Summer Escape With The Tycoon. Donna Alward
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be lucky if his blood pressure wasn’t skyrocketing again. Thirty-four years old and his doctor had cautioned him about stress and told him to take a vacation. He wasn’t interested in lying on a beach somewhere. Instead he’d taken the advice of one of his friends and started looking into outdoor adventures. Joe had gone on one a year or so ago in South America and said it had been the best trip he’d ever taken.
Initially, Eric had thought it would be a vacation for two. Then the divorce papers were served and it was clear no couples trip would be on the agenda. What followed had been eight months of legal wrangling that had cost him an exorbitant amount in billable hours. In the end, he’d paid his legal bills and hers, too, as well as a settlement that still made him grit his teeth: just over thirty million in a lump sum. The only saving grace was that he wouldn’t have to worry about paying alimony every month for the next four or five decades. Murielle had got her money and he was left with a bad taste in his mouth and a heart full of disillusionment.
He waved his key card over the hotel-room door and it turned green. With a twist of the handle the door swung open and he stepped inside, pulling his large suitcase behind him. He could have had a bellboy bring his things up to the room, but right now he didn’t want to see any other people. He wanted to be alone. Take a shower. Perhaps have a nap before the group dinner tonight, which he was dreading. Because people.
But maybe a shower and a power snooze would put him in a better frame of mind. He just wasn’t there yet.
A sound touched his ears and he frowned. Water running? He looked around and spied a Vuitton case on the luggage rack. What the hell? Was there someone in his room? Eyebrows knit together, he strode toward the bathroom and opened the door.
The string of profanity that greeted him, complete with splashing, had him shutting the door immediately. But not before he’d had a chance to spy long, soapy legs, the tops of some very lovely breasts that were covered with bubbles, and a flashing pair of blue eyes below dark hair, damp from the steam in the room.
A man could notice a lot in two seconds, apparently.
He spoke through the now closed door. “Um...you’re in my room.”
There was a splash and then her words came, sharp as knives. “You’re in my room and I’ll thank you to get out. Now.”
Eric sighed and pressed his fingers to the spot at the top of his nose, where suddenly all his tension had centered. “I just checked in, and I assure you, this is my room. But I’ll wait for you to get dressed. I’m sure the hotel will get this straightened out and you’ll be in your own room in no time.”
And probably a smaller one. At least he’d been put in an executive room, complete with a lavish king bed, a comfortable seating area and a view of Victoria Harbor that was incredible.
There was a great deal of splashing now and the sound of water draining. Eric stepped back from the door and took a breath, then went to the window to look outside. Seriously. He just wanted to relax for an hour. Was that too much to ask? This was supposed to be a first-class hotel with top-notch service. How did this sort of mix-up even happen?
Noises sounded from the bathroom. Unhappy noises. Apparently a little peace was indeed too much to ask for.
When the door opened he schooled his features and turned around.
And nearly swallowed his tongue.
She was angry; there was no doubt about that. Her blue eyes, framed by sooty lashes and set above lips that remained full and plump even as they were puckered in displeasure, snapped at him. She was wrapped in a hotel robe, and it was big on her, but he still had the picture of her legs in his head and the front of the robe gaped just enough to offer a tantalizing glimpse of cleavage.
He swallowed. Hard.
“I suggest you take your bag and go right back down to the desk,” she snapped.
He offered what he hoped was a calm, pleasant smile. “I think we should go down there together. I’ll wait for you to get dressed.”
“I don’t think so.”
“But possession is nine-tenths of the law,” he reminded her. “So I’m not leaving. That—” he pointed to the bed “—is my bed and I’m going to be taking a nap on it, so let’s not be difficult.”
A smile touched her lips. “Don’t quote law at me,” she said, a bit of mockery in her tone. “I’m a lawyer.”
Ugh. “Of course you are,” he muttered. He frowned as he looked at her face more closely. There was something unsettlingly familiar about it, but he couldn’t quite place it.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She put her hands on her hips, which only made the gap in the front of the robe wider. He tried really hard not to stare, but damn, she was attractive. There was no denying that. Where had he seen her before?
“It just means that the only thing worse than having someone mistakenly in my room is having a lawyer mistakenly in my room.” He knew it was an unfair thing to say, but seriously. The whole reason he was on this trip alone was because of his divorce and he was still bitter about how much he’d lost in the settlement.
“Wow. All right.” She moved to the desk and picked up the phone. A few moments later she hung up and turned to face him. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get dressed. Someone will be here in a minute to sort this out. Please let them in.”
She grabbed something out of a closet, slammed a few dresser drawers and disappeared into the bathroom again.
He gawped at the bathroom door. Holy cats, but she had cool dismissal down to an art form, and she knew how to sling orders, too. If he weren’t so annoyed, he rather thought he could use someone like her in his company. The way she’d sashayed into the bathroom hadn’t escaped his notice. A memory tugged at the corner of his mind, but before he could try to grab it, she came back out at the exact same time as someone knocked at the door. They both moved to answer it, but Eric sent her a quelling look and stepped forward.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Quinn, Mr. Chambault. I’m Paul, the assistant manager, and I’m so sorry for the mix-up.” He tried a smile. “Mr. Chambault, I’m afraid there was an error upon check-in that resulted in you being given the keys to Ms. Quinn’s room.”
The look on her face was triumphant.
Eric hesitated a moment, searching for the right words rather than the ones spinning through his head. “Accidents happen. If I could be shown to my actual room, that would be great.”
Paul’s smile turned into something that resembled a grimace. “Unfortunately, your room isn’t quite ready yet. It’ll be about an hour. We’re happy to keep your bags for you in the meantime, and you’re welcome to wait in our executive lounge and enjoy some refreshment. I promise that you’ll be in your room and settled before your group dinner this evening.”
“Group dinner?” Ms. Quinn—that was what he’d said her name was—stepped into the conversation. “You’re not with the adventure tour, too, are you?”
Oh, Lord. He didn’t want to go through the next ten days with her in the group. Suddenly that solitary sitting-on-a-beach thing was looking very enticing—why had he chosen this over the tropical vacation he’d initially planned? He met her eyes and was surprised to see something that resembled embarrassment in their depths, not to mention her flushed cheeks. Whether caused by embarrassment or from the heat of the bath, he didn’t know, but the trip was ten days long and he didn’t want this inauspicious event to set the tone.
“I am,” he replied and nodded. “I guess there’s nothing to be done about it.”
There was an awkward pause. Paul began taking Eric’s suitcase and carry-on bag to a bell cart while Eric and Ms. Quinn stood awkwardly in what was, apparently, her room.
“Sorry for the inconvenience,” she offered, slightly more subdued than she’d been earlier. He was about to snap back with a sharp retort when he put himself