Page 1 of The Reluctant Billionaire

Chapter One

The warm wind blowing in Jace Hunter’s face tasted of salt. Licking it off his lips, he closed his eyes and tilted his face up to soak in the sunlight beaming down on him. The heat felt good on his skin; he almost felt as though he was able to directly absorb the energy, like a plant. A small smile crossed his face at the whimsical thought.

“We’re pulling in to the dock now,” a voice announced through a speaker right above his head. Startled, his eyes snapped open and he glared at the offending machine. Not that it stopped the voice from continuing, “Welcome to Sunfish Island, folks!”

There were about a dozen other guests on the boat. Jace let them all depart first before pushing himself to his feet and shouldering his duffel bag. A deckhand was unloading suitcases onto the dock; Jace snagged his in passing and handed the young man a ten-dollar bill.

“Thanks, sir.” The deckhand looked surprised to be given a tip. “American, are you?”

Jace shook his head. “No, but I’ve been living there for a while. Got in the habit of tipping. You’ve earned it, those cases look heavy.” He nodded to the stack with his chin. “Have yourself a cold beer on me.”

At the end of the dock, the guests were being greeted by resort staff, then directed to the main reception to check in and get their rooms assigned. A tall man looked in Jace’s direction, started toward him, paused, and looked him up and down with a puzzled frown.

“Luke?” Jace offered a smile.

“Itisyou!” Puzzlement gave way to a wide grin. “I didn’t recognize you!” Luke Collyer was Sunfish Island’s general manager, an extremely competent, likable man. Jace had been involved in hiring him two years ago and the two men had taken to each other at once.

Jace shrugged wearily, shaking Luke’s offered hand. “It’s been a rough few weeks.” That was an understatement. He’d been laid low by a nasty bout of the flu, but had tried to work through it, refusing to accept his own physical weakness. It wasn’t until he’d collapsed in the middle of an important meeting, waking up in the hospital on oxygen, that he’d accepted he might not be at peak fitness.

The doctors had diagnosed pneumonia, kept him in hospital for a solid week, and finally let him go with a stern admonition to take a break. He’d fully intended to ignore them and go right back to work… except when Jace had walked in the door of his office on the top floor of Hunter Enterprises’ New York skyscraper, his father had been sitting behind his desk.

John Hunter had built Hunter Enterprises from nothing to a multi-billion-dollar, diversified business empire. His devoted wife Maryann had been at his side the whole way, until her death from cancer five years earlier. Jace was their only son, the heir to everything. Living up to his father’s expectations was something he’d spent his whole life doing, and John Hunter was a workaholic.

So it had come as quite a shock when John had stood up and said, “Get your ass out of this office, and don’t you dare set foot in here again until you have your health back!”

Jace had laughed, but his father was deadly serious. “Your mother ignored her symptoms for too long. I won’t see you sacrifice your health to this business, Jace. Get out of here. Go and smell the roses for a while.”

His father had bulldozed over every argument Jace had tried to make, and truth to tell, Jace hadn’t really tried all that hard. The Hunter Enterprises private jet had been on standby to take him anywhere he’d wanted to go. He hadn’t been able to think of anywhere until his father had suggested the family’s private villa on Sunfish Island, the resort island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which Hunter Enterprises had bought out and redeveloped a few years earlier. Jace had actually designed the villa as his graduation project for his architecture degree, but he’d never had the time to go and see the completed work.

“Your father said you’d been ill, but you look terrible,” Luke said, jerking Jace from his reverie.

“Thanks,” Jace said wryly, but he knew it was true. He’d lost a lot of weight during his illness. The tailored suits he customarily wore hung loosely on his frame; he’d left them behind in New York and brought shorts and T-shirts for his vacation. The dark blond hair he normally kept neatly trimmed had grown out long and shaggy, and he had several days’ growth of beard on his face. He was unrecognizable from the high-powered businessman he’d been just a few weeks ago.

Which gave him an idea.

“Luke,” he asked as they came to a parked golf cart and Luke hefted his case into the back, “who knows I’m here?”

Luke shot him a knowing look. “Only me. Your father called and asked me to have the villa opened up for you, but my staff don’t know who’s expected. You want me to keep it quiet?”

“I think it might be best. I don’t particularly want the press getting wind that I’m here, Hunter Enterprises is privately owned so it’s not like there’s a stock price to crash, but still…”

“Jace, you don’t need to give me a reason. It’s all good.” Luke handed him a plastic card. “Here.”

“What’s this?”

“It’s a comp card. It means you don’t pay for anything, anywhere, at any of the bars and restaurants. You own the place, after all.” Luke’s grin was cheerful. “It’d be a bit dumb to ask you to pay for anything. This way, you don’t have to sign for anything; we’re a cashless economy here, you’ll recall?”

“Like a cruise ship.” Jace nodded. “So, if I use this card, there’s no need to use the villa’s account, and no need to put my name on anything.”

“And nobody to be alerted to your identity.” Luke steered the golf cart along a paved path winding among groves of palm trees. “Housekeeping opened the villa up and stocked your kitchen, but I’ll advise them that a family friend is using the place. If you want maid service, just let me know and I’ll have somebody come in when you’re out. Just one question, if I may?”

The sea glinted blue on their left as they ascended a slope, moving away from the main resort; Jace knew they were approaching the non-resort part of the island, where some two dozen exclusive private villas had been built. A couple of them were occupied by permanent residents, but the rest were holiday homes for the mega-rich. He wasn’t likely to be afflicted with nosy neighbors.

“What’s the question?” he asked, gazing at the glorious view of the sunlit Coral Sea opening up before them as they reached the top of the rise.

“How long are you staying? And do you need medical support while you’re here?”

“That’s two… but I’ll answer. I shouldn’t need any medical attention, no, and I expect to stay a couple of weeks, probably. Dad told me not to show my face at any Hunter Enterprises office again before two weeks is up.”

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