Queen’s Knight (Invitation to Eden) (2 page)

It was like he’d never seen a girl in motocross boots. Go figure, right?!

A knock on the door startled Dani. She looked up from the blog post she was writing on her computer, then pushed back the chair and stood up. The marble floors felt deliciously cool beneath her bare feet as she padded across the room and peeked around the door.

“Oh good, you haven’t left already!”

Rose had never been one to recognize personal space. The older woman slipped past Dani, peering around the room. “I always worry that one of these days, you’ll get on that bike of yours, tear off into the wilds and not look back.”

“Hey, I’d at least say goodbye to you first,” Dani protested, aiming a mock kick at her friend’s backside, which Rose easily eluded.

“Ah yes, the perks of working HR. I’d hold your last paycheck hostage forever if you didn’t let me send you off right.”

Dani just grinned. Rose Primm wasn’t exactly the most tactful of personalities, but she and Dani got along well. A person always knew where they stood with Rose. She looked matronly, and had a great way with the guests, but there was a reason she usually stayed in the office: she wasn’t afraid to say if she didn’t like someone, even to their face.

“So, are you just here to bug me, or do you have someone looking for adventure tours?”

“As a matter of fact, I might have a bite for you.” She grabbed an open bag of trail mix from the desk and plopped down on Dani’s couch. “Mostly though, I’m here to bug you.”

“I figured as much.” Blog post momentarily forgotten, Dani plopped down beside her friend, taking a handful of mix from the proffered bag. “Don’t you have work to do?”

“Girl, this is Eden. Things always get done eventually.” She shoveled another handful of trail mix into her mouth. “And anyway, most of us
employees
are as much guests here as everyone else, as you well know.”

“Yeah,” Dani mused, looking around her room, “it’s gonna suck to leave here.”

“You know you don’t have to.”

Dani looked over at her friend, but Rose wouldn’t meet her eyes. One corner of Dani’s mouth tipped up. She didn’t say anything but laid her head on the other lady’s shoulder.

Rose didn’t have too many friends, mainly because she had little to no brain-to-mouth filters. The trait that Dani appreciated in her friend tended to turn off most other people. “You can still come with me, you know. I’d love some company.”

But Rose snorted and shook her head. “This place would go to pot if I left. Besides, why the hell would I give up the perfect job to get Malaria in some foreign country?”

“Technically, they have pills that help prevent that.”

“You’re living proof they don’t always work.”

Dani winced, remembering her time in Mexico. “Yeah, that part of the trip kind of sucked. I thought it was Montezuma’s revenge until an African backpacker made me go to the doctor. Ended up being laid up in the hostel for two weeks because of it.”

“And you really want me to come along with you?”

“Oh, it’s not so bad most of the time.” But travelling like that wasn’t for everyone, and Dani knew it. True, it got lonely sometimes, and having a companion would make certain aspects easier.

“So when do you leave?” Rose asked after a moment of silence.

Dani shrugged a shoulder. “I was thinking in four to five weeks. The crowd-funding campaign is going well and I’ve gotten quite a few sponsors.”

“I still think you’re an idiot,” Rose said bluntly, but there was affection in her tone. The older lady bumped Dani with her shoulder. “Want to go down by the pool? Payroll’s done for the day and I need a drink.”

Dani looked back at her computer wistfully. She needed to update her blog, let folks know plans. For many friends and family she’d left behind, her blog and email was their only connection to her life. She’d been having such a blast lately that she’d fallen behind on updates.

But one look at Rose’s sardonic expression reminded her she had a friend here. “Yeah, sure. Let me grab my bathing suit.”

*

C
alling the water feature toward the rear of the castle a “pool” was an understatement, but there was no single word to describe it. Maybe “lake”, or a large pond, but it was all man made and one of the most gorgeous parts of an already phenomenal location. Sunlight danced across the top of the clear water, bright lines dancing around the ripples. Palm trees and cabanas lined the edges, giving shade from the warm Caribbean sun.

Rose quickly ditched her sarong on a nearby bench and moved to the water eagerly. The curvier woman never seemed self-conscious about her body, a trait Dani envied. She’d been given one of the long wraps early on by Rose but didn’t get to use it much. For a while, Dani had been busy running adventure tours for the island until the weather grew too warm. Nowadays, she more enjoyed soaking up the indoor air conditioning and planned her trip.

