Chapter Four
Sunfish Island was bigger than Olivia had realized. She'd studied the official literature, of course, and looked at photos and maps on the internet, but there so much of it had to be seen in person to be appreciated. Every turn in the path seemed to bring a new stunning view, another delightful residence or grouping of cabins.
"This place is just incredible," she said as Cory drove them into another part of the resort, where he pulled up within sight of a sparkling lagoon pool fringed with palm trees. "Just... I mean, I knew it was beautiful from the photos, but photos just don't do it justice."
"That's where you come in." Cory hopped out of the golf cart and gestured her to follow as he headed over to the thatched-roof bar beside the pool. "I personally think we need TV advertising. Sunfish Island had a reputation here in Australia as a cheap family place to go, back in the nineties and early two thousands. There's almost nothing now that was even here back then—a cyclone eight years ago put paid to most of the old buildings. The cabins we live in are among the few survivors."
"I see." Olivia slipped onto a stool beside Cory at the bar and waited as the bartender made drinks for a couple of guests. "So the existing reputation has it marketed to the wrong kind of clientele, because although Sunfish is family-friendly, it's five-star and certainly not cheap these days."
"Exactly. Plus, we need to get known outside of Australia. The Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Russian tourist market is huge these days, and they're prepared to pay for top quality."
"Hey, Cory." The conversation was interrupted by the bartender, a petite, beautiful young woman with dark brown skin and long braids.
"This is Olivia, Nessa. She's our new marketing manager. Nessa is the best bartender on the island," Cory confided.
"Ahem!"
"Beg your pardon, in Queensland. In Australia! Probably the world!" Cory grinned and Nessa laughed.
"Better. Nice to meet you, Olivia." She leaned across the bar to shake hands.
"You're English," Olivia realized after hearing her accent.
"I certainly am. Been out here ten years and you'd have to drag me away kicking and screaming." She slid a coaster in front of each of them on the polished timber bar. "What can I get you?"
"I'm on duty later, so just a soda water for me, thanks," Cory said cheerfully. "Like a beer, Olivia? Or a cocktail?"
She'd dearly love a cold beer, and said so. Nessa set a bottle beaded with condensation on the counter beside a clean glass.
"One of our local lagers, give it a try."
One sip told Olivia that Nessa had made the right call; she took a long draught to soak the parched feeling in her throat and sighed with pleasure. "Lovely. Thank you."
"Welcome." Nessa gave her a bright smile and darted away to serve another customer who approached the bar, her long braids swinging.
"What's the policy regarding staff using the resort facilities?" Olivia asked as Cory take a long drink of his soda water, his throat working as he swallowed.
"Perfectly fine as long as you don't drink alcohol while you're working, are never inebriated on resort premises, and don't prevent a customer from using the facility. So if it's busy, find somewhere else to go, basically." Cory shrugged. "The resort is overstaffed and underoccupied at the moment, so it shouldn't be an issue." He lowered his voice. "We don't pay for soft drinks 'on tap' and you pay only cost price on other drinks, so it's a really good deal. We're very well looked after here." He nodded towards Nessa, who was expertly making a cocktail. "I prefer this bar because Nessa runs tabs for all of us on sight—she's much more relaxed about it than the other bartenders. Plus, it's only a five-minute walk from the staff accommodation."
"It is?" Olivia blinked, looking around. She'd gotten completely turned around on the tour, then. She could have sworn they were a long way from the main resort, but looking around now, she could just see the dome of the main building above the palm trees. "Oh, I see."
"I'll show you the path later. This is the closest swimming pool to the cabins too, and you can also swim at the beach down there." Cory pointed.
"It's safe?"
"Beach swimming? Yes, it's really shallow up to about a hundred meters out, and this isn't stinger season. No sharks, either. You should wear reef shoes, though, because there can be sharp coral and stonefish, which you do not want to step on."
"Venomous?"
"Yes. Spines on their backs. The pain is hideous, I'm told." Cory shuddered. "We've never had anyone stung here, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful."
"I shall consider myself properly cautioned." Olivia smiled at him. "I did read up on Australia's wildlife before I accepted the job."
"And you weren't put off? Brave girl."
They both chuckled.
"Tell me about you, Olivia. I know enough about Hunter Enterprises to know the bosses would have hired the best. So why was the best willing to give up what was clearly a very lucrative and respected position in New York and fly halfway around the world to spend a year here? Because love this place though I do, it has to feel like the back of beyond to a sophisticated city girl like you."
