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Authors: Yvette Hines

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BOOK: StealingThe Bride
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Nodding
at her words, Zelda asked, “And Ryan?”

“I
go back to Stacy. She not only will be able to handle the mass training but
also provide guidance to Ryan during the individual scheduled sessions.
Besides, I’ve monitored Ryan during the last two months and have been getting him
grounded in indie management,” Leya finished with. She may have needed this
vacation, but she wasn’t fool enough to put Managing You’s reputation on the
line.

That
would put her out of a job and she was not having that.
Hell no.

“Permission
granted.” Zelda leaned forward and picked up her pen, signing the leave form on
her desk.

When
Zelda passed the sheet of paper to her to fax down to HR, Leya let a small sigh
flow out her parted lips. Not enough to be heard, but just enough to let her
relief out. If Zelda had held her ground, refusing her leave at this time, Leya
would have been forced to cancel her vacation arrangements. In the last two
months the thought of going somewhere tropical and escaping her work-filled
world for two weeks consumed her. She worked hard all day, but researched on the
Internet at night.

“Enjoy
your time.”

Rising,
Leya turned to head out of her boss’s office.

“What
are you planning to do? Take a trip?”

Leya
turned back around and saw her boss standing behind the desk now. “I don’t
really have firm plans. Tomorrow I’ll meet with Monica and ensure she has
temporary access to my case files and in the loop of anything that may come up
with the team members in my division.”

“Good.
See you in two weeks.” Zelda looked suspicious.

Zelda
was right to thinking she was holding back; Leya was. Walking out of the head
analyst’s door, Leya didn’t have any regrets about the lie she had told her
boss. She would have everything handed over and covered by the other division
manager, but she knew exactly where she was going. She’d be damn if Zelda would
track her down to ask a work-related question while she was on her trip.

Her
boss would do it too; she’d found out which hospital Tom’s, the third division
manager, wife was giving birth and called him. Zelda had sent a clerk to the
hospital with papers for him to handle. Zelda could be too much. Just because
she had no life but the company, she thought everyone else should live and
breathe in the walls of MY too.

Those
days were going to come to a halt for Leya at five p.m. on Friday, at least for
the next two weeks. She’d have to settle for that for now. During the next two
weeks she was going to live life by the moment and not plan, strategize, or
analyze every move as she normally did.

It
was time for her to
Carpe
her own
diem
.

 

 

Chapter Two

 

 

Leya
pulled into the long-term parking spot at Norfolk International Airport at
eight p.m. Friday night. Turning the car off, she sat there for a moment taking
a deep breath. It wasn’t that she was having second thoughts; she wasn’t.
However, she was nervous as hell. This was the most spontaneous thing she had
ever done.

After
meeting with her team and Monica, she drove home. Three hours later, she was
showered and dressed in her most comfortable outfit, a classic red finely
ribbed tunic top and her knit black pants. If she was going to be stuck on
planes for the next two days, she wanted to be comfy and wrinkle-free.

Staring
at herself in the rearview mirror, she saw a woman staring back at her who was
ready for an adventure. Her blood almost vibrated with her need to do something
outrageous and different. She was tired of every day of her life being the same
like she was Bill Murray.

“Time
to shake it up,” she told her reflection as she grabbed her purse, slid out of
her economy car, and locked the doors.

She
was happy to see the shuttle lights coming into the gated area. The last thing
she wanted was to be standing outside in the cool May air waiting for a ride to
the main terminal.

“Good
evening, ma’am.” The driver, an older Hispanic man smiled and greeted her as he
opened the door.

“Hello.”
Leya returned his expression and got on and politely nodded to the other five
passengers already in the shuttle.

“Do
you have bags, miss?” The driver was now frowning, his withered faces showed
his perplexed thoughts.

“No, sir.”
She crossed her legs and settled
her large purse next to her. The shuttle pulled away from the stop as she
stared out the side window.

Seven
minutes later, Leya walked into the terminal and headed toward the Continental
Airlines counter a few feet away. She still had a few minutes before she had to
check in. Since she was traveling internationally, she had to check in two hours
before her flight. With her back to the counter she checked her watch as she
looked around, across the faces of the other passengers.

“Leya!”

