Chapter Sixteen
Molly
It happened as unexpectedly as that first kiss. One second he was staring at me with some unrecognizable emotion flitting through his eyes, and the next his lips had descended on mine, and he was kissing me passionately.
There was no lead up to the kiss, no caution in the way he approached me. There was no subtlety or hesitation. There was no build up and no anticipation. It happened all at once.
I could feel his hands on my body; his lips pushed hard against mine. I could hear the grappling of his breath mixed in with mine. I could feel his tongue, warm and sweet with the taste of eggnog and rum, against my mouth.
This kiss was much like the first one: bold, hard, passionate, and intoxicating, but everything was heightened somehow. It was as though the six years between our first kiss and this one had made everything come into living color.
I could feel my heart pounding against my chest, I could feel goosebumps prickle my skin, and I felt almost as though I could hear Tristan’s heartbeat, too. My body was alive with need and desire, and I could sense that he was battling with the same untenable emotions.
When we broke apart, we were both panting deeply, as though we had just taken part in a hundred-mile sprint. My lips felt sore and raw, and Tristan was looking at me intensely. I thought I saw a conflict in his eyes, but couldn’t be sure. I wasn’t about to let this moment pass. I wouldn’t allow him to simply walk away from me now—not after all this time, not like he did the last time.
I took his hand and pulled him along to my suite. Surprisingly, he came without a fight. I could sense a little shock mixed in between us. We were both shocked at what had just happened, and now that it had happened, it almost felt like it had been inevitable.
Tristan followed me inside. We walked to my bedroom together. I didn’t bother turning on the lights because I had left the blinds open and the light from the sky and the ocean flooded the room and bathed it in romantic blue light. When I turned around to face Tristan, he was looking at me with an unreadable expression on his face.
We stared at each other for a moment.
“I shouldn’t be here,” he said slowly, breaking the hypnotic silence.
“Then why did you come?” I asked, challengingly.
He looked down for a moment. “Because I’m weak.”
“You’re a fool,” I whispered. “This moment is six years in the making.”
He seemed to agree because he took a step towards me. Then he stopped abruptly, as though shocked by his own presumption.
I could taste every single daydream I had ever had about Tristan. They were separate little jewels that I’d held close to heart in all those years of absence. Was it possible to fall in love at first sight? I wondered. It certainly seemed like that had been the case for me.
I didn’t care to decipher what it all meant, however. For now, I just wanted to be with Tristan. I wanted to put aside the daydreams and experience the real thing. I wanted to have something real to hold onto if I ever found myself on my own again.
I reached behind to the back of my dress and undid my zipper. Then slowly and deliberately, I pulled the dress down off my shoulders and pushed it down from my waist until I was standing before him in nothing but my black lace bra and panties. His eyes caressed my body, looking over every curve and every line as though he were an artist studying his canvas. I reached up to unhook my bra.
“Don’t,” Tristan said, and my hand froze over the hook.
For a second, I thought he was going to hand me my dress and walk away. But instead, he approached me slowly until his face was only inches from mine. Then he put his arms around me and unhooked my bra himself.
He pulled it off and gazed down at my breasts. One hand reached out tentatively, and he cupped my right breast in his hand before circling the nipple. I felt a moan on my lips, but I suppressed it.
He pulled me towards him so that my breasts were pressed up against his chest. Then he started kissing me again as his hands snaked down my body. As the kiss grew deeper and more desperate, I felt Tristan hook a finger around the thin strap of my underwear and yank it hard, pulling it free from my skin. Moisture pooled between my legs at the gesture, and my knees went weak.
We fell back onto my bed, with Tristan lying on top of me. His weight was comforting as I clung to him, wondering what it would feel like when he was inside me. He seemed to be thinking the same thing because he started stripping.
I reached up and helped him pull his shirt off. Once his pants were off, I could feel how hard he was already. I reached down and encircled his cock with my hand. He gave a little sigh, and I squeezed a little harder. I saw his mouth turn into a circle of pleasure, so I started moving my hand up and down the length of him.
His cock was so huge that had he been any other man, I might have been a little scared. Had he been anyone else, I might have thought twice about this.
But I was past feeling scared or nervous or worried. I was past self-consciousness and awkwardness. This was no daydream, and I didn’t want to waste this moment by getting inside my own head.
I could feel his hands between my legs, getting me ready and I started to feel the confession rise to my lips. No, I thought, I can’t tell him. But my thoughts could not be quelled. I knew I had to tell him if I wanted to continue.
He was breathing deeply. His hands were raking over my body, and his lips were on my neck, my breasts, and my stomach. I could sense the urgency of his desire and knew he was ready to enter me. I could just feel the tip of his penis between my legs when I blurted out the secret I had held close to heart since my adolescence.
“I’m a virgin.”
I knew he hadn’t heard me. He was too turned on, too intoxicated by the moment, but I needed him to know before it happened. I didn’t know why it was important to me, it just was.
“Tristan,” I whispered again, and this time he looked up at me.
“Yes?” His voice was gravelly.
“I’m a virgin.”
His expression didn’t change, but I thought I noticed a flicker of something in his eyes. “That…can’t be,” he said at last.
“It’s true,” I confirmed.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to know,” I said simply. “I wanted to be truthful.”
“Should we be doing this?” he asked. I could feel his body tremble against mine.
“Yes,” I said, with certainty. “We should.”
“But—”
“I want you,” I said. “Do you want me?”
“Yes,” he said, and his voice trembled with desire.
“Then that’s all that matters,” I insisted. “I want you inside me. I want you inside me now.”
He hesitated for only a second before pushing himself inside me. I gasped out loud, clinging to his body to try to tame the torrent of emotions that assaulted my body. I had never experienced anything quite so powerful. I could feel beautiful emotions, but just underneath there was a tiny web of pain that interweaved through the desire. After only a few seconds, however, it passed and was replaced by a new wave of need.
I could feel his cock inside me, pushing deep in before pulling back out again. If I had been scared that he was too big, all my fear turned to delight when I realized I could handle it. Not only could I handle it, it was the most satisfying feeling I had ever experienced.
Tristan moved slowly at first, giving me time to adjust to all the new feelings being catapulted at me. And then suddenly, almost without warning, he started pumping me hard until my whole body was shaking and grating against the sheets.
And after several minutes, I started to notice a strange build up. I started feeling everything more intensely; I started becoming aware of new things. There were layers of different sensations, and they started piling on top of one another. There was ecstasy, satisfaction, comfort, harmony, desire, passion, and carnal need. I had never felt so alive, nor had I ever felt so connected to my body.
From the simplest form of pleasure, which was the feel of his naked skin against mine, to the most complex, which was beyond me to even try and explain, I could feel the layers of pleasure start to unfold. So this was what people craved… This hopeless, intoxicating, animalistic culmination of sexual pleasure.
