“This hotel is amazing. I can’t believe we’re here.” Smiling, Melissa Gaines glanced over to her best friend since childhood, Jayla Daniels.
The Sable Noir Resort and Casino on the French Caribbean Island of Chaud was unlike anything Melissa had ever seen before. The floors were polished marble, and crystal chandeliers, with their twinkling lights, hung from thirty-foot ceilings. Towering columns with sheer, white drapes flanked the massive room, sectioning off the different seating areas decorated with modern and contemporary furnishings. In the center of it all stood a light fixture of glass and water cascading from the ceiling into a large, rectangular fountain. The sweet smell of exotic flowers and tropical flora surrounding the hotel filled the air, carried on a gentle breeze blowing through open windows and archways.
“I know! This place is huge. There are so many things we can do when we’re not shuffling from seminar to seminar. I want to take the glass-bottom boat tour with bottomless mimosas, and you know I plan to relax on the beach and do some shopping. But first,” Jayla rolled her shoulders, then turned her head from side to side, cracking her neck, “we need to make a stop at the spa to get some much-needed massages. My back is killing me from the plane ride.”
“It was brutal, and as much as I want to explore the island, I don’t know if we’ll actually have time to do anything else.” They’d arrived in Chaud a few days before the start of the conference. Still, all Melissa wanted to do was fall face-first into a comfortable bed and sleep for the next forty-eight hours.
“Oh, we’ll make time.” Jayla recently accepted a new position as a neonatal nurse in another state and would be leaving for her new home in a couple weeks.
Melissa swallowed the lump of emotion lodged in her throat, took a deep breath, and with a shaky voice she internally prayed Jayla wouldn’t pick up on, said, “You deserve some rest and relaxation before you’re back to twelve-hour days.”
“True.” Jayla smiled sadly. “But you do, too. You were dragged to hell and back again.”
Melissa thought about what she endured in the last year at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, Steven—the confusion, hurt, humiliation, anger, and how it led to her being without a job. And now, she would have to live life without her best friend. Great, just great.
“No,” Jayla said, interrupting Melissa’s thoughts. She grabbed her hand, pulling her to a stop. “You don’t get to stand here and second guess yourself or your decision. Push it to the back of your mind.”
“I can’t.” Melissa yanked her hand away from Jayla. “There’s a voice in the back of my mind reminding me I no longer have a job. Quitting may seem like a hasty decision to some, but I had to do it. I couldn’t continue working there, Jay.”
“Exactly. That’s why I don’t want you to beat yourself up over this. You did what was best for you.” They continued walking in companionable silence. “You know,” Jayla began moments later, “you could always come with me.” She turned to face Melissa, who’d stopped and stared with an incredulous expression on her face. “What?”
“Are you serious?”
“I mean, why not?” She gave a nonchalant shrug. “Think of it as a fresh start. Even I’m leaving for greener pastures. You can sell your place—or rent it out—and move with me.”
Jayla had a point, one Melissa refused to admit aloud. It would be a much-needed fresh start after severing the only ties holding her in Louisiana—her job and her relationship. After Hurricane Katrina, her parents, along with Jayla’s mother, moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. Melissa’s older brother, Markus, hadn’t lived in Louisiana since he’d gone off to attend college at Virginia State University and currently resided in Richmond, Virginia, with his pre-teen daughter. Her pulse skipped as tiny glimmers of joy and hope began to sprout in her chest. Maybe moving north and being closer to her family was what Melissa needed.
“I don’t usually say this,” Melissa started after warring with her thoughts, “but you’re right.” She shook her head at the shit-eating grin growing on Jayla’s face. “Calm down. I’m not saying yes, at least not right now. I want to find a job up there before I fully commit. There’s no point in moving, only to be unemployed and broke.” She wasn’t about to make any more rash decisions, not with how the last one turned out.
Jayla wrapped her arms around Melissa and hugged her tight. “You’ll find a job. Even if it’s not right away, I’m not worried, and neither should you.”
“Alright, alright.” Melissa shrugged Jayla’s arms off and turned to face her friend, walking backward. “I’ll think about it, but for now, let’s not talk about work or Steven. We’re on this magnificent island surrounded by some of the smartest doctors and nurses in the world. If anything, we should be enjoying ourselves.” After several steps, she groaned, her back hitting an immovable object. Her purse slipped from her hands, spilling all of its contents—along with the items she held in her hand—onto the highly polished, marble floors.
“Excuse you,” a low voice rumbled behind her, sending goosebumps skittering up her arms and the hairs at her neck standing on end.