His blue eyes were clear and calm as he watched her. Olivia took a deep breath, puffed her cheeks on the way out, and took another long sip of her beer.
"You're not starting with the easy questions, are you?" She smiled to take the sting from her words. "I guess we should start this off being honest with each other, though." Another long sip of beer, and she looked away from his clear blue eyes, which seemed to see right into her soul. "I had to get out."
He only listened, doing his best to be quiet and really pay attention to not just her words, but the emotions behind them, as she continued.
"I'd been in the rat race since my teens, since my parents enrolled me in an exclusive Manhattan prep school. There was this intense pressure to be the best, the smartest, the most popular. Some girls couldn't handle it; they cracked, took drugs, slept around. I thrived on it." Twirling her beer bottle in her fingers, she said, "I was always top of the pile. I was the one who got the internships, the scholarships, won the awards. Everything came so easily. Got picked up straight out of Stanford Business School to work at the top marketing firm in New York, made associate in two years, became the youngest partner in the firm's history on my twenty-sixth birthday."
Cory said nothing, just watched as Olivia talked. Her voice had no real pride in it as she talked about her achievements; she might have been reciting a grocery list for all the emotion she showed. Her eyes flicked back to his. "And with all the success came money, more of it than I really knew what to do with... and the perfect partner to share it all with."
He'd wondered if that would come up. There was no way a woman as beautiful and successful as Olivia hadn't had men falling at her feet.
"Brad Cochrane. Or as my friends dubbed him after the breakup, The Cockroach." She gave him a little half smile. "One of Wall Street's finest."
"Wait a minute," Cory suddenly put two and two together. "I know that name. Isn't he that guy who was recently convicted in the biggest money-laundering case in history? For the Mexican drug cartels?"
"Bingo." Olivia made finger guns and pointed them at him. "As his fiancée, I was suspect number two. Took me months to clear my name. Most of my assets are still sequestered, and almost all of my legitimate clients suddenly really wanted to work with other partners at the firm. I was asked to take a leave of absence... and then the contents of my desk got delivered to my apartment in a UPS box."
"Jeez, Olivia, that must have been absolute hell," Cory said quietly. He couldn't even imagine what she'd gone through, her professional reputation ruined by something that had absolutely nothing to do with her at the same time as her relationship collapsed under a tissue of lies. "I'm so sorry."
She drained the last of her beer and set the glass down on the bar. "I sued for wrongful dismissal... and lost. There was a clause in my contract about not bringing my good name into disrepute, and my name had been smeared all over the news in connection with Brad's. Even though I had nothing to do with his shit, I still lost everything. My job, my reputation... and after the lawsuit, there was no way any firm in New York would ever hire me again. All because I had the shitty taste to fall for a con artist."
There was really nothing Cory could say. What had happened to Olivia was deeply unfair. She gave him a wan little smile.
"So you see, I really didn't have all that many options when John Hunter called me. I'd just pitched a marketing campaign for his California winery when all the shit went down. He liked it, called to take me up on it, and was seriously unhappy when he found out I wouldn't be able to handle the campaign after all. He asked me to handle it privately, which I did... I had no idea when or if I'd ever get another job at all, and the lawsuit had eaten most of my savings. The launch went off really well despite everything, and he offered me this job. The rest, as they say, is history."
She shrugged, looking away at the ocean again. "You know, I don't regret it. It was killing me slowly, the constant pressure to dress the part, be seen in all the right places, be friends with all the right people. This"—she swept a hand around, indicating their peaceful surroundings—"maybe here I can find out who Olivia Stratten actually is when she's not under pressure to be perfect."
Cory bit his lip on the remark that almost spilled from him. Olivia turned to him, her eyes dancing with mirth.
"Maybe that's why I feel so comfortable with you already. You definitely don't know Perfect Olivia."
"I wasn't gonna say it." His grin broke out, though. "You did look like perfection walking down the dock. I was very intimidated."
"Until my clumsy ass fell in the harbor." She snickered, eyes alight.
On impulse he took her hand. "Olivia Stratten is someone who can laugh at herself, and that's the first trait I look for in a woman: a good sense of humor."
Laughing freely at that, Olivia squeezed his hand back. "Well. A couple of months ago, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have seen the funny side, but I definitely do now."
Cory looked at his watch then and said with regret that he needed to get back. They waved to Nessa, who was just getting busy with the early evening cocktail hour, and hopped back in the golf cart. He pointed out the walking path, which was a shortcut to the cabins as they passed it.