As the orgasm hit me, I kept seeing images of the ocean in my head. Perhaps it was where we were, perhaps it was just the natural association in my head, but I just kept seeing waves that reached the sky, crashing against the shores that never ended.
As Tristan relaxed onto my body afterward, I kissed his neck and licked the tiny droplets of sweat off his skin with my tongue. His body shuddered at my touch, but I continued until he was grabbing me and pressing me as close to him as it was possible to get. We lay next to each other and stared into one another’s eyes for what seemed like an eternity. He didn’t speak, and I didn’t either. There was nothing we could have said at the moment that would have eclipsed what had just happened between us.
So we lay there on our sides, facing one another, memorizing each other’s faces and trying to freeze the moment and commit it to memory so that we would never lose it to time. From time to time, Tristan would reach out and touch my face gently. His expression was unreadable, but I didn’t trouble myself with what he might be thinking.
Keep this night perfect, I told myself, and deal with tomorrow’s problems tomorrow. Once our bodies had cooled down, I started feeling new desire replaced the old. I moved closer to him and placed my hand around his cock. I massaged him until he was hard again, and then we fucked once more.
It was different the second time around. It was more than just carnal desire. It was more than just physical lust. It was validation. It was hope. It was the dream I’d been chasing since I was fourteen.
Chapter Seventeen
Tristan
Molly was still sleeping when I snuck out of bed. I tiptoed around the bed where my clothes were lying in a scattered heap on the floor. I dressed quickly, hoping she wouldn’t wake up and catch me. The moment I had my pants on, I decided to slip out into the living room and finish dressing in there, but I found myself pausing over Molly’s sleeping form.
She was lying on her stomach with her face pressed to the side. The sheets were draped over the lower half of her body so that I could see the smooth curve of her back. Golden curls snaked across her naked skin and half of the pillow, and the part of her face that I could see looked peaceful and content. I resisted the urge to touch her. As lovely as she looked, I knew that the magic of the night before had been replaced by cold, hard reality.
I tiptoed out and finished dressing in the living room. I knew I shouldn’t be leaving like this, Molly deserved better, but I didn’t want to have to face a conversation. She would want to know where we stood, and I had no idea what to tell her. My life was fast-paced, my job was demanding, and I didn’t know when I would have the time to devote to her. I tried not to think about Jason as I slipped out of the suite.
I decided to head straight to my office in an attempt to distract myself with work. But somehow, I knew that no matter how busy I got, I would have a hard time avoiding thinking about Molly and what had happened between us last night.
I remembered more than I had expected to after drinking so much. I remembered how she had stood before me, proud and intoxicatingly feminine as she had undressed without any sense of self-consciousness. I remembered the way her mouth had tasted when I kissed her. I remembered the way it had felt to have her naked body pressed against mine. I remembered the moment she had told me her secret.
“Fuck,” I whispered under my breath.
I should have stopped it then. But the alcohol had put my better judgment on hold. That and the fact that I was already horny and too turned on to have stopped myself at that point. When I walked into my office, Ben was already there, leafing through files that had been piled high on top of my desk.
“Morning,” I said brusquely.
“Morning,” he replied. “You look like you need a cup of coffee.”
I ignored that and sat down behind my desk. “What have you got for me?”
“A couple of disputes that need settling.”
“Fuck. Who is it this time?”
“Tycho and Chan.”
“They have separate fucking kitchens,” I complained. “What is there to fight about?”
“Something to do with the produce man,” Ben explained. “Apparently, they both ordered the same ingredients, and now they’re fighting over who gets what.”
I groaned. “Can’t you handle it?”
“They want to speak to you,” he said with a shrug.
“Tell them I told you to handle it.”
“Don’t you think I’ve already done that?” he asked. “I’m not the boss, and they know that.”
“Don’t we have someone specific who can handle this?”
“You still haven’t hired a human resources manager yet,” he told me.
“Fuck,” I said, remembering that I had all but promised the job to Molly. I put my head in my hands and cursed at my own short-sighted behavior. “This morning sucks,” I complained.
“Does your bad mood have something to do with the fact that you’re wearing the same clothes from last night?”
I looked down at my untucked white shirt and my blue suit. “Maybe,” I admitted at last.
I looked up at Ben, contemplating how much to tell him. He was my assistant, and even though I considered him a friend, our friendship didn’t really extend to personal conversations about our lives. It was strictly business. But I was realizing that I didn’t have very many people I could talk to.
Jason was definitely off limits in this particular situation and given Gregory’s history with Molly, I didn’t want to go to him, either.
“Have you ever slept with a virgin?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
Ben’s eyebrows rose high on his forehead. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” I said, unwilling to repeat myself.
“Uh…sure,” he nodded after a moment. “Except that I was a virgin, too, and we were seventeen.”
I sighed. “It hasn’t happened recently then?”
Ben looked a little concerned. “Please don’t tell me you slept with a minor?”
“What? Of course not,” I said quickly. “She’s an adult who happens to be a virgin.”
“How much of an adult?” he asked curiously.
“Twenty-four.”
He looked surprised. “Huh… I didn’t expect that. Molly looks like she’s had experience.”
“What makes you think I’m talking about Molly?”
“Your defensiveness,” Ben smirked. “That and the fact that I saw you follow her out of the party last night.”
“Fuck.”
“Had a good time?”
“Shut up,” I said childishly.
“I knew it was only a matter of time.”
“This is serious,” I snapped. “She’s my best friend’s sister and a virgin, besides.”
“Why is that such a big problem?” he asked.
“Because… What if she gets attached?” I said, feeling like a complete asshole.
“And that would be bad because…”
“I don’t have time for a relationship right now,” I said firmly. “I don’t have time for a woman—any woman—even Molly.”
“Then you better tell her that.”
“After I’ve slept with her?”
He shrugged. “What choice do you have?”
“I promised her a job, too,” I groaned, hitting my head with the palm of my hand.
“What?” he asked incredulously.
“The human resources job,” I said. “That was Molly’s position before she was laid off, and she was really good at her job. I offered her the post here if she liked Hawaii enough to stay. I mentioned it to Jason, as well.”
“You knew all this, and you slept with her, anyway?” I could sense the judgment in Ben’s tone.
“Give me a break, okay?” I said, knowing I deserved the condescension. “I was drunk.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You weren’t that drunk.”
“Drunk enough,” I said, trying to justify my poor decision making.
“I’m sure Molly will take that excuse well,” Ben said sarcastically.
I sighed. “I should have just stayed away from her,” I groaned. “Why didn’t I just walk away when I saw her last night?”
“Can I ask you a personal question?”
“We’re past the point of personal now, man,” I pointed out. “What’s the question?”
“How do you feel about Molly?” Ben asked curiously.
I paused for a moment. “She’s… Well… I like her. I’ve always liked Molly.”
“That doesn’t say very much,” he said. “I’m asking you what your feelings towards her are?”
