Upon landing at Galloway Cove, Michelle lowered the steps to the private jet, stowed their suitcases in the back of the golf cart parked to the side of the landing strip and tossed them a jovial smile. “Have fun.” With that, she ran back up the steps to the plane. Minutes later the jet was in the air and headed back to Houston.
Alex climbed into the golf cart and sat down next to Daniel, her thigh brushing his. Leaning forward, he pulled off his flannel shirt and threw it into the back of the cart, before placing his hand on the wheel and cranking the small engine.
Tired of their silence, Alex darted him a look. “Any idea where we are?”
“West of the Bahamas.”
Alex wrinkled her nose at his brief reply. “Can you tell me anything about where we are going, what to expect?”
“Matt is one of the wealthiest guys in Texas. All I know is that the house is completely secluded, has its own private beach and reef. It will be jaw-droppingly amazing.” He gritted his teeth. “The other thing I know is that I need to get the hell off this island. I’ve got a ranch to run. I can’t just take off on a Monday morning with no warning!”
“You’ve said that before, numerous times,” Alex told him testily. “Look, you might as well accept that we are stranded here until that plane returns.” She gestured to the awesome view of a flat turquoise-colored sea. Below them, nestled against the cliff and partially covered by the natural vegetation, they could see the tiled roof of what she assumed to be Matt’s beach house. She gestured to the well-used track in front of them. “The sun is shining. The sea looks amazing. So, on the bright side—”
“There is no bright side,” Daniel muttered, and Alex gripped the frame of the cart as he accelerated forward.
“I can’t think of anything better than lying on the beach for a week. I’m exhausted and it will give me time to think. We don’t even have to talk to each other. Actually, it would be better if we didn’t.”
Clenching his jaw, Daniel steered the car along the track, and Alex heard the cry of a seagull and the sound of a rushing creek above the cart’s rumble. Daniel kept moving his head from the path to look at her and back again. Annoyed, she half turned in her seat and glared at him. “What? Why do you keep looking at me like that?”
“What about sex?”
“Where did that out-of-left-field question come from?” Alex lifted her hands in confusion.
Daniel’s dry look suggested she get with the program. “We’re together. Alone. On an island. We might be as frustrated as hell with each other and the situation, but you cannot be that naive to think that, with our sexual chemistry, we’re not going to end up in bed.”
She wanted to deny his words, but she knew she would come across as being disingenuous if she brushed off his comment. Alex lifted her thigh up onto the bench seat, her knee brushing his hard thigh. After marshaling her thoughts, she picked out her words. “Daniel, we’ve known each other for a long time but we don’t know each other.”
“What do you mean?”
She’d been thinking about this a lot lately. She and Daniel communicated with their bodies, not with their minds. They were both guarded people and they both struggled to let people in. They knew each other’s bodies intimately, knew exactly how to behave naked. But fully clothed? They were like drunken cowboys stumbling around in the dark. As her baby’s father, Daniel was going to be in her life for a long time, so didn’t she owe it to herself and their child to get to know his mind a fraction as well as she knew his body?
“Let’s be honest here, we’ve always been sexually attracted to one another, and even as teenagers, we far preferred to make out than to talk—”
“And it’s still my first choice.”
Although tempted, Alex ignored his interruption. “That trend continued when we hooked up. I don’t know you—not really—and you certainly don’t know me.”
Daniel sent her an exasperated look. “Of course I do.”
Alex snorted. “Rubbish. Let’s test that theory, shall we?”
Daniel released a frustrated sigh. “If you’re going to ask me a dumb-ass question like what is your favorite color, then I won’t know.”
Alex thought for a minute. “No, let me start with an easy one. Do I prefer to shower in the morning or at night?”
Daniel hesitated before guessing. “At night.”
It was a good guess. “What do I like on my pizza?”
He hesitated and she pounced. “You don’t know. Neither do you know whether I have allergies and I don’t know if you vote.”
“Of course I vote!” Daniel retorted.
Alex ignored him. “Do you believe in God? What are you currently reading? What is your favorite season? Are you on social media? What is your favorite meal? Who is your closest friend?”
