Their Festive Island Escape

He gave a small shrug. “You’re very different personalities. He’s not as...ambitious, I guess. You’re much more driven. Yet, there’s a side of you—” He stopped abruptly. “You know what? Never mind. None of this is my place.”

Celeste halted in her tracks and gently nudged him to stop walking. His gaze dropped to where she’d touched him on the elbow. She ignored the way his eyes darkened and quickly dropped her hand. “Please finish what you were going to say. There’s a side of me that’s what?”

Reid released a deep sigh and looked off into the distance at the horizon. “Just that there’s a side of you which must have overwhelmed a man like him. An untamed, stormy quality just underneath your surface. A side a man like Jack wouldn’t be able to handle.” His eyes seemed to add the words unlike me.

Celeste’s gasp was audible over the crashing waves behind them. She wouldn’t challenge his words, couldn’t. For he spoke the very truth. Celeste did everything she could to hide the wild inner-city kid she’d grown up as behind a highly polished professional veneer. She’d made certain to bury the hardscrabble teen who’d bartered, begged and stole simply to survive when the three of them had found themselves homeless on the streets for close to a year.

Then there was her ancestry. She’d fully studied her absent father’s Persian roots, intrigued by all she’d learned about the culture. But she’d never explored that part of herself, hadn’t so much as looked into visiting that area of the world. Though she’d had plenty of opportunity.

Somehow Reid had seen through all those layers three years ago when they were barely more than strangers.

“I’m not sure how to take what you’ve just said, Reid,” she said once she found her voice again. “That I was somehow too much for Jack to handle.”

He turned to fully face her then. “You should take it as a compliment.”

* * *

Reid had no intention of stopping by the bar when he left his office behind the concierge lounge. He wanted nothing more after a long frustrating day than to head to his suite in the main quarters and pop open a bottle of cabernet and order a thick juicy burger.

But then he’d seen Celeste sitting at the bar by herself. He didn’t even want to examine what had made him stop and just watch her for a while. She was alone, but she’d made it clear solitude was what she was after. She’d seemed perfectly content with her book and seafood plate. He’d been ready to move on, get going with the rest of his evening, but then he’d seen the way the bartender had been watching her. He’d found himself moving toward her then. So much for having her forget he was here.

Some strange emotion lodged in his chest when he heard the other man ask to buy her a drink. He didn’t even know his intention until he reached her side. And what had possessed him to ask her to walk with him? He probably should have bidden her good-night right after intervening then went about his business. For now, they seemed to be awkwardly strolling along the beach, neither one managing to say anything much by way of conversation after the awkward words about their past.

He shouldn’t have told her all the things he’d just shared, didn’t even realize he was going to until the words were leaving his mouth.

Celeste cleared her throat. “So, you mentioned you’d recently acquired this place?” She was clearly looking to change the subject.

“Yeah. Last summer. I’d been looking to expand into the Caribbean resort business for a while. Luckily, it was one of the few islands that came through the hurricane season unscathed.”

She humphed out a small laugh.

“What?”

“That happens to be the only reason I’m here. My usual spot is in shambles.” The faraway look in her eyes told him she missed it. “This was one of the few places left to book.”

Reid clapped his hand to his chest in mock offense. “You wound me. You mean to tell me the only reason you chose my resort was for lack of other options?”

She smiled just as a slight breeze blew a dark tendril of hair along her cheek. How silly that his fingers itched to gently tuck it back behind her ear for her.