HUNTER (The Caine Brothers Book 1) (10 page)

He huffed a laugh. “Of course.”

Her wit kept him on his toes. He liked that she didn’t give a shit about his money or treat him with deference because of it. She treated him like she’d treat anyone.

After sipping her coffee and wiping her lips, she said, “Well, there’s not much to tell. It’s an old building, refurbished, but with the original fixtures and charm. I rented it because of the character. It sounds stupid, but it feels like it has a personality. Like you can hear the echoes of all the past tenants. Makes me feel less alone.”

She shrugged and cut another bit of pancakes, swirling it in the syrup on the plate.

“Makes my place sound cold,” he said.

“I told you mine. You tell me yours.”

“I live in a brand new condo in the Westchase district. It’s all black, stainless steel, dark wood, and brick.”

“How very billionaire man of you. I bet it has a giant big screen with a surround sound system, a black leather couch, and a mahogany bar.”

He frowned. Was he really that much of a cliché?

When she saw his expression, she laughed, which only made him frown more.

“I don’t ever even use any of those things.”

She snort-laughed. “That’s even more funny. Sorry,” she said, glancing at his face again. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Do you like the place?”

He waved a dismissive hand at her. “I hardly spend any time there, mostly just to sleep. I work so many hours I’m always at the office or out eating or doing something else. It’s not home. It’s just a place to crash.”

She swirled the coffee in her cup, but didn’t say anything. He sensed she wanted to say something, but instead of humor which she didn’t hesitate to voice, it must be serious.

“What?” he asked. “You have something to say about my life?”

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with something that was less pity and more sympathy.

Shrugging, she said, “Our situations aren’t that different. I may spend more time at my place, but it’s still not a home. It’s where all my stuff is, and it’s where I sleep, but when I’m alone there, it just emphasizes that I’m alone.”

He cleared his throat. He hadn’t intended breakfast to turn into a chance to bare their souls, although the symmetry wasn’t lost on him given that they’d already bared their bodies. Why not complete the process?

“What about friends? Don’t you have any girlfriends?”

“A couple, but no bestie. I know you’ll have a hard time fathoming this, but for some reason I intimidate people. I’ve had better luck with guy friends, but as soon as they get girlfriends, I’m kicked to the curb. Women don’t like when their boyfriends have female friends.”

“I can see that. I’d have a problem if you had male friends.” She lifted a brow and he realized what he’d just said. “If we were a thing. Which we aren’t. I just mean I can see the perspective.”

He wanted to facepalm himself. What an ass.

“Yeah. Well, the one or two girlfriends I’ve had sort of drifted away when I focused on law school instead of man shopping, or maintaining friendships. I’m as much to blame. My ambition drove them away.”

“You still have your brother, right?”

“Definitely. He’s a big part of my life, even if I don’t see him enough. What about you? Do you have friends?”

He sipped his coffee to avoid answering. He didn’t like admitting weakness. Not that he’d ever considered not having friends a weakness. Usually, he thought of being tied to anyone as a weakness, whether it was friends, a significant other, or even to some extent family. Having people depend on him drained time and energy he could be using for something productive. But in this conversation, admitting to not having friends made him feel lacking.

“Not really. After years of growing up with so many brothers, it seemed excessive to add more people to my life.”

Her chuckle warmed his insides. “I really want to meet these brothers. First you complain about how competitive they are, yet you just described them as your friends.”

“No I didn’t. I said it was a pain in the ass to grow up with so many brothers.”

“Ha! You did no such thing. You said it seemed excessive to add more people to your life, implying that the brothers satisfied your need for friendships.”

He stared at her. What. The. Fuck. He wanted to deny it. He wanted to say his brothers were a pack of assholes he could do without. But he couldn’t, because it wasn’t true. Okay, they were mostly assholes, but he couldn’t do without them. She pointed out a fundamental truth about himself that he’d never taken the time to realize or acknowledge, and she just dropped it like she’d told him nothing more significant than the time.

“I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I guess I wouldn’t want my life without them.”

She patted his leg, and the feel of her skin on his gave him a pleasant tingle.

What the hell was happening to him? Was he going soft? He never tingled. He never got sentimental about his asshole brothers. His insides never got warm and sentimental.

Yet, when he looked at Allison enjoying pancakes and bacon and coffee, comfortable talking to him after mind-blowing sex, admitting her vulnerabilities without any shame, he couldn’t imagine how everything would be the same when they went back home. He wanted to have breakfast with her every morning.

Suddenly he needed air, or a change of subject. He needed to do something to keep him busy until all this sentimental shit passed.

“What’s the plan for today, anyway?”

Apparently sex made Hunter sentimental. Allison smiled. She liked that side of him a lot. It turned him from a focused, emotionless, CEO into a sexy, driven, successful, flawed man. Who knew Hunter Caine was human?

“How about some swimming? We can check out the spa either before or after, maybe rent a golf cart and do a quick tour of the course?”

“Sounds good. What about off-resort activities?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do? I mean, if you buy the place, it’ll take a while to contact locals, tour or try out the activities they offer, and select the ones you want to use. That’s not something we can accomplish in a day. But we can sample whatever you want.”

He had a sudden urgency about him, like he couldn’t sit still, or he wanted to get out of the suite.

On his way to the bedroom, he said, “how about we zipline?”

“Sure. I’m game.”

She stayed on the bar stool and finished her coffee. Hunter had asked her some difficult questions. Made her look at some things she didn’t like looking at. The truth was, her ambition had cost her a best friend she missed a lot. Allison had spent high school trying to compensate for her family life. She’d worked hard, done well, and earned scholarships to college. She didn’t ever want to depend on a man to support her, and she sure as hell didn’t want to have to work three jobs just to survive. She’d arm herself against that kind of life.

