I’m showered and fresh from the gym, doing up the final buttons on my cuffs and jacket, and am more than ready to get myself out of the hotel and down on the beach. This place, the Blue Hawaii, is supposed to have the best Macadamia encrusted halibut on all the islands. Charlotte will probably go for that. Hell, I’ll probably go for it too.

Dinner, music, then hopefully frenzied lovemaking right on the edge of the ocean. The sand will be an issue; as a certain Skywalker once said, it’s rough, coarse, and irritating. But when a man’s this deeply in love, he’ll overcome anything.

Except watching the Star Wars prequels again. Much as I love Charlotte, if she wanted that I’d probably have to skip out.

She wasn’t in the room when I got in, which is just as well. I got the heady scent of her perfume as I went into the shower. She’s planned on making this a great night. I aim to deliver on that.

The doors open to the lobby, and I’m about to step out…when Stephen appears in front of me. “Damn. I feel like I need to put a bell on you,” I say, after jumping with surprise.

“You don’t survive the hotel business without catlike reflexes,” he says cheerily. His grin is megawatt tonight. “You going somewhere?”

“Dinner with my wife. I’m in kind of a hurry, so—”

“Ah.” Stephen makes a kind of pained face. “Okay, so here’s the deal: Mr. Lee wants to talk to you in his office again. Like, he really wants to talk to you. He literally just called up to your room but no one answered.”

My entire body freezes, which is difficult in Hawaii. “Oh?” I’m playing this casual, like a guy trying to score a girl’s phone number, if that girl also owned a chain of successful destination hotels. Stephen nods. “Well…how about tomorrow morning? Early? I’ve just got to—”

“He’s leaving tomorrow. Early.” Stephen glances around, like he’s a Soviet spy dropping a lot of illegal information on me. “You want to go to this meeting, man. I promise.”

Damn everything. “Well, can’t we get on the phone tomorrow? Does it have to be in person?”

“Mr. Lee is kind of anal about things like these. He once flew a prospective sous chef here all the way from Argentina just so he could look him in the eye and assess how honest he was. He’s incredible, but he’s also kind of strange. In a good way!” Stephen panics a bit. “Tell him I meant in a good way!”

“Are you telling me that if I don’t go to this meeting right now, this…opportunity, shall we say, might not come again?” My temples are throbbing. How the hell is this happening? This just affirms the opinion I’ve had since reuniting with Fraser: mega-rich people are bizarre.

“I think you get my drift.” Stephen touches his nose like it’s a secret signal for a club that we don’t have. “What do you say?”

Okay. My blood’s up, my teeth are lengthening…well, they feel like they should be lengthening. I am in full Lawyer Shark mode, and this could be the meeting that makes Brightman & Collins. (No, I don’t have a partner. Collins is my mother’s maiden name.) If I go in there and come out substantially wealthier, it’ll be worth losing twenty minutes of our dinner date, tops. I just need to call Charlotte and tell her…

Oh, fuck me. I saw her phone on the hotel bed; I left mine beside it. We agreed that there’d be no calls on our date tonight. No calls, no cares, no crying children or screaming Fraser to deal with. Mostly the screaming Fraser part. I can’t get in touch with her.

“Listen, my wife’s at the Blue Hawaii next door. Can you call over there, let her know I’ll be a little late?”

Stephen beams. “You got it. Man, this is gonna be so great!” His eyes shine like beacons. Really young, really hungry beacons. “Maybe one day, if I spot enough talent, I’ll make it to the concierge desk.”

I’m not sure that’s how it works, but whatever makes the kid dream big. “Great. Take me to Mr. Lee.”

Stephen leads me back to the offices with the promise to call the restaurant right after. My heart’s racing. This is it. Twenty minutes and I’m out of here, tops. Charlotte can have a martini at the bar while she waits. Then after I get this account, I’ll have them bring over the finest, oldest champagne they have on reserve.

Tonight’s the night.