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She opened her mouth and closed it a few times, unsure where to start. She studied him closely as he leaned back and closed his eyes. He wasn’t wearing any shoes, and his khaki pants were rolled up to mid shin. He wore an untucked light blue cotton button-down shirt. It enhanced his olive skin tone and made his black hair look even darker.
“Go ahead,” he finally said. “Ask your questions. I’m not going to get any rest until you do.”
“I don’t even know where to start. Last I heard, you were being arrested. The internet connection here is spotty. I can’t always get New York news.”
“Hmm. We’ll have to do something about that. Surely SI can get better internet service here. They are a global leader in communications, after all,” he said, quoting their branding.
“You’re still with SI?”
“Hell, no. Your cousin sacked me right after I was released from police custody. Which only lasted a couple of hours, by the way, and I was never actually arrested, simply taken in for questioning.”
“But...”
He let out a huff of breath and sat up. Ana moved away from him, crossing her legs and waiting for an explanation.
Instead of speaking, though, he reached in his back pocket and pulled out an envelope. He handed it over.
Inside was a bank account number and an absolutely ridiculous amount of money. “I don’t... What?”
“After Brad got a call the night of my not-arrest, giving him majority voting interest in SI—he thanks you, by the way—he called a shareholder meeting and ousted Leonard. That’s when the alphabet of agencies swept in. I’ve got it on good authority that he probably won’t see the outside of a prison wall for a very long time. I was retrieving some of my things from Leonard when I came across that.” He indicated the letter still in her hands. “It seems as if Leonard was skimming the books a bit. More than a little bit, actually. I, uh, liberated the money from his secret bank accounts. Most of it is set aside to use as restitution for the people he swindled over the years. And I spent some of it, so the bank account is no longer that large. Actually there’s very little left at all.”
She looked down at the dollar amount again. Holy shit. She’d been born with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth, had a trust that assured she would never have to work. Yet she’d never seen so many zeros.
“I’m still...I don’t know what I am,” she said. This was more than her brain was capable of processing at the moment apparently. A part of her wasn’t sure if this was an amazing dream. “What are you doing here?”
He smiled at her, a real smile, not one of those predatory ones, though she liked both equally. “I’m here to protect my investment, what I bought with my cut of the money.”
Her heart sank. He wasn’t here to see her. “Your investment?”
“Yeah. You heard that the island was sold a couple of days ago? Well, I bought it.”
“You bought my island?”
“Technically it’s my island. You just live here. Do you know that private islands aren’t as expensive as one would think?”
Right.
“So, do you want me to leave?”
He laughed again and then he finally reached out and touched her, just a hand on her knee, but she’d been waiting for physical contact since he’d sat down next to her.
“Fuck no,” he said. “Then I’d be all alone. What the hell would I do on an island all by myself?”
“So what are you saying?”
He leaned forward now, his hand brushing her knee to her bare thigh. He leaned toward her so that their faces were only inches apart.
“I’m saying that I’m here, you’re here, and when I arrived I sent everyone else away.” His voice was deep and husky and his fingers dug into her hip.
“So we’re alone?”
He nodded.
She wanted to ask so many more questions. She needed his body.
She shivered when he deftly untied the side fastening of her bikini bottoms. He leaned even closer and their noses brushed, but his mouth still wasn’t on her.
“I’ve been dreaming of tasting you again,” he said. His breath was warm against her skin.
