she was on.
He strode onto the beach and looked around. The natural curve of the island created a miniature bay that blocked out the view of anyone else. There were bicycles and walking paths to get to the main buildings, where there was a restaurant, a bar, a yoga studio and a boutique gift shop. He could hang out there and hope like hell that Allie would venture in for a meal, but with the option to have dining brought to the villas, he didn’t like his odds.
No, better to get the lay of the land and plan accordingly.
A quick examination of the storage unit right off the sand—designed to look like a weathered shack—gave him the answer. There was gear for a variety of water sports. He considered his options and went with the kayak. It was the fastest way to get where he needed to go and stay relatively dry in the process. He shucked his shoes off, paused and then dragged off his shirt, too. The summer sun should have made the heat unbearable, but as he pushed the kayak into the water, it was damn near pleasant.
Roman hadn’t been on a kayak before, but it seemed easy enough. He experimented in paddling until he got a good rhythm, then set off, heading south around the island. He’d make a circuit and go from there.
The main problem lay in the fact that he didn’t exactly know who he was looking for. He’d never managed to pin Allie Landers down into meeting him in person. The digging he’d done online had brought up precious little—both in details about her as an individual and pictures of her. Her social media accounts were both set to private, and the one photo he’d found of her was from ages ago. The Transcend website, which revealed more about the company’s services and vision than its founder, didn’t give more information than a contact email address. Considering it was linked with a women’s shelter, that wasn’t surprising, but it still irked him.
That said, Roman had secured deals in the past that began with even less information than he had now. He was confident he’d pull it off this time, too.
The first villa to the south had a family with two smallish children making sandcastles, so Roman kept going, starting to enjoy himself despite the fact that he much preferred the city to anything resembling nature. This didn’t feel like nature, though.
It felt a whole lot like paradise.
He made his way around the island, surveying beach by beach. There were two with families, two with groups that seemed to consist solely of men, three empty and one with a group of four women who catcalled him as he paddled past. He filed that information away to check on later. There was no telling how many friends Allie had come down here with, but he knew she wasn’t married and had no children, so at least he’d narrowed down the search.
By the time he came around the north point of the island, he was fucking exhausted. Roman spent time in the gym regularly, but the heat and the constant paddling wore on him. He steered around the outcropping of rocks and let his paddle rest across the kayak in front of him, taking a moment to roll his shoulders.
Which was right around the time he saw the woman.
She lay on her back, her arms stretched over her head, her long blond hair stark against the vivid red of her beach towel. But that wasn’t what made his breath dry up in his lungs.
It was the fact she was topless.
Her golden skin glinted in the sunlight as if she’d oiled herself before coming out to the beach, and the only thing resembling clothing she wore was a tiny triangle of indeterminable color. Her long legs bent as she shifted, her large breasts rising and falling with a slow breath.
He forgot what he was there for. Forgot that his muscles were damn near shaking with exhaustion. Forgot everything but his sudden need to see what color her nipples were.
What the fuck are you doing?
He shook his head. Going closer was inappropriate. Fuck, sitting there and staring like a goddamn creep was the height of inappropriate. It didn’t matter how mouthwatering her curves were or the fact that she’d propped herself up on her elbows to watch him.
Roman took a deep breath, and then another. It did nothing to quell his raging cockstand, but he managed to pick up the paddle and keep rowing. Whoever that woman was, no matter that he wanted to spend a whole lot of time up close and personal with her...she wasn’t Allie. The one picture he’d managed to source of the woman alone was several years old. Her goddamn senior yearbook photo. She’d been skinny to the point of being unhealthy with her hair chopped short and dyed pitch-black.
He highly doubted she looked anything like that currently.
The one defining characteristic of the women who staffed Transcend was that they were all tiny and chiseled and didn’t have a soft spot on their bodies. Beautiful, yes. Roman could appreciate all body types, but none of them had made his hands shake the same way that woman on the beach did. Soft and curvy and with breasts he ached to get his mouth on.
Knock that shit off. You aren’t here to fuck anyone, no matter how sexy she is. You’re here for business.
He’d go to dinner tonight and see if he could sniff out which of the women on the island was Allie and make his plan from there.
And if he saw the mystery woman once he’d gotten the rest of it figured out?
Roman grinned. Maybe he’d make an exception to his rule and indulge in some pleasure along with business.
He was in paradise, after all.
* * *
“How are you doing, sweetie?” Allie pulled on a sundress and headed over to check on Becka. Her friend had indulged a little too heavily on the vodka on the flight down from the city, and the short plane ride from Miami to West Island had made her sick. She’d spent the afternoon sleeping it off, but she still looked a bit green around the gills.
Becka managed a shaky smile. “I think vodka and I broke up.”
“It’s temporary.” She hesitated. “Do you want me to stay? Nurse you back to health?” She was pleasantly tired, but the draw of tonight’s menu was enough to have her itching to ride to the lodge and get a better lay of the land. Becka had been so out of sorts when they arrived, it had been a rush to get checked in and settled in the villa so she could sleep off the worst of it.
“God, no. It’s bad enough that I’ve brought shame on my family for ruining the first day of your desperately needed vacation. I’m not going to let you spend any time paying for my bad decisions. Go. Eat delicious food. Drink.”
Allie still didn’t move for the door. “Why don’t I see if the chef can make up some broth or something easy on your stomach?”
“Go, go, go. You’re on vacation. You’re not required to mother me.” She softened the words with a smile, still looking queasy.
Allie went. Becka wouldn’t thank her for staying and would only feel guilty if she did, which would distract her from resting. Tomorrow would be soon enough for them to go exploring and try out the stand-up paddleboards Allie had eyed when she’d checked out the beach.
Her face heated at the fact she’d been caught sunbathing topless. Whoever that guy was, he’d been far off enough that she couldn’t clearly see his face. Those shoulders, though... Allie shivered. Even at a distance, she’d seen the cut of his muscles and how purposefully he’d maneuvered the kayak through
