Flirting with Felicity (14 page)

Had it all been a dream? Her heart pounded in her chest as
she drew a shaky breath. Suddenly she was conscious of the cool sheets beneath
her and the silence that surrounded her. The feel of his hands on her body had
seemed so real. Tension still lingered, demanding release—a release that
wouldn’t come anytime soon.

As her heart settled into a more normal rhythm, she got up
and moved on unsteady legs toward the door.
Heaven help her.
If
her dream had been any indication, the next few days in Blake’s presence would
tempt her as never before. Steeling herself for what was ahead, she moved into
the living area.

Blake turned toward her, his gaze as heated as her cheeks. A
slow smile spread across his face as he devoured her with his eyes. Could he
see the rapid rise and fall of her breasts that forced her taut nipples against
the silk of her blouse, or sense the desire that pulsed in her veins
unquenched? No man had ever given her such a look. And she’d never responded to
a man the way she did to Blake.

He stood. “I trust you’re feeling less tired.”

She glanced restlessly around the lounge. Less tired. More
worked up than ever. “Yes, thank you,” she said past the dryness in her throat.
“Have we arrived?”

“I was waiting on you to deplane. The others have gone on
ahead of us with our bags to prepare.”

Felicity glanced out the windows. Palm trees swayed gently
beneath a sudden, gentle breeze. A brilliant orange-red sunset lingered past
them, hovering on the horizon.
Sunset?
“How long was I asleep?”

“Six hours.”

She looked at him bewildered. “How can that be? We just
landed?”

“Yes.”

She moved toward the door of the plane and stopped at the
ramp. Stretched beyond the stairs were emerald-green mountains that looked as
though they were covered in velvet that plunged toward a white sand beach. The
sun hovered just above the horizon, casting a golden glow across the tropical
paradise. The sweet scent of jasmine and orchids hung in the air, seducing her
with its headiness as warmth caressed her skin.

She twisted back to Blake. “Where are we?”

He came toward her. “Hawai‘i. Kauai, if you’d like me to be
specific.”

“But we were going to San Francisco,” she said, her voice
rising.

He slid his hand beneath her arm, guiding her toward the air
stairs. “No, you assumed we were going to San Francisco, and I let you believe
that.”

She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “You tricked me.”

He stopped on the stairs beside her. “You agreed to go with
me anywhere I chose to take you that could demonstrate what I wanted to show
you about environmental protections and sustainable living.”

She wanted to argue, but she remembered agreeing to those
very terms. She’d never imagined he would take her here. With a quick glance at
the man beside her, the reality of her situation hit her. She’d be in Hawai‘i
for two days while Blake tried to convince her that the Bancroft Hotel was
better off under his management.

How was she going to fight him when he wasn’t playing fair?
Felicity took a deep breath and fought the urge to strangle him. “Hawai‘i?” she
groaned.

He smiled wickedly. “This is where I can best make my point
about sustainability. What better place to protect than paradise?”

She pushed her hair away from her face, feeling somewhat
defeated already and they hadn’t even stepped onto Hawaiian soil. She was in so
much trouble from herself, from Blake, from the tropical paradise they were
about to enter.

Sighing, she crooked her arm out from her side. “All right,
let’s get this over with.”

Beside her, Blake flashed a dazzling smile. “Paradise awaits
us,” he said as though he’d read her mind.

Felicity pasted on her best smile and headed to the bottom of
the ramp where Kayoko waited with two leis made from purple orchids.

The flight attendant slipped one of the traditional flower
greetings around Felicity’s neck, then Blake’s. “Welcome to Hawai‘i.” She
motioned off to her left. “Peter has your car ready to take you to the hotel.”

Blake escorted her to the car and allowed her to slip into
the backseat. In a fluid movement, he slid in beside her and gave her a
devilish smile that made his blue eyes come alive with humor and hunger.

A thousand emotions tore through Felicity—excitement, fear,
desire, doubt, but most of all happiness. She had no responsibilities for two
whole days. Mary Beth would step in for her father if something came up. Edward
would look after the hotel. And Hans would take care of the restaurant. It had
been three years since she’d had any time off from the restaurant or her
obligations to her father—three years since she’d had a moment to relax.

