Negotiation Tactics (7 page)

They didn’t lift a damn finger. They liked to play the big shots, even going so far as to refer to the resort as ‘their’ resort. They soaked up the sun and played and took credit for the resort’s success, but that was it. When Jennie put on those big doe eyes and twirled a finger through her hair, saying how hard it must be to run the place, they had laughed. They looked around and shrugged their shoulders and said, “This is it. We’re here to play with you all day.”

Today, Jennie and Chad were trying to figure out more about the marina. There were a lot of extra activities guests could purchase at the resort. Everything from swimming with dolphins, to a trip to a national park or a four-day fishing trip, and more. Every afternoon, the representatives from the different tour agencies were in the lobby, signing people up for excursions. You signed up with the tour company of your choice, paid the tour company representative directly, and booked a date for your activity.

For everything except the marina. For the marina, you spoke to their tour representative to choose an activity and book a date, but then they gave you a slip to take to the front desk where you paid for your tour. So far, Jennie and Chad hadn’t been able to pick up on a reason for that additional step. If need be, Jack would flat out ask the owner why things were done this way, but they liked to try to get a sense of things on their own sometimes first.

It was amazing the things they found out when Jennie and Chad went into some of the companies they looked at. Just three weeks before, Jennie had gone into a company and in less than a week discovered that the medical research the company promised was about to revolutionize diabetes treatment had already been proven to be a bust, internally. The owners thought they could get funding from Jack based on the outdated early findings and use that funding to buy more time to make new discoveries and hopefully come out on top.

The sad thing was, if they’d been up front with Jack, he might have given them money anyway. Their ideas were promising and they had a few things in the early stages that some people in the medical field Jack consulted thought were promising. But the fact that they were trying to pull one over on Sutton Capital, instead of being upfront, killed their chances for good.

With any luck, Jennie would work her magic here and figure out if the resort owner or its management had anything to hide.

The resort had two docks. One where the fishing boats and the boats taking guests scuba diving docked. The other was in a small bay where guests could snorkel and go out in kayaks.

Chad and Jennie sat on the edge of the dock, putting on snorkels and masks. They’d decided to skip the flippered feet and just swim around.

“Twenty-seven kayaks,” Jennie said absently as she fidgeted with her mask.

“What?” Chad asked.

Jennie shrugged a shoulder. “I was counting the slots for kayaks,” she said, pointing to the racks that held the kayaks on the side of the bay. “Looks like all but five are out right now, assuming they actually fill all of the slots. I suppose they may have fewer actual kayaks than the number of slots for kayaks though.”

Chad let her talk. He was used to this. She just catalogued sometimes. They were both observant, which made them really good at their jobs. But they each observed different things. Chad watched people. Their movements and body language. Facial expressions, ticks, and tells. He watched their surroundings, always knowing how to get them out of a situation if he needed to. Not that they needed that in the work they did now. They didn’t do anything dangerous for Sutton. In fact, their version of ‘undercover’ was using their real names, and pretending to be less intelligent than they were.

Chad’s hyper-vigilance was a habit left over from his military tours. He doubted it was something he would ever have to use again. It was something that was so ingrained at this point, it was simply a part of who he was. He had noted the small motor boat tied to the dock because it was a means to escape the area.

Jennie was different. She observed stuff and counted things and noticed details he didn’t. She could tell you if someone wore fake designer clothes or if they were the real deal. She could tell you who designed a person’s shoes and, sometimes, whether their jewelry was real or paste. And, for some unknown reason, things like the number of kayaks caught her eye.

Actually, if he thought about it, he could guess why she’d noticed the kayaks. Their bright colors. Jennie surrounded herself with bright, happy colors. The outside of her house was a light cheerful yellow. He hadn’t been inside her house though he’d dropped her off or picked her up a few times, but he would guess the inside would be filled with color as well. The kayaks were bright red and orange. She would like those colors.

“Come on,” Chad grinned at her. She looked adorable with goggles covering almost half her face. “Let’s go see some fish.”

