Secret Games (Tropical Temptation) Page 4
“Zoe? What are you doing here?”
“I needed a place to crash for the night.” Zoe pushed a strand of hair from her face as heat flooded her cheeks. “Carrie said it was okay, as long as I cleaned up after myself.” It was a lie, but Zoe couldn’t come up with anything else on such short notice. Gloria was a gossip, so telling her that she got drunk and needed a place to hook up with a stranger was out of the question.
Gloria frowned and made a noise of disbelief. “Seems as if everyone is having sex around here but me.”
“What?”
Gloria’s eyes widened. “You didn’t hear what happened?”
Zoe shook her head. “I just got in yesterday.”
Gloria leaned over her housekeeping cart and lowered her voice. “You know that new landscaping company we hired to take care of the gardens?”
“Yeah.”
“Natasha, from accounting, has been having sex with one of the supervisors.”
“Which one?”
“The guy with the washboard abs and the Jamaican accent.”
“Oh my God. Freddie? She did Freddie?”
Gloria grinned and nodded. “He was a hottie, wasn’t he? Rumor has it that they have been fooling around for weeks.”
“You’re kidding.”
Gloria shook her head. “It gets better.” She glanced around to make sure they were alone before continuing. “I guess one of their favorite places to do the deed was in the pool shed, the one with all of those inflatable toys for the kids.”
Zoe snorted. “Not the most romantic spot.”
“I guess romance didn’t matter to them. Anyway, one of the guests went to the shed with her preschooler to get a toy and got an eyeful.”
Zoe put her fingers to her lips. “Oh my God.”
Gloria picked up her feather duster and waved it in the air. “Needless to say, Natasha was fired, and the landscaping company was let go.”
“Just because they had sex?”
“No, because they had sex on resort property and… What did it say in the email? Oh yes, traumatized a preschooler.”
“I’m sure the kid had no idea what was going on.”
“Doesn’t matter. What matters is that the mother wants to sue.”
“That’s crazy. Does she have a case?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that ever since then, Carrie has been on the warpath. She says that shocking customers is bad for business.”
“No kidding.” Especially when those customers threaten to sue.
“Rumor has it that she’s going to be making up some new guidelines on appropriate resort behavior and will force us to follow them within the week.” She glanced at Zoe’s blanket-covered body suggestively. “I’d be careful if I were you.”
Zoe leaned back in shock. “I was just sleeping.”
Gloria held up her hands in mock surrender. “Look, I like a little boom-boom as much as anyone else, but people are extra sensitive about that stuff right now. I wouldn’t want to see you lose your job over some misunderstanding.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem.” She smiled. “You get dressed, and I’ll come back in an hour to clean, okay?”
“Okay.” Zoe watched Gloria push her cart down the path to the hut next door. God, how embarrassing. As she shut the door and went into the shower, Zoe thought about what had happened last night. She had thrown herself at a stranger, practically begging him to have sex with her. She had come across as loose and desperate, neither of which were attractive. Obviously, she needed to get back into the dating scene before she made an even bigger mess of her life.
While part of her felt hurt that the hot guy from last night had left without saying good-bye, she knew it was for the best. After everything that had happened with Natasha, she didn’t want to take any chances. She couldn’t track him down again, no matter how much she wanted a repeat performance. From now on, she’d be all business. She couldn’t lose this job under any circumstances. There was just too much at stake.
As she showered and dressed, she pushed the warm, sensual memories of last night from her mind and focused on the task at hand. While she hadn’t come across the head of Carrington Construction yesterday, she did find his second-in-command, Alex. She had left a message with him that she’d be back at nine in the morning to talk about the construction. She only hoped that this Tate Carrington would get the message. They had a lot of things to discuss if they were ever going to get this place ready for the big Harris-Potts wedding at the end of the month.
As she dressed, her phone buzzed no less than five times, all with messages from Sadie wanting pictures of the new chapel.
“I hope that it’s big enough,” one of the texts said. “Kaleb just got me a pet ocelot and we want it to be part of the wedding party. We need to make sure there’s enough room for it to run around…”
“An ocelot? Isn’t that a big cat?” Zoe asked the empty room. A quick internet search confirmed that an ocelot was not only a large cat, but a wild one, at that. While some famous people had ocelots as pets in the past, they were now endangered. It was illegal in the States to own one.
This brought up at least a dozen questions, not the least of which was how Kaleb had managed to secure a pet ocelot for his fiancée, and how he’d smuggled it across the US border. Worse, since the island fell under US laws, bringing an ocelot to the wedding would create a nightmare with local law enforcement. In fact, just the thought of Sadie bringing a large, wild cat to the resort was enough to make her temples throb.
Zoe started to type all of this to Sadie but stopped herself before hitting send. Rolling her eyes, she pocketed the phone in her purse. She was going to need a large coffee and a couple of aspirin before she dealt with any of this drama.
