The Sweetest Kiss: A Billionaire Love Story (6 page)

I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around me. I tiptoed back into the living area and picked it up, still clinging to my towel with one hand.

“Hello?”

“Hayley. It’s me, James.”

“James?” My boss rarely ever called me. “I heard through the grapevine that you are on the island.”

I shook my head. “On the island?”

“Yeah,” he replied.

“How did you know if I never told you?”

“I have my spies.” He let out a laugh. “Anyway I finally landed a big break with the Wayland family. Yeah, seems as though someone at the Waylands’ wants us to do a press piece on their work in turning the islands into eco-friendly vacation spots. I remembered you saying you were down there. I thought what a great opportunity. You could meet up with Max Wayland and do the piece.”

“But… I don’t work for you, James, anymore.”

“Uh yeah, you do.”

“What are you on about?”

“You never signed the form. I told you I wasn’t accepting your resignation. So if it didn’t fall through you could come back.”

“Look. James. I can’t do this now. I’m running a business. I don’t need this.”

The sound of workmen shouting and making jokes could be heard in the background.

“Hayley, I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t think this was important. But you know what… screw it, I’ll give it to Stephanie.”

“What?”

The mention of her name made my skin crawl.

“Yeah, she’s doing well here. I’m sure she’ll make a name for herself.”

Well, that wasn’t happening. Alright, I didn’t need this. But that bitch, excuse me, had it coming to her for quite a while. She had befriended me, made out she was my buddy, and then I find out she was screwing Markus?

“Look, a lot of people were vying for this piece. We managed to land it. It’s going to be the piece that will turn the tide on the way people think about the
Enquirer
. You always were harping on about how you wanted something you could sink your teeth into. Something important. This is it. You can’t get any more important than the environment. It’s hot right now and we need a piece that can cover it. Of course, we need a bit of a skewed angle but… Anyway… like I said, if you don’t want it. I will give it to Stephanie.”

“What’s involved?” I shot back. I couldn’t believe I was asking. It wasn’t even about keeping my ties with the
Enquirer
because if this didn’t work out, I could just sell off the cottages and the two that Ethan was going to give me and retire. And anyway, how hard could it be to take a few photos, gather some intel on them, maybe meet Max Wayland, and write up a piece on the work they were doing?

M
y boss wanted
dirt on them. I wasn’t a fool. I knew that. He wasn’t looking to change the tide. Please. Give me a break. The
Enquirer
had been digging up dirt on the rich and famous for years. It was what sold magazines. People expected to get gossip. To find out the latest goings-on. Who such and such was dating. Who was cheating on their partner. Who was embezzling money or seeing prostitutes on the side. The whole paper was a joke. It’s what they were known for. But I for one wasn’t going to let that cow Stephanie have this. No way. Maybe I was acting a little bitchy but I had really liked Markus, even if he was a jerk. To think that she came in and wrecked our relationship was beyond frustrating.

He’d told me he would send an itinerary of what he had arranged. I still had all my cameras and well, I gathered Ethan would have other things to do besides hang out with me all day.

I stepped out into the morning sun and breathed in deeply. Things were beginning to look up. No matter how I went at this, I would come out of it winning. I can’t begin to stress how good that made me feel. After a string of bad luck, bad relationships, and striving it finally felt good to have some things go right.

“Ready to go?”

He looked better today than he did yesterday. He took my hand and helped me up into a brand-new jeep.

“I thought you were trying to cut back on emissions?”

“We are. Eventually.”

“About that, if you are meant to be an eco-friendly place, why are you going to use donkeys?”

“Donkeys?”

“A moke, you called them. That’s a donkey.”

He burst out laughing. “No, not donkeys. I would never let my father use animals. That’s cruel and inhuman. No, I meant a Mini Moke. They are like a tiny version of a jeep. I will show you one when we get to the other side.”

He slipped on a pair of aviators and brought the jeep to life. I had to kind of pinch myself. It was hard to think that only twenty-four hours ago I had touched down, and been faced with what looked like a complete disaster. And now a hot, young billionaire was about to take me on a tour of the island. An island that his family owned. Okay, maybe they had more money than sense, but at least they knew how to conduct business.

