzle.
Hayden—and how on earth she’d resist him for weeks.
…
Hayden swirled his glass, watching the amber liquid coat the sides of the tumbler. It really had been too long since he was last here. He might make excuses, saying there were other locations that needed more of his attention, but the truth was palm trees didn’t have the same relaxing effect on him that they did on others.
No, the sound of the ocean and the spray of the surf reminded him of something far darker.
The memory of laughing blue eyes and bouncing blond hair filled his head. He rubbed his fingers together, nearly feeling the silken locks curl around his skin. Sophia had loved the beach. He’d lost track of the number of times she’d asked him to whisk her off to somewhere warm and exotic. He’d sat on patios much like this one, thinking he was the luckiest man in the world.
That man was a romantic fool. Naive. Blind. Young.
Too young.
It’d taken a broken heart and a shattered life for him to learn nothing ever lasts.
But tonight was different. He wasn’t sitting here with stars in his eyes thinking love waited around every corner. No, he’d grown up and seen love for what it really was.
Weakness.
And if there was one thing he knew to be true, it was that he’d never let himself be weak again. He’d learned his lesson.
Which was why when he spotted Avery walking down the steps to the restaurant, his increased heart beat was due to lust, nothing else.
Breathtaking. The word drifted through his head. She truly was. He couldn’t remember why he’d never noticed her in the past. It was a mistake he wouldn’t make again.
She smiled at Karen, clearly unaware of his presence.
The smaller blonde at her side was lovely in her own right, but in Hayden’s eyes, there was no competing with his lover.
Avery had allowed her curly brown hair to flow freely. A sea-colored sundress hugged her curves, molding against her legs in the warm ocean breeze. It left little to the imagination, not that he needed fantasy to fill in the blanks. All he had to do was close his eyes to recall the sight of her naked body stretched out beside his. Unlike the model girlfriends of his past, who always seemed to survive on salad and air, Avery was very real. Silicone didn’t hold her breasts in place, and endless hours of exercise didn’t tone her limbs. Instead, she curved in places the models didn’t, and he found it maddeningly attractive. Nothing about her was pretense, and in the world he lived in, that was a rare thing to find.