Marcus
Ella.
Well, fuck me if she doesn’t look like she should have woodland animals singing songs around her and braiding her hair. Thanks to my college friend Brooks, and his seven-year-old daughter, I am a lot more familiar with Disney princesses than any single guy wants to be.
I flash her another smile, loving the way she twists her hands nervously. She’s stunning, adorable, sexy, and a whole host of other adjectives my brain is too fuzzy to think of right now. I felt a pull to her the instant she walked out onto the deck, and any hint of frustration and impatience I felt over having to come to this damn island was gone. Her long brown hair shone in the sun, strands of chocolate and mahogany and gold all weaving together. When she spoke, with her ridiculous food substitutions for swear words, I couldn’t have held back my chuckle if you’d threatened to cut off my dick.
Suddenly this trip doesn’t seem like such a fucking hassle. Honestly, if Robert, the property developer I sometimes partner with, hadn’t convinced me this island was the perfect place for a new resort community that could lead to a massive payday, there was no goddamn way I would be here. It’s not like I need the money, but I do need a new challenge. Anyway, spending a day on a tiny island is not my first choice of how to spend a workday. Give me the chaos of the city any day over a sleepy little island town. Peace and solitude? My idea of hell. I wasn’t meant to be the one making the trip, but Robert’s current girlfriend is a major bitch and is demanding his presence at some gala tonight.
This was meant to only be a one-day trip, and if I had kept to my schedule and made it on the first ferry this morning, I probably would have scouted the proposed site and been home in time to put another couple of hours in at the office. Instead, I missed the first boat, thanks to a last-minute conference call with Shanghai, and ended up with an arrival time that leaves no time to tour the site today, and no place to stay tonight. I had planned on my assistant figuring it out, but she called in sick. A quick google search told me there was only one hotel on the whole island, thankfully with a room available.
If I believed in fate, I’d say it was conspiring to get me here, now, with Ella
“So, dinner at the inn tonight, say around seven?”
I don’t miss the panic that flashes across her face, and briefly I wonder if she’s rethinking her decision to let me take her out. I’m determined to convince her to join me, no matter what. A fling with a beautiful girl is just what I need to make this trip bearable, and I’ll be damned if she hasn’t found a way under my skin. It’s as if something in me craves something in her, but what? I haven’t even touched her, so why am I so desperate to keep her with me?
“Well,” she begins hesitantly, and my lips quirk up again at her nerves. God, she’s adorable, and all I want to do is kiss away her worry. And if a kiss lands us in bed together, all the better.
“The thing is, if my sister sees us together, she’ll be watching us like a hawk all evening. She’s nosy,” she blurts out. Another sinful blush covers her cheeks as I feel the grin stretching across my face. Damn, it feels good to smile this freely. “Not that there’ll be anything for her to watch. I mean, I don’t think you’re going to do anything…oh cheese-us, I should just stop talking.”
“No, please continue,” I laugh, oddly turned on by her awkward, fumbling way. “A big sister watching me eat isn’t high on my list of things to experience tonight.” I turn my gaze to her, letting my eyes roam her curvy body, trapped in a light blue sundress that whips in the wind. She’s innocence and sin all mixed together, and I want more. And I always get what I want.
“If we aren’t going to eat at the inn, where do you recommend two people enjoy a quiet meal together when just getting to know each other?”
I can tell that my forthright nature intrigues her from the way her sea glass green eyes darken.
“Getting to know each other? Is that what we’re doing?”
“I hope so, Ella.” This time even I can hear the sincerity in my voice. It’s such a change from the cold, calculating persona I have to play every single day at work. I feel that version of me falling away, much like a snake sheds its skin. Ella, with her sweetness and light, is bringing out a side of me I thought was gone – the man my mom raised me to be, who doesn’t let arrogance stand in the way of respect and kindness. It takes a toll, playing the cocky asshole who gets shit done, but my business needed me to be that way.
As I watch, she takes a deep breath in, and squares her shoulders. I wonder what inner monologue is going through her mind, but whatever she says to herself, it works.
“I’d like that. Do you eat seafood?”
I nod.
“Okay, we’ll go down to the wharf and get salmon burgers from the diner, then I’ll show you a spot on the beach that not many people go to.”
A burger on the beach. I almost laugh out loud at how insane that sounds to me, Marcus Ryder, successful business owner, multi-millionaire, with a condo in the city, a chalet up in the mountains, three cars – all luxury models, of course – and I’m going on a date with a woman I can’t seem to pull myself away from, to have burgers on the beach. Despite the complete deviation from my normal life, it feels right.
“Sounds great,” I reply with a smile. And it does.
I think for a moment. I need to explore the island and get a feel for it. What better way than with a local? And if it gives me more time with this intriguing woman, that’s even better.
“What are the chances you’d also be willing to give me a bit of a tour of the downtown area? I’ve never been here before, but I’m interested to see what Westmount Island has to offer. Aside from beautiful women, that is.” I’m piling on the charm and hoping it doesn’t scare her away. She’s timid, but I can sense a fire inside of her that seems to be growing. “And you seem like you would be pretty familiar with what there is to see around here.”
She laughs lightly, and flushes again. God, I want to see what that looks like on her when she’s spread out on my bed, naked.
“You could say that. My family has lived here for generations.”
“Wow. Your family must be a big deal around here. What do your parents do?”
A shadow falls over her face and instantly I know I’ve said something I shouldn’t have.
“My parents died ten years ago. It’s just my sisters and I here now.”
She’s quiet and subdued, as if the light that was beaming from her has been turned off, and I am desperate to turn it back on. Without a second thought, I take the two steps I need to be right in front of her and pull her into my chest. She’s rigid for only a second before she melts into my arms with a soft sigh. At first, I’m taken aback by how fucking amazing she feels against my body. Then I register her smell, sweet like vanilla and honeysuckle. Her hair tickles my nose and my lips drift down to press a kiss to her head. This is madness, I just met this woman, she shouldn’t feel so perfect in my arms. She isn’t pulling away, and neither am I. Something is drawing us together with a force stronger than anything we could hope to control. Unfortunately, I eventually feel her draw back slightly and I let her go. But the second she is out of my arms I feel an ache in my chest that is unfamiliar and unpleasant. As if my body knows I need her.
