Our hands are loose at our sides, fingers occasionally touching as we continue our stroll in the dark. I keep walking because if I stop I’m going to turn toward him, and if I turn toward him I’m going to close the distance between us, and if I close that distance I won’t want to stop at kissing. We’re heading back to a suite with one bed. The thought burns at the base of my skull like a lit fuse.
“What about you, Ella? Are you sorry you took this trip now that you’re forced to spend a lot of it with me? I know I can be a dark cloud.”
“No, you’re not.” He arches a brow at my polite denial. “Okay, you’re not always a dark cloud. You were fun tonight. Last night was fun too.”
He grunts. “It was. Both nights. You make it fun.”
His praise warms me more than he can possibly realize. I feel the walls start to come down between us, inch by inch. I’m beginning to trust him, which is something I thought Jake had broken in me. Alec is different. I feel safe with him in a way I haven’t felt in a long time. Maybe never.
“Can I tell you a secret, Alec?” He holds my gaze solemnly, and nods. “I haven’t been totally honest with you.”
A look chases over his features. Almost a flinch. “What about?”
I take a deep breath, then blow it out. “I’m rich.”
“Oh?”
I nod. “Three weeks ago I bought a couple of lottery tickets on my way home from work and one of them was a winner.” I let the words sink in, because it still feels strange to say it out loud. “I won two million dollars.”
Alec goes quiet for a moment. “That’s… a lot of money.”
“I know, right? It’s an obscene amount of money. Especially to someone like me, who’s always had to scrape and save and still not have enough.”
“And that’s how you ended up here, flying first class and booked into the best suite in the resort.”
“First real vacation of my life. First time I’ve done something for myself that didn’t come with a budget asterisk.”
He’s silent for a few steps. Waves rush up over our feet, warm and foamy, then pull back. I’m acutely aware of him beside me in the quiet, his steady presence while I’m cracked open like this, and the closeness feels like standing near a fire with no skin on.
“I haven’t told anyone,” I say, quieter now. “Lisa knows, obviously. But here? At the resort? I just...” I trail off because the words aren’t polished yet. I haven’t had this money long enough to have a philosophy about it. All I have is the raw, unsorted feeling of being the same person I was a month ago in a life that no longer matches. “I don’t know who I am with it yet. And I guess I’m scared that once people know, that’s all I’ll be. Lottery girl. Not Ella who’s good with people and tips well because she knows what a tough shift feels like. Just the waitress who got lucky.”
His footsteps slow. I slow with him. The waves wash up around our ankles.
“But you told me,” he says.
I glance at him. “And you told me about your heart.”
He’s paused now, turned so that he’s facing me under the moonlight. There’s a charged moment between us where I think he’s going to kiss me. I want him to kiss me—so desperately I almost say the words out loud.
But then he slowly shakes his head and glances down at the sand. “Come on, let’s walk back now.”
We turn back toward the resort. The lights glow in the distance, and we walk toward them side by side. His hand hangs close to mine, and every few steps our fingers almost brush in a way that feels deliberate on both sides and acknowledged by neither.
He hasn’t said “roommate” once all night. Not at the bonfire, not on the walk. And the word I’d use for what we feel like right now isn’t one I’m ready to say. But when his knuckle grazes mine, just barely, I don’t pull my hand away.
And neither does he.
CHAPTER 15
ALEC
Every night with Ella pushes me past boundaries I’d taken for granted were rock solid.Don’t get involved. Don’t let down my emotional guard. Don’t think with my dick.That last one is really becoming a challenge. Then again, Ella’s been a test of all three of my most basic guardrails.
The truth is I’ve been involved since the moment she plopped her very nice ass into the first-class seat next to mine on the flight from Miami. My emotional guard started crumbling the first night we were stuck together in the same suite, then worsened last night when her tender voice in the dark sounded genuinely concerned about my health.
It doesn’t help that she just confided in me about her lottery win as if I’m a trusted friend. More trusted than any of the other people she’s collected so easily with her sunny personality and that knockout smile. She could’ve told any of them, but she didn’t. She chose me. She trusts me.
Meanwhile, I’m keeping a fourteen-billion-dollar secret from her. All she’d have to do is Google my name to find out about HoloTech Security and my role there, but Ella doesn’t strike me as the type to go snooping on people. Least of all someone she considers a friend.
