Strictly Business [Stud Service 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (9 page)

“Is there a problem here?” Colt Vance seemed to appear out of nowhere directly behind her, and her body reacted immediately as she sensed his nearness. Heat lit up her insides, radiating to her limbs. Why the hell a man could affect her this way was beyond her understanding. She liked to be in control of herself—and this wasn’t even close to that.

“N–n–no, of course not Mr. Vance.” The clerk’s strong personality seemed to wilt under Colt Vance’s scrutiny.

Susannah jumped at the opportunity for help. She couldn’t be homeless for a week, and she couldn’t go begging to Mom and Dad for help. They’ve made it clear they didn’t want her to focus on her career. They wanted a grandchild. Yesterday.

“Yes, there is a problem. He doesn’t have my hotel reservation, and now I have nowhere to stay.” She felt tears well up at the corners of her eyes. This was her bad luck. She did not want to have to beg a room off her new friend. It would make her feel like a gold digger, like this entire affair was orchestrated from the beginning just to use him and his money. This was so embarrassing. She had to wait two days before the research vessel came to port to pick her up. When it did she would have a permanent place to live for the next six months, but until then she was homeless.

The clerk apologized profusely to Colt Vance, and his body stiffened at the sight of his boss. He explained his dilemma quickly and efficiently. “She never made reservations with us, sir.”

Not true! Not true! I made reservations months ago.
This entire event frustrated her, and the fact of the matter was she still didn’t have a room…

“Well, we’ll have to fix that, won’t we?” He turned to Susannah and asked her, “I have a cottage on my personal property I use for guests. Would you like to stay there? There is a garden separating it from the rest of the hotel, but you would still have access to all the amenities and the pool.”

Relief swept through her body. She would have slept on his couch if she had to, but the cottage would be ideal. It would give her room to spread out after her daily research.

Hell, if he’d asked her, she would have slept in his bed. The thought of coming home to him was not an unwelcome one. In all practicality it would solve her problems of finding a father to her child.

Why he didn’t offer that when they had slept together already? Was there a girlfriend already? Was Susannah becoming a third wheel unknowingly? The thought was not a welcome one.

“Brandon, please make sure our guest feels welcome and have a bellboy bring her things to her room for her.”

“Yes, sir. Right away, sir.” Brandon pressed a button under the counter, and not twenty seconds later, a young man dressed in a uniform appeared.

“Please take our guest’s bags to the Mr. Vance’s personal cottage, Michael, and make sure she has everything she needs.”

“Thank you.” Susannah reluctantly handed over her backpack.

“Is that all, Miss?”

“Yeah.” Susannah felt a little nervous under all this male attention. She hated to think of what the hotel employees thought of her since they found out she had no luggage and her credit cards were declined. Now that Colt bailed her out, she must look like she was his personal hooker. She offered the excuse with a shrug of her shoulders, feeling rather lame even if it was the truth. “The airport lost my luggage.”

The front desk attendant cleared his throat, and his eyes strayed to Colt Vance for a second before returning to Susannah.

“She does have some packages that should be arriving this afternoon. I trust you’ll send those over to her directly when they get here,” Colt intervened.

“You’ll find the staff here does not gossip or spread rumors about our guests even when they are not the personal guests of Mr. Vance. What happens here stays here. You do not have to explain yourself to anyone.”

“So it’s like Vegas?” Susannah asked.

“Yes, ma’am, only without showgirls.” The hotel clerk said it in such a serious voice and straight face that Susannah wondered what else might be similar to Vegas here.

She giggled.

“Are you ready for me to escort you to your quarters?” The bellboy reminded her of a little puppy dog, eager to please its master.

“I’ll let you wash up and relax for a bit. I got a page from my assistant about some business I have to take care of. Something about customs trying to hold up our orders, but I’ll come by to pick you up this evening, okay? Wear something you don’t mind getting wet.”

He didn’t wait for her to say yes or no. He lifted the back of her hand to his lips and softly kissed her skin. Then he walked back out the door without another word.

Susannah wasn’t sure how to feel. She was too stunned to react and felt like a fish out of water. She was so out of her element with Colt Vance it wasn’t funny. She didn’t do a lot of dating and never had this kind of sexual friction with another man before. She was hot and ready to go on a moment’s notice or the briefest of touches.

How was he able to turn it off and on?

She was stuck on hot anytime he was near.

* * * *

“This is your suite.” The bellboy opened the door and held it open for Susannah to enter in front of him. Then, as she walked around the room examining the luxurious opulence, he set down the key on the teakwood table next to the entrance. “I will just leave the key here for you to use. I certainly hope you enjoy your stay with us for as long as you are here as Mr. Vance’s personal guest. Do you have everything you need? Can I get you anything to eat from the kitchen? Or will that be all?”

Susannah wasn’t hungry, and she couldn’t think of anything she needed at that moment, but she supposed she should do something nice for the man. He had walked her to her cottage door and held her bag.

“No, I think you’ve helped me enough. I just need to rest a little after that long plane ride.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a five dollar bill and held it out for him to take.

“Thank you, ma’am.” He nodded his head and made the door close slightly. “It’s against company policy for me to accept tips from the family and friends and personal guests of Mr. Vance.”

“Oh,” Susannah muttered. She felt a little stunned to say much more.

“You have every right the hotel guests do, and many more. You may walk through the gardens to access the pool and all the other hotel amenities. You should consider the staff here at your service. We are here to make you happy.”

“Thank you. I will call if I need you.”

