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I feel how cold my hands are in comparison to his warm touch.
"I didn't want you to suffer..." I begin to explain, even though I know for sure that nothing can justify my actions. I shouldn't leave.
"I know, Philipp gave me your letter," he says, leaning even closer, and now our knees touch. "I love you, Cami, and I meant every word I said to you."
I feel the first tear running down my cheek.
"Don't cry, baby." He wipes it away with his hand. "I hate to see you crying."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I lower my head, ashamed of what I've done. "I didn't want to hurt you..."
He takes me into his arms, and I bury my face in his chest.
Antoine moves me closer and places me on his lap. We stay like that for a very long time, maybe ten minutes in complete silence, hugging each other. I keep crying quietly, my tears falling onto his shirt. He keeps tracing his fingers over my back, trying to calm me down.
"You have to let me go," I say after I’ve finally stopped sobbing and pulled away a little. "The owners will see us and refuse to give us a room."
"Us?" he clarifies, raising an eyebrow.
"Won't you stay here with me?"
A satisfied smile appears on his face. "I thought you'd never ask."
We both smile, looking at each other. My eyes are still blurry from tears.
"Where are they?" I look around, "The owners. Have you seen them?"
"I did, and we made a pretty good deal," he says, adjusting my unruly hair behind my ears. "I bought this place for an excellent price. I could've paid much more."
I pull away farther to look at his face, to figure out if it's a joke. No, his expression is serious as he looks at me.
"You bought this place?" I finally manage to ask.
"Ugh-a." He nods with a broad smile. "In case you want to come here for a weekend, I don't want any other tourists to bother us."
I frown, unable to understand anything. Antoine, a guy who helped serve dishes at the restaurant and worked as a lifeguard on the beach, can afford to buy a ranch?
"Have you got a loan or something?" I ask even though I realize that it's hardly possible. Who would give a loan for a house with this much land to a twenty-four-year old guy?
"Kind of." He smiles. "I asked my dad to loan me money till my twenty-fifth birthday when I get my trust fund."
"You have a trust fund?" I exclaim, my mind refusing to believe it.
He exhales, licking his lips, trying to find the right words. His eyes are traveling around the room, avoiding my gaze.
"Please, tell me the truth," I almost beg him as I say it, trying to make him look at me again.
"My name is Antoine Le Blanc, the only son of Jacque Le Blanc, the owner of the Le Blanc Hotels chain," he finally says and exhales as if he was holding a burden, and now it's finally gone.
I widen my eyes and open my mouth involuntarily when I realize that he's being serious.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," he continues. I feel his grip on my thighs harden as if he's afraid that I might run away. "You didn't know who I was, so I pretended I was just a worker. I do different jobs at the hotel. Dad wants me to learn everything and practice before becoming the head of Le Blanc Hotels.”
"You're going to..." I stop myself. It feels like it's hard to breathe. "—Be the head of the L'Eden Resort?"
"And not only L'Eden." He nods. "All the hotels."
Is it the heat that’s making me feel too suffocated to take a normal breath?
