J ayne spent the afternoon of her second to last day on the island with Didi in the spa, being pampered. Adam had given her the time off and said he didn’t want to see her until she relaxed. Jayne couldn’t believe the changes that their time here had wrought in him. He was a different man than she’d known before, and he’d put to rest her girlish dreams of Mr. Right. Adam was so much more compelling.
Still, much of their relationship was up in the air. She didn’t know what he planned to do when they returned. Jayne had already drafted a resignation letter in her head and knew that she’d gambled her heart for Adam. But she felt confident she was going to come up a winner.
Though he was careful to never make promises he couldn’t keep, she knew that Adam didn’t want to let her go. He’d told her as much last night in bed, in the quiet hour just before dawn when life seemed almost perfect.
“I can’t believe we’re leaving here in a few days,” Jayne said to Didi now. “You must love living here. It’s like heaven on earth.”
“Not really,” the older woman replied with a small smile. “But I do like it.”
“Why are you selling it?” she asked. Didi and Ray weren’t really old enough to retire, and they seemed to enjoy the resort. Ray was always in the beachfront bar, telling stories and entertaining the guests.
“Ray and I have to travel a lot with our jobs. So staying here isn’t an option anymore.”
Jayne wondered about the couple. They kept their lives private, but Jayne had been studying couples since the second grade, when one of the girls at her school had asked if Jonathon O’Neil, her mother’s current lover, was Jayne’s stepfather. She hadn’t realized until that moment that other families didn’t have a rotating male in their households.
“What is your job? I hope you aren’t offended if I say so, but neither of you seems to know a lot about the hotel industry.”
“We don’t. We’re more experts on human nature. That’s why finding a couple in love to buy the resort is so important.”
“I can see how that would be nice, but from a business standpoint it lacks a little credibility.”
“Are you always business-minded, Jayne?” she asked.
Jayne tried to be, because life had proved easier that way. But lately she seemed to be more family-minded. Her head filled with images of her and Adam and a brood of kids that belonged to them. Of she and Adam creating the family they’d both always craved and never had. Of them living in a big house and growing old together.
She sighed. “Usually. Lately, though, not as much.”
“It seems to me humans use business to occupy their lonely lives instead of seeking out comfort in each other.”
“Perhaps. But there is a very nice feeling that comes with success.”
“Yes, there is.”
A timer went off at the drying station, letting them both know the nail polish on their toes was dry. Jayne slid her feet into the spa thongs she’d brought, and stood. “I’m glad we got to spend the day together.”
“Me, too. I’ll see you at dinner,” Didi said, exiting the spa.
Jayne took her time gathering her bag and walking up the path toward their suite. She would miss the island. Even if Adam purchased it she probably wouldn’t be coming back here for a while. She thought about her travel goals and decided she’d add in all the countries she wanted to visit, not confining herself to the fifty states. She could get used to island living.
When she reached the suite, she opened the door and found Adam on the phone. She observed him as he talked, making notes on the pad in front of him. His wore a pair of shorts and a Hawaiian print shirt that he’d left unbuttoned.
She dropped her bag inside the doorway. Adam looked up and smiled at her, gesturing that he’d only be a few more minutes. She took a bottle of seltzer water from the minibar and settled on the love seat, watching him. She didn’t listen to his conversation, just let the sound of his voice wash over her.
Closing her eyes, she tried not to put too much hope into thoughts of the future, but knew it was too late. She’d fallen hard for Adam.
“How was the spa?” he asked, dropping down on the cushion next to her.
He put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her close to his side, then bent down and kissed her. He’d told her a couple of times how her mouth enticed him.
“Relaxing. I enjoyed it. Thanks for insisting I go,” she said, when he lifted his head.
“No problem. I know I can be demanding sometimes, but I wanted you to see that I can also be generous.”
Adam was acting a little odd. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something was different about him. “I already knew that.”
“That’s right, you’re the—what did you call it?—facilitator of my generosity?”
“That’s right. You’re usually very generous toward women at the end of your affairs. Should I be worried?”
“No. This isn’t like any relationship I’ve had before.”
Me, either, she thought. He opened his arms and she sank against him. Sometimes she felt so vulnerable around him that she thought she’d break into a million pieces. But when he held her she felt safe and that her love was a good thing. She closed her eyes now and breathed deeply of his spicy masculine scent.
“I have another present for you.”
“Where?”