“Where are we going?” she asked as they headed off the tarmac
and away from the airfield.

“Bancroft Industries owns several hotels on this island. We
are going to a modest hotel called the Mano Kea just off Poipu Beach. It’s one
of my favorite places to stay on Kauai, and it’s the greenest of the Bancroft
properties.”

And so it begins, Felicity thought as she stared out the
window, watching the long white beach on one side of the car, and the jutting
velvet mountains on the other. Despite the fact that they were so close to the
ocean, the air smelled as though it were laden with honey instead of the salt
so prominent in the air along the waterfront in Seattle.

It didn’t take long before they turned off the main road to
stop in a circular drive. Peter came around to open the door for them. Blake
stepped out, then offered Felicity his hand. She slid across the seat to emerge
from the car and stilled. The modest hotel was not a hotel at all; it was a
palace.

The white-stone palace towered three stories high. Arches and
colonnades graced the front of the building. Behind the building-long balcony
were windows, covered in intricately carved filigree wood shutters. Three
golden domes, reflecting the bright orange of the setting sun, dominated the
center and east and west wings. Two fourteen-foot brass-bound doors, stamped
with scenes from Hawai‘i’s Polynesian past, led into the palace. A small
courtyard with a graceful waterfall fronted the entrance.

“It’s beautiful,” Felicity exclaimed as she followed Blake
inside, only to have her words snatched away by the tropical beauty that
awaited her inside. A paradise stretched before her, with palm trees and
bright-colored flowers surrounding a waterfall that filled the lobby with its
soothing sound. “It is real?”

“It’s manmade, but operates much like the fountains of old
with no motors or pumps. We collect the water in a reservoir in the hills, then
send it downward through a series of aqueducts. Gravity does the rest.”

“Impressive.”

“I’d hoped you’d feel that way.” Blake’s eyes crinkled as he
chuckled. “This hotel is a LEED Gold–certified building. It not only protects
the environment, but also serves as a refuge for several endangered species.”

Blake moved through the lobby like a man in charge of his
troops. In what seemed like only moments, he had two porters and two maids
depositing their suitcases in an overly large suite on the third floor, with
one bedroom on the right side of the room and another on the left. Before she
could object, the maids had her suitcase unpacked in the room on the right.

With a charming smile on his face, Blake showered his
employees with generous tips, until finally they closed the doors of the
sitting room, leaving the two of them alone.

“I hope you don’t mind that I booked us into the VIP suite
together. The hotel is always full. I had to move two clients to a different
hotel and pay for their entire vacation so we could have this suite.”

“That was very generous of you.” Felicity remained where she
stood.

“It’s business.”

Only this wasn’t business as usual, at least not for her. Two
days in paradise with Blake, sleeping across the sitting room from him? How was
she going to survive, unless she focused on the one thing that was guaranteed
to take her mind off anything . . . cooking.

“I thought we could clean up and have dinner on the veranda.”

“Dinner,” she said a little desperately. “That’s a great
idea. I’d like to see the kitchen here. If I’m going to find out how this hotel
differs from the Bancroft, then I’d like to start somewhere I understand.”

Blake hesitated only a moment before he nodded. “By all
means. Right this way.”

As she moved past him, he placed a hand on the small of her
back, as though it were necessary to guide her from the suite, down the stairs
and out the door to a separate building not far from the main building. His
touch ignited the simmering desire that had coiled inside her since leaving
Seattle, and she felt her control slipping.

Blake escorted her across a stone walkway illuminated with
tiki torches and toward an arched doorway. “The kitchen has its own building,
since it was added after the hotel was originally built in the early 1900s. The
goal was to keep things as close to the original building as possible.”

“Is that what you would do to the Bancroft? Keep as much of
the original building as possible?” she asked even though it sounded like she
was admitting defeat, which she definitely wasn’t.

He shrugged. “I won’t know for certain until we start the
inspection.”