Her ambition had cost a lot.

Hunter returned in swim trunks, but he’d added a tank with a shirt over it which he left unbuttoned. Was there nothing the man didn’t look hot as hell wearing?

“Ready?” he asked.

“Sure.”

They spent an amazing morning swimming in the huge pool—well, Allison swam for a bit then sat in a lounge while Hunter swam like a machine. At least she knew now how he stayed in such phenomenal shape.

After the pool, they explored the spa and made an appointment for a massage before leaving for the airport Monday. Allison was impressed by their offerings, and the qualifications of the staff. Everyone was pleasant, accommodating, and professional. She hated to leave.

Renting a golf cart and exploring the course turned out to be the most fun of the morning.

Hunter, of course, insisted on driving, and he drove like a maniac.

Allison’s hysterical laugh as they took a corner on two wheels drew the attention of a couple golfers ready to tee off. They shot her a disapproving glare. Apparently golfers were snobby everywhere, even at a couple’s resort.

“Shhh…” Hunter said, a conspiratorial look on his face.

She covered her mouth to smother a snort.

“You don’t drive much, do you?” she asked.

“I drive enough.”

“From your condo to the office and back doesn’t really count.”

“Fine. Then I don’t drive much.”

“This isn’t bumper cars, you know.”

“It’s fun as hell though.”

She had to agree. There was a freedom to careening over the dirt paths and across the deep, green grass, with no real destination in mind. The fun was in the driving itself, the dappled sun and shade among the trees, the hollow thumpa-thump as they crossed a wood bridge, the gurble of the water, the quacking ducks, the complete abandon of the breeze in their faces as they whipped around the course like a couple of kids in a stolen car.

She hadn’t had so much fun with anyone in ages.

After they’d made a full circuit of the course, and disrupted the game of every golfer they ran across, Hunter turned the cart back for the clubhouse.

“How about lunch?” he asked. “We can check out the menu at the club restaurant.”

He parked the cart, and when he offered his hand to help her out, she took it. In the clubhouse, they inspected the menu, which had a nice selection of local food and burgers, and settled on cheeseburgers and Cerveza. They sat on the deck overlooking the ocean. It seemed like everything at the resort overlooked the ocean, which was a clever feat of design.

“So what now?” Allison finished the last of her Cerveza, and hoped he suggested a nap. She was as ambitious as him, but even though they were supposed to be evaluating the resort for the purposes of purchase, it felt an awful lot like a vacation. She liked to mix relaxation with breakneck activity while on vacation.

“I thought we agreed on ziplining?”

“Craft market?”

He scrunched his nose. “I’m looking for more adrenaline than shopping.”

She chuckled. “Shopping can be an adventure, but if you’re not up for it, we can go zipline. Because it’s off the resort property, and they don’t have a reciprocal agreement, it’s up to us to seek out the location and find our own transportation.”

They paid for lunch, then headed back to the hotel. Hunter reached for her hand and laced his fingers with hers as they walked. He didn’t say a word, just walked, and Allison was left to sort her feelings in the midst of a dangerously romantic locale.

The trail snaked along a shallow cliff, downhill to a fork where one trail went to the beach and the other back to the hotel. The sweet scent of tropical flowers mixed with the fresh salt of the ocean for a heady perfume, but it wasn’t nearly as heady as holding hands with Hunter.

Who knew something as simple as holding hands could leave her so confused? Their agreement had been to give in to their attraction and enjoy a weekend of hot, wild sex. Her assumption had been the sex would be in private, and the rest of the time would be all about business. Sure, they were undercover as a newlywed couple, and newlyweds were affectionate, but they didn’t have to hold hands when nobody was watching. Holding hands implied something more intimate than sex. It implied an emotional connection, and the fact that he’d reached for her hand suggested he felt something for her. Unless it didn’t.

She already knew she’d have a hard time going back to Houston and pretending none of this had happened. She’d have to take some time off, stay away from Hunter for a while, to get her equilibrium back. As she suspected would happen when he made his proposal, there was no getting Hunter ‘out of her system’. Sex with him only made her want more sex with him. Likewise, the more time she spent with him, the more time she wanted to spend with him. He’d relaxed and opened up to her, and she liked what she saw. He was fun, and funny; sexy, sweet, kind—all things she wanted in a man. But he was her boss, and they had an agreement that didn’t extend beyond the weekend.

How would they ever make a relationship work, anyway?

And since when had she started thinking about a relationship?

This was the problem with fooling oneself into believing a few days of casual sex would be easy to do then put behind them. It just didn’t work that way.

The fact that he’d held her hand suggested he agreed.

They were well and truly screwed.

Back at the hotel they approached the concierge. Josh stood behind the counter, and when he saw Allison, he beamed his best conspiratorial smile. Jesus, he was proud of himself.

“Hello. What can I do for the McDowells today?” he asked.

Allison hoped he maintained the discretion he should have been trained for and didn’t blab about personal stuff.

Hunter didn’t seem to notice Josh’s extra enthusiasm. “We’d like to go ziplining. There’s a place we can do that nearby, right?”

“Yes, sir.” Josh pulled the appropriate brochure and told them about the place, and the people who ran it. Allison didn’t pay attention, she just watched Hunter’s profile—focused, intense, beautiful, and he was hers, for at least another day.

“What about transportation?” Hunter asked.

“Well, the resort has a shuttle into town. From there you can hire a car from a local service, or call a taxi.”

Hunter frowned, and Allison could see the wheels working in his mind how he’d fix that problem when he owned the resort.