Page 46 of Sweet Surrender

Knowing there was so much more to him than what he showed the world.

Knowing I still wanted him.

The only thing that could make this trip better would be having him next to me. When I imagined myself indulging over four days in the Maldives, there was no excitement—nothing to look forward to but loneliness.

After starting four different movies but stopping out of boredom within the first twenty minutes, I pulled out my phone to scroll through any new emails before sedating myself with social media scrolling. It wasn’t easy to turn off my work brain and simply enjoy mindless scrolling, but that was still preferable to questioning every single one of the decisions I made over the past weeks.

I was scrolling through Reddit when a text came through from Rose. Strange, but she hadn’t seemed too surprised to find out about her brother and me. Or maybe she didn’t want to look like the complete hypocrite my brother was, blowing up my phone, threatening to kick Noah’s ass. It was nothing but talk. Rose had probably pointed out how stupid Colton sounded. Either way, even his anger had fizzled before long.

Rose’s text came with an attached link.

Rose: Thought you might want to see this. *smiley face emoji.*

Tapping the link took me to an Instagram account.

Noah’s account.

Emotion lodged in my throat in time with my heart clenching. Why would she send me to his Instagram? I had gone out of my way to avoid any specifics when she’d pretty much forced me into confessing whatever we were, but she knew I was confused and full of regret. Why shove him in my face?

It took all of three seconds for me to understand once a video began to play. Taken on his phone, by the looks of it, while he sat in his living room looking painfully gorgeous as always. Longing hit me like a sledgehammer and left me breathless.

“Hi, everybody.” His easygoing smile made me smile back. “There’s been a lot about me in the press lately, positive and otherwise. Until now, I’ve relied on others to do the speaking for me, but it’s clear there’s something I need to straighten out in my own words.”

Oh, no. This had the potential to be an absolute disaster.

His shoulders rose and fell before he continued. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes… more than I could count if I tried. One of them led to a series of false accusations made against me. Without my publicist, Sienna Black, I would’ve inevitably made things worse by shooting off my mouth. She saved me from myself. Unfortunately, becoming involved with me led to trouble for her. I have to apologize for that, deeply and sincerely.”

This was the man who didn’t apologize. He’d told me so.

“I’m not perfect,” he admitted. “I’ll make mistakes after today. All I can do is promise to move forward and do better from now on. I hope very much to make things right with anyone I’ve hurt.”

With a wink, he added, “One person in particular. Thank you for watching.”

That was it. Short, sweet, and to the point. And in the end, directed at me. At least I hoped it was. He had gone ahead and apologized in front of essentially the whole world. Already, the video had been shared a few hundred times, and he’d only posted it four hours ago. I fired off a text to Jules, asking if she knew anything about it, before setting my phone down with a shaking hand.

I was flying away from him when all I wanted was to be with him. To ask if he was talking about making things right with me, to tell him how proud I was of him for being so humble. What was I thinking? I pulled up his number, ready to demand he fly out to the Maldives so we could talk in person, but I only got as far as his voicemail. The texts I sent to Rose and my cousins went unanswered too.

I was literally hanging in midair for the rest of the flight.

There was a car waiting for me at the private hangar, leaving me with nothing to do but try Noah repeatedly. The gorgeous slice of paradise all around me went unnoticed while I obsessed over what was supposed to happen next. All the while, Noah’s video racked up shares and likes.

When the car’s progress slowed, I looked out the window toward the luxury villa looming up ahead. The beachfront villas would be available for purchase once the resort opened, while a series of smaller waterfront cottages would be up for rent by short-term vacationers. I’d be staying in a two-story, three-bedroom villa with a thatched roof and a private garden surrounded by a sparkling pool. In other words, Heaven. My temporary slice of it.

Remember what you’re here for.

My emotions were all over the place by the time I stepped out of the car, and I was starting to wonder why everyone in my life had suddenly put me on the Pay No Mind list, but I was here for business. I forced myself to pay attention to my lush surroundings as I walked out onto the white sandy beach, already prepared to recommend the resort to anybody looking for a private paradise. The sapphire water lapped at the sand, begging me to dip my toes in.

“What do you think?”

I jumped, yelping when a deep voice cut through the conflict buzzing in my brain. It didn’t make sense. He wasn’t supposed to be here. Yet, Noah walked my way, hands in his pockets, his bare feet sinking into the warm sand. “It’s pretty fucking phenomenal out here, isn’t it?”

When I found my breath, I asked, “What are you doing here? Did you see I’ve been calling you for hours? Why did you make that video? Were you talking about me?”

He tipped his head to the side. “That sounded like one long word. Try slowing down.”

“You are such a dick.” A dick whose laughter only set a match to the powder keg that had been ready to explode for hours. My hands closed into fists before I gritted out, “This might be a joke to you, but it’s very serious to me. I want answers.”

His lids fluttered over brown eyes brimming with confusion. For God’s sake, had I genuinely shocked him? Did he know me at all? No, he expected me to melt over a video and a surprise personal appearance. My heart might have been ready to burst with excitement and relief, but I still had a shred of dignity to my name.

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