Kola Kitanabu
Ellie
We’re sitting on the beach, Nick and I. I’m lazily watching the deep ocean waters swell in the distance.
It’s been one year since Jacque took the helm at Stingray and the company’s prospering. I am still waiting for my own robot Pomeranian, though.
Everywhere around me, things are so well-kept. When Nick gave that money to the people of Kola Kitanabu, they put it to good use. No one’s building a mansion in this rainforest.
People still recognize Nick everywhere, but thankfully, fewer recognize me. In the States, some people walk up to Nick to shake his hand while others walk up to tell him what a jerk they think he is.
I guess that’s the way it’s going to be, though.
Right now, Nick and I are celebrating our engagement. I have to say, with all his money and taste, I was hoping for more than the standard down-on-one-knee with a ring proposal, but he’s got a while to make it up to me.
I reach over and snatch my champagne glass and take a sip.
It’d be great to say we never had to deal with Stingray anymore, but even as Jacque has brought the company all the way around and even started breaking internal profit records, he still calls Nick at least once a day to ask advice on how to deal with this person or that. At least they got him to talk in front of people without sounding like an angsty teenager.
It took a while.
Max is standing at the edge of the shore, biting at the waves as they come over him. Sammie’s pooping in the sand. This is the life.
Naomi steps to the side of my beach lounger and says, “Trevor has the car ready whenever the two of you would like to go.”
For the last six months, Naomi’s been my personal bodyguard. I know they say it’s not a job for family, but at the same time, she’s the most conniving person I know, and if anyone’s going to try anything, she will have already thought of it first.
“Are you just going to sit there drinking or are you going to acknowledge that I’m speaking to you?” she asks.
I look over at Nick. He says, “Thank you, Naomi. That should be all for now.”
My sister walks off with a grunt and I finally ask the question. “Why don’t you like Naomi?” I ask. “You’ve been civil with her for a long time now, but you didn’t like her from the first time I introduced you to her.”
“That was the first time you introduced me to her,” he says, “but it wasn’t the first time I met her. At Mulholland Junior High, the jocks were the worst to me physically, but she was the worst to me psychologically. It wasn’t even a race, either. She was just flat-out brutal.”
“Yeah, but what did she do?” I ask. “She must have done something to make you hold that grudge so long.”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” he says.
I clear my throat and hold up my left hand, making a big show of his diamond ring on my finger.
He sighs. “I was in drama class one day, and she was in there talking to one of her friends. She wasn’t even in the class, but she was always in there anyway. It always bugged me that the teachers just went along with it.”
“That’s it?” I ask.
His face goes a deep shade of red, but he says, “Yeah.” In a rushed voice, he says, “That’s what it was. They just let her get away with everything.”
“I don’t buy it,” I tell him. “What’d she do?”
“We had a substitute teacher one day,” he says. “Her name was Miss Trilby, and despite the fact she was teaching teenagers, she wasn’t too cautious about the way she dressed. So I’m sitting there and I have to ask her this question, but I don’t want to because I had a raging boner from staring at her chest from the back of the classroom and I didn’t want her to know. But I was a teenager, and she was wearing a very low-cut top, and it was making it impossible for me to pay attention to what she was actually teaching.”
“You’ve really come a long way, haven’t you?” I tease.
He rolls his eyes. “Long story short, Naomi noticed and she didn’t just blab, she pointed. I was there with my legs crossed and a coat on my lap, but everyone was laughing and Miss Trilby was up there with a red face, shaking her head.”
“Oh my god,” I say, setting my champagne glass back on the small table between and behind us. “You’re the kid Naomi was calling the lumberjack.” I start laughing. Even though I know Nick does not appreciate it, I can’t help myself.
“Yeah,” he says. “Was it the worst thing to ever happen to me? Probably not, but it sure as hell felt like it at the time.”
“So,” I say, “are you about ready to call it a night? It is getting pretty late if we’re going to catch that plane back home to New York.”
After much deliberation, I decided we should keep the beach house.
“Yeah,” he says looking at me, a smile crossing those tempting full lips.
He holds up his glass, and I don’t know what’s going to happen. All the forethought in the world wouldn’t have prepared me for any of this.
Picking up my champagne flute, I clink glasses with Nick.
I’m not sure what the future will hold. I’m just glad we’ll be meeting it together.
Somewhere behind us, Naomi is shouting, “Will you come on already? It’s getting dark and I’m wearing sunglasses!”
I have to chuckle as I say the words, “So I’m marrying the lumberjack, huh?”
Nick groans.
“It’s okay, honey,” I tell him. “I’ve got your back.”
