He bows his head to hide his smile. “Yes, Alpha,” he whispers.
A thrill runs through me like a shiver. We’re in a place with security cameras watching us, yet he called me alpha. Fuck. Yes. I can’t wait to get to our room.
“Good afternoon.”
We turn at the voice. A man in maybe his mid-fifties enters the room with a single large lockbox. Another follows with our suitcases and sets them inside the door before leaving.
“Hello,” I return.
“This box is to store all your technology, including but not limited to laptops, phones, tablets, cameras, beepers, and any other recording devices, be it audio, visual, or otherwise. Did you have a chance to read the releases?” he asks.
“We did,” I confirm. I turn my phone off before placing it in the box. Shively follows.
“Then you know we will need to conduct a search of your belongings. This is for the protection of all of our guests who wish to remain anonymous. Do you have any questions before I begin?”
“No,” I answer.
We watch as he pulls gloves on and motions for us to set our backpacks on the table. The man nods at the pile of books to the side. “Please feel free to take one of our island guidebooks. You’ll find a thorough list of excursions, activities, restaurants, landmarks, events, adventures, shops, beaches, and anything else you can think of. Have a look while you wait, if you like.”
I nod toward it, and Shively picks one up. We take a seat beside each other and begin flipping through the pages. There are more than two hundred pages.
“You’ll find that the island chain is under construction, so some of the water-based activities are put on hold for now.”
“We read online that you’re building new islands?” I ask.
He flashes us a smile. “Correct. There are two complete now—one for the guests, Nyoka, and one for residents, Sonder.”
“Not that I’m complaining, but why did the resort decide to build more islands?” Shively asks.
He grins as he picks up my suitcase and opens it. “There’s only so far you can expand on an island chain. The owners didn’t want to cut down any more trees or fill in the lakes or the land between the islands. The two islands for residents have been at capacity for years, so it’s difficult to facilitate a full staff when there isn’t enough housing to accommodate them. This was the only way to expand.”
“The drawings look really cool,” I say.
He nods, still smiling. “We’re incredibly excited. As a resident, we get to tour the new islands before they’re opened tothe public. Nyoka is amazing. Probably one of my favorite places for privacy. All the cabins and a couple restaurants are built and furnished, ready for guests, but other sites and attractions are still underway.”
“I think if I were to build islands like this, I’d build one at a time until completion,” I note as we continue to thumb through the guidebook. There’s far more available in the book than online. It’s almost overwhelming.
“That was debated, but as you can imagine, building islands isn’t cheap. We needed to counterbalance the money going out with more coming in. Thus, we’re doing it in stages.”
“Ah,” I say, nodding. “That makes sense.”
“Alright,” he says, setting our suitcases on the floor. “Let’s program the box. I’m going to need your fingerprints.”
Shively keeps our guidebook in hand as we go through the motion of programming the bio-lock box that contains only our cell phones. He takes a few minutes to show us that he can’t open the box with his thumbprint but tells us that there is an emergency override should something happen to us and our personal belongings need to be sent home without us.
Shively and I exchange a look. That’s not haunting at all.
He tags our bags then motions for us to follow. We take our backpacks and fall into step behind him.
The area we walk into is the actual lobby of the reception building, and it’s just as gorgeous as the room we left. More sexy gay art everywhere. I’m in love. This is my new décor.
“I’m realizing how hot two men together are,” Shively murmurs beside me. We pass a painting of two women next, and he shakes his head. “Okay, so are two women. Who even am I?”
I laugh. “I think we can just say that people are hot, right?”
He sighs. “Yeah. I’m good with that assessment.”
My gaze snags on the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows that span three floors. While we didn’t climb any stairs, we’resomehow on the middle floor. This floor and the one above doesn’t reach the windows. Instead, maybe twenty or thirty feet back is an enormous staircase separating the floors from the window.
