Chapter Five
Just as Olivia thought of Rosie, she came through a door on the other side of the lobby with Luke, the pair of them talking earnestly. They both spotted her and smiled at the same moment, coming over to join her.
"Hey, how are you settling in?" Luke asked cheerfully. "Better after the dunking?" His eyes twinkled.
"Much, thank you," Olivia said. "Rosie was kind enough to lend me some of her things, I'm afraid I vastly overestimated the dress code here at Sunfish. I think I'll need to go into Airlie Beach to shop one day, if that can be arranged?"
"Of course, the boat goes every day," Luke said with a shrug. "You can go anytime you like. As far as I'm concerned, you make your own schedule here, Olivia. The only instruction I have from Mr. Hunter is that I'm to see to it you have anything you need. Rosie mentioned your laptop and tablet took a dunking too."
"And my phone," she admitted. "Yes, I'll need to purchase replacements for those in Airlie as well."
"The resort has an account at the computer-and-electrical store. Put them on our tab." Luke's tone brooked no argument.
"Well... thank you," she accepted gracefully, secretly grateful. Replacing her electronics would have put a serious dent in her much-depleted savings. "That's very good of you."
He waved away her thanks. "There's a computer in your room, too, but that's mainly because I don't really have office space for you. You're welcome to work anywhere you like in the resort. Although you're on staff, you're not part of the guest relations side, and as such I don't mind if you want to act more as a guest here, to get the real guest experience, than as a staff member."
Startled, Olivia blinked at him. "Thank you! But I want to pull my weight around here too. If you need an extra pair of hands at any time, please just say so."
"Rosie will let you know." Luke gestured at Rosie, who hadn't said a word as she nodded along in agreement with what he was saying. "She's our staff manager."
"Well, there may be times when we do need extra pairs of hands, of course," Rosie said, "but I'll try not to shove you into anything you wouldn't be prepared for. I mean, I'm guessing you're going to spend a fair bit of time talking to guests anyway, asking them what they think are the best things about Sunfish for marketing purposes, so guest relations would probably be a handy spot for you. Which is Jill's department, of course."
"Of course," Olivia echoed, doing her level best not to let her feelings at the idea of having to work for Jill, even temporarily, show on her face.
She must have failed, though, because after dinner—eaten with Luke and Rosie, who both talked enthusiastically about how much they loved working at Sunfish—she was walking back to her cabin with Rosie when the other girl asked, "Um, Olivia, I hope you don't mind me asking this, but have you had a run-in with Jill?"
She missed a step, recovered. "I thought I wasn't that obvious."
"Jill has a way of rubbing people up the wrong way, sometimes."
"One would think that guest relations wouldn't be the best career for her, then," Olivia said dryly.
"You'd be surprised the shit she has to deal with," Rosie replied. "Guest relations manager is just a fancy title for 'troubleshooter.'"
"Hm." They'd reached her cabin, and Olivia stopped and turned to Rosie with a sigh. "I don't want to get off on the wrong foot, and I don't want to make any enemies, but I'm pretty sure Jill was predisposed to dislike me from the moment Cory started flirting with me."
"She was predisposed to dislike you from the moment she saw you in the airport and realized how pretty you are," Rosie said bluntly. "Because yes, as you've already figured out, Cory is a sore spot with Jill."
"Will you tell me about it?" Olivia pleaded. "I know Jill is your friend and I don't want to ask you to go behind her back, but I'm pretty sure I can't trust anything she says about Cory... and I'm pretty sure I can trust what you tell me about him, since you've known each other so long."
Rosie sighed and glanced at the lit window in her cabin next door. "Invite me in?"
"Sure."
They went into the lounge area and sat down. Rosie rubbed her hands together, looking as though she was thinking about what to say. Olivia waited in silence, not wanting to push. Jill and Rosie were obviously close, and she didn't want to force Rosie to betray her friend.
"Cory and Jill dated for a while when Jill got the job here in the middle of last year," Rosie said finally. "It lasted, maybe three or four months? I don't remember exactly."
"Why did they break up? I don't need all the gory details," Olivia said hurriedly, "but who dumped who would be good to know."
"Cory ended it, but Jill drove him to it. She was incredibly clingy and possessive. I'm sure you can imagine that with the way Cory looks, he literally can't help girls throwing themselves at him sometimes. There was this guest at the resort. She was here with her parents; she wouldn't leave him alone. She was all of seventeen, so Cory just treated her like a kid with a crush... which was exactly the right thing to do. He was polite but didn't encourage her, and he made damn sure she couldn't catch him alone anywhere. Which didn't stop Jill from getting wildly jealous every time Cory even glanced in her direction." Rosie sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Jill was being stupid, I told her so myself; told her Cory would never touch the girl."
