[Invitation to Eden 21.0] Falling or Flying (11 page)

“What plans?” Maybe he would tell her what Austin’s fantasy was.

Court’s hands slid down her back to cup the cheeks of her ass and they both moaned. “About you, Joely Jones. It’s all about you. Crazy as it is, when he finally gets around to telling you, I hope you remember that.”

She nodded, distracted by his touch. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she lifted her legs until they were curled around his waist. His erection was pressed between his flat stomach and her sex, and she rocked against him teasingly. “What about
your
plans for me?”

His blue gaze burned into hers. “If you’re trying to distract me with your luscious little body—it’s working. You already know my plans, Mary Ann. You know what I’m going to do to you. And I’ll give you advanced warning, I’m not going to be satisfied with one night. I might have to extend my vacation indefinitely.”

“Am I interrupting?” Joely looked up to see Austin’s tantalizing body slide into the hot water. “Damn, that hits the spot.”

Court squeezed the cheeks of her ass. “Right? This lean-to has everything. Canned goods, hot springs, a naked woman I want to play with… I might stay.”

“You?” Austin leaned back and closed his eyes, ignoring them as they clung to each other. “Won’t you get tired taking photographs of the same island? Especially when you’re so determined to travel?”

Court glared. “I could still travel. And when I come back, Eden has charms enough to keep me distracted.” He lifted one hand from her ass and cupped her breast, tugging her nipple between his fingers until she whimpered. “I don’t think she’d mind, would you, Mary Ann? If I had a home base at this cabin so I could fuck you whenever I wanted? Is that your fantasy, Joely? What you thought about when you got your invitation?”

She gave short squeak of shock when Austin—who apparently hadn’t been as relaxed as he appeared—pulled her out of Court’s arms and set her down beside them. As the men glared at each other, she realized what Court had said. The shock was icy cold and bracing. “How did you know about my invitation?”

“And I was going to keep my mouth shut.” Court sank down into the steaming water and backed himself up to the stone edge. “You want to take this one, buddy?”

“Good timing, Courtney.” Austin ran his wet hands through his hair and looked around. “I’m so glad you came along.”

Joely covered her breasts with crossed arms. “How do you
know
?”

Austin reached for her but she back away. “Damn it, it’s complicated.”

“Excessively,” Court interrupted, agreeing. “Flowers would have been easier, but you wouldn’t take my advice.”

He sent it
. Why hadn’t she seen that before? “How did you do it? Vardalos has them specially made on the mainland before bringing them back and locking them up personally. When I brought mine to him I thought his head was going to explode.”

“This’ll be a fun reunion,” Court murmured. “And Austin is clever, Joely. He found out where those invites were made after his second visit to Eden.”

He knew who made them? “However you managed to get your hands on a blank invitation, and I don’t think I want to know the details as much as my boss will…why would you give it to me?”

Court sighed. “Complicated. You can’t use that word enough.”

“You’re not going to leave are you?” Austin growled at him.

“No, sir. I’m not.”

Austin leaned down until he could look into her eyes. “Joely, I wasn’t thinking straight. I admit that.
You
try spending a few years dreaming every night about a woman you can only see if you manage to wrest a personal invite out of Theo’s stubborn hands. And when you finally do, she hardly looks at you or talks to you, even when you’re more certain than you’ve ever been of anything in your life that your dreams meant something. That they were real.”

“I’m the pilot. You were a guest,” she responded numbly, trying to take it all in. “You were your
friend’s
guest and you forged an invitation. I still don’t understand why. That’s not how it works. You know you can’t create the fantasy, right? The person who receives the invitation gets what they most desire. Or what they need.”

“I wanted to know you.” His voice sounded ragged. Tired. “I wanted to know what you fantasized about. Wanted to see if there was a chance I could be a part of your dream the way you were mine.” Then he sighed and shook his head. “I only knew what other people did about you, and it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. I planned everything with the best intentions. I wasn’t trying to trick Theo or create your fantasy, I was trying to know
you
.”

