Strictly Business [Stud Service 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (10 page)

“Oh, is this Susannah?” her mother asked in an anxious and high-pitched voice.

“Yes, Mom.” Susannah let out a sigh. She knew she sounded similar to her sisters and sometimes it was hard to tell their voices apart.

“Oh, Susannah! I am so relieved to hear from you. Are you home or are you still insisting on working on that little island?”

“I’m in the Caribbean right now, Mom.”
No thanks to you. “
But don’t worry about me. I’m fine and I will have a roof over my head for the next six months while I am working.”

“Well, that’s good to hear, dear.” It’s funny but Susannah swore she heard a note of sarcasm in that reply.

“Mom, everything seems to have worked out despite certain
roadblocks
that have come up. I do want to talk to you about something serious, though.”

“Serious? Are you okay?”

Susannah tried not to grind her teeth as she spoke. She hated conflict. Confrontations usually made her feel like she wanted to throw up inside, but this was something she had to get off her chest. “I know you want to have a grandchild, but did you have to cancel my card that I set up my hotel reservations on?”

“Oh, dear.”

She could imagine her mother had gone white as a sheet at that. “I had the worst time getting here. Since Daddy said I couldn’t use the plane, I had to make reservations and fly coach, which really is okay by me, but when I got here your lawyer friend—”

“Ethan works for your father, Susannah, but you should know I don’t keep track of his business.”

“Yeah, well, he was following me as if I needed some kind of babysitter.” Susan huffed. It was quite irritating to have a guy follow her across the country as if she couldn’t handle herself. “I can’t believe you and Dad would do such a thing to me.”

“You are in a foreign country where all kinds of things could happen to you.” There was an honest concern in her voice that made Susannah soften her resolve.

“I’m a big girl, Mom. Every day when I get dressed I put on big-girl panties and go out in the world. You raised me right. You have to trust that I am going to do the right thing.”

“We trust you, dear, it’s other people we don’t trust. If this is about the money you really should talk to your father. He is taking care of all those nasty details. Let me get him.”

“Mom, don’t—” She was going to say don’t bother, but her mom had already left the phone hanging off the hook.

This conversation had not gone as she planned.

“Susannah! How are you?”

“Dad. I am sorry Mom had to go get you. I was just telling her how your lawyer friend accosted me at the airport.”

“Oh! Have you seen Ethan? I haven’t heard from him since earlier today.”

“That’s because he got delayed. I managed to get an earlier flight,” she added with a chuckle. “He is probably still somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico.”

“Oh, Susannah. How did that happen? He was supposed to be on the same flight. I made the arrangements myself.”

“I got upgraded, and I don’t want to be babysat, Dad.” She rolled her eyes and was extremely happy he couldn’t see the mildly annoyed expression on her face.

“Ethan is just there to make sure you are okay while you are alone.”

“Well, it has to stop somewhere. He’s not getting on the boat for the next six months.”

Her father let out a long, deep sigh. “We were hoping you would give up this nonsense and come home before then.”

“I’ve already made up my mind. You only get so many chances in life to live your dreams, and this is mine. Wasn’t there something you always wanted to do but then lived to regret it that you didn’t try?” She wanted so bad to make her father understand her point of view.

“Susan. You can’t just go do everything that feels good in the world. Sometimes you have to settle down and let your dreams go.”

“I’m not you, and I’m not there yet. All I’m asking is for you to give me six months, and then I will do whatever it is you and Mom are asking. You’ll get grandchildren by the boatload, but for now, can you please just try not interfere in my life?”

There was silence for a few seconds as he was thinking about her proposition. “All right. Six months, but don’t tell your sisters. They need to be focused and looking for a man right now. If they think you get any more time than the rest of them, they are going to think we are playing favorites, and in six months you are going to feel pressure to get this done.”

“Time is all I ask. You might get lucky and get a grandchild before then, but I need to do this right now.”

“When Ethan gets out there, say hello to him for me.”

Susannah groaned. “Do you mean you aren’t sending him home?”

“No, dear. He won’t leave until you either come home or get on the ship. Those were my orders.”

Great—just great!
“He will
have
to find me first.” She didn’t want to spend the week hiding from her father’s lackey.

“He’ll find you.
Ethan worked for years as a private investigator before he passed the Texas State Bar exam.”

Damn, her father sounded smug about that, but if it was true it would be impossible to get him off her back. Except he would have a hard time finding her. She wasn’t a registered guest at the hotel, and he didn’t know she was a personal guest of Colt Vance.

It may take him months to figure out where she was.

It was a big island after all.

Ethan would have to turn up every rock to find her.

“He can try.” She added some cynicism for her father’s benefit. “Would you mind calling up the credit card company and uncancelling the card while I am here? I would like to be able to eat for the next week.”

“I’ll call them as soon as I get off the phone with you, but don’t do anything stupid while you are out there.”

“Daddy, don’t you trust me? When was the last time I ever did anything stupid?”

“Well, there was that green horse you tried to ride in the rodeo, and the time you covered the cowboy in oil, and the—”

She couldn’t believe he was bringing this up now of all times. “That was over ten years ago.”

“Okay, but it still happened.”

“And you have the memory of an elephant,” she grumbled.

“Honey, I don’t mind you wanting to be independent and follow your dreams, but don’t worry your mother. Make sure you call at least once a week. I am not trying to be overprotective, but you were kidnapped as a child, and your mother worries so much. Not hearing from you would give her a stroke.”