I sat back in my chair, feeling a headache come on. It felt like there was a throbbing at the back of my head. “It’s complicated,” I said at last. “I’ve known Molly since I was eighteen and she was fourteen. In some ways, I’ve watched her grow up.”
“She’s not fourteen anymore,” Ben pointed out. “Why are you so hung up on the girl she used to be?”
“It’s not that,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s me… I’m not sure I’m the kind of guy who can commit to one woman. And even if I could, I have no idea how I’d be in a relationship. I’m more likely to ignore her after the first few months. I just don’t want to attempt something I know I’m not going to be good at…not with Molly.”
“So you’re trying to protect her from yourself?”
“Yes,” I said. “She’s special, and I don’t want to hurt her. And not just because of Jason. Because she’s a good person, she’s a kind person, and she deserves to be happy.”
Ben looked at me carefully for a while. “I feel like there’s history between you two.”
I bit my lip. “I wouldn’t call it history,” I clarified. “But we did kiss one night six years ago.”
“And, have you thought about that kiss in the past six years?”
“More often than you would believe,” I admitted.
He raised an eyebrow. “I think that means something.”
“It means I’ve idealized the whole thing,” I said. “That kiss was a mistake, just like last night was a mistake.”
“You’re saying it wasn’t any good?”
“Please,” I scoffed. “The sex was amazing…probably the best sex I’ve ever had, actually. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m saying that crossing that line with Molly was a mistake. We should have just stayed friends.”
“I wasn’t aware you were friends with Molly.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on,” he laughed. “She’s been here more than two weeks, and you’ve barely spoken to her. You haven’t even had a meal with her. Apart from that one conversation the day she arrived, when did you make the attempt to welcome her to your resort?”
“I was busy,” I said.
“Wouldn’t you have carved out the time for Jason?”
“Yes…”
“But not for Molly?”
“Molly’s different,” I said lamely.
“Molly’s different because you want to sleep with her,” he said bluntly. “Which is not a problem you face with Jason.”
I wanted to deny it, but even I couldn’t make myself lie that blatantly. “If you have a point, I suggest you get to it fast.”
“You’ve been wanting to sleep with Molly for years,” Ben said. “Probably since that first kiss, probably since before that kiss. When she showed up here, older and more confident, you were immediately attracted to her, so you decided to keep your distance. Except you didn’t do a great job of staying away from her. So you finally slept with her after years of thinking about it. I guess my question is, is the interest in Molly gone now? Was she just an itch that needed to be scratched?”
I had never considered that before. I thought about it, but my mind couldn’t seem to settle. Was that the real reason I had snuck out of Molly’s suite this morning? Was protecting her just an excuse, or was it the more convenient way out? At this moment, I wasn’t quite sure.
“Have you ever been in love?” I asked abruptly.
“Once,” Ben replied promptly.
“And did you know right away?”
“Of course not,” he replied. “Sometimes it’s not as simple as just looking at someone and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that you love them. Sometimes it creeps up on you. Sometimes it takes you years to figure out. I was in my senior year of college when I realized I was in love with my best friend. We had known each other since high school.”
“Did you tell her how you felt?”
“I told him,” Ben nodded.
I raised my eyebrows. “I’m sorry, you’re gay?”
He smiled wryly. “Have been all my life,” he nodded.
“Fuck, how did I not know that?” I said. “You’ve been my assistant for years now.”
“You miss a lot when your only focus is work,” he said. “And, you’ve never cared to ask me about my life before now.”
I shook my head and sighed. “You’re right,” I nodded, feeling ashamed of myself. I had been so focused on being successful that I had forgotten about all the relationships I was sacrificing along the way, with friends and with women. “But I’m interested now. Tell me.”
“I told Eric, he freaked out, and we haven’t spoken since,” Ben said without emotion.
“Fuck,” I said. “And that was it? Your friendship was done, just like that?”
“Just like that,” he nodded. “Luckily, I started working for you almost immediately after and never slowed down long enough to feel sad about it. By the time I gave myself a little room to slow down and resurface for air, a few years had passed, and it didn’t hurt quite so bad.”
“You buried yourself in work to escape the pain of your personal life?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “Which is why you’ve always surprised me.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ve sacrificed your life without ever really experiencing it in the first place,” Ben explained. “You’ve never had a real relationship or a steady girlfriend. How will you ever know if you can commit if you’ve never tried?”
“I know myself,” I replied.
Ben smiled and shook his head at me. “I’ve spent more time with you over the last few years than anyone else, Tristan. And trust me when I tell you, you don’t know yourself as well as you think you do.”
Chapter Eighteen
Molly
I was staring out at my spectacular view, but I couldn’t concentrate on anything other than what had happened between Tristan and me last night. It wasn’t last night that was bothering me, though. It was the fact that he had snuck out this morning without so much as a goodbye.
I turned around and walked back into the living room. I had wanted to go for a swim this morning, but I couldn’t seem to face the idea of planning anything at the moment. I went to my own personal walk-in closet and swapped out the slip nightie that I had put on for a pair of jeans and a simple long-sleeved t-shirt. I went back into the room and was hit with a torrent of memories from the night before.
For me, it had been a perfect first time. It had been everything to me, and my joy was now clouded over by Tristan’s disappearance this morning. Somehow, when we had been in the throes of lovemaking, I had convinced myself that he felt as strongly as I did. I had felt certain that he had simply been fighting this attraction for years, just like I had.
It had all made sense last night. It had all seemed simple.
In reality, I had no idea where Tristan stood. Was he going to address what had happened between us, or was he just going to pretend that nothing had happened?
I flashed back to six years ago. It had been the night after the kiss, and I had waited expectantly the next morning to see Tristan. But he hadn’t even acknowledged it. He had given me a cursory smile and then looked through me for the rest of the morning until he had left with Jason. I didn’t see him for six years after that.
I was determined not to let that happen again. I wanted to talk about it this time. I wanted to know where he stood, even if it wasn’t what I wanted to hear from him. I left my room, but realized when I was in the lobby that I had no idea where to go to find Tristan. I wasn’t even sure which suite was his. I changed direction and headed for the lounge where I knew Alani was on duty.
She was talking to a few guests, so I hung back until she had spotted me. When she was free, she walked over with a smile. “Hello, there,” she greeted. “Do you have something you need to tell me?”
I frowned. “Um… What?”
“Last night,” she said, wagging her eyebrows at me.
“I don’t—”
“Don’t act coy,” she said impatiently. “I saw Tristan follow you out of the party.”
“Oh,” I said. “That.”
Her face fell immediately. “Did nothing happen between you then? I was so sure that things were going well last night. Tristan looked mesmerized by you. He couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
“Apparently, sex does a good job of taking a man’s focus away from you after the fact,” I said bitterly.
Alani looked at me in surprise. “You slept together.”
