When I woke up, I could feel that it was early without glancing at the clock. I kept my eyes shut and gave a satisfied sigh as I rolled over in bed, memories of last night still fresh in my mind.

I slipped my hand to my side and felt warmth, and I knew Haley was still there. My lips curled into a soft smile in the pillow. I could feel the weight of her body in the mattress next to me, and I knew that she was part of the reason that I felt so refreshed and invigorated. Thanks to my workout routine, I rarely woke up groggy or aching, but this morning was something special, and I had the woman next to me to thank for that.

The smell of sex was still in the air, and the thought that it was the first scent that would greet Haley’s morning was oddly satisfying.

Just one night.

A reunion.

I felt my smile grow, and I wondered if that thought had been on Haley’s mind when she drifted off to sleep last night.

I finally turned my head toward her and opened my eyes.

The sight of her was like an arrow through my heart.

A little of her black hair was over her eyes, and her lips were pushed out, her face sloppily pushed into the pillow. Her long eyelashes looked so peaceful, and I’d think she were a statue or a painting if the sheets weren’t slowly rising and falling with her every breath.

My cock twitched at the sight of her. Fuck, she was so beautiful, even more so like this. Something about such a prim and professional woman letting loose and dozing messily made my blood run hot.

Really, though, every little thing about her drove me wild. The sight of her here reminded me of so much of what I loved about her from college. She was a heavy sleeper. I could jump up and down on the bed, and she’d still be snoozing. She folded her arms under her at an awkward angle that I used to tease her about. She could sleep on her right side or stomach, but never her left side, or she’d be twitching and uncomfortable. Whenever she slipped into freshly washed sheets, she liked to wiggle her legs vigorously in them and enjoy the feeling of the fresh fabric while she got cozy.

Every one of those little details about her swam through my head and reminded me how much I regretted leaving her.

It had made sense at the time, as painful as it had been. I had done it thinking it was best for both of us.

Maybe I had been right. I’d never really know what the alternative might have been. All I knew was that my body was aching for her right here and now.

In truth, I wanted nothing more than to lunge forward at that peacefully snoozing face and kiss her awake, then start groping her bare breasts and turn her over to give her a taste of cock to start the day off.

But when I finally stretched out my massive frame in the bed and pushed the sheets off myself, standing up and looking down at my cock that was still stiff at the mere thought of her in the morning, I couldn’t keep a pang of guilt from running through me.

I’d fucked her hard and given us both the best night either of us had had in a long time, but I still hadn’t told her why I was here.

That serene figure was going to wake up thinking I was just an ex passing through the resort on my way to something else, and that last night was a one-time thing.

Part of me wanted to throw tell the plans to fuck off and make up an excuse to actually move on to Aspen to keep her living in that fantasy.

That was stupid as shit, but maybe there was something I could do for her.

I looked back at her sleeping form, and my half-stiff cock grew hard again. I ran my hand through my hair and shook my head, making my way to the coffee maker and turning it on before heading to the bathroom.

The hot water quickly filled the room with steam as I stepped in. As soon as the shower ran scalding water over my body and started to relax my muscles. I couldn’t stop thinking about last night.

My mind flashed with the taste of her pussy, the feeling of her lips on my cock, the way she came while my cock was buried inside her. Fuck that woman was insatiable. I knew in that moment that I’d have to have her again, one way or another. There was truly nothing like her.

I quickly rinsed off. I stepped out of the shower and toweled off just as the smell of fresh coffee reached my nose.

I walked out with nothing but a towel around my waist to see her still sleeping peacefully under the sheets.

I poured a cup of coffee and opened my laptop. I had time to pull on my boxers and pants when I realized that there was an email from my attorney in my inbox.

I sat down and read over the email. My brow furrowed.

My attorney had sent more details about the portfolio purchase.. It was a damn good deal. One of the best deals the company had ever seen by a long shot. The paperwork was already in the works, and agreements had already been made, but there was something in the attorney’s details I hadn’t seen before.

There was a clause. A fucking clause that I couldn’t get out of. I had to buy all twelve properties or none at all. I couldn’t just tell me attorney to cut Peppertree from the portfolio. Damn it.

The bank needed their scattered properties off their hands. It was non-negotiable.

If Peppertree was owned by literally anyone else in the world, that would be fine with me. I had more than enough resources and expertise to flip this failing place into something anyone would be proud of.

But this wasn’t just anyone’s resort. This was Haley’s. This was her family’s.

After last night, this was a betrayal. She wouldn’t see it any other way. When I took her up to my bedroom, I never expected I would feel like this about her, but revisiting those old emotions did more to me than I thought they could.

There had to be some way to back out.

I pulled up some of the papers I’d already signed, but my heart sank even more when I realized the fine print in all these things just reiterated everything my attorney told me. This deal was already in the works, and pulling out now would be a major threat to my company. It would be the kind of rookie mistake that would have shareholders pulling out left and right and putting a lot more jobs at risk.

If it was just my ass on the line, I might have considered it, but going through with this deal had a lot of employees on the line.

I took a drink of my coffee as I scoured the contracts for any sign of a loophole. I was no attorney, but I knew what to look for. My attorney tended to assume that I didn’t read these things thoroughly, but I always made a point to, and I learned more with each one.

But the deal was ironclad. I almost felt guilty trying to find a weakness in the contract, because it was the deal of a lifetime by all other standards. Financially, this was going to take something great and make it legendary. Flipping these resorts into working order would mean that I would have a legacy to outshine anyone else in my family. They were resorts from all over the world, too.

The Hawthorne name would be famous.

And all it was going to cost me was stabbing the most incredible woman in the world right in the back.

I shook my head and ran a hand through my hair. Briefly, I considered taking negotiations into my own hands, but if the bank sensed weakness like that, they’d get cold feet faster than Peppertree was crashing on its own.

I cast a glance around the room. Of course, I could always just let Haley be the manager of this resort, but that would be adding insult to injury. I knew her better. It would only piss her off.

As if on cue, I heard a soft moan behind me that made my heart beat faster. She was awake. Shit. It could be a perfect morning. A morning of fucking into oblivion until we had to go to work.

All I had to do was find a solution to an impossible problem.