Page 83 of Wrong Room, Right Billionaire

“In the long run, yes,” Morgan says. “But right now, while he’s trying to prove that I’m not fit to be the CEO of Bale, he’s making himself look good. Or so he thinks.”

I shake my head with a pout, and eyes that I know are filled with worry. I’ve never been very good at hiding my feelings in terms of my expressions. Claire likes to say that my face doesn’t have an inside voice. She’s not wrong.

“So, what are we going to do?” I ask. “Because this looks pretty bad.” I get a little quiet after that, and Morgan notices. He reaches across the table and takes my hand in his.

“Hey,” he says gently. “It’s okay. We will find a way to discredit him. I’ve gotten pretty good at it over the years, believe it or not.”

As sweet as it is of Morgan to try to make me feel better about this, it still sucks. “I don’t know. Those videos and photos you posted were so wonderful. They showed the beauty of the waterfall, the people, and the culture. The places you can go off the grid when you travel the world in search of something new. And then bam. One negative headline negates it all.”

“That’s not true,” he tells me. “Those photos are still beautiful. Very beautiful,” he adds, and I blush at what he’s insinuating. “He can’t take all of that away with one headline.”

I’m actually kind of surprised how calm he’s being about this. But it still doesn’t change the fact that we have damage control to do. The hotel is actually dumping chemicals into the pool as we speak.

Our dinner comes, and I try to focus on a food post. While I’m getting the angle and lighting right on my baja grilled sea bass, Donovan appears and pulls up a chair to our table for two.

“So we switch to saltwater,” he says and while I don’t think either of us are in the mood to talk about it anymore, I have to chuckle at the delivery. Donovan has a way with words; I’ll give him that.

“Just this resort or…?” I trail off.

“No,” Morgan says as he takes a bite of his lobster and dips it into melted butter. “If we do it, we do it across the map.”

“How much does that cost?” I ask.

Donovan sucks a breath through his teeth. “Well, commercial salt chlorination equipment is going to run us on the upside of forty K per pool. Plus about ten to fifteen more for installation, and then the initial salt is around three. Multiply that by twenty-five and we are looking at about–”

“One point three mil,” Morgan says casually while taking another bite.

I, on the other hand, choke on my sea bass. “For saltwater?!” I cough.

“Fancy salt water,” Donovan says, and I can’t believe either of these men can just throw around numbers like that.

“Alright.” I nod. “You switch to saltwater, but in the meantime, how do we combat the bad press?”

Morgan answers with a smile and a wink that I don’t trust. And then he proceeds to go through the rest of dinner without saying another word about it.

In fact, I have no idea what he’s up to until 5:30 the next morning.

“Rise and shine,” Morgan says, ripping the blankets from my shivering body. It’s very reverse déjà vu, and I’m not loving it.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“We have some damage control to attend to,” he says.

“Now?” I ask.

“Yes, now,” he says. “In fact, you’re going to want to hurry up, or we’ll miss it.”

“Miss what?” I mumble into the pillow.

“Something you’re not going to want to miss. Trust me,” he says, and there’s the tiniest hint of magic in his voice. And considering Morgan Bale’s typical lack of magic, I’m curious enough to drag myself out of bed.

Thirty minutes later, Seb puts the car in park on the beach. The sun is coming up, and he actually did a coffee run before picking us up. Despite still being tired and not knowing why we are parked at a beach at sunrise, I at least feel a little more human.

“Come on,” Morgan says, unbuckling his seat belt and getting out of the SUV. Before I can even swallow a sip of my coffee, he’s opening my door and pulling me out. He takes the coffee and sets it aside and closes the door again.

“Hey!” I whine.

“Nope. You don’t need it,” he says, ushering me off in the direction of the sand.