BLAINE STILL COULDN’T get a freakin’ cell signal. It was like the universe was conspiring against him. And yet, he had a date with his personal chef that was making him want to run back to the wellness center instead of waiting for his driver to pick him up. He should have brought his laptop with him. Although, the corporate firewall would have probably freaked out on him and denied him access when they saw the ISP address of the café.
He had to admit, the weather was perfect. Detroit had over a foot of snow and here he was sitting on a stone wall, looking at green-blue waves crashing into a frothy white surf. It was mesmerizing. Being forced to do nothing didn’t suck as much as he thought it would, especially when he had Selena to look forward to.
It had been fun to read her journal, even though the decent part of him knew it was an invasion of privacy. It had given him an intimate look at her hopes and dreams and he really should return the favor to even the score between them. But he was an open book. Hell, she saw what he was all about on YouTube. It bothered him that she couldn’t see that going to Cordon Bleu was a waste of time and money. She could get her MBA much cheaper stateside. Or to hell with the MBA, get real-life experience in running her own business.
Her restaurant idea had franchise possibility written all over it. After going into one of the shops, he bought a leather journal with a tortoise on the cover and a trashy pen that had a picture of a lady in a bikini, whose bikini faded away when you tipped the pen. While he waited for his ride, he did some calculations for a first-year budget for Selena’s restaurant. He was so engrossed with what he was doing, when his driver came up to him, Blaine was startled to realize it was lunchtime.
“Ready to go, Mr. Stephens?” the driver said.
“Yeah.” Blaine stretched and walked back to the car. It had felt nice to have the sun on his back and to hear the crash of the waves. And while he still wasn’t satisfied with the lack of information in his inbox about the Pilot Project, he wasn’t about to give up on finding out what was happening with his company. But for now, he was content to wait out the two weeks.
When they got back to the wellness center, a man was waiting to greet him. He seemed as tightly wound as his muscles, which were displayed with a rash guard and matching shorts. Blaine really hoped Mikelina hadn’t set him up with an exercise program with this douchebag.
“Mr. Stephens? I’m Titus Dukes.” He held out his hand.
Blaine tried not to smirk that he pronounced his first name like tight ass.
“How was your shopping experience?”
“Life changing,” Blaine drawled and pushed past him.
“You have a phone message.”
Blaine frowned.
“It came through an hour ago. It wasn’t urgent, but your mother wanted to speak to you once you were back from your excursion.”
“Why didn’t she call my cell?” he asked.
“Guests of the Maui Wellness Center are unable to make calls in or out on their personal units.”
“You’ve got a cell blocker on my phone?” Blaine took a threatening step forward, but then the cell phone beeped.
“As you agreed when you signed our liability paperwork.”
That served Blaine right for not reading it. He should have realized his brother Mitchell was up to something by the way he had smirked.
Titus handed him a cell phone. “If you press five, you’ll be able to hear the message. I can allow you a ten-minute call.”
“That’s generous of you.” Blaine pressed five and his mother’s voice came on asking him to call her. He looked at the phone. It appeared to be Tight Ass’s personal cell. “If you’ll excuse me?” Blaine said.
“Of course.” Titus went behind a desk and shuffled some papers, but he didn’t go away too far.
Blaine walked through the lobby and took a seat on a bench facing the beach. Titus followed at a discreet distance, like he had expected Blaine to take off running with the phone. Calling his mother’s number, Blaine stared off into the waves. Maybe he should have gone surfing after all.
“Hello?” his mother picked up.
“Hello from Maui,” Blaine said, forcing a cheerful tone into his voice.
“Blaine! I’m so glad to hear from you. How do you like the resort?”
“It’s all right,” he said.
“Just all right?” her voice fell.
Blaine cursed himself. She paid a lot of money for this. He didn’t have to be such a bastard about it. “I’m still shaking off the jet lag. I took a tour of Lahaina today and did yoga.”
“Yoga?” she said. “You did yoga?”
“Yeah, and I’ve got a personal chef who’s making all my meals. So they’re taking good care of me, Mom.”
“I’m so happy. I just want you to relax a little. All that stress you’re under is no good for you.”
“Well, I sat out in the sun by the water today and I’m heading back to my room for a good meal and a nap.” After what he hoped was earthshaking sex.
“I wish I was there.”