I whistle and Max comes running. He stops just in front of me, his tail wagging.
I lean forward, saying, “Max, do you see Naomi?”
Max looks past me toward the car.
I ask Max, “Do you want to give her kisses even though we all know she hates that?”
Max licks my arm and wags his tail even harder than before.
“Good boy,” I say. “Now get her!”
SEAL’D BY THE BILLIONAIRE
By Alexa Davis
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Alexa Davis
Chapter One
Zack
Friday
“Dude, I am killing you!” my best friend, Lark, declared gleefully as he took my little virtual character out again. “It’s like you’re not even playing, Zack.”
“I hardly stand a chance, do I?” I rolled my eyes and dismissed his teasing. “You actually play games competitively for a living. Whereas I do…”
I trailed off at the end of that sentence, not wanting to say nothing aloud, even if that was what I meant. Ever since I’d had my accident and been dismissed from the Navy, my life was a little…meaningless. I needed to change the subject, and fast, if I didn’t want to fall right back down into a pit of misery. “What the hell was that?”
“What?” Lark was hammering so hard on the buttons on his controller that he barely even acknowledged the racket going on outside. “Are you hearing things?”
“No, listen.” I dropped my own controller and stood up, ignoring his protests. “I heard some banging. I think it’s coming from out in the hallway. I’m going to have a look.”
I stepped carefully towards the front door to my apartment, limping cautiously on my injured leg, and slowly opened the door. Almost instantly, my eyes fell on a tiny red-haired girl who was skipping into the door directly opposite mine. That apartment had been empty for a while now, and I’d gotten used to that. I certainly didn’t expect it to be filled by someone with a kid.
“Come on, Meghan!” a sweet-sounding voice called out. “Come inside so I can drag the boxes in.”
I paused for just long enough to see a stunningly beautiful woman with the same shade of red hair, pale silky looking skin, and warm hazel eyes join the young girl. She was medium height, smaller than me – which wasn’t hard since I stood higher than six foot – and a fit body, as if she was athletic.
She was surprisingly hot, actually. She would’ve been causing a stirring in my underwear if it wasn’t for the fact that she had a daughter. Maybe I’d even be considering slipping out of my funk and trying to hit on her…but kids were not my thing.
Our eyes met, just for a second, before I forced myself to drag mine away. She had a lot of boxes, and I really didn’t want to get involved in helping her move them. I wasn’t feeling neighborly enough for that, so I slid the door closed quietly and made my way into the kitchen. Almost idly, I grabbed myself and Lark a beer. I wasn’t much thinking about what I was doing because my head was filled with her. The stranger, the beautiful red head with a young child…
“Did you solve the mystery of the noise?” Lark yelled from the other room. “Should I be worried? Is it a serial killer on the loose?”
“New neighbor, actually,” I declared as I sat down next to him. He took the bottle of beer from me and gave me an inquisitive look as if he wanted to know more. “A woman.” That was about all I could give him.
“Oh yeah?” He managed to sound mildly interested. “Hot? Age? Single?”
“Oh my God, are you serious?” I laughed and shook my head. “How the hell am I supposed to know that just from a sighting?”
“Well, you must know if she’s hot…and you just take a look at her ring finger. If it’s empty, she’s game.”
“Unbelievable,” I muttered. “Lark, you really are something else. She was good looking, judging by the split second I looked at her, probably about our age, too. I didn’t get a chance to look at her finger since she was moving boxes…”
“Wait.” He dropped his controller and turned to face me. “She was moving, and you didn’t offer her help? That’s, like, the perfect way in!”
“Maybe, but don’t forget my leg.” I pointed down to remind him of the injury that I’d sustained during my time as a Navy Seal. “I’m smack in the middle of physical therapy. I need to be careful if I don’t want to mess it up again.”
“Yeah.” He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “I suppose.”
I could almost see the cogs in his brain reeling, wondering if he should offer her help. I didn’t know the woman at all, and I certainly didn’t begrudge my friend any action, but the thought of him going over there to see her filled me with a sick sense of dread. I needed to put a stop to it before he left me here, alone and lonely.
“She has a kid,” I spit out, knowing that would instantly kill the dream. “So, there’s that, too.”
Lark’s face fell, and ice cold relief flooded through me. He’d dated a woman with children before, and it was safe to say that things did not go well. He had vowed to stay away from anyone with children in the future, even declared that he wouldn’t have kids himself, but I wasn’t totally convinced that one would stick. Still, at least it kept it away from the red-haired stranger from across the hall.