“On the bed.”
“You don’t have to keep buying me things.”
“I like to spoil you, Jayne.”
“Why?”
“Do I need a reason?”
“No,” she said, but it worried her. She knew Adam well enough to realize he used his money as a shield.
“I want tonight to be special for you, and my present is just part of that.”
He ushered her into the bedroom, where she found an exquisite cocktail gown lying on the coverlet. Adam left her to dress, saying he had plans to make. Her heart beat faster as she realized he must have something important on his mind if he was going to all this trouble just for her.
“Buona notte,” Ray said in a greeting when they arrived in the lounge for a predinner drink. Adam would be happy to have the resort business out of the way so he could concentrate on Jayne. He no longer felt a burning need to destroy this place and make it into something it wasn’t. He could appreciate the charm of the resort and separate that from the betrayal he’d felt with his father.
“I’ve made arrangements for us to dine on our private veranda,” their host announced. “The sunsets are spectacular there.”
“Thanks, Ray.”
“Nothing but the best for our ladies tonight.”
Didi rolled her eyes, but a smile lingered on her lips, and for the first time since Adam had met the couple, they seemed to be almost at peace with one another.
“Our ladies should always have their heart’s desire.”
“Jayne said you’d found the treasure box?” Didi asked as Ray led the way through the public rooms to their private quarters.
“We did. The trail isn’t that hard to find. Even if you decide not to sell to me I think you should jazz it up a bit. Jayne spoke to a professional treasure hunter and he’ll help embellish the tale and make the search a little harder.”
“Good suggestion, compare. I’ve implemented many of things you recommended. You really know your stuff when it comes to resorts.”
Getting the resort didn’t matter as much as it once had. Adam was happy to have had this time on the island with Jayne. If they didn’t acquire Perla Negra, he’d buy some land and develop his own resort based on a legend. Maybe he’d bring Jayne with him to oversee the construction. “It’s what I do. And frankly, I love it.”
Ray nodded. He took a cigar out of his pocket, but Didi reached over and snatched it out of his hand before he could light it. “I’ve always felt the same about my job. Sometimes this one gives me agita. But otherwise things aren’t so bad.”
“I can tell. Not many owners would hold out for the kind of buyer they want for their resort. I can tell the property means more to you than just a quick buck.”
“Well, you can’t take it with you,” Ray said with a laugh. Didi joined him.
They arrived at a large veranda, where a table was set for four. An ice bucket stood next to the table with a magnum of champagne in it.
“We got off track,” their hostess murmured. “Did you like the cave? Did you read the incantation?”
“I did. I took a stone,” Jayne said quietly.
“I’m not surprised. What about you, Adam?” Didi asked.
“I did, too.”
Jayne glanced at him from under her eyelashes, and he felt her reproval. When Didi excused herself to check on the dinner, and Ray followed her inside, Jayne turned to Adam. “You don’t have to lie to them about it. They know you’re too…practical to believe in that legend,” she stated.
He said nothing, just reached into his pants’ pocket and pulled out the stone to show her. She swallowed hard and stared at him. Adam felt that strange feeling in his chest again when she gazed up at him, this time with her heart in her eyes.
He caressed her face, tilting her head back and capturing her lips with his own. Sipping carefully at her mouth, he treated her like the rare treasure she was. He found it hard to believe that feisty, sassy Jayne was the answer to the empty part of his life.
“What did you wish for?” she asked after a minute.
“I’m not supposed to tell.”
“I hope it comes true, Adam,” she said fiercely.
“You’re the only one who can make that happen.”
She trembled under his hands. “Same here, stud muffin.”
“Woman, you are asking for it.”
“When have I ever pretended not to be?” she said.
“Let’s have a toast,” Ray said, stepping back outside before Adam could respond.
But Adam reached down and pinched Jayne’s backside surreptitiously as they walked to the table. She gave him a look over her shoulder that made his blood flow heavier and his body stir to life.
Didi joined them a moment later, carrying a tray of hors d’oeuvres. Setting it on the table, she took a flute from Ray. Once they all had a glass in their hand, Ray slipped his arm around Didi and looked at Adam, raising his flute. “To the new owner of La Perla Negra. May he find love and happiness as well as prosperous times ahead.”
Adam felt a queer sensation in his stomach as he realized what Ray was saying. He couldn’t lift his glass and drink, but turned to Jayne and took her in his arms. She stretched up and gave him a kiss that shook him. His hands were trembling with desire when she sank back onto her own chair.
