More Than Pleasure You_A More Than Words Novella by Shayla Black

Author:Shayla Black [Black, Shayla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary, Shayla Black, Romance, 1001 Dark Nights, More Than Words
Publisher: Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated
Published: 2019-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

* * * *

The following afternoon, I’m hanging out on the lanai, more than half hoping Skye will come back soon. Shortly after breakfast, she disappeared to run errands for her bosses, Dean and Erma, who don’t drive much since they’re in their eighties.

With her gone, I’ve been thinking, trying to figure out my life. I venture to peek at the voicemails I’ve been ignoring, including another one from David Chang. There’s also a cheery invitation from Nia, asking me over for dinner tonight to celebrate the birth of Maxon and Keeley Reed’s daughter, Kailani, on New Year’s Day.

The rest of the messages are from business contacts reaching out to me for other potential deals, which tells me that if I branch off on my own I stand a good chance of being self-sustaining.

The remaining three are from my dad, each more insistent than the last. He’s never been good at back-and-forth conversation, just making demands.

In the past, I’ve always put our business first. Right now, I have to think about a future that suits me.

Since it’s Monday morning in Hong Kong, I dial Chang. He answers on the first ring.

“Hi, David.” His given name is a lot more difficult to pronounce, but for simplicity’s sake he’s David to his American and British contacts.

“Do you have information for me about the Maui property?” he asks in a slightly British clip, though I still hear a slight Asian enunciation to his tone.

“I do. I’ve walked the beach, driven the roads, inquired about zoning, building codes, water, sewer…pretty much asked the gamut of questions before one commits to building a hotel.” This isn’t my first rodeo, after all. “Of course, the property in question isn’t actually for sale.”

“It’s not, but you know the unwritten rule.”

“Everything has a price.”

“Exactly.” I hear the smile in Chang’s voice.

“The building codes will present some challenges. Maui has a labyrinth of regulations, most of which aren’t conducive to skyscrapers.”

“I’m aware of that. I’m challenging my architect to sketch his preliminary designs around that, while making it as profitable as possible. Once that’s done, we’ll see if the project is worth the return. Tell me about the sellers.”

“They’re an elderly couple who leave the day-to-day operations of the vacation rental to an employee.” It’s on the tip of my tongue to point out that we’ll displace Skye and eliminate her job if this hotel comes to fruition. But I bite the words back. David won’t care. If I didn’t know Skye so personally, I wouldn’t either.

I feel more than a tad guilty that I’m having this conversation without first speaking to her about this. But she doesn’t own the property. Her allegiance is to Dean and Erma, and I can’t risk her tipping them off before David is ready to negotiate. Heck, if he’s ever ready. This whole thing could easily fall apart.

“They have to know they’re sitting on a fortune in land,” David muses.

Totally. And I’m sure people have made them offers in the past. There must

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