Page 30 of His Secret Gift

I turn once more and force the left side of my mouth to curl upward into a smile.

“That’ll be all then, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.”

I nod to Bryant.

“Have a good night’s rest, all of you. Tomorrow, we set off on our journey.”

I glance over at my sexy stranger again. She’s trying to keep her head down as she files out of the door with the others.

“Wait a minute.” My hand extends to stop her.

Her bright green eyes slowly raise to meet mine. “Yes, sir?”

The rest shuffle out, and I ask Bryant to excuse us for a second. In response, his nose crinkles up. “Jack?”

“We’ll just be a few moments,” I assured.

He shrugs and then exits himself.

Now that we’re alone, I feel that I can be candid.

I saunter over, push my shoulder up against hers, and I speak in a low, gravely tone. “What was your goal with all of this?”

She looks up. “My goal?”

“Yes. For tonight. You know that if my phone didn’t ring I would’ve—” I pause to make sure everyone else is gone. “I would’ve kissed you.”

Pushing hair behind her ear, she says, “I don’t know. It all just sort ofhappened.”

Her playing dumb is making me even angrier. “You just sort ofhappenedto run into and share a romantic evening with me?”

She squints at me. “Yes. That’s exactly what happened. I told you, I went out with a friend, and he left to hook up, so I made my journey back to the boat.”

With a clenched jaw, I ask next, “Did you know who I was?”

Her striking eyes look down at her fiddling thumbs.

“Well?” I demand when she fails to say something.

“… I did.”

I feel my heartrate racing. “You knew I was your boss, but you said nothing?”

“I didn’t know what to say.”

Not good enough.“Let me see. Oh, I know. How about, ‘Hi there, Jack. It’s funny. I quite literally ran into you. You may not know me, but I’m Kayla. One of your new employees.”

She shrugs her shoulders. “I did tell you my name at least.”

I scoff. “I suppose you did. But there are probably thousands of Kaylas in Fort Lauderdale right now.”

She nods. “That’s probably true.”

“So, again I ask you, what was your plan? Did you just want a sexy little story to tell all your friends back home? Or maybe you wanted to blackmail me.”

“None of that was my intention!” Kayla yells back, her face turning red. But when she heard herself, she hung her head and spoke more quietly. “I wasn’t thinking at all.”

I cross my arms and widen my stance. “Be that as it may—at least we can say that nothing happened. Thank god.”

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