[Invitation to Eden 04.0] Hydrotherapy (9 page)

“Me?” She stopped and turned to face him. “
I’m
the one being ridiculous?” She pointed at his chest, pushing him back with her finger. “You are the one inviting me here, expecting to pick up where we left off.” He took a step back, and she advanced, poking him again. “You were the one delusional enough to think that I have been sitting around pining after you all of these months, waiting for you to crook your finger so I could come running. I had a life, Caine. A life!”

“Of course you did, but that’s in the past.” She started to poke him again, but he grabbed her hand. “I had nothing in St. Lucia, Jenna. I took this job so that I could save up money to give you the life you deserved.” She tugged at her hand, but he held firm. “This job with Rex—you think I like this? Do you think I want to sit around with his crotchety ass and sift sand for trinkets?” He kissed her fingers. “I’m doing this for us, Jenna. I’m trying to build our future.”

“You are skimming off the top. You’re cheating an innocent man.”

“No, I’m cheating a rich man who won’t miss the few bucks we’ll make off of selling some old trinkets.”

“A few bucks? You think that we’ll be able to build a life together for a few bucks?”

“Rex thinks it’s in the billions.”

“I don’t care. I should have listened to my mother. She said that loving a man would only bring me pain. She was right.” She started to back away, but he tugged her closer.

“Listen to me, Jenna. Back in St. Lucia, I didn’t have two coins to rub together. Rex and I were living hand to mouth. Half the time we were sleeping in some alley, or eating scraps tossed out by restaurants and delis. I had nothing. Now…” He placed her hand over his heart. “Now, I’m going to have something, Jenna. I’ll finally be worthy.”

Jenna looked down at their joined hands as tears filled her eyes. “You just don’t get it, do you?” She slipped her hand away and picked up her bag. “You had something in St. Lucia, Caine.” She pointed to her chest. “Me.” She took one shaky step back, then another. “You had
me
. I didn’t care about the money. I only cared about you. You not only broke my heart when you left me, but by taking my money, you broke my spirit. Now…” She blinked back tears as she took another wobbly step back, then another. “Now you really
do
have nothing, Caine. Congratulations.”

Jenna turned and raced back up the path toward the castle as the tears she had fought so desperately to hold back began to flow.

Chapter Six

The Next Morning

Caine didn't need to look up from the boat’s deck to know that his cousin had finally arrived.

“You're late,” he grumbled.

“And you're pissy,” Rex retorted.

Caine scrubbed the deck harder with his sponge, refusing to respond.

Rex removed his sunglasses. “I know something that will brighten your mood.”

Caine doubted it. Things with Jenna had gone from bad to worse. She was so angry yesterday by the waterfall. Up until that point, he had convinced himself that once she saw what he was doing for their future, she'd fall into his arms and they'd live happily ever after. It never occurred to him that should wouldn’t be happy to see him.

Rex rapped his walking stick on the deck until Caine stopped scrubbing and glanced up at him.

“Did you hear me?” he said. “I have some good news.”

Caine wiped the sweat from his brow. “What is it?” Not that he cared. He had spent the past two hours scrubbing the deck of his boat, hoping that by cleaning it, he could clean the dark spot on his soul. While the boat was now spotless, Caine's mood had only gotten worse.

“I've found a new buyer.”

“I thought we had a buyer.”

“Yeah, but that one requires us to ship the artifacts overseas. This one’s on the island.”

“Here?” Caine shielded his eyes from the sun and looked up at his cousin.

Rex slipped his sunglasses back on his nose and grinned. “Yeah, some prince or something. He just arrived with his entourage this morning.”

“Is he interested in the artifacts?”

Rex shrugged. “He will be when I'm done with him.” Which meant he hadn’t spoken to this guy yet. When Caine went back to his scrubbing, Rex held his hands out to the sides. “Don't you see? This is a good thing.”

“Yeah, sure.” Rex was delusional. Some prince wasn't going to be interested in old coins and pieces of pottery. Even if he was interested, the sale wouldn’t mean anything if he didn’t have Jenna.

“I mean it. He brought piles of suitcases containing useless stuff.” Rex leaned back on the side of the boat. “That's what all of those rich bastards do—collect useless stuff. The artifacts will be right up his alley.”