Her lips thinned into a grim, determined line. She needed to
believe she would succeed in her efforts to keep the Bancroft.

Blake guided her along the pathway until she could hear the
low rumble of male voices in the kitchen, accompanied by the clinking of plates
and silverware. They stepped through the doorway to the tantalizing aromas of
spices and savory meat. Her stomach rumbled in appreciation as she walked into
the stainless steel kitchen. Four men worked at the grill and stove, and two
women bustled around the kitchen dressed in blue and white floral dresses with
flowers tucked into their hair near their left ears.

“Haku,” Blake greeted one of the men behind the grill.

The Hawaiian smiled easily and, after wiping his hands on the
white towel tucked into the belt of his apron, came to greet them. “Mr.
Bancroft, so good to see you.”

“I apologize for interrupting you during dinner,” Blake said
as he shook the chef’s hand, then clapped him on the shoulder.

“No worries.
Aloha.
I don’t usually find you in the
kitchen,” Haku said as his gaze focused on Felicity’s face.

“I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Felicity
Wright. She’s a superb chef at the Bancroft Hotel in Seattle.”

Blake’s compliment caught her off guard as the cook grasped
her hand in both of his and gave it an enthusiastic shake. “Haku Kepoo. It’s a
pleasure to meet you. Come, let me show you how we do things around
here—Hawaiian style.” He pulled her back toward the grill, leaving Blake
standing alone.

She wanted the distraction, she reminded herself as she
walked away listening to Haku talk about what they were preparing for the
evening’s menu. Yet watching Blake’s expression fade as she left him behind
brought a heavy sensation to her chest. A pain that made no sense to her, but
it was there, acknowledging everything she tried so hard to deny.

She liked Blake Bancroft. Perhaps a little too much.

Blake left the kitchen and Felicity in the hands of the
friendly chef and went directly to the suite. He palmed his cell phone and
placed a long-overdue call to Marcus.

“It’s eleven at night, Blake. I already finalized the deal
with Jamison.”

“This isn’t about the Heritage Hotel.”

“Then what’s it about? I was sleeping,” Marcus said, less
than pleased to hear from him.

“What do you have on Felicity?”

Marcus groaned. “We couldn’t have talked about this
yesterday?”

Blake frowned into the phone. “I’ve been”—distracted,
enchanted, consumed with lust—“busy.”

“Where are you?” Marcus asked with a yawn.

“Hawai‘i.”

There was a pause, a ruffle of crisp linens, then Marcus
said, “You took her to Hawai‘i?”

Blake shifted uncomfortably. “It was a last-minute decision.”

“You don’t make those kinds of decisions,” Marcus said, his
tone serious. “That’s twice in one week. You must really like this girl.”

Blake did, and he wanted more.

The realization surprised him. He wanted to know her. When
they’d first met, he’d thought of her only as another business adversary. Yet
the more time he spent with her, the more he became aware she was a woman of
intense passions. She was generous to a fault, faithful to her friends, and had
deep bonds with her employees. She was one of them, yet she was also forced to
stand apart. Alone. Every day that he spent with her he saw some new facet that
intrigued him and drew him to uncover more.

She was coming too close, and that both exhilarated and
scared him.

“What did you find out about her?” Blake asked, forcing his
thoughts back to the conversation.

“I found her father.”

“Where?”

“In a hospital in Seattle. He had a procedure done on Friday
to help him regain his speech.”

Blake gripped the phone more firmly. “He doesn’t talk?”

“He hasn’t said a word in years.”

“Did the procedure work?” Blake asked with a frown.

“Hard to tell at this point.”

Blake let that news slide over him before he asked, “Why
doesn’t he talk? What’s wrong with him?”

“The whole family was in a car accident years ago. Her mother
was killed, and her father injured.”

“A brain injury?”

“I haven’t found anything definite, but I’d assume so.”

“Anything else?” Blake asked, his thoughts going in a million
directions.