“Don’t remind me. Okay, Dad. I will do that.” Throughout all the things they had been through she knew her parents loved her and she loved them. Even with the pressure they added to her life, she didn’t want to make them worry about her safety and welfare.

“I love you.”

“Love you, too, Dad.”
 

Susannah laid on the bed texting her sisters and everyone else that might care that she reached the islands safely.

She didn’t expect a reply anytime soon, since most everyone had a life and a job to keep them busy, but about twenty minutes later she received a reply from her sister, Serena.

So happy you got to the island safely, and I met a guy. Hoping I may have found Mr. Right this time. Love you, sis. Serena.

She smiled at the words on the small screen and texted back on her iPhone.

You go girl! Can’t wait to meet him.

It wasn’t a minute later her iPhone chimed and she received the following text back.

LOL He’s a little cranky, but he’s really cute and always the gentleman with me.

He better be treating you right, or he will have to answer to me. I love my sisters too much to let a guy treat them badly.

The iPhone chimed with a response.

So far he has and I hope this new guy of yours is your Mr. Right. We aren’t getting any younger. lol

She loved her sisters and she knew all of them were feeling extra pressure from Mom and Dad to get a guy, but they should be able to have a little fun in their life, too. Her response was a little more lighthearted than she felt.

Forget Mr. Right. That is why I am settling for Mr. Right Now. Good luck and I love you too, sis. Susie.

Suddenly, a knock came at the door and Susannah bolted up off the bed, tossing her cell phone to the bedside table.

The bellboy from earlier had arrived with her packages and many bags of clothes from the shopping trip earlier.

Thanks to Colt Vance she had enough clothes to last her a month. She went through the endless bags and dumped them out on the bed.

“Will there be anything else, madam?” The bellboy turned to leave.

“No, but thank you.” She gave him a weak smile and watched him go.

Colt appeared to have been waiting just outside the door in the shadows of the dense green foliage. The breath caught in her throat as she watched him finish his walk to her cottage.

“Why, hello there.” Susannah was surprised when her voice cracked. Colt always could seem to set her off balance, and in the short time she knew him, she couldn’t understand why her stomach did belly flops or why she had those feelings in the pit of her stomach. He was quite a catch, though. Her eyes raked over Colt’s lean form. He had a predatory look in his eye that caused a shiver to race her spine. His lean body was dressed in all black, well, almost all black. The button-down shirt had a two brilliant-green palm trees on the right side, but he made it look good, not like something a tourist would wear.

“Hello, sexy.”

“I feel like I should be saying that to you.”

“Can I come in?”

“Of course.” She smiled but was interrupted by a phone call. A number she didn’t recognize came up on the screen. Despite her doubts and fears, she answered it anyway and heard Ethan’s voice on the other end.

“I bet you thought you were very funny back at the airport.”

Susannah tried to hold back her laughter, because leaving him standing there was quite funny to her. “Why don’t you go back to Texas?”

“Where are you?” He answered her question with another question.

She giggled. “Not so fast. It won’t be any fun if I can’t play the game right.”

“This isn’t a game, Susannah. Your father asked for me to watch over you.”

Her earlier conversation with her father came back to her. The fact that Ethan was a private investigator wasn’t lost on her. “My father says you are very good at tracking people down. So I will give you a little hint. I’m very near to the beach.”

“It’s an island. There is a beach in every direction. Susannah, I’m not going to play games with you. Now where are you?”

“What are you going to do? Tell my father? I already did that! Ethan, go cool yourself off and jump in an ocean or something.”

“Susannah! This isn’t over.”

She ended the call with a swipe of her fingers and turned off the cell phone so she wouldn’t be bothered with endless phone calls.

She was getting tired of all this pressure. Her parents tried to control her and were being so overprotective, making Ethan follow her across the Gulf of Mexico. While it may have been wrong to take out that frustration on Ethan, it felt really satisfying to know it would take him weeks to find her. By that time, she would be on a boat doing her research project.

“What was that all about?” Colt asked curiously, looking at the abandoned phone.

“Nothing that concerns you,” she said curtly.

“So was that a stalker or an old boyfriend?” he persisted.

“Jealous?”

“Maybe a little. You tell me if I should be concerned.” He folded his arms against his thick chest. He looked slightly perturbed, and Susannnah didn’t want him to worry about it when it wasn’t his problem. If she was really lucky he would never even meet Ethan.

“No need for concern. It was neither one of those things you mentioned. Just a private investigator my parents hired.” She shrugged her shoulders helplessly.

“Ah, I see. So you ran away from home.”

She waved his concern away. “I’ll explain later. It’s a little more complicated than that, and I don’t want to take away from the fun of the evening. What are your plans anyway? You never told me what we would be doing.”

He pulled her close to him, surrounding her in his powerful arms. His fingertips ran through her hair, massaging her scalp. “It’s a surprise that involves fun, food, and the wind in your hair. I thought we’d go sailing this evening.”

* * * *

It was a yacht, not a sailboat.

Not that Susannah was about to correct him. The more time she spent in Colt Vance’s company the more she realized she really liked him and they had a lot in common.

He loved the ocean and so did she.

He came from a rich family and understood the complicated nature that went with that, society’s expectations, and the family quirks. So she didn’t think her family would scare him off if this turned into more than a fling.