Blaine winced, glad she wasn’t privy to his thoughts. “I think you and Dad would like it here. You should book a trip. Is it snowing?”
“Ugh,” she groaned. “Worse. It’s icy sleet and absolutely frigid.”
“It’s about eighty-five, but there is a strong breeze coming in from the west.”
“Rub it in,” she said. “You better enjoy it while you can. It’s going to be a quick two weeks.”
“Yeah, it’ll be over before I know it.” Strangely, that didn’t fill him with the relief that he thought it would.
“And don’t worry about the Pilot Project. Mitchell and Paul have completely scrapped the camera-sensor programming and are starting fresh.”
“They what?” he said, jerking to his feet.
“Alice!” Blaine heard his father yell in the background. “You’re not supposed to talk with him about work.”
“What do you mean, they’re starting fresh? There’s nothing wrong with my code.”
She gave a nervous giggle. “Oh, I must have heard it wrong then. Don’t mind me. You go out there and do something fun and enjoy that beautiful weather. I’ve got to go.”
“Mom.” Blaine saw Titus coming over to him.
“Love you!” She hung up.
“Love you too,” he muttered, and handed the phone to Titus before he could ask for it back.
“Is there anything else we can do for you today?” Titus said.
All of a sudden, he wanted to punch the smirk off of Titus’s face. “No.” He headed for the elevators, his mother’s words still clanging around in his brain. He forced his fists to unclench.
“Mikelina has scheduled you for a luau tonight.”
Blaine stopped dead in his tracks. “I thought Selena is cooking dinner for me tonight?” That definitely put a dent in his earthshaking sex plans. He wanted a marathon session, all night long. Stopping to go to a luau, solo, didn’t appeal to him at all.
Titus scrolled through his phone. “No, but if you would like, I can schedule her to make a dessert. Perhaps a late-night tea and digestive.”
Blaine was going to cancel the luau, but Titus frowned at him and Blaine remembered that Selena said one of her coworkers got fired for sleeping with a client. He didn’t want to make Titus suspicious of what he had planned for Selena. “Sure,” Blaine said, forcing a smile.
“Have a nice afternoon,” Titus said.
Blaine waited until the elevator doors closed before giving him the finger. The knot between his shoulders eased when the doors opened up to his penthouse. That hot tub was calling his name, but then he caught a scent of sesame oil and he gravitated to the kitchen.
Selena had her back to him, but her fist was jammed in her back. The other hand was stirring in the wok.
“You all right?” he asked, the pulsing rage he had been feeling turning into a simmering blaze of lust. He wanted to lean her over the counter and take her deep and slow.
She jumped. “I didn’t hear you over the sizzle.”
“I get that a lot,” he said, winking and smoothing a hand over his hair.
“I was talking about the onions, but you do you.” She rolled her shoulders. “I’m just a little stiff.”
So am I. Blaine tried to discreetly adjust himself.
“This Italian marble floor is gorgeous, but killer on my back.”
“Maybe I can treat you to a little massage.” He wiggled his fingers.
“Speaking of massages, you’re booked for one tomorrow afternoon at three. It’s on the beach not far from where the yoga was this morning.”
“What part of I need a little excitement was Mikelina missing?”
“She also has rebooked your surfing lessons to tomorrow morning, followed by cliff diving off Black Rock, and weather permitting you’ll be hiking at Pe’ahi, taking a helicopter ride around the island and—” Selena walked over to her journal and flipped a few pages. “—zip-lining through Makawao.”
“That’s more like it,” he said.
“I’m glad to see you embracing your vacation.”
“I’d rather be embracing you.”
“We’ll get to that,” she said with a sexy smile that he felt right down to his cock. “Why don’t you relax for a bit and I’ll call you when lunch is ready?”
“I’ll be in the hot tub.”
He didn’t even bother with the robe this time. Stripping off everything, he settled into the hot tub. Blaine sank down into the water and leaned his head back. This would have been perfect if he didn’t keep hearing his mother tell him that his brother and Paul had trashed his work and were rebuilding the camera sensor on their own.
He’d be the first to admit there was a problem. After all, a camera sensor would have picked up the dog and the little old lady. There wasn’t time to start over from scratch. As he stewed about the problem, he knew he could at least put them on the right track if he had access to his computer.
“Lunch,” Selena said, tossing a robe over the chair.
She watched him as he got out of the tub with a greedy look in her eyes. “You sure lunch can’t wait?”