We shot off and the warm wind blew through my hair. It didn’t take us long to get over to the north side of the island. Everywhere we looked it was beautiful. The sky was clear blue. The ocean turquoise in some areas, dark blue in other parts. When we made it to the north side, he parked and took my hand. He led me down to a dock that went out to a massive yacht. It was even bigger than the one I had arrived on. With a matter of minutes, we were on board and he introduced me to two good friends of his. Rachael and David. They apparently had known Ethan since he was a kid. Their families had grown up together and of course had more money than anyone could hope to imagine. Ethan took the wheel and brought the yacht to life. We bobbed up and down as he took us out.

“So I hear you have taken over Emily’s place?” Rachael asked.

“Yeah. She was my sister.”

“Sorry to hear about her. I know Ethan cared dearly for her.”

“It’s hard to get over how alike you are,” David said, staring at me. “I almost feel like prodding you just to see if you are real.”

Rachael slapped his pointy finger before he could get any closer.

“Manners, David.”

I started laughing. “It’s okay. I’m real.”

“Must have been nice looking like your sister growing up. Did you ever play tricks on your folks?”

“Our parents were the only ones who knew us apart. What a lot of people didn’t know was Emily had a small…” I was just about to finish but Ethan interjected.

“Birthmark just near the small of her back.”

I looked at him. He smiled and continued steering.

“You want to come up and try?” he asked.

“No, I’ll crash this.”

“Impossible. There is nothing for miles.”

“Go on, you’ll love it,” Rachael egged me on.

“Alright.”

“By the way I love your outfit.”

“Thanks,” I replied.

I came around and took hold of the wheel.

“That’s it, just drive it like a car. You have your steering wheel, and two throttles. If you want to turn right, advance the left throttle and hold back the right about the same amount. If you do it right, you don’t even need the wheel.”

We continued moving forward, then I veered off to the right.

“Hey, looks like we have an expert here,” David yelled.

“Seems we do. Are you sure you’ve never driven one of these?”

“Never.”

He gave a warm smile and placed his hand on the lower part of my back. I glanced up at him, again feeling desire for him. He wrapped his arms around me and clung to my hands which were tightly around the wheel. I could feel his hot breath on the back of my neck as he leaned over and whispered.

“Thank you for coming.”

He then left me to it while he went and grabbed us a few drinks. We spent the next few hours having breakfast on the boat. We stopped and just let the boat drift as we drank organic coffee and ate fresh fruit. It was surprising to me. I don’t know what I expected but I thought people with money would be stuck-up. His friends were not like that at all. They were very down-to-earth, funny, and interesting people. I made mental notes on everything they shared about Ethan. In many ways I had begun to compile little pieces about him. Whether I would use it in my final piece for the magazine was another thing entirely.

I had learned he’d grown up in California. He knew David through surfing. They had both attended the same school and got into trouble for skipping out, so they could go surfing. It wasn’t hard to imagine him as a surfer. When he took off his shirt, I had to avert my eyes simply because I would have stared at his body for longer than a person should. He had a tattoo on his back. A huge eagle, that went across his shoulders and down. On anyone else it might have looked odd, but on him. It just… Wow, then he had all these unusual symbols that were on his left arm. It was a sleeve of tattoos.

I obviously wasn’t very good at preventing others from seeing that I was checking him out. “He’s a hot one, isn’t he?” Rachael said.

I chuckled. “Yeah, he’s alright.”

“I tried dating him back when we were eighteen.”

“How did that go?”

“Awful. Imagine kissing your best friend. It was like that. Except I could only see him as that. It was his idea, he wanted to date.”

We watched as he and David were chatting about baseball.

“So what can you tell me about him?”

She smirked. “You need to watch the Waylands, they are smooth talkers. They will sweep you off your feet and drop you like a stone.”

“What?”

“Oh yeah, they are real lady-killers. You know, they love their women.”

“Hey, are you speaking about me? Don’t believe a word she says, she’s just frustrated that I dumped her. I swear I haven’t dumped anyone else.”

Rachael let out a laugh and tossed a piece of fruit at his back.

“Thankfully she married my best friend,” Ethan said.

I chuckled. “So what do you do, Rachael?”

“We own a surf shop on the mainland. Well, David does, I just help out.”

“You like it down here?”

“What’s there not to love? The ocean, fresh air…”

“Hurricanes?”

She took a drink of her coffee. “Oh, we don’t get too much of that. Maybe once a year, if that.”

