Chapter Seven

Blake

As he waited for the woman—realizing yet again that he didn’t know her name—Blake wandered around and looked at the various paintings on the walls of her little home. “These are incredible,” he called, touching one particularly vivid sea scene that seemed to leap off the canvas.

“Thanks,” she yelled from behind the bathroom door and, abruptly, the thought of her changing send a surge of arousal through Blake. The idea of that lacy dress sliding from her gorgeous body, dipping toward the floor as her soft, full breasts were fully revealed—

The door opened and she walked back out, wearing cut-offs and a nicely fitted dark blue tank top that only served to accent the sheen of her hair. Unbidden, Blake’s eyes wandered to her legs and arousal hit even harder at the sight of those long, golden gams. He yanked his eyes away quickly when he realized he’d been staring, and gestured dumbly at the paintings.

“Where’d you get these?”

Seemingly amused, she shrugged. “Just here and there. Friends of friends. Hey, that suit may look great, but it seriously sucks for what I have in mind. I have some shorts and a T-shirt you can borrow. Old boyfriend’s that I use for house painting and stuff. They look like crap, but you’d be more comfortable.”

For some bizarre reason, the notion that she’d had boyfriends send a tug of jealousy spinning through Blake. He shoved it away. “Nah. I’m good, no worries. I live in these things.”

She shrugged. “Suit yourself. Literally.”

Her easy, comfortable way set Blake’s frayed nerves at ease. She wasn’t cowed, even in spite of his obvious mood. That impressed him.

“What’s your name?” he asked sheepishly, and her burst of laughter hit him low in the gut.

“Kelly,” she replied, not offering a last name. “And you’re Blake, the hotel rumors have told me.”

He arched an eyebrow. “There are hotel rumors about me?”

“There are hotel rumors about everyone,” she said ruefully, then started for the front door. “Come on.”

He lingered behind for just a second, pretty much outright gawking at her perfect backside before following her back outside.

She locked the door and they started out again, but this time Kelly reached out and tucked her arm in his as she began to point out the various sights around them. The minute she placed her arm in his, the heat within Blake soared again, and he sensed Kelly reacting in a similar way. So the attraction was mutual. He filed that for future reference.

As a salt breeze drifted over to them from the nearby ocean, Kelly walked him through her home, drawing Blake out of his usual shell as she told him all about the island. She knew the history as much as the culture and shared everything from the ghost stories to the tales about builders who had gone crazy or broke in mid-project, responsible for some of the half-built properties scattered around.

At that, Blake stiffened slightly, but again, she seemed to easily read him and changed the subject quickly, on to the wildlife and the weather.

“Your turn,” she finally said, as they walked into a grove of some kind of tree, the soft buzzing of insects intermingling with brown pelicans making a ruckus nearby. “Come on. Give me something personal. Anything.”

And just like that, he opened up to her. It all came pouring out, the whole damn story about the whole fucked up business and his brothers’ contributions to the whole mess. He couldn’t believe the torrent of words that came from him, but they wouldn’t stop after they started, so Blake talked and talked and then talked some more, and all the while Kelly walked beside him quietly, her hand now tucked into his.

When he finally ran out of words, he anticipated an awkward silence, but instead Kelly looked over at him and the look of understanding took his breath completely away. “That’s shitty,” she said bluntly. “No two ways around it. I’m sorry, Blake. The only thing I can say is that I guarantee you’ll figure it out. You love your company too much not to.”

“Yeah. I will,” he admitted. “And it could be worse, I guess. Being stranded in an island paradise with a gorgeous woman while I figure things out … yeah. Could definitely be worse.”

She flashed him an impish smile and just then they turned a corner and arrived at an unbroken stretch of sand dunes.

“This is the whole point of the evening,” she informed him, letting go of his hand and leaving Blake feeling oddly bereft.

Walking away momentarily, she returned with what looked like two huge cookie sheets. He stared at them in confusion. “Uh … where’s the flour and sugar?”

Kelly laughed. “The dunes are the sugar. And you and I are going to be the cookies, if you really want to mix metaphors. Here’s how it’s done.”

Before he knew what was happening, she’d darted away from him and was scrambling nimbly up the side of the dune. No sooner had she reached the top than she was flying back down again, this time riding the cookie sheet, or whatever it was. She sailed to a halt a few feet from Blake and looked up at him with a huge smile.

“Your turn. I dare you not to fall …”

An hour ago, he would’ve hurled the cookie tin like a frisbee across the ocean, he’d been so angry. But Kelly was having some sort of an effect on Blake that he couldn’t begin to figure out, an effect that led him to grab the sheet she extended, trek up the dune—which turned out to be way harder than she’d made it look—and to attempt to ride the cookie sheet down the dune, only to end up flat on his ass halfway down.

Her laughter reached him from far below and he found himself laughing too, cradled in the lingering warmth of the sand, still holding some of the sun’s earlier rays. “Okay … I’ve got sand in places sand has definitely never been …”

“Like a virgin,” Kelly singsonged, appearing on the neighboring dune and waving her cookie sheet in challenge. “See you at the bottom …”

She raced away and Blake scrambled to follow, an unfamiliar smile crossing his face from ear to ear.

***

Somehow, the evening just vanished. One minute, Blake was riding sand waves with Kelly, the next they were back outside her house, covered in sand, still laughing. All his tension had evaporated, and he couldn’t believe the change this beautiful woman had wrought in him. He still had a disaster of a project on his hands, but somehow, he had hope again.

“Hey. Thanks,” he said, reaching out and brushing some sand from her hair, unable to keep his fingers from lingering in the softness of the thick curls. “You were right. I needed that.”

She smiled that melting, honest smile. “I’m always right, Blake Parker. Stick around long enough and you’ll learn that. So maybe being stuck here for at least a few weeks won’t be so bad?”

“Not entirely,” he conceded. “You’re kind of a miracle worker, the way you knew exactly what to do to get my mind off all the shit. What do I owe you?”

The smile vanished from Kelly’s face like a massive wave had washed it away, erasing any trace. “Nothing.”

Confused, Blake frowned. “No, I said I’d pay you before, when I first asked to hire you.”

A steel glint replaced the previous warmth in her eyes. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“But …” he almost stammered in confusion. “But, I took your evening. You missed out on a whole night’s pay. I can afford to pay, Kelly, obviously—”

He trailed off as he saw the steel in her eyes switch to a deep, bewildering hurt before Kelly unlocked the front door and stepped inside. “Good luck with your hotel, Mr. Parker,” she said stiffly, and slammed the door between them, leaving Blake standing on her doorstep, feeling like he’d just wiped out on concrete, instead of soft, silken sand.