Melissa quickly spun around, ready to offer an apology for her clumsiness, but before she could formulate the response, a startled gasp slipped from her lips. The thin straps of her purse ensnarled her ankles, causing Melissa to lose her balance. Her arms flailed around her in search of something to grab, anything but the imposing figure in front of her. Her eyes connected with Jayla’s, but instead of coming to her rescue as Melissa expected, Jayla jumped out of the way of her reach. She squeezed her eyes shut, accepting her fate. However, before her body hit the cold, hard floor, a pair of strong arms slipped around her waist and trapped her against a solid mass of hard muscles. She inhaled deeply. The heady mixture of soap and an erotic, undeniably sexy scent filled her nose.
“Are you alright, ma’am?”
The sexy timbre of his voice sent a powerful shiver through her entire body, and the warmth of his minty fresh breath on her cheek set a swarm of butterflies off in her stomach and kicked her heart rate up another notch. Finally, her eyes fluttered open and widened at the sight of his face inches from her own.
“I am now.” Did she sound as breathless to him as she did to her own ears? Probably. Melissa’s gaze traveled from his mouth, dipped in a frown, before connecting with his intense stare, which held a hint of annoyance, exhaustion, and an emotion she couldn’t place. She blinked to clear her head. What she saw—or thought she saw—didn’t matter. The Dr. Elijah Grayson saved her from busting her butt and embarrassing herself. The pictures she’d seen online hadn’t done him justice. They failed to highlight his tall, imposing—but not overbearing—height. Or his thick eyebrows, and almond-shaped eyes the color of expensive brandy that seemed to darken to damn-near black the longer they bore into her. Then there were the twin dimples, and neatly trimmed goatee framing full lips on a smooth, caramel-brown face. His body had to have been sculpted by a master carver. A loud noise on the other side of the lobby broke through the fog clouding Melissa’s brain. After a quick glance around, she turned her focus back on Dr. Grayson.
“Are you alright?” he asked again.
She nodded and stepped from his embrace, offering him an embarrassed smile as she bent to gather her belongings. This was not how she planned to meet world-renowned cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Elijah Grayson. When Melissa registered for the International Nurses and Physicians Conference—or the INAPC—she’d been most excited about attending his session. The man was a certifiable genius. What were the odds she would literally bump into him on her first day on the island while dressed in an oversized shirt and yoga pants? The quicker I get this up, the faster I can check-in, get to my room, and die of embarrassment.
“I think this belongs to you,” the now familiar voice said.
Melissa snapped her head up. She felt her eyes grow ten times their normal size as they landed on the object in the palm of Dr. Grayson’s large hand. As if this day could get any worse. Taking a deep breath, Melissa grabbed the colorfully wrapped tampon from his outstretched hand. She stood and thanked him, her voice barely above a whisper.
“You’re welcome,” he said, rising as well. “But the phrase that pays is excuse me.”
“Excuse me?” she parroted.
“See, that wasn’t too difficult. But next time, don’t make it sound like a question.” At Melissa’s stunned silence, he continued, “The inflection of a person’s voice can affect the tone in which their words are perceived. Instead of keeping your voice level, it raised a fraction, causing your apology to sound like a question.”
There was no mistaking the cynicism in his voice, and Melissa couldn’t determine if it was what pissed her off the most or the panty-melting smirk he had the nerve to have on his handsome face. Definitely the latter. Since her body refused to see this man as an arrogant asshole, it staged a full-blown mutiny equipped with turning her brain into mush and electrifying her nerve-endings. Dr. Grayson was probably used to talking out the side of his neck, then flashing those blinding pearly whites to disarm some unsuspecting sap, allowing him to get away with anything. But not today, and not with her. She was done being embarrassed by men like him and Steven.
Melissa took a step forward, ignoring the flare of heat scorching her body, and tilted her head to the side. “I’m sorry, but who in the hell do you think you’re talking to?”
Dr. Elijah Grayson reared his head back and stared incredulously at the beautiful, brown-skinned woman whose soft, succulent body stood a little too close for comfort. The corners of her pouty lips, covered in a thin sheen of gloss, were turned into a frown, which did nothing to detract from how gorgeous she was. If anything, the scowl only made Elijah want to taste her more. It dared him to throw caution to the wind, ignore the fire blazing in her chocolate-colored eyes, and pull her fuller bottom lip between his teeth to test its softness, then slip his tongue inside of her mouth and coat his taste buds with her unique flavor. And where did that accent come from?
“You have some nerve,” the woman said. “Yes, I bumped into you, but you didn’t have to be rude.”
