AllFreeNovel
Share Us
HAYDEN
Stranded with a blue-eyed billionaire . . .
Being a flight attendant for the rich and wealthy had its perks. Like visiting glamorous places and exotic locales.
But for all my travels, I never expected our plane to crash land on a small, private island in a violent storm.
Or to find out that the island belonged to our passenger, billionaire Hayden Reid—a man who I had every reason to hate, considering his father was responsible for ruining a part of my mother’s life.
Hayden doesn’t know about that past, and while I’m initially wary of him, his flirtatious charm has a way of persuading me to let down my guard and enjoy our time together on the island . . . and in his bed.
I also realize that this billionaire playboy has hidden depths to him. That beneath the sexy, seductive grin there is a man who hides deeper pain of his own.
But once we’re rescued and back in civilization, can we get past the one secret that threatens to tear us apart?
CHAPTERONE
Rylee
I took the stairs to the second floor of my New York City apartment building, smiling at a neighbor that I passed on the way. She was the nosy cat lady of the building, and I could almost feel her assessing me as I passed, trying to detect something she could gossip about.
She wouldn’t have any luck with that. I was too boring to stir up any juicy conversation.
When I reached the end of the hall, I opened the door of my apartment to the sound of heavy coughing. Frowning, I pulled the earbuds from my ears and went to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water.
My roommate and best friend, Evelyn, mentioned just before going to bed last night that she had a headache and runny nose. I woke up early this morning to go for a run, and she was still in bed. Now, based on the hacking coming from the direction of her room, I was willing to bet that her headache had turned into something more serious. She sounded like she was hacking up a lung.
I filled the kettle with water and put it on the stove to warm up before heading to her room. She was blowing her nose as I knocked on the door, but managed to mumble, “Come in.”
I pushed opened the door and cringed at the sight of her. Evelyn was the type of person that was always so well-put-together that it could be annoying. Her hair was always cute, her skin glowed, and she really didn’t even need to wear makeup. She was naturally stunning. If she wasn’t such a good person, my jealousy might have prevented us from becoming so close. But she was and we did.
Today, she was a complete mess for the first time in the three years that I’d known her. Her hair was a tangled rat’s nest and there were dark circles under her eyes, made even more obvious by the paleness of her skin. She was sitting up with her back against the headboard of the bed with a tissue box tucked into her side and her thick, terry cloth robe wrapped tight around her, as if she was cold despite the warmth in the apartment.
“I’m making you hot tea,” I said, lingering in the doorway. I loved her like a sister, but I wasn’t going to get too close. The last thing I wanted was to feel as miserable as she looked.
“Thanks,” she replied, her voice thick and nasally.
I felt a pang of sympathy. “How are you feeling?” It seemed like a dumb question, but I didn’t know what else to say.
“Like I’m dying,” she moaned, grabbing another tissue just as she sneezed. “I just took my temperature. One hundred two degrees.”
That seemed concerning to me. “Should we call a doctor?”
She shook her head, then moaned again and put her fingers on her temples. Her head must have still hurt. “I just need to sleep and wait for it to pass.”
I heard the shrill whistling of the kettle and headed back to the kitchen. Making some hot tea with honey for Evelyn, I glanced at the time displayed in a digital readout on the stove. It was almost nine in the morning and I knew that she was supposed to be on a flight at noon.
I brought her the tea, setting it on the bedside table. “Have you called Rick yet?”
Rick was our boss at the airline where we both worked as flight attendants for their two private jets. He could be a real hardass about call-ins, but what choice did Evelyn have? Whoever was on today’s flight wouldn’t want her serving them drinks while she was this sick, and I had my doubts that she could even stay on her feet for long. She’d probably pass out from exhaustion halfway through the trip.
“I was waiting for you to get back,” she said, turning her big eyes with the dark circles under them toward me and sticking out her bottom lip. I knew she was about to ask for a huge favor. “Is there any way you can take the flight for me?”
“You want me to take your place? Today?”
“If I already have a replacement when I call Rick, maybe he won’t be so mad.Please.”
I knew that Evelyn hated being yelled at. She even had a panic attack over it once before. It was a side effect of growing up in a household with a verbally abusive narcissist for a father.