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
“Not for food.” He ignored the robe and stalked toward her.
“It can wait.” She stepped back into the room. “I hope you don’t mind that I activated the privacy locks.”
“I don’t mind at all.”
He grabbed her and was surprised by a sharp buzz.
Selena rolled her eyes. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the number. “That’s Titus. He probably wants to make sure I’m not up here with you.”
The rage came back. “Why is that any of his business?” He really didn’t like that guy.
“He’s uptight. I told you he fired a friend of mine for sleeping with one of the guests.”
“That’s a little harsh.” It was as expected. Titus was checking up on her.
“That’s Titus for you.”
“More like Tight Ass.”
“Let me just shut this off.” She put it on the table and then shrugged out of her chef’s coat. “Now, where were we?”
“Wait, you have cell signal?” He had assumed Tight Ass had blocked everyone’s cell phone.
“Here we go.” She rolled her eyes. “Yes. All staff do.”
“I need you to make your cell a hot spot so I can log my laptop onto the internet.” It would just take him an hour to straighten this mess out.
“No.” She crossed her arms over her chest, and he noticed that she was wearing a very thin T-shirt over a bikini top.
“No?” he said. “Why not?”
“Because, you came here for a relaxing vacation. You’re not going to manage your stress if you’re working full-time.”
“I promise it won’t be full-time.”
“Blaine, I wasn’t born yesterday. I have nephews. I’ve seen them play video games for eighteen hours straight, go to sleep, wake up and do it all over again. That’s you, only it’s work, not play.”
“How about we make a deal?” he said.
“This ought to be good.” She went into the kitchen and started plating up lunch.
Well, he was hungry now that he thought of it. And he’d be able to concentrate on having a good time once he could straighten this camera-sensor problem.
“I could go to a cybercafe and do the same thing, but that’s not very relaxing.”
“Uh-huh.” Selena narrowed her eyes at him.
“What if I pay you what I would pay them, and I work a few hours after every meal? In the meantime, I’ll do all the rest-and-relaxation stuff that you want.”
“This could cost me my job.” She nudged him back to the table and set a brightly colored chicken stir fry in front of him. It smelled amazing.
“If it does, I’ll pay you what you would have made if you hadn’t been fired. Actually, I’ll do that anyway.” He speared a chunk of chicken and a pepper on his fork and popped it in his mouth. “Damn, this is good.”
“I’m glad you like it,” she said dryly. “So let me get this straight. You’re going to pay me six months’ salary, for the use of my cell phone as a hot spot so you can connect to the internet for the two weeks that you’re here? Are you nuts?”
“Desperate. This place would be a perfect vacation, but I can’t be disconnected for two weeks.”
Selena nibbled on her lip. “I thought the most rule breaking I’d be doing was having sex with a client. Providing you with internet would be like me ordering fried chicken for you.”
“In for a penny,” he said, shrugging. “In for a pound. I’m okay with take-out chicken.”
“I will wash your mouth out with soap,” she snapped.
“Look, the bottom line is I’m not going to be able to relax unless I can see what’s going on at my company.”
“The moment you do, your business partners will be calling up the resort and we’ll both be busted. Only designated phones have cell service at the center. Titus will revoke my privilege in a heartbeat.”
“I can be discreet.”
“Can you?” Selena glared at him. “Can you really?” She gestured, and he realized he was sitting there buck naked.
Blaine decided to brazen it out. They just had to agree to this one thing, and then the fun and romance could get back on schedule. “You’ve got nothing to lose. Set me up on the internet and I’ll wire the six months into your account. If my brother decides to be a punk and your cell phone gets blocked, the money is all yours.”
Selena walked away from him, and he realized the afternoon’s activities had suddenly shifted.
“I don’t want to jeopardize your job, though,” he said, trying to regain the mood. “We can talk about this later. Why don’t you grab a plate and join me for lunch?”
“It was a hard enough decision for me to decide to sleep with you,” she said. “I hadn’t planned on going rogue.”
“I don’t want to put any pressure on you,” Blaine said. “Why don’t we talk about this later? Much, much later.”
Selena sighed and put her chef’s jacket back on.
Blaine closed his eyes. He was an idiot.
“I need to think about this,” she said, giving him a sad smile as she slipped her phone back into her pocket. “Enjoy your lunch.”