“No, thank you, madam. Good day.” He bowed at the waist rather stiffly and left abruptly

Susannah flopped down on the downy-soft comforter as soon as the bellboy closed the door behind him.

Colt had ignored the earlier text messages, but he knew Sam wasn’t one to bother him unless it was really important. So he wanted to speak to her right away and know none of the details of the conversation were lost in empty words on a tiny screen. This was why Colt loved his iPad 2. He could video conference from anywhere in the world, and it was just like being in the same room as the person you were speaking to.

Only this time he and Sam would be on different continents.

Colt picked up his iPad 2 and touched the screen to open up the FaceTime application. He signed in his user ID and password and went to the top of his contact list to choose his assistant, Sam. She answered in the first ring, her beautiful face giving him a sugary, sweet smile. Her blonde hair seemed to sparkle against the bright, blue sky and sunlight in Miami.

“So what was so important you had to call me now?” Colt Vance was impatient to get back to his new lover. He had only just met her, but he felt something was different about her than his previous lovers. He wanted to know more about her and explore her body.

There seemed to be a slight delay, and her movements froze, and then her facial features began moving naturally again.

“There’s going to be a holdup in shipping if we use Brigate Freight again. They are backed up for months, and that will mean construction on the restaurant is delayed.”

“Can we use someone else to ship it here? I don’t want to wait six months to break ground, and you know it’s going to take six months to get through the government bureaucracy here.”

“Things slow down on the islands. That’s why I wanted to tell you what’s going on here on my end.”

“Can you find another shipper?”

“Yes, I found three alternatives, but even if we use the cheapest one it’s going to cost 15 percent more than if we used our regular shipper.” She paused, waiting for his reaction.

“Good girl. That’s what I pay you the big bucks for.”

“Big bucks? Colt, you know I stay for the fringe benefits.”

“You can keep the private jet and drive my car all you want. Just keep making the little decisions for me and just get the materials here on time.” He didn’t want to be bothered with the details. He just wanted it done. Sam was not only efficient but frugal with his money and always made quality decisions. This is why he sent her shopping for supplies by herself. It only took six years of her working as his personal assistant for him to trust her. Now he didn’t mind entrusting her with his private plane, or anything for that matter. She was better than a wife. She picked out his clothes and bought Christmas gifts everyone loved. She even drove his car to the mechanic when he didn’t have time. “We can’t wait forever to get the restaurant built. Our competition is stealing all our clients, and it makes the most sense to keep everyone here at the resort. We’re losing money every day we wait.”

“Okay.” Her demeanor grew serious. “I’ll get it there in the next three months. I hope the engineer you hired got the blueprints right and we have everything listed. If I forgot anything on this list…”

“Then we’ll probably pay triple the price to have Jamaica send it to us.”

“I won’t let you down.”

“I know you won’t, Sam. That’s why you are in Miami.”

“I also scheduled time with your interior designer to have the interior rooms decorated, and he says it will be no problem. I’ll work with him to have those items shipped later.”

The restaurant was going to do big things for his business. Not only would it keep more tourists on the resort, it would help him to attract larger events and conferences that would fill up his hotel in off-season markets. “Sounds good to me. When will you be back to headquarters in Texas?”

“I have a prenatal visit next week. Then I should be able to see to helping you and the architect with the other details.”

“Good. Will Jason be coming this time?”

“No, my husband will have to stay home for work, but it’s okay. He’s saving up his personal time for after the baby is born.”

“Smart man. I don’t know what I am going to do when you go on maternity leave.” Colt sighed deeply.

“You’ll do whatever it was you did before you hired me.” Samantha laughed.

“What was that? I remember now. I just scream at everyone to do their job right or I fire them.” He smiled, wishing it was that simple.

“No, Colt, don’t fire anyone. I need employees, and you can’t do everything by yourself, but I am sure you will survive.” She chuckled.

“Thanks for keeping me informed and in touch. I will talk with you later or see you when you get to the island.”

“Next week.”

Colt said his good-byes and hung up the phone. With all the important business being taken care of by his assistant he could spend a little more time playing with his new lover, Susannah.

This was just getting better and better.

* * * *

Susannah didn’t know what to do first.

She tossed her backpack on the bed and looked through it to see what she had to work with. A handful of cash would be helpful, even with her new sugar daddy willing to pay for anything she needed. The Kindle full of her favorite titles would be great to pass the time on the research boat once she had a place to stay. She had a handful of snacks, and some odds and ends like makeup and a beauty supplies.

The one thing she wouldn’t need was the vibrator. Not with Colt Vance around. She placed it on the bedside table and then thought about it again.

It would be a way to ease some of the sexual tension he managed to leave her with. Then again, she really needed to focus and think about more than sex.

There was so much she had to deal with in a short time, but the most pressing thing weighing on her mind was why her parents would try to intervene in this trip.

First, they made sure the private plane was unavailable to her for the flight out, and then they sicced their bloodhound on her, and as if that wasn’t enough, they cancelled her joint credit cards so she couldn’t even keep her reservations at the hotel. If it wasn’t for the extremely generous nature of Colt Vance, she would be camping out under a coconut tree right now.

She dialed up their home number on her cell phone and was relieved to see the number went through. She had a full range of bars and good reception so they wouldn’t lose the call.

It rang three times before her mother picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mom! I am so glad you picked up the phone,” Susannah said. She would have hated to leave a message about all this, and even as angry as she felt right now she would not want to do that.