From Ex to Eternity (Newlywed Games 1)

The kiss deepened and Keith drenched her senses with his hard masculine body and powerful, purposeful hands. She inhaled him. He shifted a knee between her legs, and the rough friction sparked at her core. Hot and thick desire billowed over her skin, scorching her from the inside out.

Keith’s phone beeped, startling her and effectively breaking the mood. How had she gotten so lost in him so fast? They were both in the middle of the biggest projects of their respective careers and all she could think about was exploring the depths of the man in charge.

Pulling back, she peered up at him. “Do you need to get that?”

“Wasn’t planning on it.” He made a noise of disgust. “Guess I will now.”

She smiled at his consternation. “We can pick this up again later.”

His wolfish smile put the exclamation point on it. “That was always going to happen. I was thinking we could pick it up again now and later.”

Clarity rushed in to fill the space where the saturation of Keith had been a moment ago.

She made a face. “Despite the logic in testing all aspects of the room, we both have a lot of work to do today. Besides, if we really wanted to do it right, we’d have to test the bed in every room.”

“Funny, I was thinking the same thing.” Keith glanced at his phone and spit out the filthiest curse in his vocabulary.

He uttered that word in her presence only when something really bad had happened. “What’s going on?”

Seven

Now that Cara had put the brakes on what would have surely turned into a naked free-for-all, Keith was having a hard time getting his body to understand playtime was over.

And over in a big way.

He glanced at the message on his phone again in a poor attempt to reorient. Instead of siphoning the blood from his lower half and returning it to his brain—where it needed to be—all his phone did was infuriate him further. The news hadn’t changed.

“Looks like we’re inspecting these rooms for no reason,” he explained and ungritted his teeth. “Tropical Storm Mark has shut down Providenciales Airport.”

As if this project needed another complication.

“What does that mean? The expo is canceled?” Worry crinkled the corners of Cara’s eyes.

He’d prefer it if her gaze was still full of come-hither. He blew out his frustration in a heavy sigh and tapped a quick message to Elena, the resort manager, on his phone. “No way. Well...I don’t know. But we have to assume the airport will be reopened in a few hours. And if it is, we have to be prepared for the expo to go on as scheduled.”

Which vastly increased his mile-long to-do list. Additional staff members should have arrived today, all of whom had critical roles in preparing for a wide range of expo elements.

Was it five o’clock yet? Hell, the rapid deterioration of Keith’s mood and the expo might call for tequila shots in the middle of the day regardless of his rules against drinking on the job.

The interruption and subsequent issues were both nasty reminders that he wasn’t on vacation with Cara, free to seduce her into having sex on the beach, skinny-dipping in the hot tub or taking a long shower together. The only water in their future was pouring down from the sky.

It was unsettling to realize he resented the gargantuan pile of tasks standing between him and what he wanted. Turning this resort into a premier wedding destination was his job, and the number of zeroes Regent had tacked on to the end of his paycheck made it well worth his while. But for the first time in his professional life, what he wanted had nothing to do with the job.

Frustrated beyond all belief, he sent another text to Alice, instructing her to call a meeting with the core management team. Everyone would look to him for leadership in the wake of the airport closures and imminent storm, and he couldn’t fail them.

“I’ve got to finish these rooms and then run to a meeting,” he said instead of laying Cara on the bed as he’d planned.

Cara picked up her tablet from the dresser where she’d dropped it earlier. “I take it we won’t be picking things up later?”

There was no way he’d have time for Cara later—she deserved more than a fifteen-minute quickie. He deserved more than that.

Well, there was one way. According to Cara’s philosophy, being the boss meant you could order your employees to do extra work. Perhaps it was time to delegate a few things.

“If I can plow through the most critical issues, I’ll text you, maybe around nine. Come to my room and have a drink. Don’t be late,” he advised.