A woman stood on the other side of the door, a bright smile on her face, her hair pulled back into a neat ponytail. She was wearing resort livery,Burr Island Resortemblazoned above the breast pocket. She looked exactly the same as all the other staff Rhys had seen so far.
And she’s definitely not a shifter,he thought, as he opened the door a little wider.
“I’m so sorry if this is a bad time!” Bee said, just as chirpily as before. “I can come back a little later, if you’re still getting settled –”
“No, it’s not that,” Rhys said, even though it absolutelywas– though he wasn’t sure whether therewasa good time for someone to introduce themselves to him as his personal butler. “I just, uh, didn’t order a butler.”
“Oh, we offer this service as part of the room fee,” Bee explained, her smile twinkling. “You can just use the butler service as you choose. I can make cabana bookings, give you restaurant recommendations, or give you weather updates so you can plan your activities. I hear tomorrow will be perfect for snorkeling on the reef – sunny skies, calm seas. So if you wanted to book into the snorkeling group or to organize a private yacht to take you out, I can definitely help you with that!”
“Oh, snorkeling?” Maisie said, coming to stand next to Rhys. “That does actually sound really good.”
“Oh, you must be Mrs. Richardson,” Bee said, her smile getting wider. “Congratulations to you both on your wedding! I really hope you’ll have a memorable honeymoon, thanks for choosing us for your stay!”
“Yeah… uh, sure,” Maisie muttered, her face going red. “But, um, nuptials aside, I’d love to book into a snorkeling group, if it’s possible for you to organize it.”
“Of course,” Bee enthused. “It’s my most recommended activity. If we’re all booked up for tomorrow, would the day after be all right? Unless I can tempt you with a private tour?”
“I’ve never been snorkeling before, so, uh, just the group for now,” Maisie said. “Thanks, though. And yeah, any day is fine. We really haven’t made any plans yet.”
“Certainly, Mrs. Richardson,” Bee said. “Let me get that sorted out for you, and I’ll be back later with your schedule. If you’d like me to make any other recommendations, I’ll bring the brochures about ourmanyavailable activities along with me later. Is there anything else I can do for you right now?”
Rhys shook his head. He realized that this was probably all par for the course for rich people, but he was used to making his own restaurant bookings… by which he usually meant rocking up to the kebab truck at four a.m. after getting back from an especially grueling mission and eating his own body weight in grilled meat and chips.
“Unless you needed anything, Maisie?” he asked, turning to her.
“No, I think I’ll be busy on that hamper for a while,” she laughed. “Actually, we were just about to go swimming, so we really don’t need anything for now.”
“Oh, my sincerest apologies for interrupting your time together,” Bee twinkled. “I’ll leave you to it. But if youdoneed anything, I’m only ever a phone call away – just lift the receiver on your room phone and dial 4, and you’ll be put directly through to me.”
“Okay, thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” Rhys said, as, returning Bee’s enthused nods, he finally closed the door.
Do people come here for the privacy?!he wondered in frustration. There was no denying the resort was luxurious and beautiful, but the plush yacht with free champagne, the private butler, the rose petal bed, the gold-embossed keypasses, the two-hundred-dollar budgie smugglers… all of it just wasn’t his scene. It was starting to seem more overwhelming, and less like the pleasant time he’d wanted to spend with his mate – in order to tell her that shewashis mate.
I need to just find somewhere we can be alone. Somewhere we’re not being hemmed in by all this… stuff!
“So, uh, now that the private butler has been by… did you want to go for that swim?” Maisie asked him – but to his eyes, she didn’t look quite as enthused about it as she had before. Maybe she was finding this place just as overwhelming as he was, or felt like she didn’t really fit in here.
But that’s no problem. I can take us somewhere else.
What was the point of being a griffin, after all, if he didn’t take advantage of it once in a while?
“Yeah, I do want to swim,” he said. “But… maybe not in the pool.”
Maisie cocked her head. “At the beach, then? Or we could get the butler back and say we’d like to book into one of those snorkeling groups today, if we still can.”
Rhys shook his head. “How about neither of those things.”
Blinking, Maisie frowned. “But where else is there to swim?”
Rhys grinned at her, hoping he wasn’t about to make some kind of huge mistake – but he didn’t think so.
“Grab your swimmers and the bottle of champagne, and I’ll get the hamper,” he said. “I’ve got an idea.”
Chapter 11
Maisie stared at Rhys’s broad back as she followed him up the steep track that led up through the forests behind the resort.
It was a marked trail, so at least she knew they weren’t trespassing, but given there was literally no one else around – probably because they were all at the beach or lounging around in a cabana by the pool – she couldn’t help but feel a little thrill at the idea that they were doing something illicit.