“She spent a year abroad. Had very little contact over there
with anyone except her employers. There was one employer she had a short
affair—”

“Dig deeper into the father.” Blake cut his lawyer off. “I
want to know more. Details about the accident. Her father’s medical history.
His prognosis.” Her father was her weakness. He could use that to his
advantage.

Marcus sighed. “I do have other legal matters to oversee for
your company.”

“That’s why I pay you an exorbitant salary.”

“That does take some of the sting out of working with you,”
Marcus said more cheerfully. “I’ll be in touch.”

Blake hung up the phone, his thoughts zinging in a million
directions.

He strode across the suite to the door. He finally had a tiny
insight into what drove Felicity, and with that knowledge, he knew he held the
card that could win the battle between them.

Feeling more enthusiastic than he had in a long while, Blake
hurried down the hallway and, taking the steps to the outside two at a time,
went back to the kitchen in search of Felicity.

“Felicity?”

Blake’s voice, so rich and welcoming, curled around her as he
walked toward her in the glow of the tiki lights that surrounded the patio
outside the kitchen. She’d set one of the unused staff tables with linens,
silverware, and goblets from the kitchen, showcasing two plates of Hawaiian BBQ
short ribs that Haku had prepared.

If the fall-off-the-bone ribs were an indicator, the Hawaiian
chef was an expert when it came to meat. He’d slow cooked the ribs in a variety
of sauces for the past six hours. When she’d taken a small taste in the
kitchen, the meat had melted in her mouth and sent her taste buds soaring.

She motioned to Blake to sit down. “Haku showed me how he
makes his Hawaiian barbecue.”

Blake sat in the chair opposite her. “He must really like
you. He’s never shared that recipe with me. He says it’s what will keep him
employed, and he’s right. People come from all over the island to eat here.”
Blake studied her from over the rim of his water glass.

“I can understand why.” Something hot and dry curled in
Felicity’s throat. His eyes were like pools of promise, beckoning, calling to
her to trust him.

She
couldn’t. He had the power to break her.
With trembling
fingertips, she reached for her food. They ate in silence, listening to the
breeze as it rustled through the palms overhead. All around them, slow-moving
shadows danced in the pale light of the torches. A rounded moon hung high in
the sky, a circle of the purest gold, a moon that seemed as much a fairy tale
as the rest of the day had been.

When he had finished eating, Blake sat back in his chair and
studied her once more.

“Why are you and Destiny so at odds?”

The words came unexpectedly, jarring Felicity to sit up
straighter. “What made you think of Destiny at a time like this?” They were
sitting in paradise, isolated, alone, and his thoughts had gone there?

He shrugged, but the intensity of his look was anything but
casual. “She came to see me before we left. She seems very intent on ruining
you. Why?”

Felicity’s stomach lurched at the thought of Destiny and
Blake together. Felicity knew the reporter would stop at nothing to get what
she wanted. “We used to be friends, but something changed between us two weeks
ago. I’ve gone over and over that time in my mind. I can’t figure out what
might have happened. She’s been attacking me ever since; first with a terrible
review of the Dolce Vita, then by trying to partner with you.” Her eyes went
wide. “You’re not going to, are you?”

He frowned. “I don’t want to take you down, Felicity, nor
would my family appreciate the negative attention on our hotels. I just want
what should’ve been mine in the first place.”

Not for the first time did she have a pang of guilt over that
very fact. The Bancroft should be his, but Vern must have had his reasons. If
only she knew what those reasons were, this would be so much easier. “Damn you,
Vern,” she said, then was startled when she realized she’d said it aloud.

“He was a cunning old fox, wasn’t he?”

“He was only ever very sweet to me, never manipulative.”

Blake’s eyes narrowed. “My uncle was sweet? Impossible. And
he was always manipulative with me.”

Felicity groaned. “I feel as though I’m missing something.
Some deeper meaning in that message he left me along with the will.
Take care of
the Bancroft, Felicity. You’ll know what to do.
Well, I don’t. I
have absolutely no idea. And there’s that unfinished note for you. I wish I
could figure out what it all meant.” Felicity stood, no longer able to contain
herself to the chair, pacing restlessly across the terrace.

