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“You sure you aren’t afraid I’m going to bang Alejandro while you’re gone?”
I blinked in surprise. Alejandro, the cook? He was old enough to be my great-grandfather.
Pierce braced her by the arms and smiled warmly. “Not afraid at all. But if you do, be sure to record it. Watching is fun.”
Melinda seemed puzzled by this response, but her question made one thing clear: she seemed to know about the loophole in the contract. I glanced at Tristan, who was frowning slightly. He’d heard the whispers too, and had come to the same conclusion.
He glanced at me and shrugged ever so slightly.
How much did she really know?
Pierce boarded the helicopter, the rotors spun up, and then it climbed into the sky and over the mountains. Once the engine noise was gone, all we could hear was the gentle surf washing against the beach below.
“Okay,” Melinda said. “Now what are we supposed to do for two weeks?”
“You are free to do whatever your heart desires,” Tristan said, glancing at his watch. “I will be gone by seven o’clock tonight.”
“Gone? Where?” she asked.
He stared at her. “I sent you a new copy of the shared calendar.”
“Let’s pretend I ignored it again,” Melinda said, cringing.
Tristan glanced at me and sighed deeply. “I have pressing business in London. I will return in four days. Now if you will excuse me, I must pack for the trip.”
She watched him walk into the mansion, then turned to me. “What about you?”
“In the past when Pierce is running this race, I’ve gone home to see my family.”
We started walking back inside. “But not this year?”
The truth was that Pierce had asked me to stay and keep Melinda company. It was a totally innocent request. He wanted someone around to make her feel like she wasn’t alone. The other thing, something I was trying not to think about as a possibility, was just a fringe benefit. If it happened at all.
“The timing didn’t work out with my family this year,” I lied. But the next part was true: “To be honest, I’m glad it didn’t. I’m not really close with my parents and brothers, but I feel obligated to visit out of guilt.”
“That sucks,” she said. “Since Pierce is gone for two weeks, do I have to stay here? Would I be allowed to go home and visit my family?”
“You’re not a prisoner,” I reminded her. “You can do whatever you want. I can arrange a flight back to Rhode Island if you want.”
“I’ll think about it. I’m very close with my parents, especially my mom. I’ve been calling her on the phone almost every day to reassure her that I haven’t been kidnapped.”
I smiled at that. “Have you told her all of the details?”
“Hell no!” she said with a laugh. She brushed her hair out of her face. “She wouldn’t believe me if I told her. And even if she did, she would assume I had joined some weird sex cult. We’d have the FBI swarming all over this island. Or the US Army. I don’t know whose jurisdiction this would fall under. The point is, she’s a stubborn woman.”
“I never would have guessed that,” I said.
She shot a glare at me. “Are you implying that I’m stubborn?”
“I plead the fifth,” I replied.
We reached the pool area. I picked up my coffee mug where I had left it and took a sip. Melinda walked over to the pool and dragged her toes across the surface of the water. She was wearing a floral-printed coverup skirt that hugged her lower half in a way that made my cock ache. Looking at her thighs and ass, it was obvious she was a college athlete.
To say something, anything, I blurted out, “Going for a swim?”
She shrugged. “I was planning on going for a jog. I’m glad I got back into it. Want to come with me?”
“I’ll pass.”