“Now we drink,” Ray said.
“Now we drink,” Adam agreed. They all sipped the Asti and Adam took it as a sign. They sat down at the table. Everything in his life was coming together. After years of working and struggling to right the wrongs of the past, he was going to have the resort that had led his father to ruin. Adam had a woman by his side who he knew was a partner in business as well as in life. And he was finally coming to terms with the fact that his heart wasn’t as well-guarded as he’d always believed.
Dinner went by in a haze of pleasure, and Adam realized that the only thing missing from his life was a commitment from Jayne. But in a few hours, he’d have all the pieces in place.
Jayne emerged from the bathroom wearing her one-of-a-kind negligee.
“Close your eyes,” Adam told her.
She did as he asked. Beneath her feet she felt something soft and cool, and peeking from under her lashes, she saw rose petals. Their fragrance filled the room.
“I can’t keep my eyes shut for long,” she warned, crossing the room toward the sound of his voice. She hated not being able to see. It made her feel exposed.
“Sure you can, chère. It’s worth it, I promise,” he said. This time his voice came from a different direction.
She turned toward it, sliding one foot at a time in front of her to make sure she didn’t run into anything. “I can’t stand it. I want to see.”
Large and warm, his hands covered her eyes. “I had no idea you were so impatient.”
“It’s not really impatience as much as vulnerability. I hate that feeling.”
She felt his lips brush hers, with a back and forth motion that made her stand on her toes and try to pull him closer. But when she reached for him, he wasn’t where she’d expected him to be.
“You don’t have to seduce me. I’m already yours,” she said, knowing the words were true. There was no other man who could make her forget the painful lesson she’d learned as a child, and remember her secret dreams. No other man who tempted her to believe that those dreams might have a chance of coming true. No other man who made her forget a time when they hadn’t been together.
“Are you?” he asked. He touched her face, tenderly tracing her cheekbone and the line of her nose. She wished she could see his expression. Adam gave so little away and she was tired of trying to guess at the depth of his feelings.
“You must know that I am,” she said. She wasn’t going to hide from him.
They were scheduled to go home tomorrow afternoon, and she knew that once they returned to New Orleans, reality would come crashing down. She’d prayed that reality might mean a marriage of her life with Adam on the island and the one they’d had before. But she couldn’t tell what he felt. She thought he loved her…well, knew he cared deeply for her. The way he held her at night, so close and tight, told her it had to be more than sex.
“Good,” he said, quiet satisfaction in his words.
He wrapped a length of silk around her head, covering her eyes. “How’s that?”
“Adam…”
“What?” His mouth was against the back of her neck, moving slowly downward. “You can’t see and my hands are free.”
She swallowed her doubts and said, “Do your worst, stud muffin.”
He chuckled and then wrapped her in a tight embrace. “I intend to. But first…”
He lifted her in his arms and carried her somewhere. She felt the warm sea breeze a minute before he set her in one of the rattan chairs on the balcony. She loved his strength and the fact that he was a toucher. She’d never been petted like this by any man, but Adam was always reaching for her.
“Wait here a minute. I have to take care of a few last-minute details.”
She heard him leave, and leaned her head against the back of the chair, tilting her face up to feel the breeze more fully on her skin. The roar of the surf was a pleasant accompaniment to the wind rustling through the palm trees and bushes.
“Miss me?” Adam asked a moment later, speaking directly into her ear.
Before she could answer, he tugged her to her feet and removed the blindfold. She blinked a few times and realized that all around her candles flickered. Not just on the balcony, in wall sconces and tiki lamps that had been mounted to the railing, but also behind her, in the bedroom.
“Are we celebrating Perla Negra?”
“No, chère. I’m celebrating you.”
Oh, God. Her heart started beating so fast she thought it might burst from her chest. She’d hoped and prayed that he might come to care for her, but she’d never expected a gesture this big. This grand. But she should have, because Adam wasn’t a man given to subtlety.
“Jayne, I have something important to ask you.”
“Yes?” She could scarcely breathe as he turned toward her. Her heart raced, and for a moment she was afraid to believe the dreams she’d harbored for so long were at long last coming true.
“Will you live with me?”
She shook her head, unsure she’d heard him correctly. Adam gave her the gentlest smile she’d ever seen grace his face.