"I have to go call the early evening bingo game," Cory said regretfully. "It's our regular bingo caller's day off."
Olivia laughed at the thought of Cory calling bingo numbers to a crowd of retirees. Because he was the activities director, she supposed he had to be able to cover for any of his team when required, though. Thinking that she needed to know more about the activities and events the resort offered, she questioned him about his job. Cory answered all her questions good-naturedly, clearly happy to talk about the job he obviously adored.
"Bryce was right when he said you really need to see the Reef, though," he said as he pulled the golf buggy back into the parking slot they'd taken it from. "Have you ever dived before?"
She shook her head. "Not proper diving with oxygen tanks, no. I'm a strong swimmer, though."
"That I already knew." He cast her a grin. "Well, you'd have to take a couple of Bryce's starter lessons in the pool to begin with, but I'm taking a group out snorkeling tomorrow, if you'd be interested?"
"I'd love to," Olivia said enthusiastically, before she thought to say, "I don't know if Luke will want me to start work here, though..."
"It's an early afternoon tour. You can catch up with him in the morning and see," Cory suggested. "I'm pretty sure he'll tell you to take a few days and familiarize yourself with everything the resort has to offer before you consider implementing anything, though."
That sounded like a sensible strategy. "Well, provided he's okay with it, yes, I'd love to come snorkeling."
"Excellent. Boat leaves the dock at one; we've got plenty of snorkeling gear, but make sure you bring your own sunscreen." He grinned down at her, and as they approached the door leading back into the main building, he drew her gently to a stop with his hand on her elbow. "There's nothing I'd like more than to spend the whole evening getting to know you, Olivia. I'm sorry I can't."
Cory's eyes were serious as he looked down at her. She smiled back at him, charmed again by his honesty and his straightforward, open approach.
"I'd like that too."
"I'm honored by your trust in telling me about your ex and why you're here, and I promise you that nobody will hear a word of it from me."
She was already quite sure of that, but she nodded anyway, accepting his pledge. Cory bent his head slowly, allowing her time to move away if she wanted to, but she was more than happy to step in closer and accept the kiss he pressed against her lips.
"Tomorrow," he said, a low-voiced promise, before he swiped his access card and let them back into the building.
Olivia was sure the color flags were flying high on her cheeks as she watched Cory bound up the spiral stairs in the atrium to the main lounge on the second floor where he had to call the bingo game. She caught herself admiring at the muscles bunching in his strong thighs as he took the steps three at a time, and laughed at herself. Cory was a whole lot more than just a handsome face and an attractive body.
"He's good-looking for sure, but Cory's a player," a voice said behind her, and Olivia turned to see Jill, the guest relations manager she'd met at the airport. "Don't get your heart broken."
Olivia wasn't entirely sure what made her ask, "Is that personal experience talking?" but the way Jill's face flushed told her that her shot in the dark was right on target. Jill didn't say another word, just turned and stalked away, outrage radiating from her in waves.
"I think I might have made an enemy," Olivia muttered regretfully. She couldn’t do a lot about it, though; she guessed that the moment Jill so much as suspected chemistry between Olivia and Cory, her nose would have been out of joint. Thank God nobody had witnessed their kiss at the wedding chapel, or the quick embrace outside the door. Olivia's name would have been mud all over Sunfish Island before nightfall; no doubt she'd have been smeared as a slut who threw herself at Cory literally as soon as she arrived.
Wandering over to look at the tour-booking desk—currently unoccupied—and the large display of brochures for available trips, Olivia wondered if she had been slutty. She'd always had a policy of never getting involved with anyone she worked with. What was it about Cory that had made her forget that resolution within a couple of hours of meeting him? It wasn't just the way he looked. She'd worked with attractive men many times before and never felt remotely tempted. No, she felt a genuine connection with Cory, one that had been there from their first meeting, and every moment spent in his company since had only reinforced the impression that he was a man she could like and respect as well as lust after.
I'm not going to feel guilty for going after what I want, Olivia decided, squaring her shoulders and turning to look around the lobby. Whatever had happened between Jill and Cory was obviously in the past, and Jill's little display of jealousy only put Olivia on her guard. She couldn't trust anything Jill said about Cory now. Every instinct told her that Cory wasn't a "player" as Jill had described him—and wouldn't Rosie, who'd known Cory all her life, have dropped a gentle hint or two if he were, instead of eagerly matchmaking?