“You’re—”
She held up a hand, silencing Elijah’s attempt at agreeing with her. “No, I’m talking. You listen.”
Elijah blinked several times before snapping his mouth closed. His eyebrows rose in surprise at the transformation this woman had undergone in a matter of seconds. Gone was the nervous, sweet-faced angel who’d barely looked him in the eyes as she gathered her belongings and flushed with embarrassment when he handed her the tampon. In her place, a feisty firecracker of a vixen had emerged. She tossed her dark raven hair, styled in twists, over her shoulder, and rolled her eyes, placing one hand on the curve of her hip, the other still suspended in the air.
“I don’t know what kind of women you’re used to dealing with, but I’m not them. You will not disrespect me.”
Instead of responding, Elijah simply nodded his head. He didn’t want to do anything to set her off once again. Thankfully, most of the guests who’d tuned in to watch the interaction went on about their business, leaving only a few of the colleagues Elijah met at previous conferences, and the woman who she’d been walking with, who’d walked back over to them after checking in. He inhaled deeply, pulling in a lungful of the erotic flowers that perfumed the air, along with succulent hints of coconut, peach, jasmine, and vanilla.
“I apologize for bumping into you,” she said with sincerity in her voice, causing Elijah to smile until she added, “but you didn’t have to be a jerk about it. Next time, instead of trying to humiliate someone, put yourself in their shoes, you … you arrogant asshole.” She turned on her heel and stalked away, leaving Elijah standing there, confused, with his jaw unhinged, and his ego slightly deflated.
The shrill of his cell phone pierced the air. Elijah dug into his pocket and removed the device, glancing at the screen before connecting the FaceTime call. “What’s up, AJ?”
“Too much, Eli,” Dr. Anthony Jacobson, known to his family and friends as AJ, said, narrowing his pale, aqua green eyes. His lightly toasted coconut-colored skin, decorated with freckles, wrinkled in displeasure. At six foot one, AJ was often seen as a pretty boy compared to Elijah and their other friend, Patrick, but AJ was far from that persona. “This unstable ass weather is killing me. Eighty-four on Friday, sixty-eight yesterday, and fifty-two today. Not to mention, we’re in the midst of a thunderstorm and the rain is coming down in sheets.” He tapped a button on the phone to turn the camera front-facing, giving Elijah a view out his office window. “But please, go right ahead and rub the fact you’re on an island surrounded by half-naked women in my face.”
“Oh, trust me, I am.” Elijah chuckled. “You could’ve been right here, on this island with these half-naked women, too, if you’d listened to me. I stepped off the plane right into eighty-nine-degree weather. There’s a gentle breeze coming off the Caribbean Sea. The sun is shining, and the only clouds in the sky are fluffy and white. Don’t even get me started on the women.” He whistled. “They come in all shapes and sizes. Every color of the rainbow. I feel like I died and landed in a bucket of chicken with all the legs, breasts, and thighs I’ve ever seen.” His thoughts immediately went back to the unforgettable woman who literally ran smack into him. Elijah couldn’t help but smile.
“From the shit-eating grin on your face, I’d wager what’s in my entire savings account to say you met someone.”
“Imagine a young Naomi Campbell or Gabrielle Union. Add to it a not-so-typical Southern accent, jet-black hair, dark brown eyes a person could get lost in, smooth skin the color of melted dark chocolate, thick thighs, curves that should be labeled ‘dangerous,’ and a beautiful smile.” Elijah sighed inwardly. The ebony goddess could’ve been what he needed to take the edge off, but instead of charming her into a date or giving him her number, he royally pissed her off.
AJ’s eyes widened. “You know I got a thing for Gabby. Did you get her name?”
“Nah. Hold on.” Elijah stepped to the counter, giving his name to the clerk behind it along with his driver’s license. “She bumped into me.” He wouldn’t tell his best friend how his sarcastic remark resulted in her calling him an asshole. Instead, he changed the subject. “All I want to do is get into my room and fall asleep,” Elijah said around a yawn. After collecting his room key and leaving his bags to be delivered to his suite later, he headed toward the bank of elevators.
“Long flight?”
“Among other things.” He was sleepy, hungry, and grouchy.
“How was it?”
Several words came to Elijah’s mind, and none of them good. The two-thousand-plus trek had been a shit-show well before he made it to the airport. “I missed my first flight and had to fly standby in cramped ass economy, sandwiched between a bickering couple who wouldn’t switch seats despite me insisting it was no problem.”
“Damn. What were they arguing about?”