"But she wouldn't listen," Olivia surmised.
"Yup, and in the end there was a really ugly scene where Jill confronted the girl and called her all sorts of demeaning names, told her to stay away from Cory. Honestly I think the only reason Jill didn't get fired for it was that the parents thought their daughter had been making a fool of herself and took Jill's side when the matter went up before Luke."
Olivia shook her head. "That... must have been pretty hard on the girl."
"Which was what Cory thought. The whole scene was just so unnecessary, and he told Jill that when he broke it off. She'd been jealous over nothing and he could see it inevitably happening again, every time he even so much as spoke to a pretty girl. He didn't want the drama."
And here I come with a history of nothing but drama, Olivia thought. "Thanks for telling me this, Rosie."
"You're welcome. I'd like to see Cory happy. I'd like to see Jill happy too, but the two of them just aren't suited for each other." Rosie shrugged, her irrepressible grin breaking out again. "I'm a natural matchmaker."
"What about you, anyone special in your life?" Olivia asked curiously.
A wistful look crossed Rosie's face briefly before she shook her head. "I'm afraid not."
"That look tells me that there's someone, though? Didn't Jill say you were seeing a pilot?" Olivia remembered the earlier conversation in the airport.
"Past tense, I'm afraid."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Olivia said genuinely.
"He was seeing multiple other girls"—Rosie's smile was wry—"and nice though he was—and honest about it, which was a big point in his favor—I'd like to be somebody's one and only."
Don't we all, Olivia thought. "Jill told me Cory was a player."
"Not in the least." Rosie shook her head vehemently. "Couldn't be further from the truth. Cory isn't one to start something unless he thinks it's going somewhere. He was genuinely broken up about ending things with Jill, but her jealousy was just too much for the relationship to bear."
"So me even hinting that I might be jealous would be a big red flag," Olivia surmised. "I'll keep that in mind."
"You should. Because there are silly young girls who try to throw themselves at him every other week here, and Cory will be watching to see your reaction," Rosie warned. She covered a huge yawn and laughed at herself. "God, sorry. Been a long day. I'm gonna go crash."
"Thank you for telling me the truth."
"You're welcome." Rosie surprised Olivia with a hug, which Olivia returned tentatively. "Don't let Jill get to you. If I see or hear her starting any crap, I'll try and pull her up; she listens to me."
Olivia thanked her again, and Rosie took her leave with a cheerful wave, leaving Olivia alone with her thoughts.
Lost in thought, Olivia sat for a while in silence. She was startled when the cabin door opened and looked up to see a tall redheaded woman who was probably a couple of years her senior entering.
"Hi," she said uncertainly.
"'Allo, you must be Olivia! I have heard so much about you already! I'm Suzannah, your roommate."
"Oh." Getting to her feet, Olivia smiled in welcome. "Hi—nobody mentioned you were French!"
Suzannah laughed throatily, stepping forward and kissing Olivia enthusiastically on both cheeks. "Eh, we are a multinational crew here; nobody thinks much of it. As long as they can understand your accent, that is."
That made Olivia smile. She liked Suzannah immediately, admiring her poise and confident air. "I swiped one of your sodas from the fridge earlier," she confessed, figuring she'd best get that out of the way first. "I'll replace it, I promise."
Suzannah waved it off with another laugh, heading to the fridge herself. "Want another? I'm thirsty, been a busy night in the kitchen."
Olivia accepted the offer and they sat to introduce themselves to each other properly. Suzannah was more than happy to answer questions, talking about her training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and her past work in major hotels and famous restaurants. Olivia almost died of shock when Suzannah admitted to once having worked for Gordon Ramsey and having a glowing recommendation from the infamously critical chef on her résumé.
"Well, nothing I've ever done compares to that; you definitely win," Olivia said, very impressed, making Suzannah's throaty laugh ring out again. The French girl smothered a yawn then, admitting that she'd had a long day.
"Go sleep, we can talk more tomorrow. We've got plenty of time to get to know each other," Olivia insisted when Suzannah demurred, offering to keep her company. Left alone, she thought she should probably go on into her own room, in case she made noise in the lounge area and kept the weary chef awake.
At least the nightwear she'd brought was perfectly fine; she liked to be comfortable when she slept, so she just changed into a tank top and a pair of boyleg cotton shorts before slipping into bed and turning out the bedside light.
