Heaven looks out into the ocean. The moonlight bounces off her eyes, and I feel my heart flutter again. It’s surreal. I still can’t believe she’s here with me. I realize I haven’t answered one of the questions I’d asked her. “I also haven’t been with anyone since Hawaii. I came back and went back to business, as usual. Which leads me to the real reason why I summoned you.”
Heaven’s eyes lock with mine in the low light of night. Her curiosity has her giving me all the attention I need. “I’m listening.”
“First, I need to explain why I went to Hawaii. I’d gone because I was restless. Something was nagging me. I couldn’t quite place it here. I just knew I needed to reconnect with myself and get away from my normal life for a moment. I wasn’t in Hawaii long before I found my answer.” I smile at the memory. “In fact, I’d come to the conclusion that I wasn’t happy with my life when you showed up with all your crazy.”
“First, I’m not crazy. Second, I have a confession. I’d watched you sitting in the ocean as if you were the only person on the beach with a bemused expression on your face. I’d felt your frustration. If you were not floating in liquid hell, I would have asked what was wrong. Your discontent was written all over your face,” she admitted with a laugh. “I guess when I saw those two dummies headed my way, I beelined to you because you were already on my mind…”
I turn to face her. I tuck my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around my legs. “I’m glad you did. You proved to be a wonderful distraction.”
“Why aren’t you happy?”
“Weren’t.It’s in the past now that I’m doing something about it,” I preface before I get down the business part of this visit. “I don’t want to be the C.E.O. of anything. I don’t want to think of ways to make my business more profitable. This isn’t the life I wanted.”
I laugh at the cartoonish way her eyes grow before clarifying. “Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate my success. I’m happy I have such a following of people who love my surfboards and gear. I like some of the material things I can get because of my money. I don’t like the rat race. I want to get out and back to my happy place. I want to make surfboards with the sound of the ocean in the background. What’s the point of having all of this money if I’m still working just as much or more than someone who doesn’t?”
“I feel you on that.”
“I’m selling the business. Well, trying to sell it. I have a buyer and the contract is done. I just need him to sign.”
“Okay…” she prods. I feel her getting restless. Heaven wants to know what this has to do with her.
“My buyer has a strict moral code, which is why I want to sell to him. He’s been one of my biggest and most loyal clients. I don’t want to be at the helm anymore, but I also don’t want to watch what I built, fall apart in front of me either. He is the perfect buyer; however, I’ve been getting press in my personal life that makes me look like a roguish player.”
“I see…”
If I’m lucky, I’d detected a hint of jealousy in Heaven’s comment. I choose to continue instead of teasing her. I don’t need to piss her off right now.
“My ex popped up the day I found you. I don’t know how she got past Allie, but she was sitting on my desk begging me to fuck her. She doesn’t want me; she just wanted to see if she had any power to get me since my attention went to another woman. Janet made a scene when I ignored her. I had her removed from the premises. Someone taped the fit she threw while being escorted out and sold the footage.”
Janet, and whoever my mole is, still pisses me off. I wish I’d paid attention to my surroundings, instead of making sure Janet made it out and never came back. I can’t even get an idea from the vantage point of the video. Anyone could have been standing there at any time. I almost want to buy a spy camera.
I tell her the rest after a brief pause. “My buyer’s daughter had her heart broken by such a guy, and he’s trying to project some of that ill-feeling toward me, saying he doesn’t want to take over a company just to handle inquiries about the previous CEO’s exploits. He’d seen the video, then brought up me being with you in Hawaii. I panicked for a second and told him my personal life is solid because you are my girlfriend.”
Heaven’s peals of laughter ring out on the beach and battle with the roar of the ocean. I smirk, unsure if I should be offended or amused. I decide to enjoy the way she looks when she’s light-hearted and carefree.
“What is wrong with us? We keep putting each other in the same situation,” she wonders out loud as she wipes tears from her eyes.
“I don’t know. I guess we’re both childish,” I jest. “I would say I need you to return the favor, but what I’m asking is on a much larger scale. If I go public with you as my girlfriend, very nosy people will dig into our lives. We’ve already been posted before. Even if you’ve been on so much as a date in the last few months, they will find out.”
“Oh! Sounds like espionage. Is that why we’re talking on the beach? Is that why we left our phones at home?”
Call me crazy, but I love that she called my house ‘home.’ “Yes. In addition to needing your services, I also have a mole. Someone is leaking my secrets. I’m being overly cautious.” I move a stray piece of hair out of her face; it’s not bothering her, I just like having reasons to touch her.
“Will you stay and help me?”
“How long?”
“About seven weeks,” Heaven’s surprise makes her blink several times. “If you accept, they cannot find a weak link. We will have to tell the people we’d usually tell about our seriously committed relationships in order for this to work. I will get someone to check my home, cars, and office for any kind of spy gadgets, but I fear the leak is one of my employees. Either way, we will not talk about anything that would suggest our relationship isn’t real once we leave here.”
Heaven’s head swivels surreptitiously taking in the beach and her surroundings. Her voice is low when she speaks again. “Wait. I just realized something you said. We’ve been posted together in a tabloid already?”
“Yes. They have pictures of us in Hawaii. I’ll show you when we get back. The person who got them is good because I never noticed anyone or felt watched.”
“You’re saying someone could be watching us right now?” I don’t know how I expected her to take the idea of being stalked by the paparazzi, but the hint of arousal in her voice is surprising.
I like it when she’s aroused; I answer the question honestly. “It’s highly likely,” I whisper back.
Heaven crawls into my space, and I stretch my legs out. As I anticipated and hoped, she climbs into my lap and straddles me.
