Seven Nights (19 page)

“Yeah. Sean and I are full partners, but in reality, I really am just a front man. I have the connections and the face of the island, but everything else here, from the stucco on the buildings to the menu plan every night…” He smiled. “That’s pure Sean.”

She nodded. “It’s obvious he’s passionate about this place. But I’m not sure how that relates to how Sean shows his love.”

“Aren’t you?” Will seemed genuinely surprised. “See, Sean has attacked his business plans with a single-minded purpose over the years. To the point that he got this island built and running, nearly making a profit even, in record time. At least, I
thought
it was single-minded purpose.”

Leah was still confused. “Wasn’t it?”

He shook his head slowly and locked eyes with her. “All the time I thought the resort was the most important thing to him, there was actually something else that was far more pressing. Something that haunted him. You.”

She drew in a short breath. Her world tilted on its axis and it took all her strength to croak out, “Me?”

“Picture the amount of work Sean did to get his idea from paper to sparkling reality.” Will paused. “Now double that and you’ll know how much he thought of you. He clipped articles about you and by you. He kept up with old friends who knew what you were doing and whether you were with anyone. After a year had gone by and you weren’t seeing someone new on a regular basis, he started to get some hope back. But it wasn’t until you started reviewing resorts for your father’s magazine that everything clicked. He knew he had to get you down here to Escapades.”

Leah reeled with all the information hitting her from every side. When Sean had disappeared, she’d thought he’d cut himself off from everything. Mutual friends had claimed not to know of his whereabouts. But all that time, he’d been down on an island in the Caribbean, watching and waiting for the right moment to come back into her life.

Watching and waiting for her.

“Should I go on?” Will asked after she’d sat nearly motionless and entirely silent for a few moments.

She held her breath. Could she actually take more of this? More of hearing what she already knew but couldn’t admit? Except she also couldn’t bear not knowing. Not hearing.

“Please.”

He smiled. “Sean’s plan became more and more elaborate and took more and more of his time as the months went by. I don’t think the boy slept more than a couple hours every night between building the resort and plotting ways to get you down here. And then you wrote that article on the false promise of a fantasy resort.”

Blood filled her cheeks at the memory. It seemed so long ago when she’d written that bitter diatribe on false fantasy and the lack of second chances for relationships on the rocks.

“I guess that gave Sean the perfect opportunity,” she whispered. “Everyone was gunning to get to me their resort, so I never suspected a thing.”

He nodded. “I don’t know who he bribed to be the resort chosen for your first review after that bombshell got dropped on the industry, but it worked. And even though we were just starting to get clients coming to the island from the general public, he dropped everything for the past month to make his final preparations for you.”

Leah shivered though the island breeze was hot and heavy. Here she’d been frustrated at Sean’s dedication to work when it turned out he’d neglected everything just to be with her.

“To Sean, love is best expressed through actions, Leah.” Will pinned her with a stare she couldn’t escape, though she desperately wanted to. “That’s why he dragged you down here to have a stolen week out of time with him. That’s why he showered you with gifts of new clothes. That’s why he’s planned these elaborate nights for you once you arrived. Actions.”

She had nothing to say. It was all a little too much to comprehend.

“I think you’re a great girl. You obviously care for Sean very much and I think you’re right that I don’t truly understand the nature of the problems that drove you two apart. But I have to ask you to do one thing for me.”

“What?” She could barely manage to get her voice above a whisper.

“Why don’t you take a little time and think about what message you’re sending Sean with your actions. Then figure out if that’s what you want him to hear after this week is over. If the two of you aren’t careful, all you’ll have are memories of the time you shared. And regrets. And I think you both have enough of those already from the last time around.”

Leah flinched at the stark reminder as Will rose to his feet and brushed sand off his cotton slacks.

“I need to get back to…” He motioned over his shoulder toward the main lobby of the resort. Leah nodded and watched as he walked away down the beach.

Once he was out of her sight over a bluff, she put her head down in her hands with a sigh. Everything in her mind was jumbled. Here she’d been up in arms about Sean’s obsession with business and his outright refusal to allow her to help him, and then Will told her how much Sean had sacrificed to get her here. And only to have her for a week, too.

So if those sacrifices said Sean still loved her, a thought that made her tingle all the way to her toes, what
did
her actions say?

First, she’d left Sean. She could admit her hastily written note had left him with little explanation for her departure. And she’d been too scared to take his phone calls or meet him. Obviously that didn’t say love.

Since she’d arrived on his island, she’d fought with him over silly things like clothes, the chartered flight and his request that Danny leave. But Sean kept coming back, offering her nights she would never forget and days that reminded her how much she still cared for him. 

He’d wooed her, and she’d let him. But she’d never really tried to win him in return. So, if his actions said love, hers said… what?

Indifference.

Shaking her head, she started back up the beach at breakneck speed. She had to do something. She had to show Sean that she loved him, too, even if she wasn’t ready to say it out loud. When he saw that her feelings mirrored his, perhaps he would finally trust her enough to let her in. Maybe they could resolve some of the things that had come between them and make a fresh start.

Leah headed straight for the lobby. She had some arrangements to make. For a night of fantasy that Sean would never forget.

***

Sean strummed his fingers along the bar, then checked his watch for the third time in five minutes. Leah was late. Leah was never late. But she was tonight.

