ELEVEN

Sadie stretched her limbs, reveling in the luxurious peace that blanketed her body as the island sun splashed across her bed through the open curtains. Her lips felt well used and her skin hummed with a satisfaction she couldn’t quite place. That was until a memory burst across Sadie’s sleep-addled brain, of Jack Avery pressed into her body, kissing, touching, bringing her the most delicious climax.

“Oh, fuck.” Sadie slammed a palm across her mouth. She waited for the horror to hit her, the impact of her actions to slap her fully across the face. But, to Sadie’s surprise, it didn’t come. Instead, she felt a smile split her lips and a pleasing tingle spread across her body.

Jack. He had captured her completely. And, if Sadie was being honest, she’d let herself get caught. It hadn’t just been the longing in his eyes or the reverence in his touch. Jack hadn’t been able to hide the emotion in his voice as he confessed all of the details he’d noticed about her. Sadie never would have thought that those little pieces could have amassed to much. But in Jack’s unwavering tone they revealed that he’d really been paying attention. And that he wanted what he saw.

Jack wanted her.

Sadie hopped from her bed and prepared for her day. Showered, hair running down her back in soft waves, Sadie pulled on a pale yellow dress, thin straps supporting the form-fitting bodice while the fabric of the skirt skimmed just above her knees. Her wedge heels firmly in place, Sadie dashed from her room, a lightness in her chest that was wholly unfamiliar.

She didn’t have far to go before she caught her first glimpse of him. Jack had decided against eating in his villa and was having breakfast at the terrace restaurant, some of his colleagues scattered at nearby tables. Sadie slowed down to give herself time to study him from afar. As she ran her eyes across the dark waves of his hair, the sharp slope of his nose, and square line of his jaw, Sadie realized that she’d spent so much time denying her attraction to Jack that she’d never given herself a chance to truly look at him. And it had been too dark in the cabana for her to appreciate how beautifully put together he really was.

There was no question that he was handsome. She’d always known it. But Sadie felt her breathing get shallow at the sight of him. Relaxed in his chair, his face tilted to soak up the sun, Sadie watched his mouth lift into a smile, a look of contentment softening the sharp angles. The blue of his shirt mirrored the clear sky above, the fabric spanning the width of his shoulders and breadth of his biceps. Under the table, his long legs, clad in smooth gray pants, were stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed casually.  He looked at ease. Calm, confident. And utterly delectable.

A waiter appeared behind him, setting a steaming cup of coffee just to his right. Jack smiled his thanks and lifted it to his lips, his Adam’s apple bobbing in the strong column of his throat as he swallowed. As he lowered the cup Jack caught sight of Sadie over the rim. By the time his coffee was back on the table, Jack was smiling at her with such unbridled pleasure that Sadie felt her stomach swoop in anticipation and a blush beat steady progress up her chest to her cheeks.

 Oh, sweet Jesus, Sadie. You are in. So. Much. Trouble.

Because, without giving it any thought, Sadie matched his smile with one of her own. One so large her cheeks ached. Sadie knew without a doubt that she was done pretending. She wanted Jack Avery.

And as Lizzie had pointed out to her that day in the Denver airport, Sadie had a habit of getting what she wanted.

***

Sadie didn’t have a chance to talk to him that morning. One of Jack’s colleagues joined him at his table before she’d reached him, the man she had seen with him on the terrace his first night on the island. The round, boisterous one. Which, Sadie supposed, was a good thing. Because she doubted she would have been able to stop herself from touching him in some way. Not now that she knew what his body felt like against her own. Certainly not now that she was seeing him in the brilliant light of day.

The rest of the day proceeded in much the same way. Sadie would catch Jack in her peripheral vision and find herself freezing in place, forgetting what she was doing, her eyes ravenous for him. And she noticed Jack doing the same thing, standing along the edge of a group, paying no attention to what people were saying to him. Instead, all of his attention would be directed at her, his eyes weighing heavily on her exposed skin.

At one point, after Sadie had survived yet another one of Jack’s lingering looks – his eyes traveling from her neck to her chest, from the tops of her thighs to her toes – Sadie decided it was time to give her frazzled nerves a break. Ducking up the path to the center of the resort, Sadie made her way to Grace’s office.

“Knock, knock.” Sadie smiled at Grace as she looked up from her desk.

“Hi, there. What happened to you last night? Jasper said he saw you down by the pool. He thought you were coming up to the bar for dinner.”

“I told him I might. But I wasn’t really hungry. Just went straight back to my room after the party wrapped up.”

“How did it go?” Grace gestured for Sadie to grab one of the chairs in front of her desk. “Jasper said it looked like everyone was having a good time. Lots of drinks on the final tab.”

