Stomping back into the room, she grabbed the key card off the dresser, stuffed it into the back pocket of her denim shorts and yanked open the door. It was nearing eleven at night, but the last thing she wanted was for someone to come across her vibrator on the sidewalk first thing tomorrow morning.
The Marina Bay was a gorgeous luxury resort perched on a hilltop. The views would be stunning in the daylight. As it was getting late, there weren’t many people out, at least not in the part of the resort where her room was located. The penthouses, suites and private villas were on the other side of the hill. Regular rooms for people uninterested or unable to cough up five-hundred-plus dollars per night were in the two buildings on her side.
She stepped outside. The tropical air mixed with the light scent of chlorine, as she’d noticed when she’d opened her balcony doors earlier. She suspected her room faced one of the resort’s many outdoor pools. Cursing because she should’ve brought her phone so she could use the flashlight, but she headed towards where she thought the vibrator might’ve fallen. Stone pavers created a walkway amid plush green grass, and she inhaled deeply as she continued to move about in the dark.
The balmy evening breeze was soothing and the island scent was comforting. If only she were in her room, showered after her travels and lying on the queen-size bed. But no, her first night on the island couldn’t go that well. Instead, she was walking around, dragging her feet over the grass and keeping her gaze down in search of her trusty sex toy.
“Ha! Maybe that’s the story I should be writing. ‘Woman on a twilight search for runaway vibrator.’”
And now she was talking to herself!
Wow. Grace hoped the rest of her trip turned out better than this.
Insomnia was his worst enemy and it apparently planned to stalk him even while he was on this forced vacation. RJ walked with assured steps. He pulled his phone out of the side pocket of the sweatpants he’d slipped on and made his way downstairs to explore the resort.
The brochure boasted five sections of Marina Bay, all situated amid the tropical hills of the very scenic Saint Lucia. He had to give it to Riley and Chaz—they’d definitely picked a gorgeous place to get married. It was also a great spot to insist their family spend the two weeks leading up to their wedding together. RJ had one of the many private villas at the top of the hills. The view from every angle of the space was nothing less than spectacular. Room service was phenomenal, and the bed was just the right amount of soft and firm. So why the hell wasn’t he tucked into it drifting into a blissful slumber?
Because he rarely ever slept. If he was sleeping, he wasn’t working and if he wasn’t working, things weren’t getting done. It was a simple enough equation.
Tonight, he was walking instead of sleeping, checking emails and trying like hell to push thoughts of couples, love and wedding vows to the furthest corner of his mind. As his sister had put it last week, when she’d been in his office giving him more information than he needed to know about her wedding, “love is in the air.” Frowning, he swiped his thumb over his phone with a little more force than was necessary.
There was to be no working for the next fourteen days—that decree had come directly from his mother. RJ loved Marva Gold with every breath in his body, but he had no intention of totally refraining from work. Six months ago, Riley and Chaz had agreed to allow certain aspects of their wedding planning to be available for the media as part of their continuing marketing plan for the Golden Bride collection. So far, sales had been on an upswing as a result of two Gold siblings’ weddings—Riley’s and their brother Major’s. Major had been first when he’d married Nina Fuller. The head of RGF’s marketing department, Desta Henner, had created an ingenious strategy to plan a fake engagement to boost sales—and it had led to Nina and Major’s actual wedding. Desta would be planning her own wedding soon. She was engaged to RJ’s other brother, Maurice, after a ski trip last winter had brought them closer together. That left all his siblings paired up, and RGF sales—which was his department—shattering records during wedding season. A smile ghosted his lips as he silently congratulated his siblings on a job well done. Though he accepted that their newfound happiness had increased his workload.
As for him, the solitary life worked just fine. A fact that was helpful tonight as he continued walking along the property, lifting his gaze up from his phone every few seconds so he wouldn’t trip and fall on his face. That or be scared by something going bump in the night. Another smile formed as he glanced at the time on his phone. Just after eleven and here he was—a relatively good-looking man—opting to entertain himself with a walk instead of cuddling in bed with a nice warm body, as all his siblings undoubtedly were.
He didn’t even want to think about why his choice to remain single had begun to bother him lately. It was a decision he’d had to make, to protect not only his heart, but also his sanity. For the life of him, he still didn’t understand how the one relationship he’d once cherished had gone so horribly wrong.
The pinging notification sound pulled him from his thoughts, and he watched as two new emails from reporters appeared. They were each looking for any family member who’d tell them the location and date of the wedding, or at the very least provide a Zoom link so they could offer their readership first-look snapshots. The answer was a resounding