Caine doubted it. Still, Rex could be convincing when he wanted to be. If he was able to convince the prince that this was a good business investment, then it was entirely possible that they could have this whole thing wrapped up over the next day or two. Caine wiped his brow as he realized that he now had hours, not days, to convince Jenna to trust him with her future. Considering that they weren't even on speaking terms, he didn't think it was nearly enough time.

“Aw, shit man, you aren't still angry over yesterday, are you?”

Caine wasn't sure how to respond. Yes, he was mad, but Rex was just being Rex, always thinking with his dick, not his head. It wasn't like he was hiding the details of his plan from Jenna, he was just looking for the best time to tell her.

“Simone loved that shit, too. She was real disappointed about not going to the site. Said she had a thing for old, broken things.” Rex chuckled. “I’m tellin’ you, Caine, that woman certainly knows how to have a good time. Why she—”

“Save it.” Caine held up his hand, stopping his cousin's words. “I don't want to hear about your sexual adventures with Simone. Really.”

Rex shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He sat in a chair close to Caine and watched him scrub the deck. “Look, I'm sorry that your girlfriend got her panties in a snit, but that just emphasizes my point. She's all wrong for you, cuz'.” He stretched out his legs, placing his sandy feet in the spot Caine just cleaned. “What you need is a free spirit, someone who can go with the flow.”

“You mean someone who can take your orders.”

“And not question them.” Rex grinned. “The less complicated things get, the better.”

Loosely translated in Rex speak, less complicated meant less rules. Rex was always one to skirt the rules. Normally Caine was okay with it. They weren't hurting real people, just rich billionaires who had money to burn. This time, however, Caine felt uncomfortable with the whole situation.

In St. Lucia, Rex proved that he had no problem stealing from working families as well as the rich. Seeing how his cousin's selfishness affected Jenna and her mother had moved Caine. He meant what he had said. He wanted to make it up to her.

In fact, he was starting to feel guilty about their plan to double-cross the Master of the Island as well. Rumor had it that Mr. Vardalos had been swindled in the past and didn't take kindly to being made a fool. They were already toeing the line with the local authorities by not filing the paperwork for the excavation. That meant that Mr. Vardalos had no problem going outside the law when it suited him. If Caine and Rex were caught double-crossing him, Caine suspected that Mr. Vardalos wouldn’t hesitate to use whatever means necessary to exact his revenge.

“Ever think about what might happen if we get caught?” Caine asked.

“Don't worry, we never get caught.”

“We got caught in St. Lucia.” And ruined the lives of Jenna and her mother.

Rex shrugged. “We're still here, aren't we?” Rex slid his sunglasses down to the tip of his nose. “You aren't getting cold feet, are you?”

“No, of course not.” Caine turned back to his sponge and resumed scrubbing the deck.

“Good, because you owe me, buddy.” Rex pushed his shades back up and lifted his face to the sun.

“I thought you were fine,” Caine muttered. “You told me you were fine that night.”

Rex snorted. “I say a lot of things when I'm drunk. You know that.”

Guilt once again rose up and gripped Caine's chest. “When I left you in that bar, you were surrounded by people.”

“Strangers,” Rex said. “They were all strangers.” He pulled off his glasses and gave Caine a long, hard look. “We were a team, or at least I thought we were.”

“We were—we are.”

Rex nodded. “You left me in that bar in St. Lucia while I was too drunk to stand, let alone walk.”

Caine remembered that night as if it happened yesterday. It was his two-month anniversary with Jenna and Rex insisted on going drinking. Caine had only a few sips of beer before pleading a headache. He had rushed from the bar and barely made it on time for his romantic evening with Jenna. The night was amazing, and he refused to regret it. Both of them had known that his contract was coming to an end. He had been considering staying on, taking odd jobs just so he could remain close to her.

“You should have taken care of me,” Rex grumbled.

“I left you cab fare.”

“Yeah, and the whole bar saw you give it to me.” He shook his head. “Those bastards jumped me as soon as they got a chance.”

Caine ran a hand over his face. “I said I was sorry.”

“I was ready to go home. I can't remember the time...one...two in the morning? I was on the sidewalk when those two bikers from the bar jumped me and took my money.”