There weren’t too many people out at the pools, which made her feel a bit more open. Untying the red sarong from her shoulder, she slid it off her body, revealing a white bikini bathing suit she’d rarely worn. It felt strange to reveal so much skin; she’d never been a bikini kind of girl before Eden.

She laid the thin cloth and towel next to Rose’s green sarong on a nearby chair. The other lady was already in the water, floating on her back and staring up at the bright sky. Dani dipped one foot in the pool, and found it pleasantly cool. She could count on one hand the number of times she’d actually been in the pool. There was no reason why she wasn’t enjoying this place more, except that she felt like someone had made a mistake, that she didn’t belong here.

“Ah, this is the life,” Rose murmured, taking a few backstrokes through the water. “A nice breeze, cool water, and the thrill of knowing I’m done for the day. All that’s missing is a drink in my hand.”

“Perhaps I can help with that.”

A large man with a big smile had materialized near Rose, holding a drink in each hand. Rose gave him a sharp glance and rolled her eyes. “Buzz off weirdo, she’s too young for you.”

“I can only see the vision before me.” Indeed, the newcomer’s attention seemed focused on Rose. He was a larger man, balding on top and with a paunch to rival Santa Claus and a red nose that belied his current sobriety. He did, however, seem fascinated by the prickly woman. “My name’s Griffin,” he said, sounding fairly sober at least, “and I’d
really
like to buy you a drink.”

Rose threw Dani a bemused look, then her eyes narrowed as she addressed the other man. “What the hell have you been smoking?” she demanded, and Dani winced.

If anything, however, her reply only made the man’s grin grow larger. “If I can buy you a drink,” he said, winking, “maybe I’ll even share.”

This made Rose’s eyebrows rise, momentarily rendering her speechless. “Well,” she said after a moment, shooting looks between Griffin and Dani, “I won’t say no to a free drink.”

Dani managed to hold her giggles in somehow, then caught sight of another person watching her from across the pool.

The suit from the lobby.
He was sitting under the shaded awning at the nearby cafe, but she could tell he was watching her. In the same way prey knows it was being hunted, she felt his gaze on her body.

Well, honey,
she thought, blatantly zeroing in on him as well,
two can play at that game.

Even from a distance, she could tell he was handsome. The contrast in light from the dark cafe and the sunny pool area made it so she couldn’t tell his coloring, but she remembered the brown hair from the lobby. He was wearing a suit and tie again, an older look that made her wonder again at his age. She’d seen an almost yearning in his eye in the lobby, but they were too far apart now to tell what he was thinking.

“Dani, you coming?”

She looked back at Rose, who was standing suspiciously close to Griffin. The man’s hand was on the other woman’s lower back almost possessively, but the real miracle was that Rose didn’t seem to mind. “I’ll follow you in a minute.”

She let the water buoy her up, skipping along the bottom of the pool. The couple swam for the bar that sat in the center of the pool as Dani hung back. A sneaking glance at the man nearby told her he was still watching her, although a bit more surreptitiously this time.

Dani stopped, then openly turned and stared. She was being a wuss, flaking out on adventure. What had happened to YOLO, trying out new and different things?

She swam sideways, straight toward the cafe. Behind her, Rose called her name but, for the moment, Dani ignored her. The other woman would want a full report of all that happened, so might as well make it interesting.

He’d looked away when she first approached, as if realizing he’d been caught staring. Up close like this, he was even more handsome, with blond hair and tanned skin. He was younger than she thought, given his attire, and as she got to the edge of the pool, she cocked her head to the side.

“Why would someone under thirty in today’s day and age want to wear a tie, unless they were Christian Grey?”

––––––––

I
t was the white bikini, Evan decided. He’d always been a sucker for white bikinis.

There was no getting away from it now; he’d been caught. Ignoring her question was unthinkable, so he just grinned and shrugged. “Maybe I’m here for the Christian Grey convention?”

That got a laugh out of her, the same infectious chuckle he’d heard in the lobby. Her breasts bobbed with her laughter, and he had to work hard not to let his gaze slip south. The water hid most of her curves but he’d watched her get into the water, watched her slip off that yellow cover.

