Scandal on the Sand (The Billionaires of Barefoot Bay #3)(31)
Author: Roxanne St. Claire

“A sleepover?” Her skepticism must have been evident because Dylan immediately jumped into a “Please, Aunt Liza” litany that Edward joined until they were both shushed. “You’ve never gone to a sleepover,” she said to Dylan.

“And I’ve never hosted one,” Tessa admitted. “But Emma’s been invited to a birthday party, so I’m down one child and these two…” She smiled at the boys, shaking her head. “They are inseparable. My husband and I don’t live far, in town, and I assure you we’ll have them in the sack by eight—”

A chorus of “awws” interrupted her.

“Or nine,” she added with a laugh. “But we’ll take care of him, I promise.”

“I’m not worried about his care, it’s just…” She put her hand on Dylan’s head. “It’s a first for him.”

“We’ll make it special.”

“Okay—”

“Woo hoo!” Dylan and Edward were jumping again, but that wasn’t enough celebration, so they started running in circles around the golf cart.

“What’s all the ruckus out here?” They all turned to see Nate standing in the doorway, trying to look stern, but a smile grew as he watched the whirling dervishes. Dylan came to an instant stop, his face brightening like he’d been handed two scoops of ice cream.

“N-A-T-E!” He tore toward Nate, arms outstretched, getting hoisted in the air upon arrival. “I’m going to my first sleepover!”

“You are?” He made a surprised face, then looked over Dylan’s shoulder to Liza, his expression changing from surprise to something else. Something that made her whole body tingle in anticipation. “Then we’ll have to…”

Have a sleepover, too?

He lowered Dylan to the ground. “Make sure you have a great time.”

Her heart tumbled around because she knew he was thinking of the great time they’d have. “And maybe I can take your Aunt Liza out for dinner,” he added.

They hadn’t had dinner since the night on the yacht, and she’d kind of ached for another night like that. But Nate had been following the rules and her lead since the day she started working for him.

“Oh, you should get a reservation at Junonia tonight,” Tessa said, referring to the resort’s fine restaurant, run by her chef husband. “Ian’s special tonight is veal chops, and they’re to die for. And sweet potatoes right from my garden.”

“Perfect. It’s a date.” Nate ruffled Dylan’s hair, but his eyes were hot on Liza. “As soon as we finish the access-road permits.”

When he went back inside, Tessa’s smile was amused and all-knowing. Were they that obvious?

“This is perfect,” Tessa said.

“Completely,” Liza agreed, barely aware that her voice held a sigh of dreaminess to it.

“So the rumor mill is true,” Tessa mused. “There’s more than Bucks business going on in Acacia.”

Liza felt her cheeks warm. “No, no…he’s my boss.” She glanced at the closed door. “We just work together.”

Tessa laughed brightly. “That’s what I thought about Ian at one time, too. Now I love his children as my own, and we have another on the way.”

Liza drew back, surprised. “Edward and Emma are…”

“Ian’s from a previous marriage, but they’re all mine now. And this one on the way.” She rubbed her belly, and her eyes twinkled. “I’m living proof that anything is possible. In fact, here on Barefoot Bay, we’re starting to think everything is possible.”

Was it? Could normal, ordinary, not-quite-anything-special Liza Lemanski win the heart of a world-famous billionaire who’d already stolen hers? “That’s a lovely sentiment.”

“It’s true!” she insisted and leaned closer to whisper, “And it’s obvious he has feelings for you.”

“It is?” She felt like an eighth-grade girl, but the only person she had to discuss this with was her mother, who couldn’t see straight on the subject of Nathaniel Ivory. She’d practically embroidered the towels with their adjoining initials already.

Tessa started to round up the boys but took a moment to continue the girl talk. “He seems like a really nice guy in person. Nothing like his public image.”

“He is different from what you’d expect.”

“I know you’re not asking for it, but my advice? Don’t fight whatever’s in the air down here. Sometimes the most unlikely people make a great team.”

A great team. Nate called them that at least twice a day. Could they be? Right now, they were almost…quite…not anything official. But something told Liza that was about to change.

After they exchanged phone numbers and Liza kissed Dylan a few dozen times, they drove off, with the two boys sitting on the back of the golf cart, waving like lunatics. Liza stood and watched them rumble away.

“Hey, Wonder Woman.”

A shiver of anticipation worked its way through her body at the low and sexy tone of his voice. She didn’t turn, instead taking a steadying breath and trying to consciously hold the moment in her hand. “Yeah?”

“It’s time.”

Yes, it was. Very slowly, she turned to see him standing in the doorway, holding up some papers. “Access permits.”

Smiling, she took a few steps closer, holding his smoldering gaze, aware of each pulse beat in her throat, each strained breath, each spark of electricity arcing through the air.

“Access”—she took the papers with one hand and pressed his chest with the other, pushing him back into the villa—”no longer denied.”

He answered with a slow, deep, hungry kiss as she let the papers flutter to the floor.

* * *

“It’s about time,” Nate murmured into the kiss that had them both breathless in under a minute. Liza didn’t answer, tunneling her hands into his hair and gripping his head to press their lips harder.

She heard Nate kick the door closed and then inhaled sharply when he backed her right into the mahogany frame, blocking her with a body that was as hard as the door behind her.

“You’re not going to wait for a dinner date, are you?” she asked with a half laugh.

“Oh, we’ll have dinner. Later.” He pinned her arms over her head with one hand, annihilating her mouth and throat with hot kisses. “Much later.”

He already had her sweater halfway up her torso.