Sleep was nowhere to be found, though, and after a couple of hours tossing and turning, Olivia gave up. Getting out of bed, she went out onto her little veranda, sitting down on the chair and putting her feet up on the railing. It was blissfully cool outside now, whereas her room had been too warm; she sighed as the sea breeze washed over her and let her head tip back.
"Can't sleep either?" a low voice said, and she startled upright, yelping with shock as her feet fell to the floor.
"Sorry!"
"Who the hell is that?" Olivia pressed her hand to her pounding heart.
"Cory. Remember, I live next door?" There was a laugh in his voice.
"God damn it." She shut her eyes before opening them, laughing at herself and peering across the dark space between the two cabins. She could just about make him out in the dim moonlight, lying in... "Is that a hammock?"
"Sure is, and it's big enough to share. Wanna come join me?"
She hesitated only briefly before scrambling to her feet and heading over. "I've never been in a hammock before," she admitted, looking at Cory sprawled negligently in the net, one long leg hanging over the side. "How do you get into it gracefully?"
"Easier said than done," he chuckled, "but actually fairly easy when you have help..." He pushed at the floor with his foot, swung towards her, and scooped her easily off her feet to lie with her back against his chest.
Olivia flailed for a second before realizing she was actually making it more likely they'd both fall out, and relaxed back against Cory. "You could have warned me," she grumped.
"I could, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun." He nuzzled at her ear, making her shiver.
"Practical joker," she accused, but she couldn't repress the laughter in her voice and he knew it.
"It's a bad habit." He fell silent, and she did too, feeling oddly relaxed despite their intimately close position, despite having known him for barely twelve hours. Lying in the cradle of his thighs, head pillowed on his broad chest, Olivia felt more comfortable, more secure, than she had in a very long time. Than she could ever remember feeling, if she were completely honest with herself.
Cory's toe brushing the floor pushed off, set them swinging gently. The slow side-to-side motion soothed Olivia, and her eyes drifted closed.
"Are you asleep?" Cory asked quietly a few blissful minutes later.
"No." But she didn't bother to open her eyes.
"That's good." He hesitated before saying softly, "Because I'm actually a lot less sleepy than I was before you lay down on me."
She realized that the firm muscle pressed against her left ass cheek wasn't actually his thigh. It couldn't be, not unless he had three legs.
"Oh." Her eyes popped wide and her cheeks flushed with color.
"You can get up, if you like." There was a definite or in Cory's tone, though he didn't say the word aloud.
"I think I'm perfectly fine here, thanks."
"Mm-hm." He moved slowly, though, his hand gliding gently across her stomach and up toward her breasts, making it obvious that she could grab it and push it off at any time. Far from doing so, Olivia closed her eyes and relaxed with a soft sigh as his hand cupped her breast through her top.
Cory's warm lips nibbled at her ear as his thumb rubbed small circles over her nipple, raising it quickly to a hard little point. It was Olivia who pulled up the hem of her top, though, taking his free hand in hers and bringing it under the thin fabric to cover her other breast.
Cory made a low, hungry sound deep in his chest, fingers tightening on her nipple. "So damn tempting," he rasped against Olivia's ear, hips grinding against hers, the hardness of his arousal pressing against her ass. "Come inside with me, Olivia..."
"I think I'd probably better not," she gasped reluctantly, arching up into his tugging fingers. "It's very soon..."
He growled wordlessly. "Okay, but I want you to know I'm gonna go jack off while thinking about you."
She smiled at that, turning her head to press kisses against his stubbled jaw. "Sounds hot. I'd like to watch you do that sometime."
"Mm. I'd like to watch you pleasure yourself too." He released her breasts and moved one hand slowly across her stomach and over her shorts before curving over her mound. "How do you like to do it... fingers, or toys?"
"Battery-operated boyfriend," Olivia moaned as his fingers crooked, pressing the thin fabric against her sensitive flesh. "I... I was nervous coming through Customs with it in my suitcase, actually. I had visions of the official pulling it out and waving it around in the middle of the terminal."
Cory laughed, the rumble in his chest shaking her whole body. "I'd have liked to have seen your face."
"That's because you have a low sense of humor and find amusement in watching me make a fool of myself," Olivia tried to say the words in a sniffy, offended tone, but Cory's long fingers had just insinuated themselves inside the crotch of her boyleg shorts, grazing gently over her folds. Her voice came out breathy and high instead.