Hearing
her name, she turned and saw her two best friends strutting toward her. Two
gorgeous, self-assured black women with smiles on their faces ate up the
distance in the airport with long strides that brought them closer to her.
Their posture let all around them know they were on a mission to get answers.
She could understand why they would be confused. At four that day, she’d called
them both and asked them to meet her at the airport, not giving them any hint
what was going on.

She
was glad that they both were free. Normally, she would have seen them at about
four a.m. at Pappa’s Pancake for their monthly breakfast together. They met
religiously, due to all of their busy schedules it was too much to attempt to
call daily or weekly.

Meeting
them halfway, she accepted the hug from
Summer
first
and then Kathryn.

“What
are we doing at the airport, Leya?” Kathryn stepped back.

“I’m
taking a trip.”

Summer
arched an eyebrow.
“For work?”

“Something last minute?”
Kathryn added.

Taking
a deep breath, she exhaled and allowed the words to tumble out, “I’m going on
vacation.”

“Vacation!”
Kathryn said.

Summer’s
eyes opened wide as she stared at Leya as if her head had just started spinning
vertically.

“Why
are we just now hearing about this?” Summer waved her hands around then landed
them on her hips.

“Is
this your idea of a joke?” Kathryn folded her hands over her breast. “If so,
you are about a month late on April fools.”

“I
didn’t tell you all, because I didn’t want to be talked out of it.” Leya
fiddled with the strap of her large purse on her shoulder.

“Why
would we talk you out of it,”
Summer
said. “You’re a
grown woman. If you want to get away, we wouldn’t try and stop you.”

“Where
are you going?” Kathryn looked her slowly up and down with her discerning
lawyer gaze.

“Bali.”

“Indonesia?”
Summer’s voice seemed to echo around the passenger vestibule.

“Shh.
The whole airport doesn’t need to know my destination.” Leya grabbed both of
her friends and pulled them to the side away from other passengers getting into
the automatic teller lines.

“You
who calculates the distance and cost of going to the grocery store,” Kathryn declared.

“The
same person that recalculates every receipt she gets before spending a dime,”
Summer
threw in.

“Okay,
okay.” Leya waved both her friends dramatic statements away. “I know I can be a
bit…”

“Tight
assed,”
Summer
offered.

“Penny-pincher,”
Kathryn supplied.

“It’s
a recession and people should be prudent with their money,” Leya defended.

Summer
and Kathryn laughed.

“Ha!
You were like that before recession was a word.”

Leya
smiled. Summer was right. She’d learned the hard way the value of tracking her
money. The two women before her knew that she’d grown up in hard
times,
they just didn’t realize the extent of her life
before they met in college.

“True.
But, we all agreed we’d take a vacation two months ago and I’m taking mine.”

Both
her friends looked at each other and shrugged, then glanced back at her.

“Fine,
but if you’re going all the way around the world, you better let us know you’ve
gotten there safe.” Summer grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

“I
will. I already upgraded my phone to the international plan.” Leya squeezed her
hand back. “Trust me I have no desire to become a missing person.”

“You
better not.” Kathryn took her other hand. “Wow.
Bali.
Take plenty of pictures.”

“Will do.”
Standing there with her two
friends made her nerves come back in full force. It would’ve been easier if
they all could have planned a trip together.

“You
have time to grab something to eat?” Kathryn asked.

“No,
I still have to check in and we all know how crazy getting through TSA is going
to be.”

Looking
around,
Summer
asked, “Where are your bags?”

Releasing
their hands she patted her large purse.
“Right here.
My favorite bathing suit is packed and I have my credit card and passport. I’m
all set.”

“What?”

“I
know it can be a pain to pay for luggage, but be serious,” Kathryn rolled her
eyes.

“I
don’t plan to do anything but swim, sleep, and tour. Once I get there I can
pick up a few more items at the hotel gift shop.”

“I
see it now. You’ve lost your mind.” Summer chuckled. “When you get back Kat and
I will escort you to Eastern State.”

“Whatever.”
Leaning in, she hugged both her friends. “I’ll call you at each of my three
layovers and when I get in.”

They
both waved her off with well wishes and safety advice. Getting a place in line
with all the other travelers, Leya allowed the excitement of the coming weeks
to bubble forth. She had planned to use this time to get a better perspective
of her life. When she arrived back in Virginia she expected to be a different
person than when she left.

