The Billionaire's Island Bride (South Shore Billionaires 3)

She wasn’t going to win, and to protest further would only make it more awkward. “All right, then.”

They headed out into the evening. With the sun now down and the moon rising, the air had taken on a distinct chill. She hadn’t thought she’d need a jacket over her sweater, but it was colder than she’d expected. Probably because the sky was perfectly clear, with a blanket of brilliant stars above them.

“Wow,” Cole said, pausing on the gravel in front of the house. “You can see forever when there’s no light pollution.”

“Right?” She hugged her arms around herself and tilted her head to stare into the darkness. “There are a million stars tonight.”

He was closer to her than she realized, because when he s

poke again she jumped, startled by his nearness and how his soft voice was so close to her ear. “Stars make me feel both incredibly small and also like I belong to something vast. That probably doesn’t make sense.”

But it did make sense to her. She’d often felt the same. “When my brother and sister and I were kids, we used to lie on the sand and stare up at the stars.” She laughed as the memory came rushing back. “My mom hated it because we always ended up with sand in our hair and bites from sand fleas on our legs and arms. It was my grandma who washed out all the little grains of sand and put calamine lotion on so we wouldn’t scratch.”

She turned her head and looked up at him. There was a small smile on his face but his eyes seemed sad. “What?” she asked.

“Nothing. I just never did anything like that as a kid. Of course, I didn’t have brothers or sisters, either.”

Brooklyn thought it sounded unbearably lonely, and that those kinds of memories were something not even privilege could buy. “Then come on,” she said impulsively, taking his hand and pulling him off the graveled path.

* * *

Cole let Brooklyn drag him along because he was simply enchanted by her. He had been, all through dinner. She’d shown up looking so incredibly beautiful, with her hair gathered up and the graceful curve of her neck exposed. He’d thought about what she might do if he kissed her right where her neck met her shoulder, if she’d sigh a little or break out in goose bumps. She’d enjoyed dinner, too. He’d stolen looks at her as she’d tasted each dish, sipped the wine that Raelynn had chosen for each course. It was a casual dinner with friends but to her it had been special, hadn’t it?

Even the question about his single status hadn’t fazed him...much. And that was surprising.

Now she was pulling him through tall, crackly grass as they made their way to the beach, ignoring any path. No matter where he was on the island, he could hear the ocean, but the shush of the breakers now reached his ears, and something built in his chest, something unexpected that he wasn’t sure what to do with.

In this moment, he didn’t want to be anywhere else but here, with her. Especially with her. And that complicated things so much. He did dates. He didn’t do...more.

“Come on,” she said, jumping down over a small dune and into the sand. She took off her footwear and left it at the edge, and let go of his hand as she danced toward the water. She was maybe ten feet away from the waves when she stopped, opened her arms wide and lifted her face to the sky.

Oh, damn. This wasn’t a little complication; it was a huge one that he wasn’t sure what to do with.

She spun around and called to him. “Come on!”

He took off his shoes and socks, and the cool sand squidged between his toes. He’d gone business casual tonight, so he was wearing nice trousers and a tailored button-down. Not exactly beach attire. She trotted back and grabbed his hand. “Come on, slowpoke. We’re going to look at the stars.”

He laughed and followed her, and then to his surprise, she dropped down onto the sand and made to lie down.

“Wait!” He stopped her as he shrugged out of his jacket. “We can put this under our heads. So we don’t get sand.”

Her smile was wide as she took his jacket, then spread it on the sand. “Okay, come on down.”

He wasn’t sure if he’d get any fleabites...after all, this was Nova Scotia in early October. Wouldn’t it be too cold or something? And right now he didn’t actually care. He lay down on the sand beside her and put his head on his jacket. They had to lie close together to share the “pillow,” and he liked the feeling of her body next to his.

“Look up,” she said, her voice barely more than a breath, and he opened his eyes to the sky above.

It was so big. Inky blackness stretched endlessly, with thousands of stars blinking at them. The ocean swept in and out, lulling him into relaxing. And yet he was so very aware of the woman beside him that it was impossible to relax completely. He sensed her every breath and could smell her floral shampoo. And when she reached out and hooked a few of her fingers in his, his chest tightened.

Brooklyn Graves was a beautiful woman. Not just outside, but inside, too.

“Look,” she whispered, pointing up with her free hand. “There’s a satellite moving across the sky.”

The silver light moved in a precise arc and he watched it for several seconds. “Do you know the constellations?”

“Not really,” she replied. She slid her fingers away and he missed the contact. “I mean, I know the Big and Little Dippers. But the rest... I like making things up instead. Kind of like when you see shapes in the clouds? I like to find them in the stars.”

God, she was so pure, wasn’t she? How many women had he met in his lifetime who would indulge in a bit of whimsy to make up their own constellations? It struck him that maybe he’d spent a lot of his time with the wrong sort of woman.