“I still find it hard to believe that one of them took a lead pipe to your knee. Why would someone bring a lead pipe to a bar?”

Rex's features hardened. “They didn't bring it to the bar, you idiot, they had it in their car.”

“Who would drive around with a lead pipe?”

“Thugs,” Rex said, running his hand over the teak cane. “But now I have a weapon.” He glanced up at Caine. “And a partner. Next time, we'll be ready.”

“There won't be a next time.”

“Damn straight, because we're a team. We do everything together, cuz'.” Rex leaned forward until his face was inches from Caine. “So forget all of this talk about girlfriends and love.” He placed the tip of his cane on Caine's chest. “There’s only blood, only us. It was the way things were meant to be.”

Caine's guilt washed over him in waves. “You're right, of course.”

“Damn straight.” Rex leaned back, grinned and shoved on his sunglasses. “Forget her, cuz’. That woman has been fucking everyone in Chicago for the past year and a half at that spa job. She’s damaged goods.”

“You’re lying.” Caine’s guilt washed away with Rex’s words.

“Aw, come on, cuz’, even I know to do my homework.” He moved to the edge of his seat and leaned his elbows on his knees. “That place she works at…the Ecstasy Spa? Rumor has it that they have a VIP section where they provide special services to clients.”

“Like pedicures and—”

“No ‘special services.’” Rex made quotation marks with his hands. “They are skilled in every possible way to relax the body, if you know what I mean.”

Caine didn’t like where this was going. “Perhaps she wasn’t part of the VIP area.”

“Damn it, man, did you even read her resume? She was the God Damn conductor of that sexual orchestra.” Rex shook his head. “And here you are, thinking that your poor, innocent Jenna had been pining after you all of these months, just like you were pining after her.”

Caine fisted his hands. He remembered when he had tracked her down to that spa. He had been so excited to bring her to the island that he had never thought to look into her past, or to check deeper into the spa’s background. “That’s impossible.”

“Is it? Ask her, then. Have her tell you what she has been doing.”

Caine stood. “I will.”

“Later. Now, we need to get this garbage heap moving. There's an ocean full of artifacts to collect, and I, for one, don't want to waste any more sun—hey, where are you going?”

“Here.” He fished around in his pocket for the boat keys and found the vial of oil he had taken from the spa yesterday. He had swiped it in the hopes of using it with Jenna. Seemed like a slim chance of that happening now.

He dismissed the vial of oil and grabbed what he was looking for.

“Come on, cuz',” Rex said as he caught the keys.

“Go out by yourself.”

“You know I can’t. What are you doing?”

Caine jumped off the boat and headed back up the dock. “I’m going to follow your recommendation,” he called over his shoulder. “I’m going to ask her myself.”

“But what about our excavation?”

“We’ll resume tomorrow.”

“Aw, come on, Caine. I have two potential buyers—”

“They’ll wait.” Caine had more important things on his mind than princes and Masters of the Island. He had to find Jenna and prove to her once and for all that they were meant to be together. No other man would ever touch her again. He’d make sure of it.

“So that's the story of my fucked up life.”

The tall, dark-haired man next to Jenna let out a long breath.

Jenna downed the last of her margarita and glanced up at the handsome man next to her at the poolside bar. The sun was setting, and most of the tourists were at dinner, but Jenna didn't feel like eating. She didn't feel like doing much except nursing her broken heart.

“You're right, that's fucked up.” He scanned the pool area as he talked, as if searching for someone. The poor guy had just come to the bar for a drink and had gotten Jenna’s entire sob story. On one hand she felt bad for the poor guy, who, if those scars on his face were any indication, had his own sob story. Still, it felt good to get everything off her chest.

“What I don't understand is why he asked me here,” she said.

The man shrugged. “Perhaps he wanted to get back together.” He took a sip of his drink and frowned at a couple on the other side of the pool. “That's what I'd do if I wanted to seduce someone.”

“You’d invite them to Eden?”

He turned to face her. “Yes—or a tropical paradise like this.” The haunted look in his eyes made Jenna a little uncomfortable.

“Was she surprised?”

He raised his brows.

“Sorry. It just—it looked like you were speaking from experience and I thought that perhaps…never mind.” Jenna turned away and toyed with the edge of her napkin.