“And what do you do then?”

“We close up shop and head inland for a few weeks. It’s no biggie. We have a place in Miami.”

“Must be nice.”

“Oh trust me, hon. I didn’t come from money. David did, I didn’t.”

“So how do you get used to it?”

She flashed a ring.

“With the help of Visa, and MasterCard.” She then let out another laugh. “No, in all honesty you just adjust. I mean, I love David to bits but he knows if he steps out of line I will come down on him like a hammer.”

“But you don’t fear he would walk away and find someone else because he has money and can do whatever he likes?”

“Of course. You can think that even if your guy has zero money. I just don’t let it get to me. What is, is. … Life is too short to get caught up in the worries of it all. Find the man you love and stick with him. Whether David had money or not I would be with him. I love him for him. Not his money. I know a number of girls who married just for the money and they are unhappy. It’s not worth it.”

I nodded, chewing over what she said.

By the time we made it back to the shore it was around eleven in the morning. They dropped us off and then took off.

“Ah, I thought the boat was yours,” I said.

“No, I’m not into boats. I don’t even have one, except a small fishing boat.”

He pointed to an old wooden boat that had paint peeling off it.

As we walked back up the pier I pondered that. He was a man who had more than enough money to have as many boats as he wanted and he didn’t even own one. I mean, that didn’t make much sense. Every rich person I had ever done a piece on for the
Enquirer
usually had multiple houses, vehicles, boats. The works. They loved to flaunt their empire and gloat over it as though it was everything.

“So what are you into? Cars? Let me guess, you have a whole fleet of classic cars.”

“Yeah, they are right beside my fleet of boats.” He laughed. “No, I know it might seem a little odd, you know being rich and such, and I have nothing against those who like their toys but that’s never been me. You can’t take them with you when you die. But there is something you can leave behind.”

“Which is?”

“A legacy. Come, let me show you something.”

And with that we ventured into the island towards a sign that read, Marine Conservation.

T
he beach stretched
for what seemed like miles. So much had changed in the short time I’d been here. The island attracted more tourists, those desperate to get away from the noise of the world. They could have built more cottages but one of the conditions that the last owner had made was that to preserve the wildlife that lived on the island. They were to never go above twenty-two cottages. No hotels could be built. No waterparks and a minimum of vehicles were allowed on the island. My father had big ideas for this island. He wanted to build a resort. He was willing to pay the previous owner handsomely if he dropped his ridiculous conditions. Thankfully the owner was as stubborn as my father.

Some might have wondered what there was to do living on an island. Wouldn’t you go stir crazy? It was the reason why so many people didn’t live on tiny islands. They just visited them. On any given day you could see all types of fish washed up on the beach, the smell of seaweed lingered in the air, and abandoned sand castles could be seen washed away by the tide.

They had considered having surfing competitions. It would be another source of revenue. The island had some of the best waves in the Caribbean. But that was quickly nipped in the bud when the previous owner caught wind of it. He had contacted a local lawyer to say that my father was trying to break his contract. Let’s just say he was advised not to go ahead.

Today the place seemed empty, it wasn’t the busiest time of the year. As we strolled barefoot through the white sand, making our way over to the large conservation building, I thought about Hayley. She had got on well with my friends, she was gorgeous to look at but she was right, I didn’t know her. For all I knew she could turn out to be a complete basket case. Then what? Move on? I wasn’t sure if I could do that. The truth was I hadn’t moved on since Emily. I was still very much in love with her. But what was I in love with? The way she looked or her heart?

“Has this place always been here?” she asked.

“No, I had it created a year ago. I hired some pretty smart folks who were experts in marine biology.”

“Why?”

“Protect, conserve, to do our piece for the environment.”

“But don’t you feel that it’s not really going to make much of a difference when you have oil tankers leaking in the ocean, pollution by people, and such?”

“Look, I can’t control what people do in the world. But if I was to sit by and just watch it all happen without trying to do my part, when I have the means, I wouldn’t be able to sleep well at night.”

“You really feel that passionate about it?”

“Don’t you? I mean you live in the same place as me.”

“I don’t know. I just never really gave much thought to it. I’ve been so busy with life that I haven’t had a chance to think of anything beyond making ends meet.”

“That’s the problem, people are too self-centered. Focused on themselves. They think they can’t make a difference around them but they can. If we all did just a little this planet might last a lot longer.”