Blake pushed his chair away from the table, watching her as
she moved back and forth. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “I was never
able to predict what my uncle would do.”

“What is there to be gained from us being at odds with each
other?”

Blake snorted. “I didn’t know him well enough to even guess
at a reason.”

She kept pacing back and forth as the minutes ticked past.

He sighed. “You know pacing isn’t going to solve our problem.”

“Yes, I know. But I can’t get my mind off why Vern did this.
I mean,” she went on, one arm sweeping wide as she turned, “why did he go to
such lengths to see that you and I would battle it out over the hotel? Why not
just leave me the restaurant and you the hotel?”

He rose and caught her in his arms as she passed near and
pulled her against him.

Her entire body responded with a wave of heat that sent her
pulse racing. She braced herself against the sensation.

“I might be persuaded to accept that, Felicity.” His deep
voice saying her name in the darkness made her senses jolt almost as much as
the odd way he was looking at her. She forced herself to return his steady
gaze. As they stared at each other, the breeze evaporated, leaving in its place
an oppressive, warm silence. The only sound was the soft mingling of their
breath in the motionless air. Felicity kept her flash of temper in check. That
didn’t solve the problem of keeping her people employed. “Until I understand
why Vern did what he did, or until you can convince me otherwise, the Bancroft
remains in my care.”

A headache banged to life behind Felicity’s eyes. She stepped
back out of Blake’s arms and moved to the railing. She leaned against the
barrier, grateful the night breeze had picked up once more. Tipping her head
back, she allowed the breeze to caress her face. She closed her eyes, reveling
in the sensation when she felt Blake’s gaze on her body like a tangible
presence. Almost a touch. Slowly she turned toward him. Their eyes met, held.
The warmth in his look sent a shiver skittering along her flesh. The silk of
her blouse seemed somehow thinner, the night colder than it had a moment ago.

“Why do you have to fight me for the hotel? You have so many
already, and I only have the one,” Felicity asked with a tired sigh.

He leaned back on his heels and studied her. “Life isn’t
about fairness.”

Her head throbbed and her temper snapped. “Don’t tell me what
life is about. While you’ve been living in posh hotel rooms with enough money
to do as you please, even fly to Hawai‘i on a whim, I’ve been living a real
life with bills and responsibilities and lots and lots of worries.”

She latched on to her anger. Anger she understood far better
than longing or desire. Anger had always spurred her forward in her life,
challenging her to push beyond her abilities, to become more. Anger had helped
her pick up the pieces of her life after her mother died and the father she’d
always known had failed to come back to her.

Like a fire starting with a single flame, her anger took hold
and built into a raging inferno. “You can’t tell me you’ve ever known what it
was like to go hungry, or to shiver in the darkness because the power had been
shut off. Or that you’d been so lonely that you wondered if another person in
the entire world even cared if you were still alive.”

She turned back to look at him, and he trapped her with his
gaze. “You’re right. I’ll never know those things, and I hope to God other
children in this world will never have to know that kind of pain.”

She blinked, her tirade momentarily derailed.

He moved slowly toward her, holding her gaze, and gently took
her arm. “What do you expect me to do? I can’t fix all the problems of the
world. Even I don’t have enough money for that.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, her angry suddenly spent. “That was
uncalled for.”

“Don’t be. You have a right to your beliefs, as I do mine.
That’s why I put my efforts into the environment. At least there’s a tangible
quality to the difference I’m making. I can test the air quality and know it’s
improved on some level for every person on the planet.”

She frowned, letting him turn her and guide her back toward
their table. “Helping one child out of poverty can make just as significant a
change.” Her voice vibrated with emotion.

Silence wrapped around them. The world shrunk to just the two
of them, standing face to face in a tropical paradise.

“Let’s not fight about the hotel tonight,” he said, breaking
the silence as his hand came out, stretched toward her.

She stared at the flat, pale circle of his palm. Unbidden, a
wave of longing washed over her. How good would it feel to place her hand in
his, to let his fingers thread through her own, to feel like she wasn’t always
so alone?