The Romance Challenge, Complete Series Box Set: BBW Hot Alpha Billionaire Romance (9 page)

He raised an eyebrow. "You're an
editor?"

"Part-time. I do freelance work. I already
walked the grounds and all around the hotel, and I plan to do it again. I
thought it would be okay if I worked on this now."

"It's fine. Where is the front desk
person?"

"I'm relieving him. He wanted to stretch
his legs. It's tough staying here, at the desk, for a whole shift. The night
employee should have back-up. Something we should, I mean, you should consider.
It will be in my notes."

David came around the corner. His eyes
opened wide but when Nathan greeted him pleasantly, he settled back into the
chair I vacated.

"Come on, let's take a walk. Do you
need a jacket?"

Not if I was next to his heat. "No,
I'm good." I wore my uniform pants, and a long-sleeve top under the uniform
shirt. It made for a snug fit, but I didn't think I'd run into anyone who would
be looking closely at my body. What the heck was Nathan doing here? I truly
didn't expect to see him. We went outside, and the night wrapped around me like
a soft blanket. Midnight, the magical hour.

"Use your phone as a flashlight out
here. The ground is uneven. Why do you do freelance work?"

"Extra money. I need it for… a
project. I don't let it interfere with my work at Cameron, honest."

"I know that. Stop apologizing. I'm
sorry I behaved like an ass yesterday."

"You didn't…"

"Yes, I did. We had a special moment,
and I acted like nothing happened."

"Um, okay. Apology accepted."
What else could I say? He wanted to talk more, apparently, so I shut up and
listened.

"I can't get involved with an
employee. I did that once. She was sweet and innocent and I destroyed
her."

"How?"

He turned to look at me and the pain in
his eyes tore at my heart. Why did I ask him that? I didn't want to dredge up
unhappy memories.

"I didn't always have money, you know."

"I thought your family did."

"Lots of people assume that, and I've
made sure all records of my past have been erased. As much as I can, anyway.
No, we were dirt poor. I went to school, studied hard, made several outstanding
investments, met the right people, got lucky. You wonder why I like expensive
pens." He pulled one from his pocket.

"I never said anything about your
pens." Did I?

"I saw the look in your eyes when you
returned the one I left in the Chicago office. It's okay. I know most people
would never dream of paying hundreds of dollars for a writing implement."
He clicked it a few times.

"They represent success to me. I'd
watch the bigshot bankers, sit there in their fancy suits and play with their
pens, as they told my dad they wouldn't lend him money. Not even a small loan,
to help us keep our house. They couldn't do anything, they said. Then I watched
my father slowly be eaten away by anger until he stuck a gun in his mouth and
pulled the trigger. I swore I'd be there one day, sitting in a chair with my own
pen, signing loans with it, helping people."

He looked straight ahead as we strolled. I
wanted to ask him a million questions, but I kept quiet.

"When I met Tanya, I thought she was
the perfect woman. She was an office manager in Los Angeles, part of my
charitable work division. We liked the same food, the same music; we enjoyed a
lot of the same things. She had a huge, loving heart, and we shared a common
goal; to help others. When I asked her to marry me, I felt like my life had
come together. Tanya quit her job, and we made plans to live together. We
bought a new house and she got to work decorating it."

His pace picked up. "But then, she
changed. Once she got access to my money, she started buying drugs. I didn't know
until it was too late. When I found out, she went to rehab, swore she'd stop. She
didn't. She kept using until one day, she ran her shiny new BMW right into a
concrete wall. She hung in a coma for a month while her family and I watched
her die."

Damn. How horrible. My heart ached for
Nathan. "That wasn't your fault."

"If it wasn't for me and my money,
she wouldn't have turned into a party girl, wouldn't have been able to afford
all those drugs. She'd have continued with her career and married a nice
guy." 

"You don't know that. There's no
magic crystal ball telling you the future." Crap. I was quoting Chris.
"She could have got into trouble on her own, with alcohol, or
whatever."

We paused, and he kicked at a rock.
"I don't think so. I think she would have been fine if not for me. And I
should have recognized the signs of abuse. I turned into a wild child when I
first got my hands on a lot of money. Guess I was lucky, not to have killed
myself or wound up in jail. I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad. I'm
telling you why I don't date employees."

I looked down and dug my shoe into the
sand. "We don't have to date. I mean, we live far away from each other.
It's not like we'd be able to get together a lot. We could just, you know, have
fun while we're here."

Oh shit, what was I saying? The guy wanted
nothing to do with me. He was trying to be nice, to give me an explanation that
would let me save face, and I told him I wanted a one-night stand. A one-week
stand, actually. He turned to look at me and heat flushed my face. I started
walking again. I did not want him looking into my eyes, reading my thoughts.

"I mean, never mind. I know last
night was an accident. We got caught up in the moment. You're not attracted to
me. But I'd like to go back to being friends, like we were before."

We arrived at the Tiki Largo bar area,
closed now, and stood on the deck, looking out at the water. Nathan leaned on
the railing and studied me, and that heat rose again. I turned away, but he
took my chin and tilted my face towards him.

"I'm very much attracted to you. Last
night wasn't just getting caught up in the moment. That kiss was real, and it
was special. There's something between us, but I can't go any further. I don't
do hook-ups, with people I can hurt."

My heart sped up. So it wasn't my
imagination. He felt something too. "I'm a big girl. You think because I'm
from the Midwest, I just fell off the corn truck. You won't hurt me. I've had
lovers."

Well, a few. Not that many. But enough to know
when a relationship would be casual only. "I'm not suggesting we get all
serious. I realize we come from very different places. I'd like to explore what
we started, because, I felt something special with you too. I don't expect any
promises, no commitments."

