Page 24 of Boss With Benefits

Surely there weresomethings about him that wouldn’t be dangerous to share? Would the sky fall in if he revealed where he’d grown up and a few basic facts about his family? He needn’t go deep. And he needn’t worry about any consequences. Once this fling was over and she was out of his life for good, he could forget he’d ever said anything. Nothing he told her would go any further. He didn’t know whether he could trust her to keep his confidences, but before the audit had started she’d signed an NDA. Did that still apply?

Nevertheless, if he was going to do this—even just a little bit—a change of scenery might be sensible. So far they hadn’t left the confines of the villa. The furthest they’d ventured was the beach. Talking to her while enveloped in the intimacy of a bedroom felt unwise. Emotional nudity combined with physical nudity could lead to complications he really didn’t need. Therefore, preventative action was required.

Somehow managing to ignore how invitingly tousled Ella looked roused from sleep, the next morning, Adam got her up and out of bed and into his open top jeep for a tour of the island.

He reminded himself to keep his attention on the wide sandy track that followed the 150-acre island’s coastline and not on her in her tiny denim hotpants and vest top beneath which she didn’t appear to be wearing a bra, and off they set in a cloud of sand and dust.

‘You’ll note that this is an incredibly beautiful dot on the map,’ he said in an opening gambit as he steered the jeep round a bend in the track that took them deeper into the vegetation and obscured more of the cloudless blue sky. ‘That’s why I bought it. As a place to escape the city and relax. I’ve had it for a couple of years now. But unfortunately, I don’t get here as often as I’d like.’

‘No, well, I imagine you’re busy,’ was all she murmured in response, giving him a cool smile before turning to look at the flora.

He tried again. ‘Is this your first time to the Caribbean?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where do you usually vacation?’

‘Europe.’

‘Have you ever been to London?’

‘Once.’

‘That’s where I grew up.’ He paused to navigate some gnarly tree roots while she bounced around beside him. ‘Well, between there and Northumberland on the northeast coast of the country. The family has a castle that sits in the middle of a three-thousand-acre estate, complete with turrets, arrow-slit windows and flying buttresses. Parts of it date back to the twelfth century. All of it is damp and draughty.’

‘I can imagine.’

‘The Holland Park mansion, on the other hand, has four storeys and looks like a wedding cake.’

‘How delightful,’ she murmured, grabbing top of the door while he swerved to avoid a rock.

‘My family can trace its history to William the Conqueror,’ he continued doggedly. ‘One of my ancestors was at the signing of the Magna Carta. Another was a courtier to Henry the Eighth. He managed to keep his head. I’ve no idea how.’

‘Well, we all lose our heads sometimes.’

As the greenery thinned and the track curved to once again hug the shore, Adam wiped a bead of sweat from his brow that had nothing to do with the heat and thought that he was certainly losing his. This wasn’t working out quite as he’d planned. Her ultra-brief responses to his revelations about where he’d been brought up weren’t encouraging. But now that he thought about it, mansions and castles were a pretty insensitive topic of conversation when she’d been raised in poverty in a trailer park. And as for all the talk of his ancestry, who’d be interested in that?

‘What do you do in your spare time?’ he asked, trying a different tack as they drove past the boathouse that stored wind surfs, a couple of single sculls and other water sports paraphernalia.

‘I don’t have any spare time.’

A moment later, he pointed to a low white building that had magenta bougainvillea clambering all over it. ‘In that cottage,’ he said, ‘live the caretaking couple who keep the house stocked when I’m here and an eye on the place in my absence.’

‘It’s charming.’

Disappointingly, she showed as much interest in the rest of the island’s sights as she did in his conversation, but Adam remained undeterred. He’d caused this breakdown in communication. It was therefore up to him to repair it. So the following day, he took her up in his seaplane in the hope that the stunning scenery would aid his cause.

Who could fail to marvel at the beautiful sparkling jade waters, dotted with yachts and water sports aficionados? The islands, some of which were tiny but mountainous, some of which barely rose above sea level but spread out for miles? Who could remain unimpressed by the star-studded resorts, the virgin beaches or even the Caribbean’s largest shipwreck, which rested nearby in a mere sixty feet of water?

Ella.

That was who.

Just as when he’d taken her on a tour of his property, her enthusiasm for everything was muted. She expressed polite interest in what he had to show her, but at the same time, she remained aloof. She wasn’t even moved by the pod of dolphins frolicking around a catamaran.

It was as if she’d sort of switched off. The more he tried to get her to engage, the more she withdrew.

‘Why are you going to so much effort to show me around?’ she asked at one point as they floated on the surface of a giant blue hole. ‘I thought you valued your privacy.’ The glance she slid him was cool, and her voice, when she turned his own words back on him, was dry. ‘I hope you’re not making this something it isn’t.’

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