“Yes, sort of. A Corben novel. Fall. Hell, no, I don’t have time to post crap no one cares about on Facebook. Beef stew. And yes, I have friends... Matt. Ryan. I talk to James Harris pretty often, too.”
She’d said closest friend, not friends in general, but she’d still found out more about him in thirty seconds than she had in ten years. How much more would she find out about him if they actually conversed instead of kissed?
“We’re going to be raising a kid together, separately but together. Should we not use this time to get to know each other better?”
Daniel steered the cart around a corner and Alex was momentarily distracted by the magnificent house in front of them. It hugged the side of a cliff, and trees and natural vegetation cradled the house like a mother holding her child. A massive wooden door broke up the sprawling white expanse and Daniel parked the cart to the right of it. Leaving the cart, she turned to take her bag but noticed that Daniel already had it in his grasp, as well as his own duffel bag.
She smiled her thanks and watched as he walked up to the front door. Alex took a moment to appreciate his long-legged, easy grace, the way his big biceps strained the bands of his T-shirt, the width of his shoulders. It was brutally unfair that he was the walking definition of sex on feet. Alex sighed and watched as Daniel placed his hand on the door. It swung open from a central pivot and he stepped back to motion her inside.
Alex stood in the doorway, unwilling to go inside until she had an answer from Daniel. “So, are we going to try and get to know each other a little better?”
“We can try,” Daniel replied. He shrugged and looked down at her with those deep, compelling eyes. “But I guarantee you that, thanks to the combination of sand, sea and you in a tiny bikini, you’re going to be under me sooner rather than later.”
Arrogant jerk, Alex thought, walking into the beach house. How dare he think that he could just click his fingers and she would lie down, roll over and let him scratch her tummy. Sure their attraction was explosive, but she wasn’t so weak that she’d just fall into bed with him—
Oh my God, this place is fantastic.
Alex stopped in her tracks as she drank in their luxurious surroundings. It was open plan, as all beach houses should be, with high vaulted ceilings displaying intricate beams. As soon as they stepped out of the hall and into the living space, the eye was pulled toward the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, across the infinity pool to the view beyond. Alex was momentarily unsure where the pool ended and the sea began. Stepping forward, she spared a glance at the sleek kitchen, the wooden dining table and the chairs that were the same blue as the sea. Under comfortable sofas, an expensive rug covered the floors, but it was the view that captured her attention: it was the only piece of art the room needed. The white beaches, the aqua sea, the lush emerald of an island in the distance.
“Holy crap.”
Alex turned to look at Daniel but he was equally entranced by the house and the view. Dropping their bags to the floor, he strode over to the windows and looked at the frame. Within seconds, the windows turned into sliding doors, and warm, fragrant air rushed into the room. Alex walked out onto the covered deck and looked left and then right. “It looks like the deck runs the length of the house. I imagine all the bedrooms open up onto it. We can sleep with the doors open and listen to the sound of the sea.”
Daniel looked down at the tranquil sea and lifted an eyebrow. “It’s as calm as a lake—I doubt we’re going to hear the sound of crashing waves.”
“Don’t be pedantic—” Alex’s eyes widened when she saw Daniel bend over to pull off his boot. When his feet were bare, he pulled off his T-shirt before attacking his belt buckle and ripping open his fly. “What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.
He gave her a wicked smile and gestured to the pool. “Going for a swim.”
His hands slipped under the fabric of his jeans and Alex squeaked when she saw that he was stripping them off. “You’re swimming naked?”
Daniel shrugged as his clothes pooled at his feet. “We’re totally alone and you’ve seen it all before.”
She had and every inch of him was absolutely glorious. “You’re not going to help our cause of not sleeping together if you’re going to parade around buck naked, Clayton.”
Daniel’s smile broadened. “That’s your cause, Slade, not mine. I intend to get to know you and sleep with you. I also plan to spend a great deal of time trying to convince you not to go to Houston. If you won’t marry or move in with me, then I want you as close as I can possibly have you.”
“I—you—argh!” Alex, annoyed by his cocky smile and his self-assurance, threw up her hands. She did, however, watch that magnificent body dive into the pool.