“Twice,” I said. “But this morning I woke up, and he was gone.”
“Oh…”
“Do you know where he might be?” I asked. “I need to talk to him.”
Alani looked doubtful, but I wasn’t about to back down now. I wasn’t going to let Tristan ignore me like he had the first time. We were going to talk about what had happened, and I was going to get closure, one way or the other.
“Um… I know he has meetings all morning,” she said. “Things have been a little stressful. We’re opening to the public on Christmas day and apparently, a few of the staff have been let go.”
“What?” I said.
She nodded. “Two of my friends have already been fired.”
“Why?”
“They were hired on a temporary basis and were going to be taken on permanently only after their performance had been reviewed,” she explained. “Apparently, their skills with guest interaction was poor, and they were let go for that reason.”
“Shouldn’t they have been trained first?”
“Everyone went through a brief course before they were put on duty,” Alani said. “But in some cases, a little more training is necessary.”
“Isn’t there someone here who’s in charge of the staff?”
“Tristan was supposed to hire someone weeks ago,” she nodded. “But I don’t think he ever got around to it. He’s handling everything…he and Ben. I think they’re both spread a little too thin.”
I sighed, remembering that Tristan had apparently earmarked me for the job. I wondered how he would feel about that offer now that we had slept together. All the more reason I needed to talk to him and figure out where we stood. The prospect of such a conversation would have terrified me six years ago, but now, I was older now and more capable of handling rejection.
“Tristan will be in his office, you said?”
“Not just yet,” Alani replied. “He might still be in meetings. But he should be in his office in another hour or so.”
“Okay, thanks,” I said.
I walked out of the lounge and headed to the elevators, retracing the path that I had taken on my first day at the resort with Alani. When I got to Tristan’s office, the door was locked, and no one was around. He was obviously still at his meetings, so I decided to sit outside the office and enjoy the view until he got there.
Exactly forty-one minutes later, I heard footsteps in the hall, and then Tristan turned the corner, with Ben at his heels. Both men hesitated when they saw me sitting there. I stood up as they approached.
“Good morning, Ms. Sinclair,” Ben said.
“It’s Molly,” I reminded him.
“Right,” he nodded. “Of course.”
“Ben, would you mind if I had a few moments to talk to Tristan alone?” I asked boldly. “There’s something I need to talk to him about.”
“Of course,” he nodded.
He turned and walked back the same way he had come, leaving Tristan and me alone. Tristan’s expression was calm and contained, but I sensed nervousness in his stance as he unlocked his office door and held it open for me. I walked inside and waited till the door had been closed behind us.
“You left this morning,” I said, cutting to the chase.
Tristan sighed. He walked around to this desk and sat down. “Can I get you something to drink?” he asked formally.
“No, thank you,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Why don’t you sit down?”
I remained on my feet. “Are you going to address what happened, or are you going to talk around it indefinitely?”
“Molly, what happened last night… It was a mistake.”
All the hopes that had been resurrected last night pummeled to their death, and I found myself grappling to stay calm. “You really believe that?”
“It should never have happened,” he continued. “It would never have happened had I not been so fucking drunk.”
“You weren’t that drunk,” I pointed out.
“I’ve been stressed out with the opening looming,” he continued like I hadn’t said anything. “There are tons of problems that have cropped up at the last second. I was drinking a lot last night, and I was just…looking for a release. I would have slept with anyone last night.”
I cringed away from his words. “So it was just about sex for you then?” I asked, keeping my tone flat. “You don’t have feelings for me?”
He looked away from me awkwardly. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say you’re sorry,” I snapped. “Don’t do that. I don’t want your apologies. I want your honesty. Do you remember that kiss between us six years ago?”
“No,” Tristan replied without missing a beat.
He answered quickly, but I saw something flicker in his eyes. It looked like recognition, and it sounded like a lie. “You’re lying,” I said accusingly. “I don’t why you’re lying, but I know you are.”
“Molly—”
“What was all that jealousy about if you didn’t care about me at all?” I demanded, talking over him. “Why did you care that I was on a date with Gregory? You had no right to come up to us and interrupt our dinner, but you did because something about seeing me with him upset you. What was that, Tristan? Explain that to me.”
“Gregory’s not the right guy for you.”
“Who are you to make that judgment?” I demanded as my voice rose dangerously. “I don’t know why I keep having to repeat myself with you. I am not a child, Tristan. I’m not the fourteen-year-old girl you met ten years ago. You have no right to decide who is best for me. You’re not my brother, you’re not my boyfriend, and apparently, you’re not even my friend. You’re nothing to me—and you’ve made that very clear.”
“I never meant to hurt you,” he said quietly.
“And yet, here we are,” I said, unable to compose myself. “You want to know what I think? I think you’re a weak and spineless coward. You do have feelings for me, no matter what you say; I felt it last night, and I know I’m right. You’re just too afraid to admit it. You’re scared about something, and you’ve convinced yourself that staying away from me is the safest option for you. But all you’re doing is lying to yourself.”
Tristan just sat there, taking my rant with his eyes hooded and his head tilted away from me. He looked lost, and I wasn’t sure if my words were hitting him or if he simply wanted to get me out of his office. I stared at him for a long time, waiting for him to say something—anything really, but he just kept silent.
It dawned on me that perhaps I had been the one lying to myself this whole time. Maybe I had created a character around Tristan and built a man in my head that didn’t really exist. Maybe I had spent the last ten years of my life chasing a daydream that never really existed in the first place. I pushed back my hurt and anger and forced my voice into a tone of calm.
“Thank you for allowing me to stay at your resort,” I said without meeting his eye. “But I think I’ve overstayed my welcome. I’ll pack my bags and be out of here soon.”
“Molly,” Tristan said, standing up. “That’s not—”
“You don’t have to worry about Jason or your friendship with him,” I said, cutting him off. “I don’t intend to tell him any of this.”
With that, I turned and walked out of Tristan’s office, wondering if it would be another six years before I saw him again.
Chapter Nineteen
Tristan
The bourbon burned my throat, but it was a nice, comforting burn. I wanted to numb myself against everything that had happened between Molly and me, but the more I drank, the more I seemed to feel. I put aside my glass and tried to figure out how to get on with my work, despite the conflict raging inside my head.
I knew that Molly had already called reception to inform them that she was checking out tomorrow morning. I looked towards the calendar standing on my desk and realized tomorrow was Christmas. It was also the official opening of the resort. There were a ton of things I needed to check on, but my mind just wasn’t capable of focusing on work.
When Ben walked in, I looked at him gratefully, hoping that he might be able to distract me. “Is everything on schedule for the ribbon cutting ceremony tomorrow?”
“Everything’s fine,” Ben nodded. “Just a few last-minute adjustments I need to take care of.”
“And the staff?”
“They’ve been briefed, and they’re ready.”
“Have you had a word with senior staff members?”