Stepping onto the elevator, Elijah plugged his headphones into his phone and continued, “Apparently, they’re about to get married, and the guy invited his baby mama to the wedding, so his kid could attend. Being petty, the woman sent an invitation to her first love, who’s still close to her family. All this is info I shouldn’t even know.”
AJ groaned. “Sounds like a flight from hell.”
“It was. I also learned a longtime patient of mine passed away. On top of everything, Young Gabby is running around the island pissed off at me.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Elijah regretted them.
“Wait … what? Why would she be mad at you?”
Elijah explained what happened between him and the woman. “I wasn’t even trying to be rude. I saw she was nervous and wanted to break the tension—”
“And said something you had no damn business saying?” AJ finished for him.
Elijah didn’t respond. There was no need. Along with their other best friend, Patrick, AJ knew him probably better than he knew himself. The three friends grew up in the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast Washington, DC. From the moment Elijah walked into the kindergarten classroom of Ms. Tate, the three boys had been inseparable. “I didn’t mean it,” he muttered finally.
“I wouldn’t have been surprised if she slapped you.”
“Me either.” Elijah was grateful at least one of them had shown some sort of decorum, even if it hadn’t been him. “I feel bad.”
“Why? It’s not like you’re going to see this woman again.”
I want to. “True, but I owe her an apology.” Elijah stepped off the glass elevator on the twenty-eighth floor, glanced at the signs, and headed down the long hallway to his room. “You know the saying ‘a first impression is a lasting impression’.”
“And you messed yours up, big time.”
Elijah nodded, coming to a stop in front of his room door. “AJ, I’ll give you a call a little later. I finally made it to my room, and all I want to do is unpack and sleep for the next few days.”
AJ laughed. “You didn’t fly all the way to Chaud to sleep. Drink a soda, get a double espresso shot, and explore the island. Maybe you’ll run into Young Gabby again.”
Thoughts of seeing her put a much-needed smile on Elijah’s tired face. After saying their good-byes, Elijah disconnected the call, slipped the keycard into the slot, awaiting the green light, and pushed the door open. “Damn,” he murmured, stepping into the foyer and closing the door behind him.
With its gleaming black marble floors, oversized crystal light fixture, and expensive artwork adorning white walls overcast with soft blue lighting, Elijah felt as if he’d walked into an art gallery instead of a hotel suite. He walked through the curved arched way into a massive, open concept living/dining space. A white Italian leather sectional decorated the sunken living room with a coffee table in front of it and sat on top of a large, abstract, black-and-white area rug. A double-sided fireplace ran the length of a partial black marble wall with a seventy-five-inch flatscreen television separating the living and dining rooms. Floor-to-ceiling windows spanned the entire front room, boasting unparalleled views of the pristine waters from the Caribbean Sea and beaches of jet-black sand. Elijah walked around the wall into the dining area. In the center of the room was a glass dining room table big enough to seat eight. A fully-stocked bar added additional seating.
“Welcome, Dr. Grayson.”
Elijah jumped at the thick, Caribbean accent from behind him and spun around. Wide eyes took in the tall, tawny-brown-skinned man wearing tan khaki pants, a banded, collared, navy blue polo shirt with tan trim around the short sleeves, tan loafers, and a welcoming smile. Elijah hadn’t seen the man when he arrived, and guessed he came from out of the room behind the closed door he stood near.
“Dr. Grayson, as an esteemed guest of His Supreme Majesty King Damarae Aman of Chaud, His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Nikoli Aman of Chaud, and His Royal Highness, Prince Jaedon Aman of Chaud, I am here to ensure your stay at the Sable Noir Resort and Casino is an enjoyable one. I am Jorge Alexander, your personal concierge.” The man bowed his head in greeting. “Staying in the Noir Suite gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to all of the resort’s amenities at no charge to you. Should you need anything,” he motioned to the sleek, red phone on the stark white console table near where he stood, “this phone will put you in direct contact with me. Use it regardless of the time—day or night.”
“While I don’t think I’ll need much, I appreciate the offer.”
Jorge smiled. “Your belongings will be delivered momentarily, along with your lunch. Would you prefer eating on the terrace or inside?”
“Inside is fine,” Elijah said as a knock sounded on the door. He made a move to answer it, but stopped when Jorge started in its direction. The door opened, revealing a man wearing a uniform similar to Jorge’s and rolling a small cart with a covered tray on top. Elijah thanked the men, then walked into the bedroom and into the adjoining bath to wash his hands. Once he ate, showered, and caught a couple hours of sleep, his mood should be as good as new. Then, he hoped he would get the opportunity to run into Young Gabby again. Only to apologize, Elijah told himself, although he barely believed it.