He gestured toward the tree line they’d come from. “Then we ended up on that beach with Court along for the ride and I didn’t know whose wish Eden was fulfilling. But I didn’t care anymore. You let me in, let me see you and talk to you and touch you and I didn’t care why.”

He reached for her again, cupping her shoulders tightly so she couldn’t back away. “I’m sorry for the lie. I wasn’t thinking straight. I wanted you too much.”

Joely stared at him. What he’d done was insane. It wasn’t how the island worked. How had he gotten away with it? If Vardalos had found out…

Austin studied her expression and dropped his hands. “I can’t really compete with Eden, I know that. I know what you need to be happy.” He tore his gaze from hers and looked at his friend. “I could hate you for your fucking timing.”

“Believe me, buddy, I hate myself,” Court responded softly.

Austin turned away and dragged himself out of the hot water, grabbing up his clothes and heading back to the cabin.

Joely watched him walk away, her body trembling from restraining herself. She wanted to go after him. Yell at him. Tell him she’d torn up that stupid invitation so it was all for nothing.

She wanted him to kiss her until she forgot about everything.

Court wrapped his arms around her from behind. “I sure know how to kill a party,” he sighed. “Joely, about Austin, he—”

“He’s a lot like my boss.” The instant she said it, she realized it was true. Theodosius Vardalos had had a dream about a girl, built a fantasy resort and waited for over ten years for her to arrive. He’d transported a crumbling castle over the ocean. He’d done whatever it took to create the place he’d seen in his vision as if that would make her appear. If he’d had to use illegal means to make it happen—well, Joely wouldn’t have put it past him.

And Austin had done
this
. For
her
.

Hardly daring to believe it, she gave a rusty laugh. “Rich people are strange.”

“Gee, thanks.” Court kissed her shoulder. “I don’t know about Theo. I know Austin, though. He’s a good man, crazy about you in a way that borders on criminal obviously, but a good man.”

Crazy about her.
“Why did
you
really come to Eden, Court?” she asked, excitement and nerves prickling under her skin.

“I told you already. To repay a debt. When I found out about his plan, I had no idea what was going to happen. Hell, he could have been discovered and taken away in chains. I’d told him to ask you out, to kidnap you—anything but his original plan. Who knew you’d end up fantasizing about tromping through the jungle with us?” he added in a rueful tone. “I sure as hell didn’t, but like I said, I know Austin, and I was afraid that even if he wasn’t found out, he’d end up torturing himself, watching you live out your sexual daydreams with someone else, and I couldn’t let that happen. I love the man like a brother, but sometimes you need to throw away the plans and take a leap. I wanted to make sure he took his chance with you when it came around. Sure, after I met you I might have wanted to be included in some of those chances, but my heart was in the right place.”

Joely swallowed hard, awed by his loyalty and his determination to see that Austin got his heart’s desire. 

And Austin… She shook her head in amazement, knowing that if he’d merely asked her out, she would have said no. She always said no. Guests and staff were off limits. Long relationships that took her attention from Eden were off limits. Love was off limits. She’d only given in to her fantasy when she’d had no other choice. No plane to fly away in or job to use as an excuse.
He’d
given her that—maybe not directly, but Austin had set the chain of events in motion with that forged invitation.

Never in her life had anyone gone to so much trouble for her, not for any reason. She still couldn’t believe losing her plane was a part of her fantasy, but the rest of it made sense now. She’d had—was still having—her own kind of adventure in Eden, the kind she’d always imagined, but with an added twist.

Two
twists. She leaned against Court and closed her eyes, suddenly terrified. It was her move now—what if she did the wrong thing? “What would you do if you were me? Truth.”

“Playing that game again?” Court pulled her closer. “Well I might not be the best person to ask. I’d do a lot.”

“I need more than that, Court. What do you mean by a lot?”

