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“Hiding in the open?” I asked, unable to help myself.

He looked over his shoulder. His face colored at being discovered as his eyes widened.

“I’ll let you have your privacy,” I said, realizing I was exactly what he was probably avoiding.

“No, wait,” he said, scrambling to his feet and gesturing to the ground. “You’re just the kind of company I was hoping for.”

I stared.

“Sorry, that’s not what I meant.” He drew a deep breath and tried again. “I want someone to talk to that isn’t after my family’s notoriety.”

“How do you know I qualify?” I asked, approaching him.

“Truth?” he asked.

“Truth,” I said.

“I don’t. But I remember you from when you used to come into the office with your dad. The other girls were always all over me. You kept your distance. I appreciated that.”

He sat, and I sat beside him, in awe that he remembered me, let alone at the impression my shyness gave.

“Why’d you stop coming around?” he asked, leaning in so his Caribbean-blue eyes penetrated my soul.

“I was trying to escape,” I said, honestly. “When I went to college, I thought for some crazy reason I might be able to disconnect from Bennet Systems and forge my own path.”

“I admire that,” he said, lowering his ridiculously long lashes. “I tried to escape with college also. Stanford. It put a good two thousand miles between myself and the dysfunctional duo. But sadly, it didn’t last.”

“Dysfunctional duo?” I asked, trying to hide a snicker.

He looked at me again with that smile and those eyes, and I was sure I blushed. Damn my towhead. “My nickname for my parents. If I don’t laugh at it, I might cry.”

Nice, handsome, and in touch with his feelings. My heart fluttered a bit faster. He hugged his knees to his chest, and I admired the way his biceps bulged at the edges of his sleeves.

“What about your sister?” If I didn’t keep talking, I might have found myself inching even closer to his intoxicating scent.

“Nicole?” His brow furrowed. “She’s a bitch. I avoid her as much as possible.”

The harshness of his answer startled me out of my reverie. “I can’t imagine that. I mean, my brother gets on my nerves, but he’s always there for me.” I didn’t add the part about how I refused to talk to him for years.

“I expect most people have families far more pleasant,” he said.

“Why’d you come on the trip if you managed to get away once?” I asked, again unable to help myself.

“Let’s just say my mother likes to control everything and everyone. It’s almost a fetish with her.”

“So neither of us want to be here, but we’re doing it for our families.” I shook my head, looking up at my mother’s statue, so beautiful compared to the rest of the gaudy décor I’d witnessed so far at this resort.

“It’s nothing against Paradise Atlantis. I’m sure it’s a fine resort,” Mason said. “Maybe we just need to stop sulking and make the most of it.”

He leaned in and put a hand on mine. My pulse fluttered along with the million butterflies in my stomach. I froze in his gaze, a prisoner, afraid to move or even breathe for fear he’d break the connection between us. His full lips parted ever so slightly, and I imagined what it might be like to press mine against them.

“Well, look who I found.” Travis’s voice startled me out of my trance, and I blushed like I’d been caught with my hand in the cookie jar. But his gaze was locked on Mason. If his chocolate eyes could’ve fired lasers, Mason would have been dead.

That couldn’t be about me. I’d just met him—both of them really.

Mason stood quickly and offered me a hand up. I took it and was unprepared for the strength with which he hoisted me to my feet. I nearly fell, but he caught me. My head spun from the sudden proximity to him.

Travis cleared his throat, and I backed away, adjusting my ponytail.