Escape: Billionaire Island by Helen Hardt

Author:Helen Hardt [Hardt, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hardt & Sons
Published: 2021-11-01T18:30:00+00:00

10

Scotty

I followed her.

This island is safe, but still… She’s so scared of something or someone, so I wanted to make sure she got to her hut safely.

Damn.

Horny and off the clock. Not such a problem when you’re on an island of lovelies.

Except only one woman invades my mind.

Em, with her long dark hair, her searing brown eyes, her milky skin.

Normally I’d hang at the beach or at the bar, people watching, conversing, probably picking up a woman. Usually a staffer. Bedding the art colonists is pretty frowned upon, though I’ll admit I’ve done it a time or two. Or three.

My buddy Lyle is tending bar, so I pony up and take the last available stool next to Nemo, our server from the burger bar. He and Lyle are also my roommates. Well, not roommates so much as suitemates. Staffers share huts, but we each have our own bedroom, which is cool. I’m four years out of college and totally over the “hang a sock on the door if you’ve got a girl inside” days.

Lyle’s a blond surfer boy from LA but Nemo’s half Hawaiian like I am. He looks the part more than I do, though—black hair and dark brown eyes, tan skin. I got my dad’s hazel eyes and slightly fairer skin. The three of us have kind of become known among the staffers as the Island lotharios, to use Em’s word.

“You too, Scotty?” Lyle says, sliding an ice water in front of me. “What are the two most eligible beach bums doing here at the bar when you could be hooking up? What happened to that gorgeous hunkette you were with when you got off duty?”

“She’s tired. Went back to her hut.”

Lyle erupts into boisterous laughter. “You couldn’t seal the deal, huh?”

“You mean the chick you had dinner with?” Nemo asks. “Man, she’s a hottie.”

A hottie? A hunkette? Words I’ve used to describe women many times, but coming from the mouths of Lyle and Nemo, they seem immature and patronizing. I vow never to use them again.

“She’s got class,” I say.

“Too much class to hook up with the likes of you, huh?” Nemo punches my upper arm.

I love these guys, I do, but man, are hookups all they think about?

I can’t escape the irony of my thought.

Hookups are all I thought about until this evening. In fact, I was damned determined to get Em between the sheets.

I let her go.

Sure, I can say it was her obvious baggage, and that’s probably part of it.

But it’s way more than that.

I let her needs take precedence over my own. She wasn’t ready to be with me, so I let her go. I didn’t press her. Normally, I press a little more. I never force a woman, of course, but I can be very persuasive.

“Her name’s—” I stop.

She’s hiding. She probably doesn’t want her name spread everywhere.

“What?” Nemo asks. “What’s her name?”

“She wouldn’t tell me.”

“Easy enough to find out. I can get the guest list from Manuel. Which hut is she in?”

For God’s sake.

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