*
* * *

Kolby
rose out of the water, situated his surfboard under his arm and jogged through
the low surf toward his friend Jonathan who stood on the beach waiting for him.
Jonathan was the owner of Divine Bali hotel, one of the top five tourist
resorts in Sanur. It didn’t sit in the center of Kuta or other highly populated
tourist cities, but most people who came here were rich.

They
smoothly paid for the high quality of staff that catered to their every need.
It wasn’t one of the most popular surfing areas and that was perfect for Kolby.
He wasn’t a competition surfer, just wanted the relaxation of the water.

He
was almost on shore when a woman caught his gaze. During the dawn there weren’t
many tourists out, mostly surfers and runners. Perhaps that’s why the woman
performing yoga on the bare beach grabbed his attention.

In
body-hugging pants and a sports bra she stretched her body on a blanket. His
feet slowed as he watched the woman gracefully glide from one position into
another. She went from arching her back, to bending and flexing in different
ways then expanding her limbs out in various directions.

Being in the salt water for
hours always made him thirsty.
Seeing the beautiful woman made his mouth dry and hot like never before. When
she went into a pose where her hands and feet were flat on the ground, her head
tucked low, and her ass was pushed high in the air the heat spread throughout
his body and his cock began to harden.

Never
before had he become enthralled by a woman just by watching her do something as
arbitrary as keep her mind and spirit fit. However, that’s exactly how he felt
at that moment. Wanting nothing more than to find out
who
she was, Kolby tightened his hand on his board and began to move toward her.

“What’s
up, Kolby, we still on for lunch?”

The
sound of his friend’s voice shook him, alerting him to what he was about to do.
Damn
. Women were never part of his
plans in Bali. He couldn’t believe that this woman had completely made him
forget his purpose.

Quickly
shifting back toward Jonathan, he shoved the wet strands of his hair out of his
face.
“Yeah, yeah.
We’re good. I need to talk to you
about things.”

“Great.
I’m sorry I was out of town last week and we couldn’t meet up.” Unlike him,
Jonathan stood in a white linen suit with tan pinstripes, minus a tie.
The Bali businessman.

“No
worries. I still got some things accomplished.” Kolby didn’t want to look at
the woman again, but he found his gaze straying back to her, even as her slim
form lay still on her back. He didn’t know if she was trying to sleep or
meditating. The sun was radiating off her light maple skin making it appear
bronze in the morning light. Her ebony-colored hair was pulled up into a messy
topknot at the crown of her head, most likely to keep it out of her way. He
would have loved to see it down around her face.

He
noticed Jonathan followed his line of sight.

Before
his friend could question him, Kolby kept the conversation on the hotel. “Ardhi
and I worked out the snorkeling schedule.”

Lifting
an eyebrow Jonathan gave him a look that let Kolby know his long time friend
was not fooled by the shift in conversation. Kolby knew after the seven years
he had been coming to the island for a month in the summer that Jonathan could
care less about the activities he took on with the tourist. They had bigger
responsibilities.

“That’s
good to know.” Jonathan nodded.

“Well,
I need to get things set up for my morning group.” Kolby purposely turned away
from the direction the woman was occupying, even though it would take him all
the way around the hotel to get to the cabana. “See you later, Jon.”

“Let
me know if you’d like an introduction,” his friend called after him.

Stopping,
Kolby turned back, seeing his friend’s cocky smile.
Son of a bitch
.
Chuckling, he
said, “Not interested. Besides I can’t remember the last time I needed a hook
up.”

“Junior year, the Kappa trio.”
Jonathan smiled and slipped
his hands deep in his pants pockets.

“Ah
yes.
Fond memories.
I may still owe you for that one.”
Kolby pointed a finger at his friend and flexed his thumb pretending to shoot
his friend and then headed back up the path.

He
could’ve used another few laps on his board at the moment, but the warm
Indonesian ocean would do nothing for the heat still coursing through his body.
He’d have to use the employee’s locker room at the hotel to cool his raging
hormones. An icy shower was exactly what he needed, because what he didn’t need
was to be sporting a raging hard-on for a vacationing socialite.

*
* * *

Leya
exited the dining room after enjoying an early dinner of a
gulai,
a meat and vegetable curry-style dish. The chef had made it
a little spicy for her, and she’d loved every bite. It was her second day on
the island, and she was having a wonderful time. She couldn’t recall the last
time she’d felt so relaxed and energized at the same time.

Ready
to finally start doing some activities and tours she headed toward the concierge
desk.

BOOK: StealingThe Bride
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