“They’ll be overseeing everything,” he assured me.
“And things are in order for the ribbon cutting ceremony?”
He frowned. “You already asked me that.”
“I did?”
“As I walked in,” he nodded.
“Uh… What did you say?”
Ben sat down opposite me. “Is everything alright?” he asked. “Because you look… Well… You don’t look so good.” His eyes fell to the half-empty glass of bourbon next to me. “It’s a little early to be drinking, don’t you think?”
“My resort is opening tomorrow,” I said. “I’m allowed to celebrate.”
“Except you don’t look like you’re celebrating anything,” he pointed out. “In fact, you look like you’re in mourning.”
I looked away from him, unable to keep the disappointment from my face.
“Does this have something to do with Molly checking out tomorrow?” he asked gently.
“You heard?”
“Of course,” he nodded. “I hear everything that happens in this resort.”
“We had a fight,” I admitted. “Well, she fought, and I just sat here like a dick and didn’t say anything. She was pissed, and I deserved it.”
“What happened?”
“She wanted to talk about what happened between us,” I said. “And I basically told her it was a mistake and we should just forget the whole thing ever happened.”
“Is that all you told her?”
“I told her I would have slept with any woman.”
“You really are a dick,” Ben said honestly.
I groaned and put my face in my hands. “Fuck,” I said loudly. “I’ve really screwed up with Molly, haven’t I?”
“You knew that before you slept with her,” he pointed out.
“She’s too good for me,” I said, trying to defend my behavior. “If I get involved with her, I’m bound to hurt her somewhere down the line.”
“So you decided to hurt her now instead of later?” Ben asked, incredulously.
“Fuck,” I said again, as I stood up and started pacing. “She’s really leaving.”
“What did you expect?”
“I don’t want her to go.”
“Why not?” he asked. “It seems like the best thing for both of you is for Molly to leave. She’s obviously in love with you, and you’re obviously not.”
I stopped short and turned to Ben. “What if…”
“What if what?”
“What if… I am in love with her?” I said softly. It was the first time I was allowing myself to say the words out loud. The moment they left my tongue, I realized what I had been afraid of all this time.
He smiled, and I realized he had just been waiting for me to realize that this whole time. “Then you need to make a choice,” he said. “And you need to stick to it. But first, I think you need to apologize.”
“She’s still Jason’s sister,” I pointed out.
“Is that supposed to mean something?” he asked.
“I have to respect the bro-code,” I said.
He rolled his eyes. “What are we, tenth graders? You’re not in high school, Tristan; neither is Jason. You and Molly are consenting adults. If you want to date one another, I doubt Jason will stand in your way.”
“And my lifestyle?” I said. “You know how hard we have to work.”
“I do,” Ben nodded. “And, I think Molly is smart enough to have realized that, too. It doesn’t seem to be a factor for her. So, why do you keep insisting you know what’s best for her? Why do you keep making her decisions for her?”
I bit my lip and kept pacing. “I’ve been trying to run from my feelings for so long… I don’t know how to stop now.”
“You stop by admitting the truth,” Ben said.
I stopped pacing and looked at him. “I don’t want her to leave,” I said. “I can’t let her leave.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know when I’ll see her again,” I admitted. “And I don’t want to have to endure another six years without seeing her face.”
He smiled. “I think you need to tell her that.”
“What if it’s too late?” I asked, suddenly nervous. “What if she leaves anyway?”
“Then at least you tried,” he said. “I don’t understand how you can be so fearless in business, but not in your personal life.”
“Because there’s more to lose here,” I said. “Molly is…special.”
“Then don’t let her go without a fight.”
I stared at Ben for a second and then jumped into action. He was right. Gregory was right. Molly was right. Apparently, everyone had been except for me. I needed to be a man and stop running from the things that scared me.
I headed straight for Molly’s suite, without stopping to talk to anyone on the way. When I arrived at her door, I paused with my hand inches from the wood.
I was scared, but I took a deep breath and knocked anyway. I stood away from the peephole so that Molly couldn’t see whom it was. I was worried she wouldn’t answer the door if she knew it was me standing there.
A few seconds later, the door opened and Molly stood before me. She was wearing the same faded blue jeans from yesterday and a plain white-shirt that brought out the blue in her eyes. Her hair fell carelessly around her shoulders, and I realized she looked most beautiful when there wasn’t a stitch of makeup on her face.
“Molly,” I said.
She stared at me for a second and then she proceeded to slam the door in my face. I jammed my leg into the threshold, preventing her from closing the door completely.
“Get your foot out of my doorway,” she said in a no-nonsense tone.
“I can’t do that.”
“What do you want, Tristan?” she demanded.
“I just want to talk.”
“The time for that is done,” she said coldly. “I’m not interested in talking now. Nor am I interested in assuaging your conscience of guilt.”
“That’s not why I’m here.”
“Why else would you be here?”
“If you let me in, I could explain,” I suggested.
Her blue eyes were pinpricks of steel, so I searched the rest of her face for some small indication that she might be softening towards me. Her expression was impatient at best, however, and I could barely see the rest of her through the small opening in the door. My leg was starting to hurt a little bit, too.
“Please, Molly,” I said. “I owe you an apology after the other night.”
“Consider it given,” she replied. “Now if you’ll excuse me—”
“That’s not all I want to say to you.”
Molly sighed deeply and shook her head. “Why are you doing this, Tristan?” she asked, and her tone sounded hopeless. “Can’t you at least let me leave with some small amount of dignity? Must you drag this out? It’s already painful enough.”
“I’ve hurt you,” I said directly. “I know that, and I need to explain myself. But I would much rather do that face to face, instead of face to…door.”
Molly’s blue eyes flashed to mine for a second. She seemed to be contemplating her options. I could see that stomping on my foot and slamming the door on me was still an option for her. Luckily, her kind nature won out, and she opened the door, allowing me to walk into her suite. I could see part of her room from where I stood, and I saw that her suitcases were out and half packed. The sight of it gave me the encouragement I needed to start talking.
“I’m sorry,” I started.
“You already said that,” she said impatiently.
“I was scared, Molly,” I said honestly.
I saw her expression change a little as she turned to me. “What were you scared of?”
“Of you…of the idea of us,” I admitted. “I wanted you, and I knew I shouldn’t. You’re Jason’s sister. In my head, you were always off limits. Which wasn’t a problem for me—until that one trip we made during Thanksgiving. Do you remember?”
“I remember,” she nodded.
“We stopped by your parents’ house, and I was standing in the backyard, admiring the cornfields when I saw you from a distance. You walked straight up to me and said hello.”
“I remember that, too.”
“That was the moment things changed for me,” I said. “That was the moment I stopped seeing you as Jason’s sister. That was the moment I saw you for what you really were—a beautiful woman.”
Molly looked at me with surprise. “That was two years after we met.”