After his swim, Daniel pulled on his wet clothes and padded barefoot into the house. Not seeing Alex in the living area, he picked up his bag and walked down the hall, opening doors as he went along. Study-cum-library, gym—nice—and a sauna. He entered the first bedroom he came to and threw his bag onto the massive double bed, taking a minute to appreciate the view. Like he suspected, the floor-to-ceiling windows were in fact another set of doors, and he immediately opened them, welcoming fresh air into the room. This room was super nice but he wouldn’t bother to unpack; he would end up sharing whatever bedroom Alex chose.
Which, if he knew her, would definitely be the master suite.
Daniel pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked for a signal, of which there was none. Cursing, he tossed it onto the bed and left the room to head for the study. If he was going to stay on this godforsaken island, he would have to send some emails, leaving instructions for his foreman, his PA and his business manager. And he would drop his grandmother another message, reminding her how out of line she was.
Daniel sat behind Matt’s desk, pulled out the first drawer, and yep, as he thought, inside the drawer rested a state-of-the-art laptop. If Matt had a laptop, then he’d have an internet connection, which was exactly what he needed. Daniel leaned back in his chair as he waited for the laptop to boot, thinking that he could, with a couple of keystrokes, have another plane on the runway in a couple of hours.
He could hire a private plane as easily as Gus had, and this farce could come to a quick end. Except that maybe he didn’t want it to...
Daniel stared out at the tranquil ocean. He was here, Alex was here and they were nowhere near Royal. They could escape their grandparents’ machinations, the Royal gossips, the crazy normal that was their day-to-day lives. They could both take this week to find a way forward, to have some heart-to-heart conversations, to plot a course.
He still wanted to marry Alex—that was the plan that still made the most sense to him. The Clayton-Slade feud had been buried with Gus and Rose’s marriage—something that Royal was still talking about—and after their nuptials, his and Alex’s nuptials would barely raise a brow or two. He wanted to raise his child in a conventional family, one with a father and mother close at hand. He’d spent the first twelve years of his life with an unstable mother, constantly wishing he had a father he could run to, live with, a bigger, stronger man he could look to for protection and comfort. He never ever wanted his child to think—not for a second—that he wasn’t there for him, that he was anything but a shout away. He wanted to teach his son to ride, shoot, fish. Hell, if he had a bunch of daughters, he’d teach them the same thing. He wanted them to have the run of the farm. And if his kids were Alex’s, then they’d have the Slade ranch as an additional playground. He wanted them outside, on horses and bikes, in the stables, swimming in the river or in the pond. He wanted his kids to have the early childhood he never had, with two involved, loving parents.
For the sake of their kids, he and Alex could make a marriage work. They were super compatible together sexually, and they could, if he took her suggestion to learn more about each other, become friends. Friends who had hot sex—wasn’t that a good marriage right there? Love? No. Love—having it, losing it, using it as a carrot or a club—just complicated the hell out of everything.
Marriage was a rational, sensible decision. He just had to convince Alex that this was the best option available to them both. Hell, even if she balked at getting married—and he had no doubt that she would—she could still move into his place. Gus and Rose wouldn’t be happy at their nontraditional living arrangements, but it was better than nothing.
Right, he had a plan. He liked having a plan; it made him feel in control.
Alex leaned back against a sun-warmed rock and watched the sky change. Blue morphed into a deep purple, and then an invisible brush painted the sky with streaks of pink and orange. This Caribbean sunset was possibly one of the prettiest she’d ever witnessed, and she couldn’t help but sigh her appreciation.
Alex felt warm, strong fingers graze her shoulder and she turned to look up at Dan, who held out a bottle of water. She smiled her thanks, shifted up a bit, and when he sat down next to her, she noticed the bottle of beer in his hand. He’d changed into a pair of swimming shorts and wore a pale yellow T-shirt. She wore a sleeveless tank over her bikini and her hair was a tangled mass of still-damp curls.
“Thanks.”
Daniel’s bare shoulder nudged hers and Alex ignored the flash of desire that ricocheted down her spine. Taking a sip from the bottle he’d thoughtfully opened for her, she gestured to the sunset. “I wondered if you were watching the sunset.”