He sighed. “Okay. When we got back from Afghanistan, the first thing my mother did after crying over her prodigal son was buy me my camera. She’s never been able to travel—her agoraphobia is so bad she’s hardly left the house in twenty years—so she gave me a mission to find all the beautiful places of the world and photograph them for her. I promised her I would and that’s a promise I intend to keep, though it might take a few years more than she has. And Austin? I promised myself I would see that man living the long and happy life he deserves, and I will do whatever I can to keep that one as well. My point is, I would do
anything
for the people I love. Save them from themselves, travel to the ends of the earth…forgive them for doing the really wrong, unnecessarily complicated things for the right reasons.”

She turned her head to look up at him. “Have a ménage?” she asked lightly, more moved by his words than she cared to admit.

“I might not be the one to ask about that either, since I have a vested interest in the answer,” Court told her with a twinkle in his eye. “But you have to know I’d vote yes. You’re special, Joely Jones. You may not be able to see it but I can. Austin can. Look around you—even your precious island knows. You’re worth all of this and more. You deserve to have your dreams come true as much as all those guests you ferry in and out of the resort.”

Joely bit her lip, still unsure. Did she deserve it? She’d never felt like she did. She’d considered herself lucky to have finally found a place that wouldn’t be taken away from her. The island would never leave her.

Austin might.

“What if it isn’t love?” she asked anxiously. “What if it isn’t real?”

Court laid his forehead against hers. “Take a leap, Joely. Take a chance. What if it is?”

This would be the perfect night for flying. The sky was clear and the stars looked close enough to touch.

Joely pulled the crocheted blanket they’d found in the closet around her shoulders and looked up into the night, yearning for Wanda. And answers to all the questions, all the doubts that were swirling through her mind.

The cabin had been too crowded with both men watching her every move, waiting for her reaction to their revelations. Their emotions were so strong she couldn’t tell them apart from her own. After her shower she’d only been able to take the tension for a few minutes before she’d had to come back outside. No one tried to stop her.

She’d been going back and forth with herself for hours about Austin. As the pilot, she ought to be pissed. Damn it, she
was
pissed. Who the hell did he think he was, attempting to control the powers of the island for his own personal whims? Attempting to usurp her boss’s authority—the island’s authority—by sending out an invitation to…her.

She
was the reason he’d kept coming back. The idea was still mind-boggling, and she wasn’t sure she quite believed it, though that seemed to be what both men were implying. If she really was, the island hadn’t given him what he wanted.

Until now.

I can’t compete with Eden, I know that now.

What did he mean by that?

But she knew. She’d said it herself a hundred times—Eden was her fantasy. She didn’t need anything else. It was her home, her safe harbor, her friend. And Austin had picked up on that. No wonder she’d always felt his gaze burning holes through her—he’d studied her. Knew her like a book.

Saw her.

People never saw her. They saw the pilot. Even Vardalos, as much as she trusted him and as close as they were—most of the time he was so busy looking for what was coming or mourning what used to be that he couldn’t see anything else.

She’d never minded. She hadn’t. But then, she hadn’t really known what she was missing.

Feeling even more bewildered, Joely pulled the blanket tighter around her and sighed. She’d thought this was all she needed—this life that she’d made, her job she was so proud of. She was meant to be here. She’d felt it to her bones and she’d always trusted her feelings.

Not when it came to Austin. He confused her, aroused her, got under her skin and haunted her dreams. What she felt about him wasn’t something she understood—mostly because she had nothing to compare it to.

Court was easier. Her feelings for him were intense and getting stronger all the time, but being with him was easy. Like they’d always known each other and they always would. They laughed, they understood each other and the chemistry between them was already combustible.

Austin was… He was the risk. The reason she never wanted a fantasy. The reason getting the invitation had scared her.

She was obviously in love with him. She’d been in love with her dream of him for years, and a part of her had known if she’d let him in, even an inch, she would have been lost a long time ago.

Loving was a gamble that had never paid off. People left her. They always left her. For a long time she’d thought it something in her makeup, or maybe something she’d done wrong. It wasn’t until she came to the island that she’d begun to think that might not be true.