“Okay, now, don’t take this the wrong way but don’t you feel that the only reason you are able to do this is because you have money? I mean look at all the celebrities, I was forever doing pieces on them supporting some charity. It seemed all just a ploy to get in the good books of the public. You know, live wild at night and by day look after the furry animals.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it could be taken like that. But I don’t have any other agenda. This is all I do.”

“But don’t you think it’s easier because you have money? I mean, money gives you the time to do these things. If a person is living hand to mouth. All they can think about is surviving themselves. Everything else has to take a back seat.”

“True. But what if I do nothing? People would say I was just spending my money frivolously. Either way I don’t win.”

She nodded and we went inside building.

“Hey Jane, this is Hayley, I’m just going to show her around.”

She was on the phone, she just gave a curt nod and we continued on our way. As I gave Hayley a guided tour of the place I thought about what it would be like if it did work out. If after a week the chemistry between us became so strong that I wanted to marry her, what then? Was she the one for me? I could see a future beyond the week, but could my family? They had always been adamant that if you were going to marry, you should marry someone who already had wealth. That way the chances of them just marrying you for your money were a lot less. It was hard to tell who liked you for you. I’d had friends in the past, or at least so-called friends who acted as though I walked on water but then when it came down to needing their help, they would have all manner of excuses.

And as for my father. We were so different from each other. After my father had one failed marriage he never married again. In his mind, fool him once, okay. But fool him a second time and there was no third. So he didn’t even give women a chance to fool him a second time. Instead my father just had lots of one-night stands, seeing how many women he could get through before he kicked the bucket. It was all a game to him. Work hard, play harder. In many ways it had been my father that had given my family a bad reputation. I couldn’t be like that. I couldn’t work my way through a line of women, breaking hearts and sleeping with them just for the sake of it. Just because I had money and women knew it.

Emily was different, and from what I could tell… so was Hayley. They had a small-town charm to them and yet both of them were from the city. They were both guarded, and smart. I didn’t for a moment think I was going to pull the wool over Hayley’s eyes. That’s why I’d told her who I was. It was better to be up-front and lose her than lie and never have a chance with her. I’d made that mistake once. Though with Emily it was because I knew she had a deep dislike for my family. I had picked up that vibe from Hayley too, but it seemed less. Like she had just learned of the animosity her sister had and she was still trying to determine if it was baggage she needed to carry.

What were their parents like? That had to be a factor in why they were so feisty.

In many ways after seeing my own parents fail in their marriage I wanted to try harder in relationships. It made me want to be better, yet it also made me not want to dive into any relationship. The woman had to be right. I thought back to my parents’ marriage. I truly thought they were going to be together forever. We were in our early teens when they divorced. It was brutal. People say that kids get over it. They grow thick skin and are better for it. But that’s all a lie. It shows up later in your life through different vices. Drink, drugs, womanizing, bad business, and more. My parents had supported each other. My mother wasn’t from a rich background and maybe that was why my father was always harping on about marrying someone who was wealthy. If they didn’t have money, they were gold diggers, he would say. I couldn’t take him seriously. He cheated on my mother. What, so she gained a good amount of the money when they divorced, and that made her a gold digger? I shook my head at the thought while watching Hayley looking around the place wide-eyed.

Sure she wasn’t perfect, but who was? Everyone appeared to have it together when you first met them. They showed you what you wanted to see. The best of them, and hid the other stuff in the background until you moved in. But you could still glean a lot from a person before making a big life decision like marriage, just from watching the way they were with people, with their money, with their words and life. Actions and time spoke volumes. I wasn’t expecting her to marry me after a week. All I wanted was to be given a chance to know her. To see if there was a connection, a chemistry. Sexually, I could feel the desire between us. It was tangible. The way she looked at me, and playfully answered my questions. There was some definite flirting going on. But whether it was the kind of connection that would last over the long term, the kind of relationship that could weather life’s storms, that was hard for anyone to tell. No one could know that until you spent time with them. A good amount of time.

