Chapter Two

She’d only been at the resort two hours and it already felt like she’d never left.

Rio surveyed the beautiful view before her and breathed in the warm, tropical air. The scent of coconut mixed with salt water wafted over her and she sighed in contentment.

How she’d missed this paradise.

She put her sunglasses back on and made her way down the few stone steps to the private beachfront assigned to her villa. The warmth of the white sand and midday sun caressed her skin like an old lover—familiar and pleasant.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t go to the beach back in California. It was just that there was something different about the beach in this place. And it wasn’t even the missing crowds or lack of discarded trash items tangled in washed-ashore seaweed.

It was because this beach was hers, had been hers, every summer since she was a teenager. Last year though, she’d used it as a refuge, a place to hide away and lick her wounds. This year, she hadn’t come here to escape. She’d come to celebrate her new life and new career.

And, of course, work on her tan.

She arrived at the open-air beachside cabana. The white, sheer curtains had already been tied back on all four sides and she stepped easily onto the wooden platform. Rio set down her straw bag next to the large bed and untied her cover-up. When she looked around for the extra towels, she noticed the other bag sitting on the floor next to hers.

Before she could reach down to pick it up and investigate, footsteps approached behind her.

“Aye, Señorita Flores! You are already here!”

Rio turned to see her favorite beach attendant, Gustavo, holding a small ice chest. He set it down on the floor and gave her a big bear hug.

She hugged him back and smiled against his shoulder. The older man had been her savior last summer. The resort was basically his home and he knew how to get his hands on anything and everything she’d ever needed. “Hello, Gustavo. It’s so good to see you.”

They broke apart and she noticed his eyes kept darting in the direction of the ocean. When he looked back at her, his bushy eyebrows had furrowed in concern. “Yes, it’s so good to see you too. But I not expecting you for a few more days.”

“Oh, yes. Well, I ended up finding someone who could cover my classes at the studio, so I changed my flight.”

Gustavo smiled and nodded and then glanced again toward the ocean. This time she looked with him. What she saw made her mouth drop open.

An exquisitely chiseled six-pack and the man it belonged to had just emerged from the still and turquoise water. With each determined step he took, beads and streams of water fell off his perfect body, most likely in protest.

“Madre de dios,” she muttered, forgetting for a second that she wasn’t alone. Rio slapped her hand over her mouth and didn’t dare look at Gustavo. She could feel his knowing smile burning a hole right through her swimsuit’s cover-up. Warmth spread to her face and she was sure her cheeks were as pink as the time she’d fallen asleep on the villa’s private patio.

But embarrassment soon turned to shock as she began to recognize the rest of the man.

“Chase.” The name escaped her lips on a hush and was carried away with the ocean breeze.

“Yes, I think you know him since he stay in your sister’s villa this week,” Gustavo explained. “So I say it’s okay he use your cabana. The bed in his is broken.”

She pulled her eyes away from the glistening wet body of Chase Simon to finally look at Gustavo. “The bed is broken?”

He nodded. “Newlyweds stay—”

Rio held up her hand to stop him. There was no more explanation needed. Besides, they weren’t alone anymore.

“Hello, Gustavo,” Chase said with a curt nod in the older man’s direction as he stepped onto the platform. Then he turned to look at her and she watched his eyes widen, probably as big as hers when she’d first recognized him. “Rio?”

She was grateful she still had on her sunglasses to shield her from his intense aquamarine-colored gaze. Those damn eyes of his always did something to her. “Hello, Chase,” she answered coolly, even though her skin was on fire.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, looking back at Gustavo for an answer.

His accusatory tone needled at her. It kicked up old defenses. “I should be asking you the same thing. After all, this is my cabana.”

“Your cabana? I don’t understand.”

“This cabana belongs to that villa,” she pointed behind her, “and that villa is the same villa I’ve been staying in every summer since I was sixteen. You’re staying in the villa that Cassandra and John usually stay in, so your cabana is all the way over there. Hence, this is my cabana.”

She was annoyed. Beautiful eyes or not, she didn’t need to hide from them anymore. She removed her sunglasses and met his gaze full on and watched as the muscles in his jaw tensed.

“No one told me you were going to be here or there,” he said and folded his arms across his still glistening broad chest.

From the corner of her eye she could see that Gustavo was a wreck. He was wringing his hands and biting his bottom lip. She knew he took his job very seriously and prided himself on providing a perfect guest experience. She hated for this mix-up to tear him up even more.

“Well, no one told me you were going to be here either. Seems like John and Cassandra have some explaining to do. But this cabana thing is not Gustavo’s fault. I arrived earlier than expected. So you take it for today and I’ll take it tomorrow, okay?”

The jaw muscle flexed again and for a second Rio thought he’d disagree, or worse, storm off in search of Gustavo’s boss to complain. Instead, he nodded. “That sounds reasonable.”

Reasonable. Such a Chase word. Since she’d known him, he’d only done things that were reasonable or logical or practical. It made her want to scream.

But she didn’t. Instead, she smiled. “Good. Well, enjoy your afternoon on the beach. I’ll just go back to my villa and lay out there.”

Then she took off her cover up, draped it over arm and picked up her bag—making very sure that he got an eyeful of her leopard-print-bikini-bottom-covered ass as she bent over.

Let him see what he could never have. His punishment was for what happened between them two years ago.

As soon as Rio got to her patio, she dropped her things and dove into the pool in an effort to cool off. She hated that Chase could still get her so worked up. Even Cassandra could tell that she acted differently whenever he was around, but she didn’t know the reason why. Maybe if she did, her sister wouldn’t have stuck them together on a remote island for a week.

Rio finally cooled and calmed down after a few laps in the infinity pool. She decided she’d do her best to stay out of Chase’s way. So what if he’d already ruined her plans for that afternoon? She wasn’t about to let him ruin her fucking vacation too.