Chapter Fifteen
Wyatt
Wyatt hummed the theme song to Mission Impossible as he carefully snuck out of Cassie's room and headed down to the lobby. He'd managed to extricate himself from her bed safely and was now on a mission of utmost importance: breakfast.
The hotel had a small selection of breakfast food set up in the lobby. There was one restaurant on the property that also served breakfast, but that was on the far side from Cassie's room. Lu
ckily, the lobby's continental breakfast was more than enough.
Wyatt glanced around as he grabbed a plate and began filling it with food. Several hotel guests lounged in chairs while sipping coffee and reading newspapers. Annette was at the front desk, and she just shook her head and sighed when she saw him.
He wasn't supposed to take the guests' food. He wasn't supposed to be filling up a plate, let alone bringing a plate back upstairs to a guest he was sleeping with. It was very, very against hotel policies. But, Annette liked him, and he knew she would turn a blind eye to his doings.
He gave Annette a wink as he passed the desk with a plate full of fruits and pastries. She sighed and rolled her eyes, but the hint of a smile crossed her face.
The spy-based theme song continued to play in Wyatt's head as he carefully made his way back upstairs. He'd snagged Cassie's room key on the way out so that he could get back in, but he didn't want to come across another employee in the hallway accidentally. Not all of them were as fond of Wyatt as Annette was.
Luckily, the elevator and hallways back to her room were blissfully empty. He let out a sigh of relief once he was safely back in her room with the door firmly shut behind him. He set her key card back on the table where she'd left it and headed into the bedroom.
Cassie came out of the bathroom, toothbrush in her mouth and hair still mussed from sleep. Her frown quickly shifted into a smile as soon as she saw him.
“I thght oo eft,” she mumbled around her toothbrush. She quickly ducked into the bathroom and spat. “I thought you left.”
The edge of pain in her voice at the idea of him leaving pulled on his heart. He held up the plate of food. “Just to get breakfast.”
She grinned at him. “That kind of leaving I can get behind,” she told him. “Let me finish brushing my teeth.”
She hurried back into the bathroom, and when she emerged a few moments later, her dark hair was neatly pulled back into a ponytail and her face clean of sleep. Wyatt pulled back the curtains, and they both sat on the bed, looking out the windows at the ocean.
Cassie leaned her head against his shoulder and let out a happy sigh. For a moment, Wyatt let himself pretend this might continue, and that she didn't have her airplane ticket poking out the back of her suitcase. That she wasn't leaving in a day.
But, that would mean telling her who he was and that he'd been lying to her this whole time. Well, not really lying, but definitely omitting some significant facts. He was a billionaire. He wasn't just some beach bum with nothing to offer. He could give her a good life here.
“I still have a few hours before the wedding,” Cassie said softly, her eyes still out on the water.
“I don't know if I can go again,” he answered honestly. He was used to a lot of sex, but this much amazing sex was something he had to pace himself with. He wasn't eighteen and unstoppable anymore.
She chuckled, the sound low and sexy. “I was thinking we could go lay out by the water. I haven't just laid on the beach yet, and it sounds like a wonderful calm thing to do before a wedding.”
He smiled softly. “That sounds like the perfect thing to do today.”
He didn't tell her that he wasn't supposed to do that. That he could potentially get fired for lounging on the beach with her. He didn't tell her because he wanted to lay on the beach with her. He wanted to have a quiet moment of just the two of them enjoying the beauty of the Caribbean.
They both stood up and brushed the crumbs from the bed before heading out. She put on her adorable bikini, and for a moment he nearly forgot about the beach. He wasn't sure how her swimsuit that covered everything and wasn't skimpy turned him on so thoroughly. It was like her- cute and yet somehow sexy at the same time without meaning to be. The fact that she wasn't trying only made her hotter.
He took her to the row of lounge chairs settled in the soft white sand. Seagulls cried above in the pale blue sky as the ocean waves made a melody with iridescent blue below. They selected two lounge chairs that stood side by side. She scooted hers so that they touched and became one giant lounger rather than two separate ones.
She lay on his right, their hands entwined as they looked out at the blue water. For a moment in time, Wyatt's world was perfect. For the first time in years, he felt perfectly content. There was no need for words or action. Just laying on the beach with Cassie made his heart feel full to bursting. This was something he could do every day and never tire of.
He had come to the Caribbean to live the life he'd never had. He'd worked from the moment he could hold a calculator, and never got to experience any of the wild teenage or college years he'd heard so many stories about. He'd always been working and building his business.
He'd come here to have his heydays. To feel what it was like to take time off and just play- to have no responsibilities or deadlines. He enjoyed bartending because it was simple, yet took skill. He liked talking with people and learning their stories. No one ever opened up to Billionaire Businessman Wyatt the way they did when Bartender Wyatt poured them a drink.
Yet, something had still been missing from his life. He'd had more women than he could ever want, both as a billionaire and a bartender, yet they didn't matter. They didn't make him feel the way he did when he was with Cassie.
Cassie was the missing piece, he realized. She was what was missing all this time. It wasn't the job or the responsibilities; it wasn't the island or the relaxation, it was the friend and companion that he needed. He could see himself still working if he could have come home to Cassie every night.
But she was leaving in less than twenty-four hours. This would all be just a memory in a day's time.