Page 56 of The Billionaire Offer
All I had to do was put in the call to tell him we’d arrived, and apparently, he would tell me where to pick up the keys he’d left for us. It was a bit of an awkward call to make, but Jeremiah had told me that the guy was excited to hear from me.
My journey from gaming nerd to billionaire was quite popular with some people, according to Jeremiah, and this guy was one of them. It seemed he’d even saved my contact details, since he greeted me by name when he picked up the phone.
“Bart Philips,” he said warmly. “I’m about to run into a meeting, but I’m glad you’ve arrived safely in my little corner of the world.”
“It’s a pretty nice little corner,” I replied, chuckling as I considered what it must be like to have a place to call home on an island as beautiful as this. “I don’t want to keep you. Jeremiah just said—”
“Yeah, Williams spoke to me about it again this morning,” he interrupted cheerfully. “We’re good to go as long you play The Slayer with me sometime. He said you like the game, too, and I’m obsessed with it.”
I laughed. “It’s a pretty cool game. We can play anytime you’d like. I’ll let you know once I’m back in New York and we can see when we’re both available?”
“Sure thing. I can’t wait. In the meantime, enjoy the house. In case you need to know this, if you stick to the right side of the beach when you’re facing the ocean, no one will be able to see you. The neighbors have a view of a part of the beach on the left.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
“Great. I’ll text you the address and the code to the gate. The keys to the front door are in a lockbox around the corner from the garage. I’ll text you the code to that, too.Mi casa, su casa. Enjoy it, man.”
Before I could even thank him, he’d hung up. The guy was an old friend of Jeremiah’s, and if he was that happy to let a total stranger into his house, he had to be one of the more eccentric billionaire types. Jeremiah knew a bunch of those, both from growing up with some of them and having gotten to know others in his younger, wilder days.
Although the other guys and I had grown up with him, he’d kept that part of his life separate from us before. Now, however, the lines were blurring and he seemed to be making connections all over the place.
I was pretty sure it was because financially, we were near their leagues now. All the rest of us had had pretty modest upbringings, and Jeremiah had never rubbed his in our faces. He’d been more than happy spending time with us just doing normal shit, even if he knew people with private, expensive beach houses in Hawaii that he’d beenforcedto spend holidays at with his family at times.
Maddox couldn’t have been super invested in his meeting because I hadn’t even reached the end of the lobby yet when he texted me directions to the house and the codes we needed to get in. I chuckled, imagining the guy sitting at the head of some conference table across the sea, holding his phone under the table as he texted me.
At least I had what I needed now. As I made my way down the open passageways that led between the buildings, following the golden signs to the suite, I marveled at the gardens and decided to stay here for now after all.
I’d been toying with the idea of moving us in his house right away, but now that we were here, I decided to stay and complete our scuba-diving course and other touristy activities through the hotel. Once we were done with all that, I was going to suggest extending our trip, and then I’d take her there.
Unless something major happened before then, I planned on telling her how I felt when we got to the private beach. I’d never been more nervous for anything in my life, but at that point, our trip would basically be over.
It meant we wouldn’t both be uncomfortable for the weeks that we would have to spend together after if she didn’t feel the same way. Simultaneously, it would be before we headed home, which meant I’d know if we were going to try something once the money was no longer in the way, or if I was going to lose her when we left here.
My thoughts were spiraling by the time I reached our suite, but then I saw her through the open doors all around the freestanding room, and everything in my brain quieted down. The suite was built almost right against beach, set apart from the other buildings and mostly shielded from view by lush greenery and rows of trees planted around it.
It was glass on three sides and had a small patio out front where our breakfasts were supposed to be served. The glass walls all opened up completely, stacking against the columns to make the place feel like it was completely open.
Obviously, anyone could happen upon the room if they walked through the gardens, but it was a resort. Even the honeymoon suite only came with limited privacy. It wasn’t an absolute guarantee that no one would see the occupants if they got hot and heavy while everything was open.
Willowy white curtains hung in front of the open walls, but Serenity had opened those, too. She was unpacking, singing to herself and dancing around the room as she did. Her voice filtered out to me, and I closed my eyes for a moment, wondering if I’d been imagining things, or if there really was a chance of us getting together for real again.
Shutting the doubt out of my head for now, I opened my eyes again and grinned as I went to lean against one of the columns, standing half inside our suite and half out. “Is that finally one of your new songs I’m hearing?”
She half jumped, her hand flying to her chest as she spun around to face me. “Jeez. Way to sneak up on a girl. It was one of my new songs, but you weren’t supposed to hear it just yet. Is your important business all taken care of already?”
“All taken care of,” I confirmed, pushing off the pillar and walking deeper into the room, opening my arms as I got close to her. “What do you think of the room? I know you were sad to leave Egypt behind, but this is pretty awesome too.”
“It’s more than just pretty awesome,” she said as she walked into my embrace, looping her arms around my neck and pushing up on her toes to kiss me. “Every time I think there’s no way we can top where we’ve just been, we go to the next place and it’s just as incredible in its own way.”
“It just makes you think about all the places we still need to go,” I murmured against her lips. “There’s a great big world out there just waiting for us to explore.”
Her blue eyes had flames flickering behind them as she pulled away a fraction of an inch to look into mine. “That’s one way to look at it, but the only thing I want to explore right now is you. We have about an hour before we have to go have those welcome drinks, right?”
“Fuck the welcome drinks.” I threaded my fingers into her hair, hauling her closer to me as I playfully sank my teeth into her earlobe. “I’ve got other ideas of how I’d like to welcome both of us to Hawaii. I’m sure the cocktails they’ve got waiting are great, but I promise this will be even better.”
CHAPTER36
SERENITY