“It’s stunning,” Daniel murmured.
She hadn’t seen him since before lunch and she wondered what he’d been up to. “So, what have you been doing?”
Daniel took a moment to answer her. “Hanging out, chilling. Seeing if I could find signal for my phone.”
“Did you find one?”
“Nope.”
She also had no cell phone signal, and it was a problem. She needed to talk to Mike, ask him for some more time to think about his offer, to work out the logistics of moving to Houston. “I need to send my grandpa an irate email, telling him how much I resent his interference and machinations. He doesn’t carry a phone but he does read his emails.”
Daniel’s chest lifted as he pulled in some air. “You can.”
“I can what?” Alex asked, digging her toes into the sand.
“Send an email,” Daniel admitted. “I found a computer in Matt’s study. I should’ve realized that the guy, with all his business interests, would have to have some contact with the outside world. On further examination, there’s also a satellite phone for emergencies.”
Alex flew to her feet. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Why are we here? Why aren’t we at the airfield, waiting for a plane?”
She could go home, confront Gus, talk to her clients, Mike. She could put some distance between her and Daniel, start her life without him. At the thought, her heart stuttered, then stumbled. She had to; she had no choice. She and Daniel didn’t have a future, not as anything more than co-parents.
She wasn’t marrying him or moving in with him; both options were impossible.
Daniel pulled his legs up and rested his forearms on his knees as he squinted up at her. “You’re missing the sunset, Lex.”
“We can go home, Daniel! We need to go home.”
He gently took her wrist and pulled her back down so that she sat with her back to the sunset. The pink-and-yellow light danced across his face. Daniel’s thumb stroked the sensitive flesh on the inside of her wrist.
“Let’s not, Lex.”
“Let’s not what?”
“Go home,” Daniel said, and she sent him a shocked look. He’d been furious about leaving, about being manipulated into taking this time away and now he wanted to stay?
“I don’t understand,” Alex said, pulling her hand out of his grasp. She couldn’t talk to him and touch him—she wasn’t that strong.
“As loath as I am to give those two meddlers any credit, I think that they are right. We need to work some stuff out, and we can do it here,” Daniel suggested. “You’re exhausted. Organizing the auction was hard work, and I haven’t taken a break for nearly a year. We both can do with some downtime. And while we relax, maybe we can plot a way forward.”
“You and your plans, Daniel!” Alex muttered. “You can’t plan for every eventuality. Some things you have to allow to evolve, to work themselves out.”
“Work themselves out? God!” Daniel released a harsh laugh. “That’s such a stupid thing to say. Things very rarely work out, Alexis!”
Wow, that was quite the reaction to an innocent comment. Instead of jumping on him, Alex tipped her head to the side and waited for him to speak.
Daniel picked up a handful of sand, clenched his fist and allowed the particles to slide down the tunnel his hand created. She’d never seen such sad eyes, she decided. Sad and angry and distraught.
“Do you know what it’s like to live a life lurching from crisis to crisis? Do you know how unsettling it is not to know where you are going to be, what bed you’re going to be sleeping in? Whether your mother will be there when you wake up? It sucks, Alex!”
She stared at him, shocked at his outburst but even more surprised that he’d revealed that much about his childhood to her. When they were younger, she’d pried, tried to get him to open up about his life with the infamous Stephanie, but he’d never so much as mentioned his mother and what his life was like before he came to live at The Silver C. From the pain she saw in his eyes, Alex knew that it was way worse than she’d ever imagined.
“I’m sorry—”
Daniel immediately cut her off. “Forget it. Ignore what I said. My point is that I like to plan. I always will.”
Because it made him feel secure, like he was in control. Alex understood that now. She picked up a handful of fine sand and allowed it to trickle through her fingers. Knowing that Daniel had said everything he intended to for now, she contemplated whether to stay on the island or to leave. She could call for a plane and within hours they’d be winging their way back to Royal and nothing, not one damn thing, would be settled between them.
But on the other hand... With a couple of emails, she could clear her schedule, take this time they both desperately needed. Didn’t she owe it to herself, to Daniel and her child, to stop, to breathe? To think?
To plan? Dammit.