God, he felt like a pervert who’d been caught snooping. But she was smiling up at him, and he couldn’t help but return the expression. The stress of the last few days—really, since he’d gotten word he’d been chosen as one of Jeremiah Hamilton’s candidates for replacement—melted under that look.

“So, what are you here for?” she asked, crossing her arms on the edge of the pool and resting her chin on them.

“Job interview.”

Her brow furrowed. “For here?”

He shook his head. “No, this job is far, far away from here, although working in a place like this would be less stressful.”

“Gotta admit, it’s pretty stinking awesome here. I run the island tours, at least the kind you can do on the ground. Most folks just do the hikes but we do ATVs and dirt bike tours too.”

“Yeah, I saw you in your motorcycle getup.”

She cocked her head at him. “Do you ride?”

“I did as a kid. Mostly dirt bikes around my grandfather’s property in Pennsylvania.” He stood up and walked over, squatting next to the pool and holding out his hand. “Evan McQueen.”

“Dani Knight. Pleased to meet you.”

She had gorgeous eyes, a light brown that looked hazel in the sun. The small line of freckles peppered across her nose charmed him. There wasn’t a bit of makeup on her face, and for someone used to such things in every woman he’d met, the lack of artifice was refreshing.

From this angle, Evan was getting an eyeful, but he was enraptured by the whole package. “So,” he asked, shifting his weight to sit on his heels, “how did you manage to get a job in paradise?”

“Now,
there’s
a story. It involves a broken down bike, a Costa Rican hellhole, and what I’m guessing are hacked spy satellites to find me.” Her eyes danced with humor. “You have a few minutes?”

Right as Evan was about to say
Hell yeah
, out of the corner of his eye he saw a large man enter the cafe area and sit down alone. Evan shut his mouth with an audible click, quickly assessing the situation. The Maashole was nowhere to be found, nor was Jeremiah’s fiancé. It was the perfect opportunity to have some one-on-one face time with the billionaire, and hopefully make a good impression.

“I take it that’s your boss?”

Dani’s voice brought him back to the present. She’d followed his gaze, and Evan could hear the disappointment in her tone. It was on the tip of his tongue to lie, to say no he had all the time in the world to listen to her stories of Central American hellholes and adventure.

Don’t screw up this opportunity.
His father’s advice rolled through his mind like a cleansing tide. “Yeah,” he finally answered, as disappointed by the opportunity as she seemed.

“Well, I don’t want to screw things up for you.” She pushed off from the edge, floating in the water. “Maybe I’ll see you around?”

Evan desperately wanted her to stay and talk to him more, but forced himself to stand upright. “I’d really like that.”

She turned away first, swimming toward the bar that sat in the middle of the giant pool. Evan watcher her go, his heart growing heavier with the increasing distance, then took a deep breath and turned toward Jeremiah’s location.

The CEO acknowledged Evan almost immediately. “How are you enjoying the island?”

“It’s fantastic.” Dani’s face immediately flashed through Evan’s mind. “Full of pleasant surprises. If you’re not busy, I’d...”

“Jeremiah, so sorry I’m late!”

The boisterous, over-loud voice of Preston Maas filled the small space. Evan winced as the volume of the other man’s voice boomed around the covered patio. His interruption was unsubtle and as transparent as the over-bright, false smile plastered across his face.

Even Jeremiah’s lips thinned at the intrusion, but he still acknowledged the new arrival. “Mr. Maas here and I were set to play some golf. Care to join us?”

Behind Jeremiah, the smile disappeared from Preston’s face. Evan was sorely tempted to take up the offer just to annoy the other man. Unfortunately, Preston’s stormy expression promised that the annoyances would be all on Evan’s end. He wasn’t in the mood to put up with an afternoon full of snide digs and passive aggressive putdowns. He got enough of that at home.

“You two have fun,” he said instead, and then added as an aside to Jeremiah, “hopefully we can meet up and speak privately in the next few days.”

“Our tee time is in fifteen minutes,” Preston interjected before Jeremiah could respond. “Maybe you can find Griffin and hang out with him. He said something about using the spa today, probably getting a massage or pedicure by now.”