“Oh well, never mind.” He slumped back into his seat and grabbed the controller again. He flicked the same shooter game on, and I joined in. “So, how are things with your leg?” he asked awkwardly. He knew better than anyone that I didn’t really like talking about it. I saw my injury as a weakness and that was the one thing I really hated, so it was brave of him to ask.
Luckily, I wasn’t in a terrible mood today so I could answer honestly. “Yeah, it’s okay, man. I mean, sometimes I get annoyed that it isn’t healing quicker, but you know how it is.”
“These things take time,” he replied wisely, as if he knew. “At least it’s progress.”
I didn’t bother to answer him. I got the impression that it wasn’t a point that needed answering, so we both returned to focusing on the game. At least this was something that Lark loved to do – it meant that we could still hang out.
A lot of my friends were gym buddies, obsessed with building up their bodies, so while I couldn’t do that, I didn’t have anything in common with them or any way of hanging out with them. It was annoying, but what could I do about it? I had to be happy with the good things that I still had, it was the only way that I could keep on going.
“Julia keeps asking about you,” Lark commented idly a little while later. “She wants to know if you ever want to go out again.”
I rolled my eyes, but kept my distain to myself. Lark had only been trying to help when he set me up on a double date, but it was way before I was ready for it. I wasn’t in the best place mentally since I’d just lost the job that meant everything to me, through no fault of my own, and the union was doomed from the start. I had been miserable, snarky, unpleasant…not to mention the fact that there just wasn’t a spark there. It was awkward from the moment we were introduced and throughout dinner, that only got worse.
It made things worse that Lark and his date, Mel, had their tongues down one another’s throats all night long. To me, it simply highlighted everything that was missing. Everything that I wanted: the passion, the desire, the intense, overwhelming lust. I missed that feeling – that made me feel like a true man. So much of me had been stripped away since I lost my identity.
I had no idea why Julia would ever want to see me again; it was utterly insane.
“Hmm, just tell her that I’m still not dating.” I didn’t want to be an asshole and to hurt her feelings, but she wasn’t getting the point. “Maybe try and make it obvious that I’m just not into her.”
“She is hot, though…” Lark tried to argue with me.
“She is, but she’s not for me.”
In all honesty, I’d always thought that “the one for me” would have revealed herself by now. I’d assumed that by the grand old age of twenty seven, I would have some idea what I wanted, but everything was gone – there was no career, no great love, just a leg that didn’t work properly. That wasn’t going to change while I was stuck in this rut, either, but I needed to be patient or I’d never get out of it.
“Now, stop trying to distract me with all the awkward questions and let me kick your ass, please!”
I’d been friends with Lark for long enough for him to know when a subject was done, and boy, was this one over! Playing mindless video games was all I needed right now. I needed to lose myself, to forget everything, and this was the perfect way.
“Bring it on!”
***
“See ya!” I yelled joyfully as Lark left my apartment. He had a face like thunder because I’d actually managed to beat him on one round. “We should do this again sometime.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
My booming laughter rang through the hallway as he jumped into the elevator. For someone who played competitively, he was a big baby when he lost. I loved it; maybe I needed to practice when I was home alone just to ensure that I got good enough to beat him more often. It was totally worth it when he got in such a pissed off mood.
Just as I was about to close the door behind me, her door swung open once more. I knew that I should slam mine shut quickly to avoid any more awkward confrontations, but there was something within me that stopped me.
I was more intrigued than anything else. I wanted to lay my eyes on her just one more time. I’d been thinking of her sweet heart-shaped face on and off through the evening, and I couldn’t resist looking at it again.
“Hang on, Meghan, I just need to…” She sounded stressed now, a little annoyed off that she’d been shifting heavy stuff all day long. The hero that was now buried deep inside me desperately wanted to leap into action, to help her, but I couldn’t ignore the desperate screams in my chest telling me that I would mess it up, that my leg would give way or I’d drop the box on her, making things a million times worse. The images became so stressful and vivid that I knew for certain there was no chance I could even begin to offer my assistance now.
With Lark’s words in my head, my eyes glanced down to her left hand the moment it came into view, and I was oddly relieved to see no ring there. I wasn’t sure why I wanted her to be single – it wasn’t like I could do anything about it now. After the whole debacle with Julia, I had vowed to myself that I wouldn’t date again until my leg was much better and my whole life was in a much better place.
If I was ready for that stage of my life to be reopened, however, this beautiful woman would be perfect. As she bent down to pick up that box, my mind instantly flew to the places it shouldn’t have gone.
Shit.
I slammed the door shut and rested my back against it, panting breathlessly. I needed to avoid my new neighbor if I didn’t want her to think I was weird. I needed to just pretend that apartment was still empty, that no one lived there, that everything was back to normal.