“Yes.”
“I was sixteen.”
“Yes.”
She shook her head. “I had no idea you even noticed me. Not even then.”
“How could I let on?” I asked. “Quite apart from the fact that you were Jason’s sister, you were also sixteen. I was twenty; there was no way I could have acted on my feelings.”
She frowned at me with concentration. “The Christmas party,” she said softly. “That kiss…”
“I remember it,” I said, finally admitting to the truth after all these years. “I’ve always remembered it. To this day, it was the best kiss I’ve ever had. And I think that was because of you and what you meant to me…even though I hadn’t admitted to myself the extent of my feelings for you.”
Molly looked like she was processing everything I was telling her. “You remember,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” I told her. “I just thought… I knew you expected me to acknowledge what had happened between us. It was the hardest thing in the world to sit across that breakfast table from you and act as though nothing had happened.”
“You were very convincing.”
“I had to be,” I said. “I couldn’t get involved with you. I was convinced that I had a loyalty to Jason to keep, and I needed to stay away from you. But that was just my excuse. The truth is… I was scared of committing myself to one person. I was scared of relationships. I was scared of screwing up with you. I knew I couldn’t afford to take that risk.”
“So you made the decision for me.”
“I’ve since come to realize how stupid and presumptuous that was of me,” I admitted. “I’m sorry for that, too.”
Molly shook her head at me. “Six years,” she said. “Six years you had me believing that that kiss meant nothing to you.”
“I was an idiot.”
“I watched you drive away with my brother that day,” she told me. “Then I went up to my bedroom and cried for an hour. My nose and eyes were so red and puffy that night, Mom thought I had caught a cold.”
I looked down at the carpet for a moment. “I haven’t treated you very well over the years, have I?”
“No,” Molly said bluntly. “You haven’t.”
I nodded. “I understand if you just want to kick me out of your room. I definitely deserve it. I just want you to know one thing before you decide what you want to do.”
“Which is?”
“I want to give this a shot, Molly,” I said, throwing caution to the wind and deciding to be brave. “I want you. I’ve wanted you since you were sixteen. When we had sex the other night, it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. I was just scared of my own feelings, so I pushed you away like I did six years ago. I was lying when I told you I would have slept with anyone that night. There’s no one else, Molly. It’s only ever been you.
“In all these years, of all the women I’ve been with, you have always been the one constant. You were the one daydream I kept going back to. I don’t know if I’m going to be any good at a relationship. I don’t know if I’ll end up breaking your heart. All I know is that I want to give this one real shot, come what may.
“Because I just realized something. It’s worth the risk. You are worth the risk.”
I finished my little speech, knowing that I had just laid my heart bare for her. Now it was up to Molly. I stood my ground and waited for her verdict.
Chapter Twenty
Molly
It was something of a surreal experience to have Tristan standing before me, telling me things I’d been dreaming of hearing for years. The fourteen-year-old girl inside me was screaming at the top of her lungs, ecstatic and desperate to run into his arms. But the woman I was now was weary and cautious. They were beautiful words, but what if that was all they were?
“You don’t really know me,” I said. “It’s taken you this long to admit you feel anything for me; how can I trust that you’re sincere?”
“I do know you,” Tristan said.
I frowned. “No, you don’t.”
“I paid attention, Molly,” he told me. “Maybe that was never obvious to anyone, but trust me, I paid attention.”
“Before now, we haven’t seen each other in six years,” I reminded him.
“I realize that,” he nodded. “But when I saw you when you first arrived here, I recognized you. I looked at your face and knew you were the same person. Yes, you were older; yes, you’d had more experiences, you’d lived a little… But at the core, you were the same person you’d always been: kind, caring, affectionate, honest, and straightforward.”
I almost smiled—almost. “You never gave me any indication that you started seeing me differently.”
“Because you were only sixteen,” Tristan said. “I felt guilty for even looking at you that way. I told myself it was just because you were beautiful… But it was more than that, Molly. I was interested in your thoughts, your opinions—and you had a lot of them. I remember the marches you used to take part in, the charities and volunteer work you used to squeeze in on the weekends. I remember that summer you practically lived at the soup kitchen.”
“You were only around for a weekend that summer,” I pointed out.
“I asked Jason about it,” Tristan told me. “He was so proud of you for sticking with it, for getting so involved with the community. I was proud of you, too. Neither one of us would have ever devoted our weekends for anything other than purely selfish reasons.”
I shook my head. It was strange to think that the whole time I was infatuated with Tristan, he had harbored some amount of affection for me—and it hadn’t been platonic. I went to the couch and sat down heavily. It was a lot to process, and my mind was so used to taking disappointment where Tristan was concerned that I wasn’t sure how to handle this.
He approached me slowly and sunk down to his knees in front of me. He took my hands gently into his own and kissed them softly, one by one.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t stress that enough. I said things to you that I wish I could erase now.”
I looked up to see his dark eyes were filled with emotion and what I read to be sincerity. It moved me, and I knew I was melting against him. It was inevitable, really; Tristan had always been my weakness.
“I’ve been in love with you for so long, Tristan,” I said. “Practically half my life. The first time I saw you, you were standing in my driveway, and I was staring down at you from my window. And I felt as though something had knocked me over. I could barely breathe, but I couldn’t turn away, either. I knew then that I loved you…and I’ve loved you ever since that moment.”
He looked at me intensely; he didn’t seem scared by what I was telling him, but I wondered how long that would last.
“What I’m trying to say is, I don’t think I can do casual with you,” I said honestly. “Actually, I know I can’t. I can’t just have a fling with you. I can’t just take things slow. Because the truth is I’m already way past all that. I’ve passed the threshold of casual and crossed over into serious. So if you want to try this out, then I need a real commitment from you. I’m not talking about marriage or anything… I just mean a serious relationship, one that doesn’t involve games.
“Because I don’t want to be just another name on your list, Tristan. I refuse to become an ex-girlfriend that’s easy to forget. If we are together, I want it to mean something. I want it to matter.”
“I know,” he nodded. “I understand that—and I want the same thing.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Really?”
“I know I haven’t given you much reason to believe me,” he admitted. “But I do want exactly what you just described. I wouldn’t have wanted it with any other woman Molly…just you.”
I felt a small smile creep onto my face and I felt a burst of joy rush to my chest. “You’re serious?” I asked, scared to feel the full extent of my joy too prematurely.
In answer, Tristan grabbed me and kissed me hard on the lips until the kiss turned into a passionate embrace. I slipped off the couch and landed on top of him on the soft-carpeted floor. His hands were snaking up my body wildly, and I could feel that he was already hard. I could feel his cock digging into my thigh and could feel myself moisten at the sensation.
I started tearing off his clothes at the same time he started pulling apart mine. It was chaos; it was chaos built from limbs and clothes and desperate pawing until we were both naked and panting. Tristan kissed me passionately, before traveling down to my breasts. He massaged them both with his hand, while his lips grazed over the nipples titillating.