Alex made herself meet his eyes and reluctantly nodded. “Okay, we can stay here.”
His eyes turned smoky and Alex immediately recognized that look. She held up her hand. “Hold on, cowboy. If we do this, then there are going to be some ground rules.”
Daniel released a low curse, and a frown pulled those black brows together. It wasn’t a surprise to see that Clayton didn’t like anyone else calling the shots. Tough—it was something he was going to have to deal with. She wasn’t eighteen anymore and so desperately eager to please.
“I’ll only do this if we can start fresh.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Daniel demanded, grumpy again.
“I am not hopping back into bed with you.” Alex drew a heart in the sand and quickly erased it, hoping he hadn’t noticed. “As I said, I want us to do something different, be different!”
“Lex...” Daniel muttered.
“Dan, we’re having a baby together! We’re not going to get married, or even live together, but if we are going to be in each other’s lives, see each other every weekend, then there has got be something more between us than some hot sex.”
“I’m not good at talking, Lex.”
Neither was she. But they had to make an effort. “I know, Dan, and neither am I. We’re not good at opening up, at sharing, but, God, the next eighteen years are going to be sheer misery if we don’t start to communicate.”
Daniel stared past her shoulder and Alex picked up the tension in his body, saw his hard jaw, his thin lips. She needed this, she suddenly realized. She needed to dig beneath the surface to find out what made this amazing man tick, and not only for her baby. She needed to know him. Because even if they couldn’t be lovers, they could be friends, and being friends with Dan was infinitely better than being lovers and casual acquaintances. He had fabulous mattress skills but between that gruff exterior was, she suspected, a lonely guy who needed a friend. And to be honest, so did she.
Daniel’s cheeks puffed and then he expelled the breath he’d been holding. When he turned to look at her, his expression turned rueful. “I can’t promise you anything, but I can try, Lex. That’s all I can give you.”
“I still want to sleep with you, though,” Dan added, being brutally honest.
“I know.” Alex picked up her water bottle from the sand and dusted it off. “But we can either have one or the other, not both.”
“I vote for sex.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re a guy—I wouldn’t expect anything else. But no, that’s not going to happen. I think we need to be friends.”
“Not half as much fun,” Daniel grumbled.
Alex smiled at his sulky face. “Man up, Clayton.”
Although his expression remained sober, she caught the amusement in his eyes. He leaned toward her, his amazing eyes on her mouth and his mouth hovered over hers. She should pull back—she would pull back...but how much could one little kiss hurt?
Alex frowned when she saw his lips twitch and then he resumed his position against the rock.
Oh, that was just mean.
“Jerk.”
That twitch widened into a sexy, full smile. “You’re easily distracted, Lex. I like it.”
She nailed him with a don’t-push-it glare.
Daniel’s expression turned serious. “You’ve changed. You’re not half as biddable as you used to be.”
“Yeah, I grew up.” Alex half turned, put her hands behind her and leaned back, stretching out her legs. She looked at the sunset—the light was slowly fading and the colors were deepening in intensity. She turned her head to look up at the house and noticed that it was fully lit. There were also lights along the entire length of the path running from the beach to the house. It looked like a totally different structure, mysterious and sexy.
Just like the man lounging next to her.
Daniel followed her eyes and whistled in appreciation. “Wow. Matt Galloway is one lucky bastard to own this place.” He turned his head to look at her. “So, did you choose a room?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t resist the master bedroom. When the doors are open, it’s like you are sleeping outside, and it has this amazing shower enclosure. It’s three walls of glass and utterly breathtaking.”
Daniel’s mouth twitched with amusement. “That would give anyone on the beach an eyeful.”
“I thought the same thing,” Alex said with a smile. “But when I walked down to the beach, I checked. It’s made of that fancy glass where you can see out but not in.”
Standing up, Daniel held out his hand. Alex put her hand in his and he hauled her to her feet. “I’m starving. Let’s go see what’s in the fridge. I think I saw some no-alcohol beers if you’re interested.”
“I’d far prefer a glass of wine,” Alex said as she headed to the path with Daniel behind her.
“Well, I’d prefer to be sharing your bed. But apparently we can’t always have what we want.”