It didn’t take her long to finish getting ready. Her suitcase was still in her car, so she just threw on the same clothes from yesterday. Not a lot of people had seen her in it yet, so she felt she could get away with it for another day. She made her way down to the coffee shop in the main building for some caffeine before heading to the construction site. While standing in line, she noticed Gavin walking toward her with a steaming cup in his hand. When he’d initially introduced himself on her first day at work, she had been captivated by his easy smile and sense of humor. They had become fast friends, and while there was no chemistry between them, they often shared a joke or confided in each other about their love lives.
Correction, Gavin confided in her about his love life. The man went through women faster than someone with allergies went through tissues. Zoe liked to live vicariously through his sexual adventures.
Well, until last night. What Zoe had done seemed rather reckless and wild, even for Gavin. She couldn’t wait to tell him that her dry spell was officially over. Unfortunately, it seemed that her friend had other things on his mind.
“Did you get the memo?” he asked after they hugged their greeting.
“No.”
He nodded to her purse. “Check your emails.” He took a sip of his coffee and stepped aside so Zoe could order.
“What’s it about?” she asked after telling the barista what she wanted.
“There’s going to be a resort-wide meeting at the end of the week. Something about a global policy change from legal.”
“Does this have to do with Natasha and Freddie?”
“Who told you about that?”
“Gloria.”
He chuckled. “She beat me to it. I honestly have no idea if it’s about them. It could just be an announcement about needing new inflatable animals for the kiddie pool.”
Zoe smirked. “You thought about that, too, eh? God, I hope Natasha and Freddie weren’t using any of the toys when they got caught in that shed.”
“Yeah, I could imagine that it would be rather traumatic for that poor kid.” Gavin shuddered. “What’s that duck doing, Mommy?”
“Oh God—stop. That’s awful.” She giggled and slapped Gavin’s arm playfully as he pulled ou
t his cell phone. “The poor child is going to be in therapy for weeks.”
“Years.” As Gavin swiped the screen, his smile disappeared. “Damn.”
“What is it?”
“I have to go. Evidently there is a crisis at the restaurant.” He frowned. “They ran out of eggs for the morning breakfast.”
“We still have to talk about the wedding dinner,” she reminded him.
He nodded and tapped his phone screen as he turned away. “Don’t forget to check your emails.”
“Yeah, I will.” After paying for her coffee, Zoe glanced at her watch and frowned. She had wanted to be at the construction site fifteen minutes ago. Unfortunately, emails were going to have to wait. There were more important things to attend to, such as giving that head contractor a piece of her mind. Luckily, she didn’t have far to go.
In minutes, she arrived at the construction site at the other end of the main building. Stopping at the edge of the huge mess, she looked around.
“Hello?” She tiptoed around the rubble and equipment as she scanned the large area for signs of life. “Is anybody here?” Despite the threats she had given some of the crew yesterday, no one was working. In fact, no one was even on the site.
“This is madness,” she said as she kicked a large rock with her toe. “What the hell have they been doing all month?”
“We’ve been waiting,” a familiar, masculine voice said from behind her.
Carrington. Anger bubbled up inside of Zoe as she turned to face the man who had threatened to tear apart her reputation with his laziness. “Waiting? For what?”
It was then that she saw him. The man standing behind her wasn’t the construction company’s owner, but the handsome devil she had slept with last night.
“The wood you requested isn’t native to the island. I had to have it imported.”
She opened her mouth to answer, then shut it once more.
The man in question held out his hand. “Tate Carrington, head of Carrington Construction.”
Zoe stared down at his hand. This was the construction company owner she had been looking for all day yesterday? She thought back to everything she had said last night, how she had blamed him for all of her problems. At first she felt embarrassed, then she felt angry. Not once last night did this guy tell her his name, not even after she said she was looking for him. Instead, he let her run off her mouth and took her to bed where he ravaged her until the early hours of the morning.
And oh, did he ravage her. Images of his hands on her body, of tangled sheets and sweaty limbs, filled her mind. The sex was incredible, but that didn’t make up for the fact that this man had purposefully kept his name secret so she’d sleep with him. What a jerk. Now she was going to have to think of something to say to undo this mess she had gotten herself into.
One thing was for certain: she couldn’t let what happened between them affect their conversation now. She couldn’t be soft, not for one second. There was too much at stake. If she was ever going to save her reputation, then this wedding needed to happen on time and per Sadie’s expectations—no matter what the cost.
Pushing aside the tingles of sexual awareness that had sprung up at the sound of his voice, she lifted her chin at the man before her. If this guy thought that sleeping with her would gain him some reprieve on the building of this chapel, then he’d better think again. Zoe needed this job too much to let things fall apart with Sadie and Kaleb. She’d do whatever it took to get this wedding perfect—even if it meant playing Tate Carrington’s games.
Chapter Five
Tate knew that this wasn’t the best time to have a hard-on, but this new, angry side of Zoe made her so damn hot. He had always loved strong women who knew what they wanted, and Zoe definitely fell into that category. He had to admire her spunk. It took a lot of guts for a petite woman to stand up to someone almost a foot taller than her. He thought about last night and wondered if angry sex was just as good as stress-relief sex. He guessed it was. Hell, any type of sex with this woman would be amazing. Just thinking about taming all of that bravado in the bedroom made him harder than granite.