Sadie chuckled, letting the air conditioning in Grace’s office to cool her overheated skin. “Jasper has a lot to say, apparently.”

“Always,” Grace agreed. “Whether you ask him or not.”

“Well, he’s not wrong. I’m pretty sure the group had a great time.”

“You don’t know for certain? How very un-Sadie-like of you.” Grace’s smile was still in place, but Sadie thought that her eyes had dimmed.

“I might have ducked out early,” Sadie dropped her eyes to her lap, hoping a flush of embarrassment wouldn’t give her away. “Headache.”

“Ah.” Grace fell quiet for a moment. “You didn’t happen to see Jasper again, did you? Before you went back to your room?”

“No.” Sadie looked back up at her friend. “We chatted for a bit earlier. He offered to bring me some food. But I didn’t see him again after he left the pool.”

“Ah, okay.” Grace kept her eyes on her desk, rearranging some papers that already formed a tidy stack.

“Grace?” Sadie tried to catch her gaze. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Grace sighed, a frown pulling at her mouth. “Well, no. Not really? Oh, I don’t know.”

“Grace, you’ve talked me off the ledge several times this past month. You’ve hidden me away from creepy, over-attentive Marcus. While plying me with french fries. And, and, you introduced me to the glory that is Sonya’s cucumber-mint water. It is time for me to return the favors. What’s up?” Sadie met Grace’s eyes and then pointedly directed her gaze at the paper that Grace was re-stacking for the third time. “Something is obviously bothering you.”

“Well…,” Grace squirmed in her chair before inhaling a deep breath. On her exhale the words tumbled out all at once. “Did you sleep with Jasper?”

Sadie leaned forward, squinting at her friend. “Excuse me, what?”

Grace repeated the question, spacing her words out for emphasis. “Did – you – sleep – with – Jasper?”

Sadie smacked her hand on Grace’s desk. “No, no, stop asking that!” Sadie felt a ripple of revulsion at the thought. Jasper was an attractive man. Funny, charming. But he wasn’t Jack. And Sadie knew that Grace liked him. A lot.

“What?” Grace squealed. “You said excuse me. I thought you didn’t hear me the first time.”

“Yes, yes,” Sadie waved her hands in front of her, as if to push back the question. “I heard you. I heard you quite clearly. I didn’t mean for you to repeat it….” Sadie fell back into her chair, smoothing her hands along the thin fabric of her dress. “No, Grace.” She met Grace’s eyes. “No, I didn’t sleep with Jasper. Definitely not.”

“Oh.” Grace’s body deflated. “Okay.”

“Why would you even ask?”

Grace passed her hand across her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, before looking back to Sadie. “Christ, Sadie. I’m sorry. I don’t know. I don’t know what’s come over me.”

“Are you and Jasper…?” Sadie waved her fingers between Grace and the imaginary Jasper in the room.

“Sleeping together? Not quite.” Grace pursed her lips. “Not yet.”

“But you are planning to?”

“I thought we were, yes. Last night, in fact.”

“Ah.” Sadie’s lips quirked; the movement caught Grace’s attention.

“Ah?”

“He just said something last night, when I saw him. About going to see you after he got up to the bar. He was looking for you. At least that’s what it sounded like.”

“Oh.” Grace, Sadie thought, had suddenly fallen victim to a slew of monosyllabic words. And possibly a shit boyfriend.

“But you didn’t see him?”

“No. Yes. I mean, yes, I did see him.” Grace scrubbed her face with her hands before throwing herself back in her chair. “This is so stupid,” she muttered.

“Okay, perhaps you should start from the beginning.” Sadie gave Grace an encouraging smile. Grace wrapped her fingers around the arms of her chair before pressing out a puff of air.

“Right, yes. Fine.”

Sadie cocked an eyebrow and waited.

“I don’t know why I’m making a big deal out of this. I like Jasper. I think he likes me. We fool around occasionally. Nothing serious. Nothing exclusive. But we haven’t gotten to the full-blown sex bit yet. Don’t know why. Timing, I guess? We’re always on the verge of being interrupted, so it never quite happens.”

“No dates, no romantic dinners? No visits to your respective houses?”

“You mean our staff accommodations on property? Um, no. Small beds, thin walls, next to no privacy. My office is a better place for it. Hell, even the staff lounge.”

Sadie screwed up her face as she thought of the sofa in the staff lounge, the one she’d considered stretching out across after she’d eaten her cheeseburger way too fast. Grace caught the disgusted look that crossed Sadie’s face. “Yeah, I’d steer clear of that sofa if I was you.”