As we moved around to an aquarium, I got into a wet suit and invited her to join me. She was up for it immediately. Now that was something I did love about her. Hayley wasn’t one to back down. She stepped up to the plate and drove that boat, and now she was willing to let her makeup run and get her hair wet. I smiled as she came out wearing a black and blue suit, damn, she had a nice body. That suit hugged her frame and for the first time I got to see how curvy she was in all the right places. She had definitely looked after herself. I mean, it wasn’t a big deal if she hadn’t. I didn’t go for the girls that were too thin. I liked a woman who had a bit of meat on her. Something you could squeeze, hold, and grab in the heat of passion. And Hayley had it. It literally felt as if the air had been taken out of the room when she came in. She had the cutest feet, the most beautiful smile. It would have been easy to forget about doing any kind of business when I was around her. She literally made me want to forget about my life before her. How could a woman do that? Not all of them could. Just as I was sure, not all men could for women. There was something to be said about physical attraction and another about being attracted to their character.

I thought about Ava, a woman I had dated prior to Emily, we had been together for over a year. She was beautiful and wealthy. It was hard to impress her because she had everything she needed, not that I should have needed to impress her but anyway. Now my father had high hopes for her and when I called it off, he flipped. How will you ever find a woman as wealthy and attractive as her? That was the order. He honestly thought more about what she had in her bank account than her looks. And character? That didn’t even come into the equation. Yeah, it was odd. The problem was I became more and more jaded by dating women who had money. Many of them thought the world should stop for them. That everyone owed them something. I started to notice the way she treated people, and I wasn’t liking what I saw. There was no gratitude. If there was it was fake. It was tough to break up with her as I didn’t want to break her heart but I consoled myself in the fact that she would eventually get over it. In fact, she did. Within a matter of days, I had seen her out with another man. But that was the way it was in my world. Those who had money could attract others easily. Maybe that’s why I took on the cottages? I wanted to do something that most of my peers would never have done. They would have just bought them and paid someone else to do the work. I didn’t. Sure I got some help from others for things I couldn’t do but I wanted to be right in there. I wanted to get my hands dirty and know what it was like to toil away and feel as though I had accomplished a lot at the end of the day.

In many ways I had vowed never to date another woman based on her wealth. I had to be attracted to her physically and mentally.

I looked over at Hayley with her goggles and respirator and smiled. It was hard to look attractive in that gear but damn, she made it look easy. We swam around in a large fish tank with exotic fish, ones that could be tagged and sent back into the ocean and monitored over time. It allowed our team to map and track the fish population. To keep an eye on what was happening in the oceans and if there was any way, help them if we were beginning to see a shortage or drop in a certain species. The goal was never to just capture fish and hold them, but to capture safely, track, and monitor. It was working too. Keeping track of the movement patterns, seasonal variations, harvest, and birth and mortality rates was allowing us to make sure the fish were healthy. In many ways we were watching over them when the ocean was being polluted by greedy corporations.

Despite my sister’s flaws, that was one thing she too was passionate about. Sure she partied hard, but then most kids did. She just happened to do it more frequently. But when she wasn’t drinking she was here on the island. She was involved in the work being done to create a cleaner, safer, and healthier environment. That was of course if she wasn’t dealing with her own string of bad dates. She was the only one who seemed to understand me out of my family. I rarely spoke with Jace or Connor.

Darla was one of these women who could have a guy on both arms if she wanted. That was just the way she was. Beautiful and smart, but she tended to hide the smart part. I had told her numerous times to stop acting like a ditz. Guys didn’t find it endearing, they just saw her as an easy lay. To which she responded, maybe I like that. I shook my head and then she would punch me on the arm telling me she was kidding. I was one of her big brothers. Looking out for her was what we were meant to do.

I had asked her if she would ever settle down numerous times, and her response was always the same: “You have got to be joking. Every guy I meet is a bum. None of them seem to have any drive to better themselves. I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t have any money, but at least show some motivation. Some drive to do something in the world.” And that was her, despite all the money she had, the parties she attended, the string of dates and momentary brain lapses that landed her in the tabloids. She was a good girl at heart. She too was looking for someone who would have a similar passion to hers.

I smiled thinking about her. Darla lived life the way she wanted to, she had literally made my father’s hair turn white and driven our mother mad between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five but she was okay in my books. But there was one thing that Darla had got right and that was making sure that the person you ended up with was driven, passionate, and strong. Those were characteristics that you couldn’t instill in a person after dating them. They had to be there before.

After we got out of the water, showered, and changed back into our clothes, both of us were parched. We were ready for a bite to eat and I knew just the place to take her.