And then there was the messy bun and wrinkled clothes. She had looked so pressed and professional last night when they had met at the bar. Now she looked like some crazy neighbor who had shown up on his doorstep to complain about his dog doing its business in her yard.
It was downright adorable.
She glanced down at his hand in disgust. “Seriously? You want me to shake your hand after…after…”
“After a night of wild sex?” No one ever said he wasn’t helpful.
She crossed her arms and made a frustrated sound. “Did you know?”
He lowered his hand and shoved it in his pocket. “Know what?”
She lifted her chin. “Who I was.”
“When?”
She threw her hands up in the air in disgust. “When you picked me up in the bar last night!”
“Hey, now.” He held up his hands. “Slow down. If I remember correctly, you were the one who picked me up.”
She opened her mouth—no doubt to say something sarcastic—then shut it again. “Very well, but you should have stopped me.”
This woman was not only angry, she was crazy for thinking that he—or any other guy in his situation—would have walked away after she had rubbed herself all over him on the dance floor like that.
He offered her an innocent smile. “I believe it was your client, not me, who caused you to start drinking last night.”
She made a very unfeminine sound of disgust. “At any point in our conversation, did it dawn on you to perhaps tell me that you were the head of Carrington Construction?”
He shrugged. “I tried to tell you, but you didn’t want to talk. I think your exact words were…” He rubbed his chin and pretended to think. “‘I don’t want to hear it.’”
“I did—” She stopped, and he could almost see the moment she remembered her words from last night. “You should have stopped me.”
“If I remember correctly, there was nothing stopping you.” Not much had been stopping him, either. They had been so in sync last night. He had never met a woman who was so enthusiastic to have sex, or so responsive to his touch.
She crossed her arms. “You make me sound cheap.”
“Not cheap. Just a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go after it. There’s a difference.”
She blew out a large puff of air and rolled her eyes.
“It was refreshing. You’re a brave woman.”
“Brave?” She flashed him a you’re-full-of-shit look. “Try drunk.”
He shrugged. “The point is that you manage to get what you want.” He took a cautious step closer. The sweet aroma of coffee, strawberries, and woman drifted over him, making him hard all over. “What you need.”
“What I need, is that chapel built before the day of the wedding. My client keeps requesting pictures. I can’t very well show her this.” She waved her hand at the large blue tarp covering the hole in the ground. “She’s going to flip out when she sees this mess. Then she’ll probably fire me.” She lowered her arms and shook her head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“First, you can accept the fact that you needed time off. I was there last night, remember? You had fun, admit it.”
Zoe didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. Her expression said it all.
“So now, we can talk like rational adults about why the chapel isn’t built and what we can do to fix it.”
“You mean what you can do to fix this. I had no part in this mess.”
“You did, actually.”
“What?”
“Like I said earlier, the pink ivory wood you ordered isn’t made on the island, nor is it conventional for building a home. We have to import it from Africa, which takes time and money. Then we have to learn to cut and shape it, which takes time. The sandalwood you want for the interior is equally difficult. It has to be imported from Ind
ia, and to do so in the quantities we require makes things complicated.”
Zoe let out a heavy sigh and rubbed her temples. “Sadie.”
“Excuse me?” When she didn’t immediately answer, he continued. “Look, you have to realize that both types of wood will easily triple the cost of the building. Now, if we switch to using wood native to the island—”
Zoe threw her hands in the air in disgust. “Sadie is the one who wants the wood, not me.”
“Then we’ll just need to explain to her—”
“Did you hear anything I said last night? I’ve been trying to explain things to this woman for months. She doesn’t care about the details. She only cares about getting what she wants.” Zoe let out a long breath. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Nothing about this wedding has been simple. I don’t know why building this chapel would be any different.”
“I’m not trying to be difficult, honest.”
“I know.” She put up her hand as he attempted to hug her. “Just give me a moment to think.” She stared at the blue tarp for a long moment in thought. “How long until the wood arrives on the island?”
“Six weeks for the sandalwood, another four for the pink ivory.”
She shook her head. “The wedding is in four weeks.”
He held his hands out to the sides. “If we went with the wood on the island—”
“That’s not an option.”
“You’re not even going to ask your client?”
“I don’t have to. That woman doesn’t compromise on anything. She’s a total diva.”
“I’m sorry. Even if we got the wood here on time, I’m not sure how it would hold up in the Caribbean climate. As designed, it may fall apart at the first sign of a storm.”
She sighed. “Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. Sadie is my problem, not yours. You’re just doing your job.”
He frowned. Tate didn’t like this side of Zoe. Last night she had seemed ready to take on the world. Now she just looked defeated. He wanted to put that fire back in her eyes, that smile on her lips.
“There may be another option,” he said.