I writhed underneath him, desperately needing him to be inside me but wanting the moment to be prolonged, as well. He took a nipple into his mouth and sucked hard. It sent tendrils of pleasure shooting down between my thighs, and I wrapped my hand around his neck and closed my eyes. After a few minutes, Tristan moved further down until he was between my legs. He pushed my thighs apart and lowered his head. A second later, I gasped in shock, as a jolt of indescribable pleasure rocked my body.
This time, I couldn’t control my cries. I moaned and writhed as he licked me until I was hit with a powerful orgasm that came suddenly and without warning. I was still recovering when he rose above me and pushed inside me. I gasped again and held on as he started fucking me with abandon. I could feel the grating of the carpet against my back. Our bodies were moving together in a violent, yet amazing rhythm.
I clung to him, arching my back, closing my eyes, wrestling with my screams until they won out and I was screaming and digging my nails into Tristan’s back. The moment I thought he had reached his limit and was going to cum, he flipped me over and entered me from behind. With his hand on my neck and the other one on my hip, he plowed into me hard. I could hear the pounding of flesh on flesh and felt another orgasm start to develop.
I was just about to cum again when Tristan flipped us around again, positioning me on top of him. Everything was new to me. I realized that this was only the third time I was having sex. And yet, everything felt so natural. It was almost like I’d done this a hundred times before with Tristan. Our bodies were unfamiliar to one another, but somehow instinct took over at the moment, and we were able to find our rhythm together.
I put my hands on his chest and started moving slowly on top of him. I moved back and forth at first until I was comfortable enough to start experimenting. When I was more confident, I started to move up and down until I could feel his cock slide in and out of me. I saw Tristan’s eyes close in pleasure, and I moved faster, riding him hard until I could feel my body tingle again, a prelude to the orgasm that I knew was imminent.
We came together, with my hands on Tristan’s chest and his hands on my hips. Our screams mixed together, creating a symphony of carnal delight. There was something almost poetic about it, and I felt a decade’s worth of longing merge with desire in that one moment. And suddenly, I felt complete. Suddenly, everything that was skewed before now tilted back in the right direction.
We lay in each other’s arms for a long time without talking. We were both entangled in our own thoughts for a while, and the silence was welcome. When I pushed myself up on my elbow, I realized dusk had fallen, and the sun was close to setting. When I looked back down at Tristan, he was staring up at me with a smile on his face. His hand brushed the back of my spine, moving in gentle strokes that left a little trail of fire behind.
I leaned down to kiss him softly on the cheeks. He looked thoughtful, and I sensed there was something on his mind.
“Is there something you want to ask me?” I wondered out loud.
He smiled. “I suppose there is.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “Ask me anything.”
“You’re a beautiful woman…” he started. “And I know you were never short of suitors… I guess I’m just curious as to why you stayed a virgin for so long. It’s not like you didn’t have the choice.”
I smiled. “I’m surprised you have to ask.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“How could I sleep with any other man when all I thought about was you?” I said. “It felt wrong somehow; it felt dishonest. I didn’t want to be one of those girls who just had sex for the sake of having sex. I wasn’t going to do it to fit in. I was going to do it on my terms, when I wanted to, for the right reasons.”
Tristan looked at me in awe. “You are amazing, you know that?” he said. “I’ve always admired that about you. You never caved in to pressure. You never let anyone else tell you how to feel. You did exactly what you thought was right, and you never let anyone else make you feel bad about it.”
“You make mistakes that way,” I said. “I wasn’t willing to make more mistakes than I needed to.”
“What if things had never happened between us?” he wondered.
“Then I would have waited for someone I felt as strongly about as I did with you,” I said. “Because otherwise it wouldn’t have been worth it.”
Tristan smiled. “Was this worth it?” he asked. His tone was slightly teasing, but I could sense the seriousness underneath the question.
“It was,” I nodded, leaning in to kiss him again. “It was completely worth it.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Tristan
“Merry Christmas,” I whispered to Molly as she stirred next to me.
She turned and gave me a brilliant smile. “Merry Christmas,” she replied. “Today’s the big day, huh?”
“In more ways than one,” I nodded.
“Are you nervous?”
“A little,” I admitted. “It’s always nerve-wracking opening yourself up to the public. Things are going to get a lot busier from here on out.”
“Is everything in order?”
“We have been dealing with some staff issues of late,” I replied, remembering my proposal to Jason at the beginning of Molly’s trip. I sat up in bed and looked down at her. Her golden hair was spread across the pillow, and a few strands were lying on my arm.
“What?” she asked.
“I have a job vacancy I need filled,” I said, easing into the topic.
“Oh?” she said, acting as though she didn’t know what I was talking about.
I smiled. “I could really use someone to head my human resources department,” I said. “Do you know anyone qualified enough for that job?”
She thought about it for a while. “I do know someone,” she nodded. “But she’s too expensive for you.”
“Is she?” I asked. “Well, I don’t mind paying well for someone good. But the job comes with one condition.”
“Which is?”
“She has to be willing to sleep with the boss,” I teased. “Often.”
Molly laughed. Then her expression turned serious, and she sat up, too. “But seriously, Tristan,” she said. “I know you made me that offer when I first arrived…”
“I’m still serious about it.”
“Aren’t you worried things will get messy?” she asked. “Now that we’re involved with each other, don’t you worry that things will get complicated?”
“No.”
“No?” she asked with raised eyebrows.
“I know you, Molly,” I said. “I know enough of you to know that you’re a true professional. I’d like to think I am, too. I think we’d be good at working together. In fact, I think the fact that we’re involved with one another might actually help.”
“Until it doesn’t.”
“So pessimistic,” I said. “I wouldn’t have expected that of you.”
“Sorry,” she said, coloring a little. “I guess I’m just not used to this.”
“What?” I teased. “Waking up with me?”
She laughed.
“So?” I pressed. “Will you please consider it? I really do need someone to head the department. Ben and I are spread too thin as it stands. I want someone competent and passionate; I want someone I can trust. And there’s no one I trust more than you.”
I raised my eyebrows. “If I accept this job, that would involve a move to Hawaii.”
“Yes.”
“That’s a big commitment,” she pointed out. “Not just for me personally, but for us, too.”
“I’m aware of that,” I nodded. “And shockingly, that doesn’t scare me.”
“It might once we’re living on top of one another.”
“It sounds to me like you are the one that’s scared,” I told Molly.
She smiled guiltily.
“Are you?” I asked.
“Well, maybe a little,” I said. “I’ve been dreaming about us for years, Tristan. And now that’s my dreams have become a reality, it’s hard to wrap my head around it.”
“You’ll get used to it,” I told her softly, kissing her on the forehead. It amazed me how easily those familiar little intimacies came to me, as though I were a veteran at relationships.