Wow. What did I just do? I laid it on the
line, that's what and opened myself up to potential heartache. But damn it, I
deserved pleasure in my life. Even if Nathan and I only had a few days together
here, I wanted him.

He opened his mouth but before he could
speak, a crash sounded from near the bar area.

Nathan whirled around. "Stay here, I'm
going to check that out."

Oh, sure I would stay put. Not. I trailed
behind him, both of us shining our phones. We approached the bar quietly,
stepped lightly around the side to the back and…. holy cow. A low light behind
the bar provided enough illumination for us to see, two bodies lay on a
blanket, naked, arms and legs all over each other. My mouth dropped open and I
must have made noise because they stopped moving. The man on top turned to look
at us, then flattened himself over the woman on the bottom. Juan! And he made
that concealing move too late. Even in the dim light, I recognized Chris and
her curvy body.

Super awkward. No one spoke. I cleared my
throat. "Uh, guys, we're going to turn around here while you get up. Put
on some clothes, maybe. You have clothes nearby, right?"

"Yes." A muffled sound from
Chris.

I faced away from them and so did Nathan.
When I stole a glance at him from the corner of my eye, I couldn't tell what he
thought. He looked straight forward, not frowning, but not exactly smiling. I
nudged him, he glanced at me, and I giggled. His mouth twitched, I swear, and
he put his finger to his lips. I managed to contain myself.

"Are you decent?" I asked after
a few moments.

"Yeah."

We both turned around, composing our faces
into serious expressions. Chris and Juan stood there, clothes rumpled, hair in
disarray, hands clasped.

Nathan folded his arms across his chest.
"Don't either of you have a place you can go, to… enjoy each other's
company?"

They looked like they wanted the ground to
split open and swallow them.

"We both live with other people. It's
hard to get private time. This is my fault. I talked Chris into coming out here
with me. Don't get her in trouble."

Aww. Chivalry wasn't dead. Way to go,
Juan.

"You aren't in trouble. I don't care
if you're involved in a relationship. As long as one of you doesn't supervise
the other, it's fine with me. But you can't have sex in a public place. What if
one of our guests found you?"

"We would hear them," Chris
piped up.

"You didn't hear us. Find another
spot for your activities. You can both go."

Chris shot me a quick grin and a wink
before they hurried off, still holding hands. When they were far enough away, I
gave in and burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, it's not that funny, but man,
they both looked about ready to die of embarrassment."

Nathan bent his head and shook it, but I saw
him grin. "Did you know they were together?"

"No. I haven't spent much time with
either of them. Chris and I went to lunch and talked, but she never mentioned
Juan. I guess they're trying to be discreet. Do you really not care if
employees date?"

"People will see each other, no matter
what rules we lay down. Like I said, as long as one person is not in a direct
supervisory position over the other, it's okay by me. Come on, I'll walk you
back to your room. Your shift is over."

Remembering what happened last time he
came near my room, I shivered. "I need to pick up my laptop from the front
desk." We headed in that direction.

"Want to tell me about your sister?
The real story?"

Oh boy. Not really. He'd obviously figured
out I lied.

"I told you my story, one I don't
share with many people. One I'd like kept quiet."

"I won't tell anyone." We seemed
to be finding our way back to solid footing, and I didn't want to mess up our
harmony. Might as well spill it.

We walked for another moment. "My
sister, Michelle, is housebound. She had a traumatic incident happen a year and
a half ago. She doesn't work, doesn't do anything except sit in her apartment. Physically,
she's okay and didn't suffer any brain damage, according to the docs. She's
stuck in this dark place, mentally, and I can't get her to visit a
therapist."

I rubbed my hands up and down my arms as a
breeze blew in, cutting through my shirts. Not terribly cold, but talking about
Michelle made me uneasy.

"Is that the project you need extra
money for?"

"Yes. A certified nursing assistant, Vicky,
comes in five days a week to check on her, and take care of household stuff. I
get over there twice a week, but…" I didn't want to share all my private
business. Nathan didn't need to know. "I can't do everything for her. I
make her nervous sometimes. We're lucky to have Vicky, but she's not cheap. So,
I do freelance editing, make extra money to pay for her. It works out
okay."

Not the whole story, but enough. We walked
the rest of the way in silence, except for a yawn that slipped out.

"Thanks for working this late
shift."

"No problem. I'll send you my notes.
I've got ideas."

"I'm sure you do."

He smiled, and damn it, my heart
stuttered. I could swear I saw desire in his eyes.

"Get some sleep, and we'll meet up
around two o'clock tomorrow. Or rather, today. Call me when you're awake."

We stopped outside the front door of the
lobby. His convertible, parked off to the side, brought back memories of our
evening together. I trembled slightly, hoping he didn't notice.

"So we're good now?" He laid a hand
on my shoulder.

That darn tingle again. "We're good.
And what I said, back there, I'm serious. About us, exploring what we
started." OMG. I had to stop talking. Nathan would take off running any
minute. But even though my mouth went dry at the thought, I truly meant what I
told him.

He took his hand away. "I'll see you
tomorrow afternoon."

Tired as I was, I lay in bed awake for a
while. I couldn't believe what I proposed to Nathan. Would I really do that? Have
casual sex? With my boss, a guy I hardly knew?

It didn't matter anyway. Despite what he
said, Nathan didn't want to have sex with me. He was only being kind. Maybe he felt
the tingle of a spark when we kissed, but not enough to take it any further.
I'd have to be content dreaming about him, treasuring the memory of his lips on
mine.