Sadie started to respond but Grace cut her off. “You don’t even want to know.”

“Eww. Gross.”

“Yeah, well. Needs must, sometimes, you know? Anyway, last night was supposed to be different. Last night…,” Grace’s voice drifted off as she thought back. “I’d gotten us a room. Not one of the fancy ones. Just a small one tucked in the back of the resort, no view, nothing special. But it did have a big, comfy bed and lots of privacy. And Jasper was supposed to meet me there at nine. I even gave him a key so he could come straight in, no need to worry about who might see him lingering around guest rooms at night. But….” Grace’s face dropped in disappointment as she gave her shoulders a shrug.

“But he never came?”

“He never came,” Grace confirmed in a small voice. “No call, no text. Not even a note. I feel like a prize idiot. It’s not as if it was supposed to be anything special. Hell, we’re not even dating. But he could have called, at least. To let me know he wasn’t coming. To give the head’s up not to open the bottle of bubbly I’d brought.”

“You brought champagne?”

Grace snorted, “Cava. Please. I might have access to world-class digs, but that doesn’t mean I don’t live on a budget. And for the very same reason, I wasn’t going to let the bottle go to waste. I’d already opened it, so….”

“So, on top of being pissed at Jasper, you’re nursing a hangover?”

“A raging one. Or it was up until lunch. The more I’ve thought about the whole thing, the angrier I’ve become. And it turns out rage is a great hangover cure. Who knew?”

“Duly noted. I’ll be sure to steer clear of Jasper for the rest of the day. Don’t want to get caught in the crossfire.” Sadie gave her friend a little grin but Grace shot her a questioning glance. “You know, when you let loose at Jasper?”

“Ah,” Grace shook her head. “Nah. That’s not what I mean. I mean, yes, I’m pissed at Jasper. For sure. But mostly I’m angry with myself. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what I was thinking. A nice room, candlelight, a bottle of sparkling. None of that makes sense, not with him.” Grace pushed her thumbnail into a groove in her desk, worrying it back and forth. “Mostly, I’m just pissed that I set myself up for such disappointment. I know Jasper better than that. I just got swept up in things.”

“Are you sure you aren’t letting him off the hook too easily? He promised to meet you, right?”

“Insomuch as Jasper promises to do anything, sure. But that’s what I mean. The guy isn’t exactly Mr. Dependable. He’s in his late twenties,” Grace ticked off her fingers as she continued, “living on a tropical island. Pouring drinks for rich vacationers. And hitting the beach every hour he’s not working. He is all about going where the wind takes him. Which apparently also applies to me. A convenient hookup in the staff lounge? Sure. A planned romantic rendezvous in a hotel room? Not so much.”

Sadie was about to respond when Grace’s computer pinged repeatedly, the rapid-fire notification that she had a slew of new emails. Grace’s eyes jumped to her screen before she turned back to Sadie.

“Anyway, enough about that. Duty calls.” Grace began to turn back to her computer before pausing. “Thanks, Sadie. For listening. And I’m sorry, for earlier.”

“Earlier?”

“Yeah, you know. When I accused you of sleeping with Jasper when he was supposed to be sleeping with me?”

“Ah, yes. That.” Sadie gave a little shrug. “Don’t worry,” Sadie smiled, “I won’t hold it against you.” She stood, about to leave Grace to her work, when Sadie stopped. “Grace?”

“Hmmm,” Grace’s attention was already on her screen, her fingers flying across her keyboard.

“Why did you think that Jasper might be with me?”

“Oh,” Grace’s eyes jumped up to hers. “After he saw you at the pool, Jasper did come back to the bar for a little while. But he didn’t stay to the end of his shift. After I slipped him the room key I came back here, but Marcus called me to help run interference with a guest. I was on my way to meet him when I saw Jasper sneaking out of the bar. I figured he was going to get ready. To meet me. But I heard him tell one of the other bartenders that he was going back down to the pool. To help with the fancy party. Your party.”

“And when he didn’t come back….”

“I figured he’d found someone else to keep him busy.”

“Hmm.” Sadie shook her head, locking her gaze on Grace’s. “I didn’t see Jasper again last night. I promise. Whatever kept him from meeting you, it wasn’t me.”

Grace watched her friend for a moment before she nodded, her easy smile back in place. “Thanks, Sadie. I know. Next time I’ll keep my crazy accusations to myself. Promise.”

“Promise me one more thing?”

“What’s that?”

“Please, please, no sex in the staff lounge. God, imagine if Marcus caught you. It might just give that man ideas….” Sadie ran out of Grace’s office under the hail of paperclips that Grace threw at her, a squeal of laughter bouncing between them.