They jumped in the water and lowered masked faces into the bay. Before Chad knew what hit him, he heard a shriek and had an armful of sputtering Jennie. She had quite literally climbed up him and was clinging to his shoulders, legs and arms clamped around him as high up as she could go. It would be funny to anyone watching.

“Problem, Jen?” Chad grinned, trying to ignore his body’s immediate response to her. He refused to acknowledge the fact that at that moment, the string bikini she wore was giving him access to parts of Jennie’s body he’d only ever dreamed of touching.

Jennie bit her lip and nodded her head.

“And that would be...?”
Damn, she’s cute.

“The fish,” Jennie said, eyes wide. “A fish touched my legs. It went right between my legs!”

Chad let a slow smile form. “I need to protect you from the fish?”

Jennie nodded. “They’re huge. And scary. And kind of gross.”

They were pretty big. Some of them were one-and-a-half feet long and about as wide around the middle as Chad’s forearm. He had expected smaller fish, too. But seeing her so freaked out was pretty damn cute. And holding her was pretty sexy. Really, really damn sexy, as a matter of fact. Chad put his hands around her waist and lifted her up to the dock, then let his hands skim down to her thighs – pretending to be Jennie’s concerned husband did have its perks.

“Want me to hold you in the water and see if that makes you feel better?”
Say yes. No, say no. This is a bad idea… But, please say yes.

Before Jennie could answer, a fish jumped out of the water and splashed back in. Chad assumed it was trying to catch a bug skimming the surface of the water. Jennie must have assumed it was an attempt to eat her because she was up and running off the dock in a heartbeat. So much for Jack’s theory that Jennie Evans wasn’t afraid of anything.

Chad pulled himself out on the dock, trying not to laugh too hard – and losing that battle. He scooped up their beach bag and towels. The items quickly became crucial parts of Chad’s ensemble as he followed Jennie back to the villa. Watching the sway of her sweet ass as she hightailed it through the resort had him harder than he’d care to share with the other guests. With their belongings held casually in front of him to hide his predicament, Chad let himself enjoy the show. He’d have to shower with ice water when he got back to the villa, but it was worth it.

Jennie had the sexiest ass Chad had ever seen. That ass in a bikini?

Deadly.

Chapter Eleven

The first week of their working vacation passed fairly quickly. They stuck to the pools instead of the ocean so Jennie didn’t have any more run-ins with the wild fish of the Florida coast. And they kept an eye out for the nephews. Jack wasn’t in any hurry for their assessment and rarely checked in with them. That struck Jennie as a little odd, but she brushed it off. She and Chad were having more fun than she thought they would. They spent the days out on the resort where she managed to befriend a few of the employees.

Most of the employees seemed to feel that the Masters brothers didn’t have much to offer. They were careful not to badmouth them too much, but Jennie didn’t miss the undertone of what people weren’t saying. No one respected the brothers. They brothers were dead weight on the resort and none of the employees would be sorry to see them go.

People liked and spoke well of Jonathan Masters, the owner, but they said he rarely came there anymore. From what Jennie could see, the managers were running the show and, it seemed, running it very well.

At night, Jennie and Chad went to dinner and then played cards or talked and laughed back in the villa. They talked and laughed a lot, actually. Even though it was hard to ignore the sexual undertones that always sparked between them, Jennie really enjoyed being with him on this new level.

The night before, they had gone to one of the restaurants that had dinner and dancing. Jennie was stunned to find out Chad could salsa, rumba – you name it, he could do it on the dance floor. As he whirled her around, making her breathless, she had to laugh. She never would have pictured her tough soldier-man boss as a dancer.

“Where did you learn to do this?” she had asked when they sat down for their entrees.

Chad shrugged a shoulder and grinned at her. “I have my secrets.”

Jennie shook her head at him, to which he’d just winked.