"You look beautiful whether you're fully in control or taking an unexpected header into the water," Cory murmured hotly against her ear. "But I bet you're absolutely stunning when you come." One fingertip pressed firmly against her clit, rubbing a rapid circle. Olivia bit her lip to keep from screaming with ecstasy, acutely aware that they were outside. Yes, it was dark, but anyone walking on the path past the cabins would be able to see them if she made enough noise to attract attention.
"This okay?" Cory whispered, stroking faster. She nodded jerkily against his chest, as heat spiraled through her core, every nerve starting to tingle. His other hand had never left her breast as his fingertips carried on their teasing play with her nipple. He pinched lightly as his other hand slipped lower, fingers crooking up inside her as the heel of his hand rubbed firmly over her bud.
"Oh God, Cory, yes," Olivia gasped, her grasping his wrist with both hands and holding on to it so that she could grind herself against his hand to get just the pressure she needed. "Fuck, yes, there!"
"That's it, angel," he crooned in her ear. The hammock swayed and creaked below them as Olivia shuddered with completion, biting her tongue to keep from letting out loud cries of fulfillment.
Cory hummed with contentment, leaving his fingers right where they were until Olivia finally relaxed against him, her grip on his wrist falling lax. Gently he withdrew his hand and wrapped his arms around her to hold her close in a firm embrace.
"Thank you," Olivia murmured finally.
"Think you're relaxed enough to sleep now?" he asked with a soft chuckle.
Olivia laughed. "Mm. Yes, I rather think I am. How about you?" Deliberately she wiggled her ass, pushing it against the solid bar of his erection and grinning to herself at his heartfelt groan.
"I'm not relaxed at all, but I'll be fine. I can go cool off in the shower and take care of the problem."
"I could take care of it for you," she offered. His cock twitched against her ass, straining harder against her.
"Sounds good," Cory admitted, "but this isn't exactly the best position, or location, for that."
"True. Let's go inside, then."
"Thought you weren't ready for that?"
Olivia hesitated only a second before saying, "Not quite ready to hit a home run, no, but I'd like to get you off. Only fair."
"Oh, never let it be said I denied you the chance to even the score," Cory chuckled quietly before shifting under her, bracing them with his foot on the floor, and lifting quickly. Olivia found herself on her feet almost before she knew it, Cory standing up alongside her, taking her hand in his and leading her inside.
His room was a mirror image of hers, but a lot homelier, with just a small lamp beside the bed casting everything in a softly welcoming glow. Olivia smiled on spotting the vintage Point Break poster framed above the bed. Of course Cory would love that movie.
"No, here." She tugged back on his hand as he led her towards the bed. She pointed at the desk instead. "Take off your shorts and sit there." She grabbed the office chair and sat down, watching as he dropped his shorts quite unselfconsciously and stood nude and magnificently male before her before backing up to the desk and seating himself on the edge of it, knees spread apart.
Olivia stared her fill for a good minute before sighing. "Damn, you're gorgeous." He truly was, all golden skin over chiseled muscle, a scattering of dark blond hair on his broad chest narrowing down to the thin happy trail bisecting those perfect abs. His cock rose, thickly engorged from a nest of dark golden curls, swollen and flushed, a pearly drop of precum just beading at the tip.
Cory smiled at her. "That's my line."
"Hush and let me admire." Olivia scooted the chair closer, laying her hands on his strong thighs and pressing them a little farther apart so she could sit in between them. Leaning in, she breathed warm air over his cock and smiled as it twitched in response.
"Christ, Olivia." Cory's hands tightened where they curled around the edge of the desk, his knuckles whitening.
She smiled up at him, holding his gaze as her lips parted, tongue slipping out to moisten them before she licked a long, slow line up the length of his cock, swiping off the bead of precum and humming with pleasure at the salty-sweet taste on her tongue.
Cory's groan was heartfelt. Olivia laughed softly before licking her lips again and opening them wide, taking the flushed, swollen head of his cock into her mouth.
"Fuck, Olivia, I'm not gonna last."
Her mouth was too full to reply, but she let her actions speak for her, taking her hands off his thighs and wrapping one of them firmly around the base of his cock, the other rolling and caressing his balls between her fingers.
Cory cried out wordlessly, his cock jerking in her fingers an instant before the first spurt hit the back of her throat. Olivia took her time, slowly sucking up every last drop before licking him clean. His hand came up to slowly caress her hair, stroking through her thick curls.
"So good," Cory said quietly, looking down at Olivia as she finally moved back and smiled up at him. "Thank you."
She smiled slow and satisfied, like a cat licking cream from its whiskers. "You're welcome. I think maybe we'll both get a good night's sleep now, hmm?" Standing, she pressed a kiss on his lips before slipping away into the night.