“Chère, we’re great partners in the office. I think blending our personal and professional lives is…the perfect solution.”
Jayne was still trying to understand what he’d said. But she didn’t doubt his sincerity. Adam was offering her the one thing he’d never offered any other woman. And she wanted to accept. But her own dreams were hard to let go of. “I’d like nothing better,” she said.
“Great. I knew you’d see it my way.”
Sadly, she realized she hadn’t been clear. This conversation wasn’t something she’d anticipated. She wished she’d had time to make a plan of action for it. “I’m sorry, Adam. I didn’t mean that the way it came out. If we’re going to live and work together, why not get married?”
“Marriage is the one risk I won’t take.”
“Being your mistress is the one risk I won’t take.”
“Dammit, woman, I’m not asking you to be just a mistress.”
Her heart ached for him. And she almost changed her mind and agreed to be his, whatever the terms. But in the end she knew they’d both end up hating each other. Adam watched her and she shook her head at him.
“Dammit, you think this is easy for me? You know how I feel about office romances and yet I’m willing to do this for you.”
“Don’t make this about me. What you’re offering is designed to give you everything you want.”
He took her in his arms. “Don’t say it like that. This is the best I can do right now.”
Tipping her chin back, he stared into her eyes. “Please, chère, give this a chance. I’m not ruling out marriage forever but I need more time.”
She stared up at him, cupping his jaw in her hands and, standing on tiptoe, kissed him with all the love she had in her body. “I don’t need more time, Adam. I already know I love you.”
“And I care deeply for you. I know our relationship can be a successful one.”
“Being your mistress or live-in lover will kill me, Adam. I’ve spent my entire life, built my entire self-image around not being like my mother. And I have to be honest here—I want kids.” She didn’t need a marriage certificate to stay with the man she loved if he was committed to her. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn’t want them. But she held her breath for his answer.
“No.”
Her heart broke then and she realized that she’d fallen in love not with Adam, but with the man Adam could be if he’d ever let go of the past and start to dream of the future.
She shook her head and pulled out of his arms, backing away from the man that had seemed like her future.
“Oh, chère.”
She went to the dresser to find her clothing. Pulling them on carefully, praying she could finish dressing and get out of there before she started crying. She refused to let Adam’s last image of her be one with tears running down her face.
“So this is it?” he asked.
“Yes. You’ll have my notice on your desk Monday morning.”
“I thought you loved me,” he said, quietly.
She stared at the man she knew. The man who’d carefully crafted a life of loneliness because he believed that was the only safe way of living. She wanted to reach for him. But didn’t.
“I do. But that doesn’t mean I don’t value myself.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked. He grabbed his pants from the floor and shoved his legs into them.
“Nothing. I was being nasty.” And she had been. In fact, she’d hurt herself with the words. She knew that Adam felt more for her than the other women he’d seen. And if she were a different kind of person—one who didn’t need order and structure—she might be able to accept the offer he’d made, and hope that some day he’d come around.
He crossed the room, but when he reached for her, she took a step back. She didn’t want him to touch her now. She felt as if she might break into a million pieces with very little provocation.
“Please, don’t go. I’ll give you anything you want if you stay.”
“Anything?” she asked, knowing he wasn’t offering his love and that she’d never ask for it.
“Yes. Name it—a new car, a fur, jewelry. Anything.”
She knew then that despite the fact that she’d laid her soul bare to him, Adam had never seen the real her. Or he’d know that the trappings of a mistress were the last things that would make her stay with him.
“There’s nothing you have that I want,” she said. And this time she meant it. She had wanted his love, but knew that he didn’t have enough in his cold soul to give her.
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do. You’ve surrounded yourself with material objects and status symbols. I need more than that to be happy. Actually, I need a lot less than what you have. What I want doesn’t cost anything.”
“No, you just want my soul,” he said.
Until that moment she hadn’t realized that she’d asked him for his soul. But she did want it. After all, he already owned hers. “I thought it was an even trade.”
“Well, it’s not. I’m not like you, Jayne. I don’t look at the world through rosy glasses. I’ve lived in the real world my entire life and I know what you’re looking for is a fairy tale.”
She stalked to the door. She wasn’t talking to him anymore. “I’m not giving you two weeks.”
“I’m not giving you a reference.”
“I don’t need one from you.”
She took her purse and ran out, slamming the door behind her. She didn’t look back, but let the tears run unchecked down her cheeks.