He fought a curse as he motioned to the bartender to bring him another drink. He needed it. After his performance in his office today, he’d obviously alienated the woman he loved. She was probably packing her bags and arranging for transportation even as he sat there waiting for her like some fool.

Why had he gotten so pissed when she’d confronted him about his business problems?

“As if you didn’t know,” he admonished himself as he took a swig of his drink.

Sean knew why he’d gotten angry. He wanted Leah’s respect. He didn’t want her to feel like she had to save him from his problems.

“Excuse me, Mr. Dalton?”

Sean had been so distracted he hadn’t even noticed the bartender step up in front of him. He forced a smile for his employee. “Yeah?”

“A note for you.” The man handed him the folded message.

Sean stared at the note while the pressure of dread slowly built in his chest until it felt like he was having a coronary. It was from Leah. He didn’t have to open it to know that. And judging from her uncharacteristic tardiness, it was probably telling him to sod off. Not that he deserved anything less after that afternoon’s antics.

He took another bracing sip of his drink and mustered the courage to open the paper.

Instead of the kiss off he expected, it contained a far more interesting message.

I’m running late. Meet me in my villa when you get this. Leah.

There was no other explanation, no subtext for him to analyze and overanalyze. Just a simple message.

Except Leah was never late.

That fact kept running through his mind as he slipped away from the bar and hurried through the hallway to the main lobby. Once he was outside and racing down the path toward Leah’s villa, his mind kicked into overdrive.

Did she want to tell him to go to hell to his face? Or was she so upset by their earlier encounter that she couldn’t even get ready?

Or was he just an overanalyzing idiot?

“For God’s sake, maybe she’s just running late,” he said to himself, loud enough that he got a funny look from a couple that passed by him on the path. “Good evening,” he muttered sheepishly.

He could only hope they wouldn’t recognize the crazy man talking to himself as their host. He and Will already had enough problems as it was.

Finally, he stood at Leah’s door. For a brief moment, he was reminded of the first day she’d arrived on the island. She’d called him to her villa to ream him out for stealing her clothes. They’d ended up sprawled on her bed together, her naked and him throbbing.

But this night wouldn’t end like that. He had a sneaking suspicion he’d lost privileges in that area.

With a curse under his breath, Sean knocked. Leah opened the door with a sheepish smile. She definitely didn’t have the look of a woman ready to kick his ass.

“Hi, I’m so sorry. Come in.” She motioned him inside and closed the door behind him.

He stared at her. Her blond hair was already done in soft ringlets that curled around her face with a teasing bounce, but she wasn’t dressed. She wore the oversized resort bathrobe, just like she had the afternoon they’d been reunited. Sean swelled with desire as he wondered what she was wearing underneath this time.

He shook away the inappropriate thought and smiled at her. “Don’t apologize. We all run late sometimes.”

She’d turned away, but at his statement she pivoted back. The sheepishness was gone from her face, replaced by a sexy, knowing smile that made the hard-on Sean had managed to tame come back with even more force and demands.

“Oh, honey, I wasn’t apologizing for being late.”

She sauntered to the bed stand and picked up the remote that controlled the television and stereo system in the wicker armoire across the room. With a click, the room was filled with the sexy beat of a sax’s wail.

“I was apologizing because I lied.” Her voice was low and husky as she came across the room to where he stood. She was so close he could feel her body heat, smell that delicious shampoo scent of her hair.

“Lied?” he choked out with effort.

“You aren’t here because I’m running late. You’re here because tonight it’s
my
turn to create the fantasy.”

With that, she snaked her hands up her body and undid her robe tie. Beneath the flowing white cotton, she wore a black lace teddy with thin spaghetti straps and a neckline that seemed to go down forever. Beneath sheer black silk, her nipples jutted toward him in invitation and the thong back revealed every delectable inch of her smooth ass.

Sean knew his mouth had dropped open, but couldn’t seem to find the muscle control to close it. Especially when Leah laughed softly and slipped even closer.

“And don’t even think of trying to escape, Sean. You’re mine. Maybe not for seven nights. But for tonight. All night.”

He swallowed, feeling the strain in his dry throat as he fought the urge to touch her. Somehow he knew that wasn’t the proper response and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to control himself once he started.

“And what fantasy is that, Leah?” he croaked out, his voice little more than a pained squeak. “What sense do you plan to seduce?”

Chapter Thirteen

Leah had never felt so sexy, so powerful, so in control in her entire life. Sean stared down at her with a mixture of disbelief and lust burning in his gray eyes. But he didn’t seem to know what to do otherwise. His hands still hung limp at his sides, even though she was flush up against him, arms wrapped tightly around his neck and her lips just a few painful inches away.

Well,
he
might be confused, but for the first time in a long time, Leah knew exactly what she wanted and how she planned to get it.

With a sigh, she brushed her mouth against his. It was a teasing kiss and even though it killed her not to delve inside and taste every gorgeous inch of him, she knew there would be plenty of time for that later. Later when he had no way to stop her from finding out every little thing that made him groan with pleasure.

Just the thought of that made her wet. She could feel the need pooling first in her blood and then moving through her body. Her teddy had to be soaked already and that was just with the anticipation. She hadn’t even begun to have any real fun yet.