“If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”

This afternoon, they lay back in lounge chairs by one of the pools, pretending to be a couple in love. They were fairly sure they had found out all they needed to know about the Masters brothers. They’d booked a boat tour the next day to see if they could find out more about the marina and how it functioned. For now, there was nothing to do but relax.

“Hey, Boss Man,” Jennie said, cracking her eyes open to peek at Chad while she swirled her empty drink at him. “Wanna swim over to the bar and get me another daiquiri?”

After three strawberry daiquiris, Jennie was a little tipsy. She was probably being a little too uppity with her boss, even for her, but they had both let down their guard quite a bit.

Chad lowered his sunglasses and leaned over her on the lounge chair. His body almost entirely covered hers and his face was right in hers. When he spoke, he turned her body heat to high without any effort at all.

“Now, Jen, what will people think if they hear you call me Boss Man?” he asked quietly.

As usual, the sexy rumble of his voice when he spoke so softly to her sent her body spiraling out of control. Jennie wanted to reach out and touch his chest. It was hot and tanned and just a little sweaty from the searing Florida sun. She knew it would feel heavenly under her fingertips.

Jennie didn’t notice the tiny moan that slipped from her lips until it was too late to stop it. She saw Chad’s eyes burn hot and dark for a second. Her breath caught at the intensity in his eyes and she felt his whole body coil and tense above her.

And then he was gone. Jennie watched as Chad slid into the water and cut clean strokes across the pool to the swim up bar. Jennie let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and groaned.

One more week.
 

Chapter Twelve

Two other couples waited on the dock when Chad and Jennie arrived for their boat tour. They would apparently be taken to a quiet bay to swim – although he expected Jennie to stay in the boat for that – then they’d go to a quaint restaurant, outside the resort, along the coast for lunch, and later tour a small shopping center where they could shop for local touristy junk, before being taken back to the resort.

Jennie began to do her chit chatty thing while Chad sat on one of the benches and watched her. She had on a red bikini and a brightly patterned wrap tied around her waist. She leaned her head back and laughed at something one of the other couples said and Chad couldn’t resist.

He reached out and looped an arm around her waist, pulling her down onto his lap. She yelped while the other women cooed over his romantic gesture. One woman swatted her husband on the arm and scowled at him.

“You never treat me like that anymore,” she said, drawing a laugh from the group.

“They’re newlyweds,” her husband said. That earned him another whack.

Chad could barely pay attention. His arms were around Jennie’s bare waist. Her skin was so soft and smooth. It was silky and creamy and it begged to be touched and caressed. If they weren’t in public, he wouldn’t have been able to control himself.

Jennie seemed unaffected. She settled back in his arms and chatted with the other couples about their experiences at the resort. When their tour guide came and got them loaded onto the boat, Chad relinquished his hold on Jennie momentarily, and pulled her down on the bench seat next to him in the boat.

He let one hand trail up and down her velvety back as Jennie started to work the tour guide for information. Somehow, she struck up a conversation about wanting to work as a tour guide in a marina just like this. The next thing Chad knew, she’s getting information about busy seasons and slow seasons, how many trips the marina did in a day, what the tour guides were paid…and more.

It never ceased to amaze Chad. People would turn over their bank statements to Jennie if she asked them to. The guy didn’t look the least bit phased by her questions and she’d somehow managed to draw the other couples into the conversation.

Chad should be contributing in some way, but there really wasn’t a damned thing he could add. So, he sat back and watched the way the sun glinted off Jennie’s strawberry curls. He watched the way her eyes sparkled when she laughed and the way she leaned toward whoever was talking and looked at them as though they really mattered to her.

That’s why she was so good at this. People wanted to connect with her. They were drawn to her. Chad was an expert on the topic of being drawn to Jennie.

He had been drawn to her since the first time he’d spotted her at Sutton Capital. Chad had gone to ask Jack a question. He had been having a bad day and was hurried and stressed. He turned the corner and spotted Jennie at the desk outside Jack’s office and froze. And, then she’d looked up at him and smiled. Since then, that smile cut right to his heart every time she graced him with it.