Molly stretched and got out of bed, pulling the sheets with her. I could see the faint outline of her body through the thin fabric and felt myself harden slightly. If it weren’t for the fact that I had a hundred things to get done before the ribbon cutting ceremony, I would have pulled her back into bed and made her cum again. As it stood, I was already running late.
“Will you think about it?” I asked, getting out of bed myself.
Molly turned to me, and her blue eyes looked nervous and excited. “I’ll take the job.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “I’m not just taking the job because of us,” she said. “I’m taking it because I think I can actually do a good job at it. I think I can make your life, and Ben’s for that matter, a little easier.”
I smiled. “I know you will,” I nodded. “Guess it’s official then?”
“Guess it is,” she nodded.
I pulled her in for a quick hug. Then I drew back a little as another thought came to me. “Hey,” I said. “Will you open the ceremony with me this evening?”
“What?” she said as her eyes went wide.
“Come on,” I said. “It’ll be fun.”
“That is your moment, Tristan,” she insisted. “I wouldn’t want to steal your thunder.”
“You’d be sharing my thunder.”
“Still…”
“Come on,” I insisted. “I want you by my side.”
Molly bit her lip. “Are you sure?”
“A hundred percent.”
Her smile was slow in coming, but I saw the willingness on her face. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll open the ceremony with you.”
I smiled in triumph and kissed her hard on the lips. Then I grabbed her hand, and we headed to the bathroom together. We showered together quickly and helped each other dress. It was the hardest thing in the world to keep my desire in check, but I knew that would have to wait until tonight when the opening was behind us, and our responsibilities had been fulfilled.
We were walking towards my office together when Molly turned to me. There was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “So, when are you planning on telling Jason about us?”
“Fuck,” I groaned.
She laughed. “Don’t worry; I doubt he’ll care.”
“What if he doesn’t take it well?” I said. “What if he flies over here just to kick my ass?”
“He might have reacted that way when I was sixteen,” she said. “But not anymore. I think he’ll be happy for us.”
“He knows my history, Molly,” I said, with concern. “He knows the complete list of all my…uh…girlfriends.”
“Are you using the term girlfriends loosely?”
I smiled. “Very.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is Jason’s going to be worried about you…with me.”
“Then I suppose you’ll have to reassure him,” Molly said. She didn’t sound too concerned. “If you want, I can tell him.”
“No,” I said quickly. “No way; he should hear it from me. I just slept with his sister; the least I can do is admit that to him like a man.”
Molly looked at me in amusement. “I’d be impressed if you didn’t look so scared.”
I nudged her playfully as we rode up on the elevators to my office. I checked my phone and realized that I had a number of missed calls from Ben. “Shit,” I said.
“What’s wrong?”
“Looks like Ben has called a couple of times,” I said. “My phone was on silent.”
When we walked into my office, Ben was standing behind my desk talking to someone in a harassed voice. The moment he saw me, relief washed over his face. He made an excuse and hung up.
“Where the hell were you?” he demanded.
“Sorry, Ben,” Molly said, stepping forward. “That was my fault. He was with me.”
“Ah,” he said, and I noticed his expression softened immediately. “Good morning, Molly.”
“Morning, Ben.”
“Am I to assume that you’re staying on with us?”
“Fuck,” she exclaimed. “I forgot to cancel my cab.”
“I can inform reception,” he said..
“No, don’t worry,” she said, holding up her hands. “I’ll handle it, you and Tristan have enough to deal with today. “I’ll just go down and speak to Alani. Excuse me for a moment, boys.”
Molly slipped her hand out of mine and headed for the door.
“Will you come back up here when you’re done?” I asked.
“Sure,” she nodded, giving me a wink before she left the room.
When I turned to Ben, he was looking at me with a knowing smile. “Things worked out then, did they?”
“Exceptionally well,” I smiled. “Thanks for the advice.”
“No problem,” Ben nodded.
I walked over to my desk and sat down behind it. “I found our new head of human resources.”
“Molly?” he asked. “You offered her the job?”
“She’s qualified, she’s competent, and she’s perfect for the job.”
“Not to mention it’s an excuse to keep her around permanently.”
“That, too,” I smiled.
“This is a big step for you,” Ben said.
“I know,” I nodded. “I’m surprised at how well I’m handling it all. I thought I’d be more scared than I am. I actually feel like everything has fallen into place. This was exactly what was supposed to happen.”
“I’m happy for you,” he said, in his usual monotone way.
“Thank you,” I said. “Now, on to business… I’ll need you to brief Molly before she starts.”
“I’ll get her familiarized with the staff,” he assured me. “When is she starting?”
“As soon as possible,” I said. “It’s a big job, and she has a lot to familiarize herself with.”
“Don’t worry,” Ben said. “I’ll prepare her. No doubt Alani will, too; the two of them have become thick as thieves.”
“Good,” I nodded. “I want Molly to feel at home here, and friends will certainly speed that process along.”
“You’ve really jumped into this thing.”
“It took me a long time to realize how I really felt about Molly,” I said. “And now that I’ve finally admitted it to myself, things seem simple. Now…what time do we have the ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for?”
“Four-thirty,” Ben replied. “Followed by aperitifs in the ballroom.”
“Has the staff been prepped?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “We’ll have to handle the disputes after the opening. Ah, but I suppose that’ll fall to Molly.”
“It will,” I nodded.
The morning passed in a blur of activity. I oversaw all the last-minute preparations for the ceremony and our arriving guests. Molly was with me the whole time, lending a helping hand wherever she could. When it came time for the ceremony, Molly and I parted to get dressed in our separate suites. I arrived at the entrance of the resort in my tux a little before schedule. Ben was there too, looking sharp in a tux of his own.
It seemed as though the whole of Hawaii had congregated outside our steps. The press was there, too, and thankfully the sun shone down in grand fashion, which I took to be a sign of good luck. Despite the crowd and the photographers in attendance, my eyes kept searching for Molly. She appeared from inside the resort, wearing a cream-colored sheath, with her hair tied up in a classic topknot.
I moved directly to her and took her hand. “You look spectacular,” I said.
“So do you,” she replied, giving me a dazzling smile.
“Are you ready to do this with me?” I asked as flashes went off all around us.
“I am,” she nodded, squeezing my hand.
Molly turned to speak to Ben, and I was preparing myself to make my little speech before we cut the ribbon when I heard a snippet of someone else’s conversation.
“He’s the owner?” the voice belonged to an older woman.
“He is.”
“Very young.”
“He’s an ambitious man.”
“Is that his new girlfriend, the one in the cream dress?”
“The latest one, I suppose. Men like him never stick to one woman for long. She’ll be replaced before long.”
I turned to try and figure out who was speaking but I couldn’t figure it out. I was forced to turn away from the crowd and towards the podium, battling with the sinking feeling in my gut.